Review by Kirkus Book Review
The search for lost, stolen, or forged artifacts brings Freya Lockwood to Scotland. Fresh from a shipboard murder on a cruise to Jordan, Freya and her aunt Carole would like nothing better than an extended stay at Crockleford Antiques in their hometown of Little Meddington, England, to pore through their late mentor Arthur Crockleford's journals in search of clues that might lead to the recovery of misappropriated treasures. They're even willing to delegate to their volatile young colleague, Bella, the task of tracking the source of three forgeries attributed to Scottish portrait painter Sir Henry Raeburn and fraudulently sold to a Boston museum. But when a call from Bella is mysteriously cut off, the two don't hesitate to jump into Carole's Range Rover and drive through the night to Fawside Castle, Bella's reported destination, where they find not Bella but the body of Euan McGovern, laird of the castle. The search for an art forger and some stolen Scottish silver morphs into a missing persons case, then a murder inquiry, and finally an adventure in genealogy. All this mission creep makes for a slow start, but the pace picks up as the murderer finds more victims and Freya reunites with Phil, an FBI agent who took a shine to her back in the Middle East. Because the narrative centers less on whodunit than on whether lone-wolf Bella will ever find her place in the sun, readers who love a good family saga of loss and redemption will find their heart's desire. Takes patience but worth the wait. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
