Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

To use a term often used in antique appraisals, this debut novel comes with quite a provenance, as it was written by the daughter of the late Judith Miller (1951-2023), a regular specialist on the wildly popular BBC Antiques Roadshow. Antiques Roadshow, both the UK version and the American version, is a favorite of mine. I’ve watched hundreds of episodes and drooled over the antique jewelry, furniture, oil paintings, sculptures, and oddities that people have collected over the years. Some of the best episodes involve an object that was found in a thrift store (or charity shop as they call it in the UK) or in the attic of a home recently purchased.

C.L. Miller worked with her mother as an editorial assistant on the books Judith Miller published (over 120 books!) and later as a researcher for the European travel guides her mother wrote each year.

With that background, I expected this novel, The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller (Atria Books, February 2024, 320 pages), the first in a series of three so far, to contain more talk about antiques. But, this book spends a lot of pages setting up our main characters, Freya and her Aunt Carole, whom I assume will continue on in the subsequent books. Maybe books 2 and 3 will be faster paced and have more of the antique talk I was looking for.

Book 1 is a quick read. It is a murder mystery, although the first death appears to be accidental, and what appears to be the actual murder comes much later in the book. The main setting is idyllic and so British: a large country estate out in the middle of nowhere, with the requisite housekeeper/cook and gardener/groundskeeper. There’s family drama, of course, in the form of the recent death of a very wealthy father, a brother and sister who really don’t like each other, and the age-old question of who inherits what. And just for kicks, there are two Americans who don’t appear to be who they say they are!

Main character Freya, a middle-aged, divorced mother of college student Jade, has been running from her past for most of her life. She was orphaned at a young age, taken in by her eccentric former actress Aunt Carole. As a young woman working as an antiques hunter with Arthur (her Aunt Carole’s best friend/companion/significant other? unclear), she experienced something tragic and devastating while on a job in Cairo. She runs from that life and hastily marries the wrong man for the wrong reasons. This book sends her running from that life, too.

Arthur, recently deceased, has left Freya his journals and some well-hidden clues to help solve a mystery. He’s also left Freya and Carole his antiques store with an apartment above it. There are more clues hidden there.

While this book didn’t WOW me, NPR listed it as one of the “Books We Love” in 2024, so I may be in the minority. I do think there is potential to this series which is why I will read book 2 right away. It will be interesting to see if the plot moves along more quickly and if there is more talk of the antiques trade. With her extensive work with her well-respected antiques specialist mother, C.L. Miller surely knows her way around a Chippendale dining room table!

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and C.L. Miller for the ebook ARC of this new work, which I read on my Kindle!