Antiques Frame (Trash 'n' Treasures Series #11)

by Barbara Allan

Overview

With their reality TV series, Antiques Sleuths, Brandy Borne and her quaintly kooky mother, Vivian, have a real hit on their hands. But when the bidding turns deadly, Brandy finds herself ornately framed for murder. Aided only by Sushi, their loyal shih tzu, and police dog Rocky, the wacky mother-and-daughter sleuthing team races to determine how an empty antique frame can hold a deadly portrait, before they become the subjects of another masterpiece of murder.
 
Don’t miss Brandy Borne’s tips on investing in antiques!  
Praise for Barbara Allan and the Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mysteries!
 
“The exploits of the ditzy heroines remain endlessly amusing.”
—Kirkus Reviews
 
 “If you delight in the absurd and enjoy manic humor, you’ll treasure the Trash ‘n’ Treasure mysteries.” —Mystery Scene
 
“The characters shine with brassy humor.”—Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780758293145
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	03/27/2018
Series:	Trash 'n' Treasures Series , #11
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

BARBARA ALLAN is the joint pseudonym of acclaimed short story writer Barbara Collins (Too Many Tomcats) and her husband, New York Times bestselling novelist and Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition). Their previous collaborations have included one son, a short story collection, and eleven novels. They live in Iowa in a house filled with trash and treasures. Learn more about them at www.maxallancollins.com and at www.barbaraallan.com.

Editorial Reviews

03/20/2017
Camilla Cassuto, the not-quite-ex-wife of Brandy Borne’s significant other, police chief Tony Cassuto, has moved to Serenity, Iowa, in Allan’s appealing 11th mystery featuring Brandy and her mother, Vivian (after 2016’s Antiques Fate). Brandy and Vivian have recently finished filming their reality TV show, Antiques Sleuths, and Brandy hopes to get her personal life back on track by persuading Camilla to sign the divorce papers. But when Brandy visits Camilla’s shop, she finds the woman beaten to death with a cast-iron corn husker. After Brandy’s arrest, Tony must recuse himself from the investigation. Live-wire Vivian sets out to clear her daughter’s name with her usual gusto and risible results. Whenever Vivian gets too lively and threatens to spin out of control, Brandy is able to take charge of the narrative and slow things down, allowing readers to catch their breath. Some may find this series too manic and far-fetched for their taste. Allan is the pseudonym of Barbara and Max Allan Collins. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

2017-02-21
A mother-daughter sleuthing team has to solve an uncomfortably personal murder.Despite its name, the Mississippi River town of Serenity, Iowa, where Vivian Borne and her daughter, Brandy, run an antiques shop and host the reality TV show Antiques Sleuths, has been plagued by an unusual number of crimes. But all has been going well lately—even Brandy's Shih Tzu, Sushi, is no longer blind—until Camilla, the estranged wife of Brandy's beau, Police Chief Anthony Cassato, moves to town. Suddenly Camilla, who's opened her own antiques store, starts outbidding the pair at auctions and making a general nuisance of herself, especially to Tony, who mistakenly thought she'd signed divorce papers. Brandy runs into Camilla at another antiques store and auction house and sees her change prices on a picture frame but decides to say nothing, especially after Camilla apologizes to her for being vindictive. Too late: when Camilla is found bludgeoned to death with a corn husker she'd grossly overpaid for, Brandy, whose prints are found on the murder weapon, is thrown into jail. Her conflict with the victim—even the moment when Brandy shoves Camilla—has all been caught on tape for Antiques Sleuths. Now Vivian, an actress and diva who relies on happy pills to keep her most outrageous impulses in check, has the job of clearing Brandy. Since Tony must return to New Jersey to see his daughter, Vivian tracks down clues, tapping into every source she has in the town, a hotbed of gossip at the best of times. She learns that the picture frame Camilla bought has gone missing and wonders if it might turn out to be the reason for murder. The amusingly ditzy duo, endlessly involved in dubious detection (Antiques Fate, 2016, etc.), manages to solve yet another case despite their generally clueless air.

Kirkus Reviews