Jane Austen's Lost Letters : A Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery by Jane K. Cleland Series: Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries (#14)

Imagine if you found letters by Jane Austin in your father's locked box he sent you after his death.  What could you sell them for?

Minotaur Books and Edelweiss let me read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published and you can get a copy now.

Josie's mother had died from cancer a long time ago but she didn't know her father had found another lady friend.  The woman would tell her nothing.  So Josie turns to her friends who authenticate antiques and finds out one letter is forgery, the other is original.

Then people start dying.  They are people she works with and she has no idea why someone would be killing them.  The cops don't either.  As time goes on, they even take a shot at Josie!

Then Josie finds out she has a half-brother.  

She has cops protecting her but she doesn't go out a lot anymore.

The killer was someone I would never imagine but it makes sense.

Everything gets resolved and Josie has a new relative so it's entertaining.

Hidden Treasure : A Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery by Jane K. Cleland Series: Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries (#13)

Josie and her husband, Ty, have found the perfect home.  It's called the Gingerbread House and the elderly lady that lived in it is going to assisted living facility.  Everything is going well until the lady says she's missing part of her belongings.  Josie searches for them.

Minotaur Books and Edelweiss let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published December 8th.

She finds the trunk and the cat statue and tells Maudie about it.  Maudie moves it and then it goes missing.  Even worse, one of her relatives has been killed in the house...

It's a long hunt for the antiques.  Josie questions everyone and feels like she's missing something she was told.  It takes a while but she finally puts it altogether.  The police chief goes with her to see if she's right.  She is and now she knows who the killer is.  The killer is hiding and Josie figures out how they can draw her out.

It's a bit sad because her relatives were planning to steal from Maudie.  The goods are found and Josie starts appraising them. It's sad when greed overtakes the love of a family member...

Glow of Death: A Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery by Jane K. Cleland

It all begins with a beautiful Tiffany lamp.  She's asked by the wife of a wealthy man to appraise their lamp.  She's surprised to see it displayed in their library for use (most are displayed securely) but she's more than happy to do so.  She gets the owner's husband to allow her to move the lamp to her facility to do the survey.  Everyone is happy to find out it's genuine.

Minotaur Books and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published November 29th.

Josie is very excited by the find and by the money value the antique holds.  The only problem is that when she does follow up on the lamp, she finds the police at the residence.  Her friend, Ellis, is in charge of the investigation and he asks her if she can identify the wife.  She says yes.  When she looks at the body, it's a complete stranger.  She knows she's been conned.  She runs up to the library to check on the lamp but it's there.  Only in time does she realize it's a reproduction and the original lamp has been stolen.  The part that really burns her is that they used her to get it.

This is a well constructed mystery with a variety of things to sort out.  The husband has had a vasectomy but the wife is pregnant.  Who's the father?  Who wanted to sell the lamp?  And, if it was the wife, why is she dead?

I had no clue where this story was going until the end and it was a surprise for me.  The best part of the story though is where more than one couple decides to get married because it was such a dangerous case and they almost died.  It's nice to know that love can overcome evil.  I still believe in happy endings.