Cheryl R. (Spuddie) - , reviewed on 8/29/2007 + 412 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 6

First in the Maggie Summers "antique print" cozy mystery series set on the east coast. Maggie is a college professor but also has an antique prints business called Shadows on the side. A recent widow, she does the antique show circuit and this story takes place at one such show. When one of her fellow dealers ends up murdered and her good friend Gussie's nephew Ben, who has Down's Syndrome, is accused of the crime, Maggie knows she needs to look more deeply at the situation than the police seem to be doing and sets out to ask a few questions of her own to clear Ben's name.

I figured out the bad guy way ahead of time and after a few clues were dropped, even figured out the motive well before the end of the book, too. This was an okay first entry in a series. I liked Maggie well enough, though I felt she was rather two-dimensional. The dialogue was kind of stilted and didn't seem very realistic, and the whole package just didn't work well for me--something about the whole book just felt "off." I did enjoy learning about antique prints and the whole "antiques fair circuit" but it really wasn't enough to maintain my interest; I rate the book a C grade and highly doubt I'll continue reading more in the series.

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