RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1482

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2015

2015 Summer Reads - Part II

If you like antiques and collectibles and love reading mysteries, cozy mystery series featuring amateur female sleuths associated with the antiques and collectibles trade are just the ticket for an enjoyable summer read.  Part I of the 2015 Summer Read columns focused on new titles by Barbara Allan (Trash ‘n Treasure Mystery) and Lea Wait (Mainely Needlepoint Mystery) plus introduced Donna Lea Simpson writing as Amanda Cooper (Teapot Collector Mystery) and as Victorian Hamilton (Vintage Kitchen Mystery).  This column continues with reviews of series and/or titles of six new authors whose works have an antiques and collectibles focus.

Mary Jane and Victoria Mafini, a mother-daughter team writing as Victoria Abbott (www.victoria-abbott.com), are the authors of A Book Collector Mystery series.  The series has three titles: “The Christie Curse,” “The Sayers Swindle,” and “The Wolfe Widow.”  “The Marsh Madness,” the fourth title in the series, is scheduled for publication in September 2015.  The series is published by Berkley Publishing under its Berkley Prime Crime imprint.

Jordan Bingham (female), overwhelmed by credit card debt thanks to excessive spending by an ex-husband and graduate school loans, has returned to Harrison Falls, New York, home of a number of less than law-abiding uncles who just happen to use an antique shop as a front for merchandise that falls off the backs of trucks and other dubious entrepreneurial enterprises.  Jordan obtains work as the assistant/curator of an extensive library of antiquarian books belonging to Vera Van Alt.  Once a leading industrialist family in Harrison Falls, the Van Alt family is despised because of the failure of its factory that left many of the locals unemployed.

The hook for the A Book Collector Mystery series is that each title focuses on the acquisition or loss of a title(s) associated with a famous mystery writer—Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe.  Besides the loveable crime family uncles, the series contains a number of the notable characters including Signora Panetone, the Van Alt cook, and Karen Smith, owner of the Cozy Corpse second-hand book shop.

Kylie Logan’s A Button Box Mysteries series consists of four titles – “Button Holed,” “Hot Button,” “Panic Button,” and “Buttoned Up.”  I read “Button Holed,” the first book in the series, and “Buttoned Up,” the most recent title.  The series is published by Berkley Publishing under its Berkley Prime Crime imprint.

Josie Giancola, owner of the Button Box shop located in a Chicago brownstone, is an expert on antique buttons.  She sells buttons to collectors, clothing and wedding gown designers, and Hollywood starlets.  In addition to selling via her shop, she is active on the internet.  The murder weapon in “Button Holed” is an antique button hook.  In “Buttoned Up,” the mystery involves a one-of-a-kind button that was used in a piece of voodoo-inspired contemporary art.

Characters are a key to enjoying cozy mystery storylines.  In “”Button Holed,” Josie’s ex-husband Kaz, who is always hitting on her for financial support, plays a prominent role.  Kaz makes only a peripheral appearance in “Buttoned Up,” a wise choice by the author.  Most of the cozy antiques and collectibles mystery series feature a law enforcement character either as a potential love-interest (most common) or protagonist.  Logan’s A Button Box Mysteries series is no exception.  Homicide detective Nevin Riley only complicates his life by trying to straddle the fence between both character types.

Most cozy mystery series are set in small towns.  As a result, an urban setting is a refreshing change.  The same applies to Mary Kay Andrews Bebe (pronounced baby) and Weezie which is set in Savannah and its surrounds.  It was a delight to find another series set in the South.  I was concerned about the lack of a Southern setting for an antiques and collectibles mystery series following the death of Emyl Jenkins and the retirement of Tamar Myers.

A dead body is considered essential in a cozy antiques and collectibles mystery.  “Savannah Blues” does not disappoint.  However, “Savannah Breeze” “Blue Christmas,” and “Christmas Bliss,” the other titles in the Bebe and Weezie series, are body less.  Do not let this stop you, they are great reads.  Harper published the first three Bebe and Weezie titles and St. Martin’s Press “Christmas Bliss.”

