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Summary
Summary
The votes are in! Eccentric seventy-something Vivian Borne--elected county sheriff, to everyone's amazement but her own--springs into action. In her new role, the community playhouse diva appoints daughter Brandy reluctant deputy and makes their spunky shih tzu Sushi a K-9 unit of one.
Soon the amateur-sleuths-turned-pro have a challenging case to solve as a series of creepy crimes plague an ill-fated Edgar Allan Poe festival, where a fiend is misguidedly dispensing Poe-etic justice. Small-town Antiqua, known for its quaint main street of antique shops, has set out to celebrate the gothic poet with food, fun, and rare memorabilia, only to have the Master of the Macabre's twisted tales come to deadly life.
A purloined tome, a black cat, a musty mausoleum, and mysterious disappearances--these tell the tale of a heartless murderer. But Vivian and Brandy Borne are determined to decipher the cryptic clues to make sure a ravin'-mad killer strikes "nevermore"!
Don't miss Brandy Borne's tips on hunting for valuable antiques!
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Allan's amusing 13th Trash 'n' Treasures mystery (after 2018's Antiques Wanted) takes antique shop proprietor Vivian Borne, newly elected sheriff of Serenity, Iowa, and her de-facto deputy daughter and chauffeur, Brandy, to the tiny town of Antiqua to investigate antique shop break-ins. It seems nothing was stolen, but someone might have been looking for the Tales, a valuable 1845 Edgar Allen Poe collection that features prominently in Antiqua's annual three-day Edgar Allan Poe Days festival. When Brandy finds a disgruntled café waitress dead inside a sarcophagus, evoking Poe's "The Premature Burial," Vivian tackles her first murder investigation, and the burgeoning body count puts her neophyte skills to the test. Luckily, Brandy and Brandy's paramour, Serenity police chief Tony Cassato, have her back. The melodramatic Vivian and pragmatic Brandy play off each other like foils in a 1930s screwball comedy, and Poe puns, witty asides, and quirky townspeople keep things light. Series fans and newcomers alike will have fun. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
An antiques dealer finally lands a job that suits her unique skills.After a long string of sleuthing successes (Antiques Ho-Ho-Homicides, 2018, etc.), Vivian Borne, who runs an antiques shop in Serenity, Iowa, with her daughter, Brandy, has managed to snag the position of county sheriff. Although Vivian is a thespian whose flamboyant style is not best suited to the sheriff's job, she's about to tackle a difficult case with Brandy and her diabetic Shih Tzu, Sushi, at her side. Vivian's lost her license to drive, so Brandy's her unpaid chauffeur when she's called to Antiqua, a town dedicated to antiques shops, where the launch of Edgar Allan Poe Days, a three-day festival that offers the public clues to the location of a valuable association item hidden in one of the many shops, has been upended by a series of break-ins. The mayor and council, all of them antiques dealers, set the sleuthing trio up in a vintage Pullman car parked behind a charming cottage. Burglary yields to murder when Sushi leads Brandy to a mausoleum where she finds Morella, a discontented waitress, dead inside a sarcophagus. The graveyard is attached to the church belonging to Pastor Creed, who minces no words about his disapproval of the Poe festival. As they investigate Morella's murder and the break-ins, Vivian and Brandy find that their best suspects are all antiques dealers. An emerging pattern suggests that someone is using Poe's works as a template for murder. Even though Brandy's boyfriend, Tony Cassato, police chief of the town of Serenity, does his best to keep them on the straight and narrow, Vivian and Brandy insist on following their own path to solve cases. They know they're on the right track when someone tries to kill them.Plenty of plausible suspects make this one of the best in Allan's long-running series, which is always humorous and full of tips for antiques hunters. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
No one is more astonished than Brandy Borne when her seventysomething, bipolar, former-actress mother, Vivian, is elected county sheriff. Due to Vivian's revoked driver's license, Brandy is designated ad hoc deputy so that she can chauffeur the new sheriff around. The two head to Antiqua, Iowa, to investigate break-ins at local antiques stores. They arrive just prior to Antiqua's Edgar Allan Poe Days, and they stay in town to make sure the festival goes off without a hitch. That doesn't quite work out. Soon there is a murder and an attack based on the plots from Poe's stories. With the assistance of Serenity, Iowa's, police chief, Brandy and Vivian investigate the crimes. Framed effectively by the antique business, and including plenty of details about Poe and his work, this satisfying, humorous cozy with its well-drawn, quirky characters is a hoot. Chapters end with tips on how to collect rare books.--Sue O'Brien Copyright 2019 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Trash 'n' Treasure, the antiques store owned by Brandy Borne and her eccentric mother, Vivian, is temporarily closed while Vivian serves as sheriff of Serenity County, IA. Because her mother's license has been revoked, Brandy serves as her chauffeur, allowing the widowed, bipolar septuagenarian to indulge her passion for solving crimes. Their first investigation takes place in Antiqua, a small town specializing in antiques and, for one weekend, the celebration of Edgar Allan Poe. Vivian has been called in owing to a shop break-in, but nothing is taken. Yet when their dog, Sushi, finds a body, and a second victim is rescued, Vivian realizes the scenes of the crimes resemble Poe's tales. The clues add up for Vivian, who is determined that the killer will "nevermore" strike the residents of Antiqua. Wordplay and fun references to Poe combine in this humorous cozy follow-up to Antiques Ho-Ho-Homicides. The humor is doubled with two narrators, Brandy and Vivian, who are supposedly writing a "nonfiction true crime account" of this latest mystery. VERDICT Fans of J.C. Eaton's "Sophie Kimball" books may want to try this series with another hapless daughter seeking to control her mother's eccentricities.-Lesa Holstine, Evansville -Vanderburgh P.L., IN © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.