Starred review from March 1, 2024
Kate Hamilton and her husband, Tom Mallory, take a working honeymoon to Devon, England. Suffolk Constable Tom has a case from a private investigation firm, and he's trying to decide if he wants to take early retirement and turn PI. The museum where Kate works has received a donation of a bloodstained dress from 1885, whose provenance Kate and Tom plan to investigate to prove whether it belonged to lacemaker Nancy Thorne, who returned to her cottage covered in blood, but never explained what happened. Before they can dig into the history, the man who donated the dress is murdered. While Tom assists the Devon Constabulary, Kate investigates the history of the dress, assisted by a local librarian. It's a complex case with entanglements involving the cold case, a village that disappeared, and a Romany family. All the threads will lead back to the donor of the dress and his killer. VERDICT Berry's fifth Kate Hamilton novel, following The Shadow of Memory, combines a cold case and contemporary murder in an outstanding traditional mystery. Fans of Kate Ellis and Jane K. Cleland will appreciate this book.--Lesa Holstine
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May 1, 2024
Antiques expert Kate Hamilton and her police detective husband Tom Mallory are spending part of their honeymoon tracing the provenance of a bloodstained dress, purported to have been worn in 1885 by Nancy Thorne, a 30-year-old lacemaker, during a murder--although no evidence of a murder was ever found. The dress, if authenticated, would be the centerpiece of The Museum of Devon Life's new "Famous Crimes in Devon's History" exhibit. At a fundraiser at the museum, the dress's donor, eccentric Gideon Littlejohn, who lives as a Victorian gentleman, is grazed by a bullet, and is later found murdered in his home. Mallory is asked by the local police to assist in interviewing suspects. Kate concentrates on researching the history of the dress, and the two cases come together, entwining past and present in a complex, beautifully descriptive mystery with multiple plot lines, framed by details of historical research, lace-making, Victorian times, antiques, and Romani life and culture. Fans of Jane K. Cleland's Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries will relish this satisfying series (which began with A Dream of Death, 2019).
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May 1, 2024
Murders past and present provide a puzzle for newlyweds. While DI Tom Mallory and his American wife, Kate Hamilton, are on honeymoon in Devon, they consider a proposal from Tom's friend Grahame Nash, who runs an international private detective agency and wants their help. Grahame has been hired by the Museum of Devon Life to authenticate a blood-soaked dress thought to have been worn by Victorian lacemaker--and murderer--Nancy Thorne. Because Kate has antiques expertise, they're asked to establish whether the blood on the dress is human and the dress an actual period creation. When Tom and Kate arrive at the museum, the curator describes the dress, donated by eccentric local Gideon Littlejohn, as beautifully constructed, probably by Nancy's seamstress sister, featuring an exquisite lace collar, and fully worthy of being the centerpiece of an upcoming exhibition on famous Devon crimes. Littlejohn, who dresses and lives as a Victorian gentleman, has not donated the trunk, purchased at auction, that contained the dress, but he does let Tom and Kate examine it. After a museum fundraiser during which Littlejohn is wounded, local MP Theodore Pearce announces that he was the shooter's probable target. The local police ask Tom for his help as Kate starts researching in local libraries and churches and online. Although her extensive search turns up a connection between the dress and a 19th-century Romany family, she can't document a murder. When Littlejohn is killed, the pressure intensifies on both sleuths to learn more about suspects from two different centuries. Fascinating historical research combines with modern murder in this charming page-turner.
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