Bebe is Bebe Loudermilk, a classic Southern Belle whose trust in men initially leaves much to be desired, especially in “Southern Breeze,” and whose entrepreneur abilities are her constant salvation.  Weezie is Eloise Foley, an antiques picker, who lives in a historic house in Savannah’s historic district and eventually realizes her ambition to open a shop.

The strength of the Bebe and Weezie series is fourfold.  First, the storyline alternates in the telling between the voices and insights of the two principal characters.  Second, a large group of well-developed supporting characters appears throughout the titles.  I felt a close kinship with Weezie’s Granddad in “Savannah Breeze.”  Third, the storyline includes contemporary issues, such as elderly care.  Finally, the writing is superb.  The tragedy is that “Christmas Bliss,” the fourth book in the series, has a sense of finality to it.   I am keeping my fingers crossed Bebe and Weezie will reappear in the future.

[Author’s Aside #1:  Like so many antiques and collectibles mystery series authors, Mary Kay Andrews actively writes outside the series.  “Beach Town,” published by Saint Martin’s Press, is an example.  The story chronicles the efforts of Greer Hennessy, a Hollywood location scout, to find and then assist in the filming of a movie in a 21st century Southern location that still reeks of the 1950s.   The story involves a conflict of how a former boardwalk casino (dance hall) will be utilized in the film and the conflict between Greer and Eben Thibadeaux, the local mayor.   If you like Andrews’ Bebe and Weezie titles, try “Beach Town.”]

Deb Baker’s A Doll to Die For Mystery series consists of four titles – “Dolled Up for Murder,” “Goodbye Dolly,” “Dolly Departed,” and “Ding Dong Dead.”  I read “Dolled up for Murder,” the first title in the series and “Ding Dong Dead,” the most recent.  The series is published by Berkley Publishing under its Berkley Prime Crime imprint.

Caroline and Gretchen Birch, a mother-daughter team who collect and restore antique dolls, and Aunt Nina, Caroline’s sister, are the principal characters in the storyline.  Additional characters include members of the Phoenix Dollers and, of course, Matt, a handsome detective.

[Author’s Aside #2 – I failed to mention two things.  One or more dogs or cats are central characters in most cozy mystery stories.  Gretchen owns Wobbles, a three-legged cat.  Aunt Nina trains purse dogs, miniature dog breeds that are carried in women’s purses.  Do not ask!  Wobble needs to be introduced to Jamie Leighton’s Hopalong, the three-legged dog in Victoria Hamilton’s Vintage Kitchen Mystery series.  While recipes do not appear at the end of every cozy mystery, they do in most.  Signora Panetone shares her Italian recipes in Victoria Abbott’s A Book Collector Mystery series.]

Caroline Birch is the fictional author of “World of Dolls,” quotes from which often introduce the chapters in A Doll to Die For Mystery.  “Ding Dong Dead” centers on the efforts of the Phoenix Dollers to restore a Spanish Colonial Mansion, donated to the organization by a nameless benefactor, to house a World of Dolls museum.  Aunt Nina, whose insights are more perceptive than most realize, claims the house is haunted.  It does contain a human skeleton whose demise was clearly premeditated.

I always am amazed with the accuracy of the antiques and collectibles information that appears in cozy antiques and collectibles mysteries.  Deb Baker does a great job working antique and collectible dolls into her storyline.  Occasionally, a fantasy piece finds its way into a storyline, such as in the snow globe in Jane Cleland’s “Blood Rubies.”]

Berkley Publishing’s Berkley Prime Crime imprint also published two additional cozy antiques and collectible mysteries – Christine Husom’s “Snow Way Out,” A Snow Globe Shop Mystery, and Mary Moody’s “A Killing in Antiques,” a Lucy St. Elmo Antiques Mystery.  Both were supposed to be the first titles in a series, but no additional titles have appeared.  Husom’s A Snow Globe Shop Mystery focuses more on contemporary than antique or collectible snow globes.  Moody’s “A Killing in Antiques” takes place at Brimfield’s, the legendary antiques venue in Brimfield, Massachusetts.  I read both titles.  Read them if your appetite for antiques and collectibles cozy mysteries is insatiable.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Selected letters will be answered in this column.  Harry cannot provide personal answers.  Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned.  Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI  49512.  You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.