southern-pottery, magazine-reporter, family-dynamics, relationships, teaching, cozy-mystery****

For me the best thing about this book was learning about Southern Pottery making. The collecting aspect is the focus in this cozy as well as the interactions between various collectors--this is the basis for the murder. The characters seemed rather flat to me but the sleuthing was all right.
Narrator Andi Arndt did not seem as engaged as usual. ( )

Molly Appleby is a writer for magazine "Collector's Weekly," and her latest assignment is checking out a pottery kiln opening, a world her mother, Clara, is intimately familiar with. At the opening, she meets a prominent, arrogant, obnoxious pottery collector. An unpleasant encounter, but most of the people there are pleasant enough, and she knows some of them. She pick up information for her article, and also finds a piece of pottery to buy.

And then the unpleasant man collapses in front of her. 911 is called, but when the ambulance carries him away, the siren isn't sounding--he's already dead. The man was a diabetic, and is found in the autopsy to have had far too much insulin in his system. Accidnetal overdoes, is everyone's initial assumption.

Except that Molly is sure there was something very strange, and not at all right, about how he was moving just before he collapsed.

Molly is a reporter, if a very specialized one. She can't stop asking questions, overhearing conversations, getting to know people, listening when they talk.

There are small but valuable pieces missing from the dead man's collection. His former friend, local pharamcist and fellow collector, disappears the day he died. There are all sorts of rivalries and feuds in the pottery collecting world, and little mysteries like why one previously noted local potter suddenly stopped doing any art pottery or selling to the public two years ago. The relationship between the dead guy and his wife was really strange, too, as she hated his pottery collection and it strained their relationship to the point where they lived in separate wings of thei house.

What is going on here?

It's light, it's fun, and the characters are enjoyable. Recommended.

I bought this audiobook. ( )

This is the first book in the Collectable Mystery Series and I think it really set the stage for future books. The characters have been introduced, but there is still a lot to learn about them in subsequent books. I loved the setting and the idea of the pottery. I really learned a lot about the history of the North Carolina Potters and the process they used as well as how it was passed on to family members. Having said all that, the story was also a good one. Molly is a writer for a Collectables Magazine. Her mother is involved in collecting and selling pottery so Molly often goes to sales and auctions with her. At a kiln opening, one of the more undesirable, yet wealthy collectors dies. After an autopsy it is determined that he died of an insulin overdose. Was it accidental or murder? Molly begins to investigate and finds out more secrets involving collectors and potters alike. There is a love interest in the story, Matt, who works with Molly. He is shy and quiet, but Molly gets him to open up a little to her. I am sure we will learn more about Matt in the next books. A fun read that I very much enjoyed.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. ( )

Antiques writer Molly Abbleby goes to cover a pottery show in North Carolina with her mother. Molly discovers that these pottery shows are hardly sleepy country affairs, they are cut-throat events. Pottery collectors are ruthless in their search for the best pieces. One of the worst and most vicious turns up dead, and it seems like anyone and everyone could be responsible. I really enjoyed this mystery. It is well-written, and Molly is a likable main character. I had no idea that pottery collecting was a such a crazy, dog-eat-dog world. Honestly, learning about that was one of the most interesting parts of the book. Overall, it was a compelling and enjoyable mystery. ( )

Molly Appleby is a former teacher turned writer for Collectors Weekly: a specialist newspaper. While at an early morning kiln opening with her pottery-mad mother Molly notices something unusual happen to one of the collectors. When that man later dies Molly suspects the death is not of natural causes and becomes involved in uncovering which of his many enemies was responsible for his death.

I’ve read books from two of Ellery Adams other series and enjoyed them so was willing to give this one a go even though I have zero interest in antiques, pottery or collecting in general. Once again Adams didn’t let me down by providing a lighter-than-usual-read without treating readers like idiots. In the same way that Dick Francis managed to interest me in esoteric subjects in many of his novels, Adams has a knack for balancing her knowledge of special subjects with superior storytelling abilities. Here she introduces readers to a world of pottery as folk art and, literally, gives clay a voice that carries right through the novel. The mystery itself is not terribly complicated though it hangs together well and the resolution does have a twist that I liked.

The characters are engaging too, although I could have done with a teeny bit less of Molly’s mooning over her colleague. Generally though Molly and the other people I assume will be series regulars are fun and compelling enough that I would happily meet them all again. The one-time characters – i.e. the suspect pool – also prove interesting and a cut above the clichéd ‘bad guys’ that cosy mysteries are often cluttered with.

A KILLER COLLECTION was first released in 2006 under one of Ellery Adams’ pseudonyms but was apparently revised by the author before being reissued under own name two years ago. I don’t know how many changes were made in that time but there is nothing that dates the novel now. Well perhaps aside from the fact its central character still works for a thriving specialist newspaper that releases a physical edition once a week. Certainly in Australia that seems like pure fantasy in the week when another 120 journalists have lost their jobs at our leading daily paper but perhaps the situation is not so dire elsewhere.

A KILLER COLLECTION is an intelligent, well-written cosy mystery that has fun without being silly. If you’re an audio book fan then I can recommend Andi Arndt’s excellent narration.