What am I bid on another fine "antiques mystery" series?
Sterling Glass is a small-town Virginia antiques appraiser. In Stealing with Style, her first case, she becomes embroiled in a plot involving several prestigious families, valuable antiques, and con men at some of New York's leading auction houses when a number of rare objects show up in a Goodwill store. The Library Journal review called it "a fascinating look at the world of antiques” which is probably due to the fact that its author, Emyl Jenkins, is a longtime antiques appraiser and has written numerous popular books on the subject.
In the recently released The Big Steal, Sterling is hired to assess the value of broken and missing antiques following a burglary at a Virginia estate. She soon finds that although some of the articles are worth tens of thousands of dollars, others appear to be fakes. The story comes complete with secret rooms, hidden treasures and discovered diaries … and the book includes an easy guide to identifying styles and periods in an illustrated appendix.
If you want more antiques mysteries, be sure to try Jane K. Cleland’s Josie Prescott series. Josie is antiques dealer in small-town coastal New Hampshire. Author Cleland used to own a rare book and antiques store in Portsmouth, so you can be sure that she knows her stuff, too. Her website features a section called What's It Worth? You Be the Judge! Your big chance to find whether some of that old stuff in your attic should go to Sotheby's or Junkluggers.
There is also Sharon Fiffer's Chicago based "antique picker" Jane Wheel and Sujata Massey's Tokyo based Japanese-American antiques dealer and part-time spy Rei Shimura.
Lovejoy fans take note! The “Divvy” -- a man who can spot a real antique in a warehouse full of fakes -- will return in December in The Faces in the Pool, a new novel by creator Jonathan Gash.
In the meantime, you can enjoy all of the Ian McShane episodes from the television program Lovejoy which have been released on DVD. The Library owns seasons one through five as well as a delightful “Christmas Specials” collection. Season six, the last of the run, is expected in October.
