Review - Peril at Pennington Manner

When I read "Perfect for fans of Jane K. Cleland and Ellery Adams" I knew I had to read this new series filler with anitiques and artwork.  Author Tracy Gardner is also writing mystery books for Hallmark  now, too.

Author: Tracy Gardner

Copyright: December 2011 (Crooked Lane Books) 304 pgs

Series: 2nd in Avery Ayers Antique Mysteries

Sensuality: n/a

Mystery Sub-genre: Cozy mystery, amateur sleuth

Main Characters: Avery Ayers, appraiser at Antiques and Artifacts Appraised

Setting: Modern day, Lilac Grove

Obtained Through: Netgalley-Publisher for honest review

Book Blurb: "Thanks to Aunt Midge’s unlikely friendship with Nicholas Pennington, the Duke of Valle Charme, Avery Ayers and her associates at Antiques and Artifacts Appraised head off to their most glamorous assignment yet—cataloguing and appraising the contents of a castle-like mansion on the Hudson River. But regal splendor becomes a backdrop to mayhem when the precious Viktor Petrova timepiece disappears—and housekeeper Suzanne Vick plummets from a parapet to her death.

 

Avery, her dad William, and colleagues Micah Abbott and Sir Robert Lane soon learn that Suzanne’s predecessor also met with an untimely end. Further, the housekeeper’s suspicious demise coincides with Avery’s discovery that many of the Duke’s most priceless heirlooms have been replaced by fakes.

 

Detective Art Smith lends his expertise, but the suspect list encompasses the Duke’s entire retinue—including his family. Could the killer be someone intimately familiar with the Pennington estate, such as caretaker couple Ira and Lynn Hoffman, the Penningtons’ chauffeur Roderick, or even one of the heirs to the Pennington fortune?

 

Then the duke himself is injured in an inexplicable riding accident, and the clock swiftly ticks toward a reckoning with a cold-blooded killer. A criminal mastermind is making a desperate bid for ill-gotten riches…can Avery bring the culprit to justice before her time is up?"

My Thoughts:

This is the second book and I hadn't read the first.  It is explained well and I understood the issues from the first book that carried into the second without any problems.  Avery Ayers runs the family's appraisal business and is level headed and mature. She doesn't plan on investigating, she is just observant and puts pieces together.  Her sister Tilly is back from college for a spell and clearly there is something troubling her.  Aunt Midge is a treasure and I love her and am looking forward to more of her character.  Detective Art Smith is the romantic interest and is a law enforcment person.  

A large part of the story takes place at Pennington Manor and it is a great setting.  I love the artwork descriptions sprinkled throughout.  The plot initially involves the theft of many artifacts and pieces of art, then a murder occurs and things get dicey.  The killer reveal has some good tense moments and the wrapup is satisfying.  I'm hoping to fit in the first book between books to catch up.  

Rating:  Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now and put this author on your watch list 

Guest Blog - Robert K. Wittman

Mysteries and My Musings is ecstatic to have Robert Wittman (the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team,) as our guest blogger today. Robert is not only an expert on Art Crime and saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and antiquities but he is an author. His memoir, PRICELESS: How I Went Undercover to Save the World’s Stolen Treasures, came out in paperback on June 7. ( buy here: http://tinyurl.com/getpriceless)

Please welcome the legendary Robert Wittman!  Applause and cheers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Who doesn’t love a good mystery?

In my memoir, I write about all kinds of art-crime mysteries I worked – a stolen Rembrandt, a swiped Monet, purloined Picassos. Some of these mysteries stretched back more than century; once, we rescued an original copy of one of the fourteen original parchments containing the Bill of Rights, a document looted by Union troops during the Civil War.

But one of my favorite cases was one of my first. I love it because, like lots of my cases, it contains two mysteries, each with its own cool facts.

In 1988, a thief cruised into the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia in broad daylight, drew a pistol, fired a warning shot and forced the guards to the floor. He made off with Rodin’s Mask of the Man With the Broken Nose, one of the most important early works of the Impressionist movement.

The story of how Rodin sculpted it – and why it was so revolutionary – was long a mystery. The answer, which I detail in Priceless, is, well…. priceless.  One of the most important sculptures in art history came to be pretty much by accident.

The second mystery was, of course, who done it, and why? The thief – spoiler alert –was an unemployed male stripper.

Solving the case of the Mask of the Man With the Broken Nose, launched my 20-year career with the FBI, much of it going undercover to rescue to the world’s stolen treasures.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman,  pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair.

Rising from humble roots as the son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career that was nothing short of extraordinary. He went undercover, usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid.

In this page-turning memoir, Wittman fascinates with the stories behind his recoveries of priceless art and antiquities: The golden armor of an ancient Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that inspired the Impressionist movement. The headdress Geronimo wore at his final Pow-Wow. The rare Civil War battle flag carried into battle by one of the nation’s first African-American regiments.

The breadth of Wittman’s exploits is unmatched: He traveled the world to rescue paintings by Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet and Picasso, often working undercover overseas at the whim of foreign governments. Closer to home, he recovered an original copy of the Bill of Rights and cracked the scam that rocked the PBS series Antiques Roadshow."

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I am getting the audio version of the book so I can listen to it at work.  It all sounds fascinating.  I can't wait to find out more about all of his cases. 

Please leave comments and let Mr. Wittman know how much we appreciate his guest post!!

Below are some interesting interviews on national shows with him about stolen art.