Customer Reviews

Tiles and Tribulations (Beeler Large Print Mystery Series)

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

 

 

In the 8th book in the Abigail Timberlake mystery series involving an antique dealer who solves crimes, Abigail finds herself at a séance and is skeptical and sharp-tongued as always. It seems her friend, C.J., believes there are ghosts haunting her new mansion, and she hires a medium/psychic to get the ghosts out. Feeling pressured, Abby attends, but when Madam Woo-Woo dies from poison shortly after the séance, Abby must step in and help her friend prove her innocence in the murder investigation. When Abby stumbles on some authentic 17th Century tiles that are worth a fortune on the mansion's walls, she quickly moves to forget the murder and focus on antiques. The fortune hunt is called off, however, when during her search, Abby finds another body buried in the wall. Getting unwelcome help from a group called the Heavenly Hustlers (of which Abby's mother is a member), Abigail must find the murderer before she ends up as a ghost herself.

I have liked each of Tamar Myers' books in this series, and the other involving Magdelena Yoder. Her books are witty (although she reuses many of the same puns in several of the books throughout the series) and have me laughing aloud in many cases. This book was interesting and the mystery engaging. I would recommend reading this book if you enjoy cozy mysteries with a bit of humor.

The first book in this series is "Larceny and Old Lace". Enjoy!

A Cozy Lover

Ms. Myers two series are so formula and so predictable, but I had enjoyed the Den of Antiquity series more than the Magadalena Yoder series, but there comes a time when it just gets to be too much. The humour begins to seem forced, the antics frenetic and disjointed, and the bad guys (or gals) more clownish and unrealistic. That is the case here. Abby is on the trail of another killer and it leads her into peril herself, but somehow she manages to get away without suffering many ill effects. And I haven't even mentioned the editing - that is is so poorly done in each of these books. This book is no different in any way than any of the others, but the ending seems more forced and rushed than usual, especially for the books in this series. It made no sense. That's it. I'm done with Ms. Myers books - this was the last straw.

After Abigail Timberlake Washburn, the heroine of this series moves to Charleston most of her friends from Charlotte follow suit which gives the series a happy sense of continuity. The most recent move is made by CJ who buys an old fixer upper home and goes to work for Abby in her antique shop. Everything seems to be falling into place until CJ discovers that her new home is haunted. So haunted in fact that her construction crews keep quitting. Strangely though, CJ keeps coming home to find that part of the remodeling has been completed and she just assumes that it must be the ghost doing the work. Despite the helpful nature of the spirit however, CJ wants the ghost out of her house and begins to look for a ghost buster. Abby's mother comes to the rescue and finds a psychic in the yellow pages who even offers a money back guarantee and a séance is soon in the works.

When the big moment finally arrives, Abby and Madame Woo-Woo the psychic get into an argument and soon Madame Woo-Woo hits the floor like a sack of wet cement and dies. At first it looks like a heart attack but pretty soon the police reveal that poison was the culprit and Abby once more starts to snoop and the fun begins.

Mrs. Myers has created a wonderful set of regular characters for this series and has once again in this book thought up some superb temporary characters. There is a real estate agent that lives in a flying saucer, a used car salesman who deals in automobiles in which celebrities have died and a former Miss Regional Okra. Mix these characters with the Deep South atmosphere and add a very odd mystery and one gets a very enjoyable book. Just to make things all the more interesting a very old corpse is found in one of CJ's walls and Abby soon puts that puzzle together also. CJ's ghost might still be there but at least now she knows who the ghost is. I know that having that knowledge would make me feel better. On second thought, maybe I wouldn't feel better after all.

As this series progresses Abby is getting better and better at solving these mysteries. In the first books she bumbled around until the guilty party completely startles her by confessing. In this case Abby figures out who killed Madame Woo-Woo and after confronting the killer almost joins the psychic on the other side. Even better than the mystery however are the adventures of Abby's mother who has tried and failed to become a Nun, dresses like June Cleaver and has spent time in a nudist colony. In this episode she has taken up with a Charleston club known as the Heavenly Hustlers whose members are up to their necks in this mystery.

Once again Mrs. Myers has delivered a splendidly funny and enjoyable warm fuzzy mystery. I was afraid that the change of setting from Charlotte to Charleston would cause a drop in the quality of the stories but that hasn't happened. Its not always the mystery that will keep your attention but the side fluff in this instance is a blessing, not a curse.

The author has developed a proven recipe to satisfy her readers: take a preposterous plot, mix in bizarre humor on every page, add an excellent atmosphere, and stir in a batch of fascinating characters. Then hope that the plot absurdities will be overlooked by the reader. And the flaws are overlooked, unless one looks beneath the surface.

For example: A body is discovered behind the wallboard of an 18th century Charleston house. When the wallboard is broken, a terrible stench fills the kitchen. It would appear that there are two problems with this set of circumstances. First of all, if the body has been there since the 1700s, it is highly unlikely that there would be a cloying, repugnant odor. Such an odor would have been detected long ago. The smell of a hundred pounds of decaying meat can penetrate almost anything. Moreover, would there really have been wallboard on such an old house? I'm no expert on Charleston house materials, but gypsum wallboard came much later. The walls should have been lath and plaster and hair, it would seem. If there was wallboard, that would indicate remodeling a century or more after the body was deposited there, and surely the remodeler would have noticed the body.

