Ruby Red Herring (An Avery Ayers Antique Mystery #1) by Tracy Gardner

 

Ruby Red Herring

(An Avery Ayers Antique Mystery #1)

by Tracy Gardner

Kindle, 336 pages

Published June 8th 2021 by Crooked Lane Books

Synopsis:

After their parents' deaths, Avery Ayers and her teenaged sister, Tilly, take over the family business, Antiquities & Artifacts Appraised. Life in Lilac Grove is filled with jewels, tapestries, paintings...and the antics of eccentric Aunt Midge. But their world is rocked when they learn that the theft of a priceless ruby may be connected to their parents' demise.

The trouble starts when the Museum of Antiquities hires Avery to appraise a rare, resplendent ruby. It bears a striking similarity to a stone in the museum's bejeweled dragon's-head medallion. One of the dragon's ruby eyes was stolen long ago--replaced with a fake. Now, Avery's colleagues--pompous Sir Robert Lane and fatherly Micah Abbott--suspect they may have the missing gem. But facets of the case remain cloudy. Detective Art Smith is snooping around. Another body turns up. And Avery finds mysterious notes that, impossibly, seem to be written by her father.

Accompanied by her Afghan hound, Avery enlists Art's help in cutting the list of suspects who might have polished off her parents and swiped the jewel. Was it art collector Oliver Renell? Curator Nate Brennan? Actor Tyler Chadwick? Or was the theft an inside job, perpetrated by someone all too close to Avery? If she can't find the culprit, Lilac Grove may be the setting for Avery's own death.

***

4.5 Stars

This is the first book in the Avery Ayers Antique Mystery series by Tracy Gardner.

This was quite an intriguing read. Avery and her sister Tilly lost their parents to a horrific car accident a year earlier and now the antique they were dealing with during the time of the crash has come back to the forefront and Avery and her team is looking into this bejeweled dragon’s head medallion.

I enjoyed how Avery connected to Detective Art Smith almost immediately and how this is the lynch point that will really keep me reading. I am so intrigued by what might unfold in this relationship in the future.

The mystery was very compelling and it was a long-term operation as you will discover near the end but I won’t give away more than that. There are so many options for a series like this and I can see this morphing into a real action adventure sort of like a female Indiana Jones on the hunt for cursed treasure or something.

If you love a good cozy mystery, definitely check this one out. Great new must read series for sure!

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title. Opinions are completely my own.