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OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: 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 20 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?

OVERVIEW: The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C L Miller is a solid debut that pays homage to classic murder mysteries.

Drawing on her experience growing up around antiques (her mother is Judith Miller, of the Antiques Roadshow and Miller’s Antique Price Guide fame), the author has set a cozy mystery centered around an eclectic but endearing duo of characters. Freya, the main protagonist (for lack of better words), is a divorced mother with empty nest syndrome, someone who gave up on her career in the antiques business and turned to domestic life, only to find out it wasn’t a good match, and ends up with multiple house viewings arranged by her ex-husband. When she finds out from her aunt Carole, about the suspicious death of her estranged mentor, Arthur Crockleford, the two team up to determine who was behind it.

I’m not one for reading many classic style murder mysteries because there can be quite a bit to track, and all that can be quite taxing after long days. I do most of my reading in the evenings or before I sleep, and as I get older, I find myself preferring to pick up lighter and lighter reads. This book had a good balance between details about the mystery and lighter moments between characters. It was quite satisfying to watch Freya go from a hesitant divorcee with empty nest syndrome, to her former “I can hunt down anything once I make up my mind” personality, and the slow change in her confidence made this a fist-pumping read in that aspect.

Carole, however, has all my heart. She’s just the kind of diva who adds flair and flamboyance to an otherwise grim situation, and each of her dramatic exclamations elecited a chuckle from me, at the least. She added a big chunk of the cozy in this book, but something about her reassuring, steady and protective presence made me believe everything would be all right. The mystery itself was easy to follow, with it revealing a big chunk of what happened in Freya’s past, and ending with the triumph that can easily be likened to those in classic Hollywood films, and it, along with the excerpts of sayings from Arthur himself at the beginning of every chapter, had me feeling his ghost in the pages, though well past his demise.

I won’t lie, there was a bit of clunky pacing here and there, and the harrowing event in Freya’s past was mentioned far too often in her inner monologue before the reveal. Despite all this, it played well into the theme of the dark side of the trade and the question of reparation of cultural artifacts that drives the story.

CONCLUSION: Despite the little stumbles, The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder is a fresh and clever whodunnit that has a charming duo of characters whose pairing just works like magic. I highly recommend it and already have my finger’s crossed for the next adventure planted in these pages.