| As the owner of the Den of Antiquity, recently divorced Abigail Timberlake is used to dealing with rival dealers, cheap customers and weird people in general so she doesn't take her fellow dealers' threats on her aunt's life seriously - until her aunt shows up dead, strangled by a beautiful antique bell pull.
Still, Abigail is convinced that it simply could not have been one of her fellow antique dealers and is content to let the police handle the investigation. Then she meets Investigator Greg Washburn and immediately offers any assistance possible. But when the handsome detective arrests one of her neighboring antique dealers, she starts doing some investigating of her own while dealing with a mysterious client she nicknames the "wooly worm", threats to her beloved son Charlie, her college age daughter living with a 57-year old ex-con, her ex-husband's second marriage, her Aunt Marilyn's obsession with pink flamingos and plaster poodles, her attraction to Greg, her mother's recently reactivated social - and sex - life, not to mention trying to get answers out of all of the eccentric antique dealers on her street, especially Southern eccentrics... Larceny & Old Lace was an entertaining mystery. Abigail Timberlake is quite engaging and the reader will immediate connect with her. The supporting characters are a little less developed, which can be a problem because there are a lot of them. I usually don't have a hard time keeping characters straight in books, but I didn't feel like I knew enough about the characters to get a mental image in my mind so they didn't seem very real to me. The plot was a little convoluted because there were so many subplots involved, but I actually liked that because real life never just stops to let you deal with one or two problems, you always have a lot of problems going on at any given time. I also enjoyed the Southern setting and the way that the author gently poked fun of traditions in the South and Southern women. I look forward to reading more books in this entertaining series! | ||
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Plot & Themes Tone of story - very upbeat How difficult to spot villain? - Challenging Time/era of story: What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 70% Special suspect? - best friend Misc. Murder Plotlets - Proving innocence of very obvious suspect Kind of investigator Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book Any non-mystery subplot? descript. of violence and chases - 20 % Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30 % Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30 % How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 % Crime Thriller Yes Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes Main Character Gender - Female Profession/status: Ethnicity/Race Main Adversary Identity: - Male Age: - 20's-30's Profession/status: Motive of antagonist - money/treasure How sensitive is this character? Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters Setting United States Yes Writing Style Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog |
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