A Treacherous Trader

A Treacherous Trader by Ellery Adams and Parker Riggs is the fourth book in the Antiques and Collectibles mystery series.  The book starts out with Leo and Frieda Kurzer along with their two daughters, Sophie and Anna.  They live in Hamburg, Germany in April 1937.  Leo is a jeweler and Jewish.  Leo is forced to sell his jewelry store to his longtime employee, Rolf (Hitler decreed that Jews could not own businesses in Germany).  Rolf gives Leo an expensive tiara to help the family escape to Holland.  Leo manages to hold onto the tiara until the family needs to escape Holland.  Leo gives the tiara to Richard Rayner, a ship captain.  The journey of the tiara is told throughout the rest of the book.    

Molly Appleby is getting married to Dr. Mark Harrison.  Mark is about to graduate from medical school and is hoping to do his residency in Vermont at Fletcher Allen.  They have decided to marry in October and to have to the wedding in Vermont (Mark spent time there growing up).  Molly and her friend, Kitty Lewis go to Vermont to spend a week planning the wedding.  This is going to be hard for Kitty Lewis and her husband, Lex who do not like to be apart.  The first morning in Vermont Molly meets Violet and Lindsey Emerson from Massachusetts.  Lindsey is getting married to her fiancé, Keith and they are thinking of getting married in Vermont.  However, Lindsey is upset because she has discovered that the father she never met, Alec Portman now lives in Burlington and owns Portman Photography.  Alec left Violet when Lindsey was a baby.   Alec put Violet in a  wheelchair (backed over her with a car).

Molly and Kitty  start working on Molly’s to do list for the wedding.  The first thing on her list is a wedding gown (personally, I would have looked for a venue first, but Molly wanted to do the fun things first).  Molly, of course, wants to wear a vintage wedding gown.  They go to the wedding dress store Princess Bridal owned by Bristol Price.  Bristol has a severe snotty attitude and treats Molly with disdain (she picks on her size too).  Turns out that Alec dated Bristol and then publicly humiliated her when she moved to town.   Molly ends up getting a beautiful vintage wedding dress from the 1930’s from Betsy Stratton. 

The next morning Molly awakes to find out that Alec has been murdered and Lindsey is a suspect.  Violet asks Molly to look into the murder and clear Lindsey.  Violet subscribes to Collector’s Weekly and knows that Molly has solved a few crimes.  Molly along with her insatiable curiosity set out to solve the murder.  During the course of the investigation, Molly discovers that Alec was a womanizer and jewel thief.  Alec seems to have dated or hit on every woman in town (whether she wanted his attentions or not).  Molly and Detective Anthony Lombardi follow the leads to try and find the killer.

Kitty ends up having to go home when Lex breaks his leg (not that she was much help because she was always on the phone with Lex).  Molly’s mother, Clara comes to help with the wedding plans and instead finds romance with Sean Murphy owner of Treasure Trove Antiques.   

I give A Treacherous Trader 4 out of 5 stars.  It is a charming mystery, romance, fun characters, two murders, a vintage wedding dress, and a gorgeous diamond tiara.  There is a lot going on in this book.  I have only given a brief synopsis of the events in the book.  A Treacherous Trader is a good cozy mystery, but I prefer Ellery Adams Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for visiting.  I am off to finish reading The American Lady.  Happy Reading!

Kris