Antiques Roadkill

Brandy arrives to find small-town Serenity anything but serene. It seems Clint Carson, an unscrupulous antiques dealer, has swindled Vivian out of the family's heirlooms. But when Brandy impulsively confronts him, her outburst amounts to about as much as what Carson paid for the Borne antiques. And when Carson is found run over in a country lane near his farmhouse, Brandy has made herself Murder Suspect Number One - with her mother coming in a very close second. The number of other suspects in Carson's hit-and-run ruin is impressive - his business seems to have been based primarily on bilking seniors out of their heirlooms. When Brandy and her mother begin poking, an avalanche of warnings follows - from the mysterious, charismatic chief of police, from a handsome young cop who once busted Brandy for speeding...even from Brandy's childhood friend turned grown-up wild child. Tracking down clues proves even more challenging than sorting trash from treasure at the local garage sales, and when the Borne "girls" uncover a few very unsavoury Serenity secrets, they become targets for a murderer whose favourite hobby seems to be collecting victims.

I got this book as a free Kindle download and was kind of worried because of all the customer reviews that were less than complimentary - but it was free so what did I have to lose but a bit of time?

I loved it - as a matter of fact I was thrilled to find that it's the first book of a series and there are already three more books.

I will admit that I did find it a bit annoying when Ms. Allan (okay, I know it's not Ms. Allan - Barbara is the Ms. and Allan is the Mr. of the writing team) felt the need to tell us the label name of every piece of clothing and make up mentioned. I really don't see how it advances the story that she uses L'Oreal black mascara instead of her just putting some mascara on. But I don't see that it detracts from the story either.

The story didn't drag, there was plenty of action, enough characters to keep it interesting but not so many that you can't keep them straight and the action seemed plausible.

Give it a look - you might just find a new series you can revisit time and time again.

Jody