Though I usually read more straight-up thriller fare, it's always fun to dive into another entry in the Trash 'n Treasures cozy mystery series, and Antiques Ravin' was no exception. Written by "Barbara Allan", who is really the husband and wife writing team of Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins, each book features a clever murder mystery set in the world of antiques buying and selling, with said mysteries being tackled and solved by mother and daughter antiques dealers Vivian and Brandy Borne. Over the dozen or so books in the series so far, the mysteries are always good and the overall stories satisfyingly light and funny, though never so cozy as to totally avoid an occasional wince-inducing murder. I like that fact, as these give the books some weight.
In fact, I particularly enjoyed Antiques Ravin' because this time the plot was dialed up a little bit more than usual into the "rich and dark" arena and the humor was alternately turned down the tiniest bit to let the meatier story nicely simmer. Because the murders are modeled after creepy, classic death scenarios in various Edgar Allan Poe stories (and occur during a Poe festival being held in a small, quaint town heavy with antiques dealers, with maybe a David Lynch-like dark underbelly), maybe the authors decided to give the naturally-developing darker mood a long leash. Whatever the case, I enjoyed the somewhat darker and scarier flavor this time.
But I don't want to overstate: this is, after all, a Trash n' Treasures cozy mystery, so there's a lot of the usual reliably funny banter between the eccentric Vivian and her stylish, put-upon narrator daughter, and a goofy scene here and there as the creatively-staged crimes are investigated. But I appreciated that the authors resisted the many obvious opportunities for humor that were positioned like low-hanging fruit throughout the story. What do I mean? Well, you see, in this book the happily theatrical, often clumsy, half blind, usually reckless Vivian Borne is now the new county sheriff, thanks to developments in the previous entry in the series. And that means there must have been many, many comic opportunities arising from the new situation of a woman many think of as crazy now wielding power and able to arrest people as she sees fit. As make no mistake, there are some funny moments and scenarios mined out of this situation (for example, I loved how Brandy has to drive her drivers license-less mother around to crime scenes, and is introduced by Vivian as her "deputy daughter"), but I liked that overall the authors give Vivian some dignity and credit for some smarts, and some genuine talent for the job. There are no Inspector Clouseau-like slapstick laughs at Vivian's expense.
If you've never read a book in this series, this one is fine to just pick up and enjoy. While all the Trash 'n Treasures novels are stand-alone mysteries, some feature soap opera-like developments (always interesting) about Brandy and Vivian's extended family that build from book to book, as well as developments surrounding the other residents of Vivian and Brandy's town of Serenity, Iowa. This one has none of that, and the story doesn't even take place in Serenity. It's 100% focused on the mystery at hand, which further makes the already richer and darker story more so.
This review is probably a little long for what is still ultimately a fast-paced, banter-filled, very entertaining cozy, but I haven't talked about this series at length in a while and it's a good series to spread the word about. Available on Kindle and now in paperback, Antiques Ravin' is well worth your valuable mystery-reading time.
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