An Avery Ayers Antique Mystery
Thanks to Aunt Midgeâs unlikely friendship with Nicholas Pennington, the Duke of Valle Charme, Avery Ayers and her associates at Antiques and Artifacts Appraised head off to their most glamorous assignment yetâcataloguing and appraising the contents of a castle-like mansion on the Hudson River. But regal splendor becomes a backdrop to mayhem when the precious Viktor Petrova timepiece disappearsâand housekeeper Suzanne Vick plummets from a parapet to her death. Avery, her dad William, and colleagues Micah Abbott and Sir Robert Lane soon learn that Suzanneâs predecessor also met with an untimely end. Further, the housekeeperâs suspicious demise coincides with Averyâs discovery that many of the Dukeâs most priceless heirlooms have been replaced by fakes. Detective Art Smith lends his expertise, but the suspect list encompasses the Dukeâs entire retinueâincluding his family. Could the killer be someone intimately familiar with the Pennington estate, such as caretaker couple Ira and Lynn Hoffman, the Penningtonsâ chauffeur Roderick, or even one of the heirs to the Pennington fortune? Then the duke himself is injured in an inexplicable riding accident, and the clock swiftly ticks toward a reckoning with a cold-blooded killer. A criminal mastermind is making a desperate bid for ill-gotten richesâŚcan Avery bring the culprit to justice before her time is up?