The Glass Is Always Greener (22 page)

Estate of Mind

A faux van Gogh that’s to die for . . .

When Abigail Timberlake makes a bid of $150.99 on a truly awful copy of van Gogh’s
Starry Night
, she’s just trying to support the church auction. Hopefully she’ll make her money back on the beautiful gold antique frame. Little does she expect she’s bought herself a fortune . . . and a ton of trouble.

Hidden behind the faux van Gogh canvas is a multimillion-dollar lost art treasure. Suddenly she’s a popular lady in her old hometown, and her first visit is from Gilbert Sweeny, her schoolyard sweetie who claims the family’s painting was donated by mistake. But social calls quickly turn from nice to nasty as it’s revealed that the mysterious masterpiece conceals a dark and deadly past and some modern-day misconduct that threatens to rock the Rock Hill social structure to its core. Someone apparently thinks the art is worth killing for, and Abby knows she better get to the bottom of the secret scandal and multiple murders before she ends up buried six feet under a starry night.

A Penny Urned

Pickled, then potted . . .

All that remains of Lula Mae Wiggins—who drowned in a bathtub of cheap champagne on New Year’s Eve— now sits in an alleged Etruscan urn in Savannah, Georgia. Farther north, in Charleston, South Carolina, Abigail Timberlake is astonished to learn that she is the sole inheritor of the Wiggins estate. Late Aunt Lula was, after all, as distant a relative as kin can get.

Arriving in Savannah, Abby makes a couple of startling discoveries. First, that Lula Mae’s final resting place is more American cheap than Italian antique. And second, that there was a very valuable 1793 one-cent piece taped to the inside lid. Perhaps a coin collection worth millions is hidden among the deceased’s worldly possessions—making Lula’s passing more suspicious than originally surmised. With the strange appearance of a voodoo priestess coupled with the disturbing disappearance of a loved one—and with nasty family skeletons tumbling from the trees like acorns—Abby needs to find her penny auntie’s killer or she’ll be up to her ashes in serious trouble.

Nightmare in Shining Armor

The corpse is in the mail . . .

Abigail Timberlake’s Halloween costume party is a roaring success—until an unexpected fire sends the panicked guests fleeing from Abby’s emporium. One exiting reveler she is only too happy to see the back of is Tweetie “Little Bo Peep” Timberlake—unfaithful wife of Abby’s faithless ex, Buford. But not long after the fire is brought under control, the former Mrs. T discovers an unfamiliar suit of armor in her house. And stuffed inside is the heavily siliconed, no-longer-living body of the current Mrs. T.

Certainly some enraged collector of medieval chain mail has sent Abby this deadly delivery. But diving into their eccentric ranks could prove a lethal proposition for the plucky antiques dealer turned amateur sleuth. And even a metal suit may not be enough to protect Abby from the vicious and vindictive attention of a crazed killer.

Splendor in the Glass

Murder is a glass act . . .

Antiques dealer Abby Timberlake is thrilled when
the
Ms. Amelia Shadbark—doyenne of Charleston society—invites her to broker a pricey collection of Lalique glass sculpture. These treasures will certainly boost business at the Den of Antiquity, and maybe hoist Abby into the upper crust—which would please her class-conscious mom, Mozella, to no end. Alas, Abby’s fragile dream is soon shattered when Mrs. Shadbark meets a foul, untimely end. And as the last known visitor to the victim’s palatial abode, Abby’s being pegged by the local law as suspect Numero Uno.

Of course, there are other possible killers—including several dysfunctional offspring and a handyman who may have been doing more for the late Mrs. S than fixing her leaky faucets. But Abby’s the one who’ll have to piece the shards of this deadly puzzle together—or else face a fate far worse than a mere seven years of bad luck!

Tiles and Tribulations

Supernatural born killer . . .