Perhaps a reader should not ponder such things, but I can't help it. Nonetheless, the book is fun to read. That should suffice, and it does.

In the 8th book in the Abigail Timberlake mystery series involving an antique dealer who solves crimes, Abigail finds herself at a séance and is skeptical and sharp-tongued as always. It seems her friend, C.J., believes there are ghosts haunting her new mansion, and she hires a medium/psychic to get the ghosts out. Feeling pressured, Abby attends, but when Madam Woo-Woo dies from poison shortly after the séance, Abby must step in and help her friend prove her innocence in the murder investigation. When Abby stumbles on some authentic 17th Century tiles that are worth a fortune on the mansion's walls, she quickly moves to forget the murder and focus on antiques. The fortune hunt is called off, however, when during her search, Abby finds another body buried in the wall. Getting unwelcome help from a group called the Heavenly Hustlers (of which Abby's mother is a member), Abigail must find the murderer before she ends up as a ghost herself.

I have liked each of Tamar Myers' books in this series, and the other involving Magdelena Yoder. Her books are witty (although she reuses many of the same puns in several of the books throughout the series) and have me laughing aloud in many cases. This book was interesting and the mystery engaging. I would recommend reading this book if you enjoy cozy mysteries with a bit of humor.

The first book in this series is "Larceny and Old Lace". Enjoy!

This novel gave me a great way (and excuse!) to get back into cozy mysteries. Since The Cat Who... books have become basically plotless, and other cozy authors have died or stopped putting out as many books, I had really given up on reading mysteries...then along came Tamar Myers and her great Den of Antiquity books!

I won't summarize the plot, as it has been done several times before, and in the amazon.com summary. However, I will say that it is inventive, and highly interesting. The way the author weaves the narrator's knowledge of antiques into the storyline is superb!

In addition, the author's knowledge of Charleston is extraordinary. Although it can become a little tiresome hearing about how great "the Holy City" is, I feel as though I've really come to understand Charleston geography (bothn topographically and socially) by reading these books. Besides all of this, they are simply a hoot! From the narrator's friend's preposterous Shelby stories (think of Rose from "the Golden Girls" and her tales of St. Olaf) to the narrator's mother (think of "I Love Lucy"), the humor is great.

Bottom Line: This series brought me back to the mystery genre, through its great plot, setting, and characters. I laughed out loud more often with this novel than I have in a long time. Whether you're looking for a way to get back into mysteries, a new series, or simply a read for the beach, this book is definitely worth it!

Tamar Myers has written the Den of Antiquity Series with clever puns as titles and a delightful heroine in Abigail Timberlake Washburn. In this entry to the series, antique-dealer Abby is invited to come to a seance at the home of her friend CJ. Although she is not enthusiastic at the prospect, she agrees after her mother's persuasive argument that CJ needs her friends to come in order to rid her house of an unwanted ghost. Unfortunately Madame Woo-Woo, the medium who is running the seance, is poisoned during the event. Everyone present is a suspect since the poison is found on a tape recorder which was present in the room at the time of the seance. Even Abby comes under suspicion as she had occasion to handle the tape recorder. She pursues the investigation with her usual enthusiasm and has some hilarious meetings with the suspects. Finally, she goes too far, and the murderer keeps her prisoner until......well, guess you'll have to read the book to find out what happens.

This is the best "Den of Antiquity" mystery Ms. Myers has written in a while. All her jokes and witticisms are fresh! No more paint shaker/Home Depot stale one-liners. When a medium is killed at a seance she is attending, Abby has her pick of suspects from an array of fascinating characters. It was a little stretch how she figures out the killer's identity. But the climax was good. A good, cozy and finally funny read.

The Den of Antiquity, a high end antique store in Charleston, South Carolina is owned and run by Abigail Timberlake, a woman who spends more time on homicide investigations than she does managing her business. Her co-worker and close friend C.J. persuades Abigail to attend a séance at her house so they can exorcise the ghost that haunts it. Abigail, with her mother and her friends arrive at Cid's house when she spots a tape recorder under the table.

The medium, Madame Woo-Woo put it there the day before as part of her scam. When the séance begins, the so-called medium punches the button on the tape recorder and shortly thereafter dies. The police discover that someone put poison on the tape recorder and Abigail knows it is one of the people who attended the séance. Placing herself in peril, she starts her own investigation; questioning everyone who was there.

Tamar Myers, the author of the Magdelena Yoder series, has written a charming cozy filled with warmth and humor. The heroine, a four foot nine dynamo goes into her sleuth mode asking intelligent questions of all the suspects while trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Her perseverance and intelligence makes her an ideal amateur sleuth.

Harriet Klausner

As an avid reader of Tamar Myers, I have to say this was probably the weakest of all of her books. I had to look at the page numbers to make sure I wasn't missing a chapter. In one chapter Abby (the main character) is at the mercy of the killer and the next chapter she is safe at home. How did she get away? Where's the rest of the story? It's almost as if Ms. Myers had a deadline and had to finish the book without putting any thought into the ending. It was very disappointing. Still, I gave it two stars because the rest of the book is amusing. Just not her best work. Not by a long shot.