Customer Reviews

Gilt by Association (Den of Antiquity)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Gilt by Association" and Tamar Myer's first Abigail Timberlake novel "Larceny and Old Lace" are the funniest mysteries I've read in a long time. The plot is tight, the characters are hysterical, and Abigail Timberlake is a true Southern lady

Abigail Timberlake, the intrepid owner of the Den of Antiquity, is pleased to be able to acquire a beautiful four-piece set of furniture at an estate sale. When the set is delivered, she discovers a dead body in the armoire. The set was purchased from an eccentric family, the Barrases, who provide Abby with an interesting list of suspects. As in most families, there are varying degrees of greed and lust and Abby spends most of her time conjecturing as to who could have committed the murder. The author further develops some of the characters from the first book, such as Rob and Bob, and introduces some new ones such as C.J. (Calamity Jane.) The narrative and plot are smoother in this second novel, and the author, although injecting humor does not push it too far. A fun read!

Abigail Temberlake, the owner of an antique shop in Charlotte, North Carolina buys an expensive 18th century French armoire at an auction and this story begins when the armoire is delivered to her shop. The armoire is not what kicks off the story; it is instead the body that she finds inside. The police don't suspect her in the murder but they close down her shop while they investigate and she finds herself momentarily out of business with Christmas just weeks away. Needing desperately to get her shop opened back up, Abigail decides to use her newly found free time to do some investigating of her own.

Abigail is not, nor does she consider herself to be a detective, which is a refreshing change within the genera of book. She bumbles and stumbles her way along the trail of clues with all the subtlety of the proverbial bull in a china shop. Along the way her shop is burglarized, her house is broken into while she soaks in the tub and an elderly lady with whom she is about to have tea is poisoned. Finally, while following a false trail she stumbles onto the real killer and once again finds herself in mortal danger.

Many of the characters from the first book are inexplicably missing from this story. I can't help but wonder why the author spent so much time introducing her readers to the Charlotte antique community in the first book of this series if she were just going to drop them in the second. Especially noticeable is the absence of Tony who inherited the shop next to Abigail's in the last book. Suddenly there is a new person in that shop named Jane who the other shop owners refer to as CJ, short for Calamity Jane. She comes from out of nowhere to play a major role in this story, second only to Abigail who is of course the heroine. Rob and his partner Bob still have major roles in this story as does Yankee Bob's cuisine, which includes fish broth. Rob keeps asking for steak or hamburger and one cold night he and Abigail sneak out onto the patio and eat a box of doughnuts after a dinner of roasted eel. Wynnell is also still a very visible character and she still blames all misfortune on Yankees.

These characters and the very Southern atmosphere more than make up for a plot that gets a little lost at times. Abigail is a little brash for a Southern lady, or gentleman for that matter but she does run to the store and stock up on milk and bread after the radio weather mentions snow. We Southerners do tend to panic when we hear the s word. I absolutely fell in love with Bubba's China Gourmet, a restaurant that specializes in Southern Chinese food. Not food from Southern China, Abigail explains, but Chinese food from the South. Their specialties include stir-fried collard greens, sweet and sour okra and moo goo gai grits. There is also a Catholic Funeral at which a very tall Presbyterian gentleman sits up front having no idea when to sit, stand or kneel. Since most of the people at the service are also not Catholic and have no idea what to do they follow the lead of the man up front. Needless to say half of the crowd is always doing the wrong thing at the wrong time making a shambles of the funeral.

This is obviously not a hard core mystery but there are still areas of the book where I couldn't wait to see what happened next. This is a light-hearted, happy mystery that will make you laugh out loud and maybe even crave some stir-fried collards. The last chapter is almost like a scene out of the Waltons that ends not with "good night John-Boy" but with "shut up Jane" and "a Merry Christmas was had by all", even Jewish Rob. Just like the merry time you will have as you journey with Tamar Myers through this engaging and hilarious Southern mystery.

The easy flow of Abby's sunny sarcasm, her smoothing of the satiric-edge trademark of Magdelana Yoder gave me a cozier live in, in Tamar Meyers's DEN OF ANTIQUITY series than I experienced in the Pen Dutch literary gourmet style, though both series are awesome in their humorous capture of human foibles at their least and most sublime. What a writer!

The mansions, restaurants, coffee or tea breaks, and munching while clueing all served to keep me reading onward, happy as a clam. I quickly and contentedly sliped into reading along with a relaxed writer/artist who obviously has fun with her craft as she's creating.

Considering the flow of this novel in retrospect, I'm intrigued that I recall no feeling of author angst or effort underlying the movement of plot, fleshing of characters, click of dialogue, or lay out of descriptions. Maybe Tamar's unusual background could expalin her obvious confidence in her work and its process:

She grew up in the Belgian Congo as a member of a missionary family, passed a childhood in that conflict-rich environment with religious upbringing, returned as a teen to the USA by force of cultural growing pains in the Congo, met her husband-to-be the first day at a US school, accomplished a MA in English, then worked 23 years to launch her two currently successful series. What a perfect background for evolving into a literary pundit.

