Peril at Pennington Manor - Cozy Mystery Review

Goodreads: Peril at Pennington Manor (Avery Ayers Antique Mystery #2) by Tracy Gardner

Rating: Really Liked It!
Source:   Publisher

Description:  Thanks to Aunt Midge’s unlikely friendship with Nicholas Pennington, the Duke of Valle Charme, Avery Ayers and her associates at Antiques and Artifacts Appraised head off to their most glamorous assignment yet—cataloguing and appraising the contents of a castle-like mansion on the Hudson River. But regal splendor becomes a backdrop to mayhem when the precious Viktor Petrova timepiece disappears—and housekeeper Suzanne Vick plummets from a parapet to her death.

Avery, her dad William, and colleagues Micah Abbott and Sir Robert Lane soon learn that Suzanne’s predecessor also met with an untimely end. Further, the housekeeper’s suspicious demise coincides with Avery’s discovery that many of the Duke’s most priceless heirlooms have been replaced by fakes.

Detective Art Smith lends his expertise, but the suspect list encompasses the Duke’s entire retinue—including his family. Could the killer be someone intimately familiar with the Pennington estate, such as caretaker couple Ira and Lynn Hoffman, the Penningtons’ chauffeur Roderick, or even one of the heirs to the Pennington fortune?

Then the duke himself is injured in an inexplicable riding accident, and the clock swiftly ticks toward a reckoning with a cold-blooded killer. A criminal mastermind is making a desperate bid for ill-gotten riches…can Avery bring the culprit to justice before her time is up?

Genre: Mystery - Cozy

Why I Picked This Book:  I enjoyed the first book and can never resist books that involve antiques.

My Impression:  I enjoyed the first book in this series but I think I liked this one even better!  The characters are still recovering from the events of the past year including Avery's dad literally coming back from the dead.  All of the Ayers family is adjusting to their new normal and it was interesting how the characters developed. 

The mystery was an interesting mix of murder, secrets with a solid dash of antiques theft thrown in.  I was fascinated to see how the investigation unraveled and I'm not sure if I was more interested in the antiques that were going missing or the murder investigation itself.  In the first book I had some issues with the pacing and some over explaining but neither were apparent here.  This is an entertaining interesting mystery and a must read for anyone who enjoys mysteries and history.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?  Absolutely!  I really enjoyed this one and can't wait to see what happens next in the series.  

Would I Recommend this Book? Definitely!  If you enjoy mysteries I think you'd enjoy this one though you may want to read the first book in the series before starting this one.

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *