Fans of Eve Mallow will know that book twelve in the series, Mystery on Meadowsweet Grove is out in May, and book thirteen will publish later in 2024. But between the two, in August, I’m excited to say that the first in a new series, The Antique Store Detective, will be released. The Kindle version is available to pre-order now, and I really hope you love it!
Here’s the cover:
And here’s the reader description:
Meet Bella Winter. She loves vintage clothes, antiques and… solving crimes?
Bella Winter moved to charming Hope Eaton for some peace and quiet after quitting her busy city job. She delights in spending time in her little antique store on top of the hill, hunting for bargains at auctions, and getting to know everybody – because if there’s one thing Bella’s good at, it’s solving other people’s problems.
But her peaceful life is overturned when she finds eccentric local historian Professor Oliver Barton dead in the ruins of Raven Hall, a trowel lying near his outstretched hand. At first, Bella is like everyone else: saddened by a tragic accident. But then her colleague John asks her to dig deeper. Because the dead man gave him an ancient coin he should never have had, and John thinks he was murdered.
It turns out the professor was hunting for buried treasure in the middle of the night. But who would have wanted him dead? And who are the four suspicious women he told John about, calling them the queens of hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades…?
As Bella delves into the case she uncovers a hoard of suspects: the lord of the manor, a secretive group of treasure hunters, the dead man’s desperate niece and her no-good son. And when another local historian takes a fatal tumble, she is certain that the answers lie in the antiques the professor stole. But can she solve the crime before someone tries to bury her?
The Antique Store Detective is due out on 7th August, and if you’d prefer a paperback or audio copy, you’ll be able to order them from the same Amazon page shortly before publication day.
I do hope you enjoy meeting Bella!
A flavour of the antique store detective series
The setting and surroundings for the series are fictional, but elements of Hope Eaton are inspired by beautiful Bridgnorth in Shropshire. Most of the photos below were taken there.
Clare Chase 