Shadows at the Spring Show: An Antique Print Mystery (Antique Print Mysteries) [Paperback]

Lea Wait (Author)

Book Description

Series: Antique Print Mysteries | Publication Date: June 20, 2006

She's an antique print dealer, a college professor, and now...a parent? Maggie Summer is considering adopting a child from the New Jersey agency Our World, Our Children, and she has happily agreed to stage a benefit antiques show on their behalf. With her dealer friends, her college, and her lover, Will Brewer, all donating their time and support, everything is falling into place. But someone is harboring a vicious grudge against Our World, Our Children. The adoptive mother of thirteen children is the first victim, and then Maggie begins receiving threats. With the crowded benefit set to open and hundreds of innocent lives at stake, Maggie races to preserve the future with a clue hidden in her prints from the past....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With complex crimes and even more complex personal decisions for Maggie Summer, antique-print dealer and history professor, the fourth installment of Wait's cozy series (after 2004's Shadows on the Ivy) doesn't disappoint. Since Maggie is thinking about adopting a child, she volunteers to organize an antique fair, the proceeds of which will go to support a local New Jersey adoption agency. Everything is running smoothly until the adoption agency begins receiving threatening letters—cancel the antique fair or else. Meanwhile, Holly Sloane, a saintly woman who's adopted 11 children, is shot, and one of her adoptive sons goes missing. Are the threatening letters and the shooting connected? Maggie must also ask herself some hard questions about her future. Her beau, Will Brewer, is a dreamboat, but he doesn't want to be a dad. Maggie knows that if she adopts, their romance will stagnate or end. Kudos to Wait for tackling a pressing social issue like adoption: she's never heavy-handed, and she just might inspire some readers to think about opening their homes to children in need.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Maggie Summer is directing all her energy toward managing a print and antiques show to raise funds for Our World Our Children, an adoption agency. Maggie, in her late 30s, is thinking seriously of adoption herself, although her current beau is completely uninterested in having or raising children. After the mother of a rainbow circle of adopted kids is shot, one of her children disappears, and OWOC--and Maggie--gets threatening mail and phone calls. The missing child turns up dead, and Maggie's van is blown up. Who could hate OWOC so much? Characterization is on the thin side in this fourth entry in Wait's Shadows series; instead of full-bodied people, we get detailed descriptions of how adoptions work emotionally and what agencies look for in families and in single parents. Still, Wait is a supple writer, and the print lore she always includes in her tales is captivating. A slight misstep in an otherwise appealing series. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (June 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743475593
• ISBN-13: 978-0743475594
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,062,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've been writing fiction (traditional mysteries for grownups, and historical fiction set in Maine for young people) since I left corporate America in 1998 and moved to Maine, a state I've always loved. Right now I'm working on a contemporary mystery for my young fans. I earned my B.A. at Chatham College and did graduate work at New York University. I've also owned an antique print business, MAH Antiques, since 1976. I adopted my 4 wonderful daughters when I was a single parent. They're grown now, and I have eight perfect grandchildren. (Aren't all grandchildren perfect?) In 2003 I married Bob Thomas, a man I've known and loved since 1968 .. sometimes life moves in slow but steady ways. Bob is not only a photographer and a partner in my antiques business, but is immensely supportive of my writing. (He even does all the errands and cooking so I have no excuses to leave my desk!) I'm very lucky to have achieved so many of my goals in life, and to have had fun doing it. My favorite quotation is "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved." William Jennings Bryan wrote that, but I think it defines my life. For more information about me, check my website, http://www.leawait.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Heavily Padded Who's-Gonna-Do-It, December 30, 2005

By 

Jennie Lyn "jennielyn" (Silicon Valley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadows at the Spring Show: An Antique Print Mystery (Antique Print Mysteries) (Hardcover)

As a mystery lover, print collector, and adoptive mom, I picked up this book with high hopes. Unfortunately, it's a very thin mystery heavily padded with middlebrow arcana about prints, the protagonist's endless should-I-or-shouldn't-I-adopt musings, and makeweight of end-of-term professorial minutiae. B-o-r-i-n-g. The most dramatic event in the book features the protagonist's irritation at another single (white, healthy) female wanting to adopt a (white, healthy) female infant, rather than enthusiastically signing up for older, abused children of a different ethnicity. Instead of suggesting the other woman go to Eastern Europe for such a child, the protagonist sneers at her for not signing up to sainthood. By the time the book finally reaches its climax, there is a gymnasium full of people who could commit the crime ... well, sort of, if you stretch things and one of them is nuts ... But no character development, no unexpected twists or turns, and a lot of lectures on prints and the nature (per the author, one presumes) of adoption.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best yet in Lea Wait's Shadows series!, July 19, 2005

By 

Carl from Virginia - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadows at the Spring Show: An Antique Print Mystery (Antique Print Mysteries) (Hardcover)

I've enjoyed all of Lea Wait's Shadows Antique Print Mysteries -- what's not to like? antiques, mystery, a little atmosphere and romance -- but this one was special. Main character Maggie Summer is thinking of adopting an older child, and agrees to run an antique show as an adoption agency benefit. Then an adoptive mother (of 11!) is shot; one of her sons disappears; and a lot of questions are raised about inter-cultural and inter-racial adoption. I'd never thought about adoption as a controversial issue; for some people it clearly is. And Wait gives us a great mystery as well as some fascinating information -- as she always does. (Plus, there IS an antique show, and many of Maggie's associates and friends from previous books. I love Gussie and Will and Ben!) Highly recommended.

3.0 out of 5 stars EDUCATIONAL /PRINTS, December 29, 2011

By 

DaNA1dEB - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shadows at the Spring Show: An Antique Print Mystery (Antique Print Mysteries) (Paperback)

HAVE THREE OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES.(DAUGHTERS)4 STARS
IF YOU ENJOY FLEA MARKETS AND CRAFT SHOWS . A COLLECTOR OF PRINTS.
WITH A CRIME IN EACH , YOU WILL ENJOY THESE. THE FOURTH BOOK I BOUGHT
.MAYBE I JUST DON'T LIKE PAYING FOR THEM OR I GET TIRED SETTING UP
FOR THE SHOW.I AM ALMOST FINISHED.
.