Freya Lockwood’s past is knocking at her door. When her aunt’s best friend and her old mentor, Arthur Crockleford, dies and leaves Freya as his heir; Freya is thrown back into the world of antiques. It’s been more than 20 years since she’s been a part of the antique hunting game, and with Arthur’s suspicious death comes the invitation to attend an antique hunting weekend. Along with her aunt Carole, Freya is off to Suffolk to get answers not only for Arthur’s death but also to get the truth of events that happened more than two decades ago.
This is such a cute premise. I really like the idea of this black-market antique hunting and restoration of valuable antiques to the places they truly belong. Add in a cozy mystery and I think this has all the key elements to be a great little mystery series.
I’d love to give this book all the stars, but I really struggled with the pacing of the story and the repetitive nature. At only 304 pages, it felt like a much longer story and felt slow and off balance. In addition, Freya’s constant alluding to past events made it hard to focus on the ‘now’ events. The back-and-forth perspective wasn’t flushed out fully enough, and I think just laying the initial incidents out up front would have made the story flow better.
I loved the antique portion of the book and Carole is the best eccentric supporting character. The ending definitely set this book up to be a part of a series and I’d certainly pick up the next installment. If you’re looking for a new cozy series this one might be for you. 3.5 stars rounded to 3.
The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder is out now. Huge thanks to Atria for my copy, in exchange for my honest review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.
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