I believe what I enjoy most about this series is the various routinely-natural and effortlessly-entertaining ways Abby worries out her mystery and interviews suspects, often over a meal in a luxury setting or at least one with rich aromatic ambiance of one intensity or another. Hey. I'm a culinary cozy addict. I couldn't ask for more.

Here are a couple of my favorite Abby clue-strewing scenes:

Bubble bath contemplations with her cat batting bubbles ...

Ex husbands' current wife gives Abby a makeover as the current "homemaker" moans over now being the other woman, while Abby soothes the angst of her exhusband's wife with whom he cheated on Abby ... Yeah. And the scene works with both irony and warmth!

That's all great setting and satire, but this might take the cake:

>> "I really need to smoke while I eat," she (woman Abby was "grilling") said. To be truthful, she didn't sound nasty about it at all. Merely desperate.

>> "I'm sure you'll find enough second-hand smoke to fill your dietary needs," I (Abby) said kindly.

>> She looked genuinely torn between lunch with me and a solitary pack of coffin nails.

>> "Okay, you can smoke, but blow that nasty stuff away from my plate. I mean, you wouldn't like it if I farted on your food, would you?" <<

This was quite descriptively good as well:

>>I exhaled loudly, for all the world sounding like a punctured tire.<<

The humor in this author effervesces so easily there's probably quite a bit of it which slides right by, making second and third reading a rewarding venture. Whatever Myers offers you can bet on its being uniquely complex, edgy and hilarious, intriguing and natural in a funny, off-beat way.

Of course Abby's excursions & exchanges with the gay Rob & Bob are delightfully warm & funny, and the gutsy gourmet meals Bob concocts which Rob & Abby beg to avoid are interestingly mouth watering ... from a distance.

Really enjoyed the way Abby dealt with her approach/avoidance conflict (romancing ever-after Vs dragging feet) as her relationship with trained police investigator Greg Washburn grows more intimate and skidds toward commitment.

This is a work of sheer and simple entertainment with a backwash of stereotypes squashed and genuine relating relished. Lots of hilarious mix & mismatch is stirred effervescently into the kettles of cuisine, means of marriage, ways of mystery, and action-packed menageries.

Take it. You won't leave it for long.

Excellent storytelling and wordsmithing, Tamar! You prove the blessing and richness of your talent with every breath and every keystroke. Believe it.

Linda Shelnutt

Contrary to the Publisher's Weekly reviewer, I found a lot of the South in this book, but then, I've lived there. Abby may have a trashy mouth sometimes, but she's a modern woman, and she's hilarious (she does go overboard sometimes, but a lot of funny people do, especially when they've found a body in their new armoire). Her mother is about a generation too late to be mourning gloves in church and to be wearing crinoline to clean house, but that anachronism doesn't ruin the book. The characters may be somewhat shallow, but this is a lighthearted mystery, not a candidate for the Pulitzer prize. I laughed out loud. P.S. To the reviewer from Australia, Greg reminds Abby in Chapter 2 that she's just turned 48.

Gilt By Association is the second book in the Den of Antiquity series by Tamar Myers. Like its predecessor, Larceny and Old Lace, this book is entertaining, humorous, and very well written. The difference is that this one is even better!

In Gilt, Myers cuts back on the number of characters and is able to develope them more. We get to know Abigail, her mother and Greg much more in this book. Also, the "Rob-Bobs" are brought to life and add a lot of humor. (Being from Pennsylvania, I can sympathize with Bob). We are introduced to Calamity Jane (CJ) who is the new owner of Abigail's late Aunt Eulonia's shop. CJ is a memorable character and I think we all know someone like her. Even the infamous Tweetie becomes a real person in Gilt By Association! This was such an improvement over the first book.

This series gets better and better. If you have read the first book and are unsure about the second, read it. The few flaws I found with Larceny and Old Lace are improved with Gilt By Association. For future reference, the third book, The Ming and I is even better than the first two!

Ms Myers has done it again. This is a fine mystery story. I do wonder what happened between Larceny and Old Lace and this one to Tony who was supposed to own her aunt's old shop and was her mother's boy friend. In this second in the series we have Calamity Jane owning the store and no mention of Tony - what happened to him? We also seem to have lost some of the other antique store owners. The book still does a fine job, but a little more continuity might be in order to keep readers coming back for more. Please, tie up the loose ends so we know what happens to some of the characters that seem to have disappeared.

This is the second book in the Den of Antiquity series and I just love it! It reads easily, is very relaxing and as the suspense is building up, you will laugh out loud many times throughout the book. I often like to read just before going to bed and do not like to read heavy or cruel material as it affects my sleep. Tamar Myer's books are just wonderful bedtime reading and I highly recommend this book!!!

I began with the Magdalena Yoder books and then discovered the Den of Antiquity series. These are marvelous reads! Myers is able to transfer the same zaniness that we love to a very different character without any repetitiveness. This is a very refreshing author who knows just how to keep the reader inthralled until the last moment.

This book is alright as a quick read, but I was not very impressed. It never let me know exactly how old the main character was.. As I read through the book, she could have been anything from 30-60 years old. When "questioning" suspects - she would just roll up to someone's house with a ... excuse and people would actually answer her questions. The other characters were interesting, but the main character has to get you interested to keep buying the books.