Kittling: Books: A Killer Collection by Ellery Adams

First Line: The potter's hands were wide with short, thick fingers, gnarled and cracked from a lifetime of work.

As a writer for Collector's Weekly, Molly Appleby has proven herself to have a sharp eye for quality and an ear for gossip, but little does she know that going with her mother to an exclusive kiln opening will have her using both skills to solve a murder.

George-Bradley Staunton has one of the very best collections of folk art pottery in the South, but his utter ruthlessness in amassing his treasures means that when he drops dead at the kiln opening Molly is attending, there are few who mourn him. However, when his death is ruled a murder, the suspect list is long and the police are stumped. Molly has to step in to help catch the killer before the body count rises.

Originally published in 2006 under the name J.B. Stanley, A Killer Collection is the first book in the three-volume Collectibles cozy series. The author has completely revamped each book to have them reissued under her pen name Ellery Adams. What I enjoyed most about this first book in the series were the behind-the-scenes action at an auction and all the good information about Southern folk art pottery-- and A Killer Collection absolutely glows whenever Adams describes the creative process as a potter sits at the wheel.

I was slightly less satisfied with the characters and the mystery. As a journalist Molly has the right training to ferret out the perpetrators of crime and to provide readers interested in collecting with plenty of good information. However, I didn't find enough there to make her stand out from all the other amateur sleuths available today. And for all the readers who prefer justice to prevail and all their plot threads neatly tied up in bows by book's end... they may be left feeling a bit dissatisfied. I have to admit that I didn't particularly care for the way Molly dealt with the information she had.

All in all, the book is enjoyable in its depiction of folk art pottery, its history and traditions as well as in showing us the evolution of a writer.

A Killer Collection by Ellery Adams

eISBN: 9781940846408

eBook, 189 pages

Cozy Mystery, #1 Collectibles mystery

Rating: B-

Source: Net Galley