Publisher's Weekly Review
In Dennison's winning third Honeychurch Hall mystery (after 2015's Deadly Desires at Honeychurch Hall), antiques expert Kat Stanford and her mother, Iris, discover a double-hide, a secret room behind a secret room, containing the earthly remains of Pandora Haslam-Grimley, last seen alive in 1958 at the Honeychurch midsummer ball. The cold case takes a personal turn for Kat when the police suspect that Iris may have had a hand in Pandora's death. With an art theft, an incriminating copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover, heart-shaped necklaces, a hidden cache of silver coins, and failed love affairs galore, the convoluted plot takes some effort to follow, and it's sometimes hard to keep the relationships among all the players straight. The joy of this series lies in its delightfully eccentric characters, including the ever-surprising Iris, aka Krystalle Storm, bestselling author of steamy romance novels, and Kat herself, a smart, relatable heroine with questionable taste in men. Dennison's affection for Devonshire, its history and people, is obvious on every page. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A decades-old costume event brings new trouble for a titled family and its tenants. When a burst pipe destroys part of the Tudor wing of Honeychurch Hall, Rupert Honeychurch, the 15th Earl of Grenville, has to part with some of his artwork to pay for replastering the ceiling. He asks one of his tenants, antiques specialist Kat Stanford, to evaluate two historic drawings. A former London TV celebrity, Kat is beginning to enjoy life in rural Devon and is setting up her own shop. But she should know by now that in Honeychurch Hall, nothing is ever straightforward: her efforts to examine the framed drawings send her tumbling into a hiding place for priests, from the days when Honeychurch Hall was a Royalist sanctuary and a temporary mint for Charles I. Kat stumbles over a desiccated female corpse with a broken neck and the remnants of a fancy costume that, as it happens, Kat's mother, Iris, had made back in 1958, when she was visiting as a member of a traveling circus. The Dowager Countess of Grenville was supposed to wear the outfit at the annual midsummer ball, but an American heiress, Pandora Haslam-Grimley, stole it, wore it, and wasn't seen againuntil now. The Honeychurches plan to do what they've done for past scandals and deaths in their house: close ranks and cover up, which could prove harder than they thought after Kat discovers that the drawings are involved in an insurance scam. Add to the mix an aging lothario, Iris' ex-con stepbrother, Kat's ex-boyfriend and his spiteful wife, and the attractive local detective who's suspicious of both Iris and Katand it doesn't augur well for the grand opening of Kat's antique business. The third in Dennison's series of zany country cozies veers even closer to farce than its predecessors (Desire at Honeychurch Hall, 2015, etc.). It's still enjoyable if you don't think too hard. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Kat Stanford, back in Little Dipperton to open Kat's Collectibles & Valuation Services, after a stint as a television host, inadvertently falls into a priest hole (hiding places used to conceal Catholic priests in seventeenth-century England), finding the body of Pandora Haslam-Grimley, who was last seen in 1958 at a midsummer ball at Honeychurch Hall. With her mother, Iris who in 1958 was part of a traveling show a suspect, along with numerous others from Honeychurch Hall, both above and below stairs, Kat and DI Shawn Cooper investigate this cold case. Complicating matters, her mother's stepbrother, Alfred, on parole, steals some drawings to protect the dowager countess, Lady Edith Honeychurch, from an accusation of insurance fraud. A wide range of well-drawn, quirky characters, including the Earl's young son, Harry, obsessed with fictional WWI squadron leader Bigglesworth, and Kat's mother, a successful, closet romance writer, add to the humor of this English village cozy. Framed with details of antiques and the lives of both today's and yesterday's aristocracy and their staffs, this story may please fans of Downton Abbey.--O'Brien, Sue Copyright 2016 Booklist
