#Blogtour The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller.

About the Author

Cara Miller started working Life in publishing as an editorial assistant for her mother, Judith Miller, on the Miller’s Antique Price Guide to Europe before she went into hospitality and events. After she had children, she decided to follow her long-held dream of becoming an author and began writing full-time. She was an Undiscovered Voices winner in 2022 and was showcased in the UV 2022 anthology. She lives in a medieval cottage in Suffolk with her family. Follow @CLMillerAuthor on X

'This book was written in consultation with international antiques expert Judith Miller (1951–2023), a regular specialist on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow. Judith was also the co-founder of the bestselling annual Miller’s Antiques Price Guide, which started in 1979. She went on to write more than 120 books on antiques and interiors.'

About the book

What Antique would you kill for? 

Freya, it’s down to you to finish what I started . . . - Freya Lockwood has avoided the quaint English village in which she grew up for the last twenty years. That is until news arrives that Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and Freya’s estranged mentor, has died . . . and the circumstances seem suspicious.

You will uncover a reservation, I implore you to attend . . . - But when a letter from Arthur is delivered, sent just days before his death, and an ordinary pine chest concealing Arthur’s journals, including reservations in her name, are revealed, Freya finds herself sucked back into a life she’d sworn to leave behind.

But beware, trust no one. Your life depends on it . . . - Joining forces with her eccentric Aunt Carole, Arthur’s staunch best friend, Freya follows both clues and her instincts to an old manor house for an ‘antiques enthusiasts’ weekend’. But not is all as it seems; the antiques are bad reproductions, and the other guests are menacing and secretive.

Can Freya and Carole solve the mystery surrounding the weekend before a killer strikes again?

Review

What antique would you kill for? Seems like such a simple question and premise, but when I started to think about it - about what kind of antique could create the kind of obsession and need to posses that could result in killing someone for it. The first step was determining what kind of item would have such a pull on me. I agree that provenance would be a major factor, but I am equally invested in great things of beauty, creation with an elusive quality. 

The past few decades have been quiet in comparison to the life Freya Lockwood once led, but she finds it difficult to put the past and antiques dealer Arthur Crockleford's offences behind her. His death doesn't bother her, but being thrust back into the past is a trigger. What is even more annoying is the way Arthur has left a mystery to solve - for her to solve, which is a direct path back into a life she once lived.

It's the kind of concept I would love to see on the small screen with the sleuthing duo of Frey and Aunt Carole on the hunt for a different antique every season. Whilst we wait for that there is more to come from this enigmatic and determined pair in Death on the Red Sea.

I would start a treasure hunt for certain items, okay perhaps quite a few items - would I kill for one of them though? It's probably one of those questions best left unanswered, just in case I preemptively incriminate myself. Just saying.

Buy The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Published by Pan MacMillan, pub date 29th February £16.99 Hardback. Buy at Amazon com.