Abigail Timberlake would rather be anywhere else on a muggy Charleston summer evening—even putting in extra hours at her antiques shop—than at a séance. But her best friend, “Calamity Jane,” thinks a spirit—or “Apparition American,” as ectoplasmically correct Abby puts it—lurks in the eighteenth-century Georgian mansion, complete with priceless, seventeenth-century Portuguese kitchen tiles, that C.J. just bought as a fixer-upper. Luckily, Abby’s mama located a psychic in the yellow pages—a certain Madame Woo-Woo—and, together with a motley group of feisty retirees known as the “Heavenly Hustlers,” they all get down to give an unwanted spook the heave-ho.

But, for all her extrasensory abilities, the Madame didn’t foresee that she, herself, would be forced over to the other side prematurely. Suddenly Abby fears there’s more than a specter haunting C.J. And they’d better exorcise a flesh-and-blood killer fast before the recently departed Woo-Woo gets company.

Statue of Limitations

Death by David . . .

Abigail Timberlake, petite but feisty proprietor of Charleston’s Den of Antiquity antiques shop, stopped speaking to best friend and temporary decorating partner Wynnell Crawford a month ago—after questioning her choice of a cheap, three-foot-high replica of Michelangelo’s
David
to adorn the garden of a local bed-and-breakfast. But now Wynnell has broken the silence with one phone call . . .
from prison!

It seems the B and B owner has been fatally beaten—allegedly by the same tacky statue—and Wynnell’s been fingered by the cops for the bashing. But Abby suspects there’s more to this well-sculpted slaying than initially meets the eye, and she wants to take a closer look at the not-so-bereaved widower and the two very odd couples presently guesting at the hostelry. Because if bad taste was a capital crime, Wynnell would be guilty as sin—but she’s certainly no killer!

Monet Talks

Birds of a feather die together . . .

Abigail Timberlake is thrilled to purchase an elaborate Victorian birdcage that is a miniature replica of the Taj Mahal. However she’s less excited by the cage’s surprise occupant—a loud, talkative myna bird named Monet. But Monet soon becomes a favorite with Abby’s customers—until one day he goes mysteriously missing. In his place is a stuffed bird and a ransom note demanding the real Monet painting in exchange for Abby’s pet. “What Monet painting?” is Abby’s only response.

Abby tries to put the bird-snatching out of her mind, dismissing it as a cruel joke—until Abby’s mama, Mozella, is taken too. This time the kidnapper threatens to kill Mozella unless Abby produces the painting.

What do a talking bird, Mozella, and a painting hidden for hundreds of years have in common? Abby must figure it all out soon before the could-be killer flies the coop for good.

The Cane Mutiny

Abigail Timberlake Washburn understands the antiques game is a gamble—so she doesn’t know what to expect when she wins the bidding for the contents of an old locker that has been sealed for years. It’s a delightful surprise when she discovers inside a collection of exquisite old walking sticks—and a not-so-delightful one when she pulls out a decrepit gym bag containing . . .
a human skull!

The last thing the diminutive South Carolina antiques dealer needs is to be suspected of foul play. So she grabs her chatty assistant (and future sister-in-law), C.J., and heads out to search for a killer they can stick it to. But this cane case will be no walk in the park—with its arcane clues hinting at poaching, counterfeiting, smuggling . . . and homicide, of course. And when a fresh corpse turns up, things are about to get
really
sticky for Abby and her staff of one.

Den of Antiquity Mysteries by
Tamar Myers

T
HE
G
LASS
I
S
A
LWAYS
G
REENER

P
OISON
I
VORY

D
EATH OF A
R
UG
L
ORD

T
HE
C
ANE
M
UTINY

M
ONET
T
ALKS

S
TATUE OF
L
IMITATIONS

S
PLENDOR IN THE
G
LASS

N
IGHTMARE IN
S
HINING
A
RMOR

A P
ENNY
U
RNED

E
STATE OF
M
IND

B
AROQUE AND
D
ESPERATE

S
O
F
AUX
, S
O
G
OOD

T
HE
M
ING AND
I

G
ILT BY
A
SSOCIATION

L
ARCENY AND
O
LD
L
ACE

T
HE
W
ITCH
D
OCTOR’S
W
IFE

Copyright

Copyright © 2011 by Tamar Myers

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

ISBN 978-0-06-084661-9

EPub Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780062041647

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