The Big Steal – Book Review

The Big Steal by Emyl Jenkins

Sterling Glass, antiques columnist and expert, has been recruited by her handsome insurance adjuster acquaintence Matt to investigate a burglary at a Virgina estate turned museum.  Sterling is tasked with creating an appraisal for Matt for the items broken and stolen during the burglary.  When Sterling arrives at Wynderly, however, she finds her work cut out for her.  There is the musuem curator who is clueless about antiques and is not letting Sterling do her job, the museum’s overbearing yet clueless board of directors, and the fact that many of Wynderly’s antiques look highly suspicious.  Not to mention the secret room full of china dogs that Sterling finds hidden in the attic.

“The Big Steal” is an entertaining cozy mystery.  Jenkins is herself an antiques appraiser and has done well writing what she knows.  Parts of the book struck me as a little too cutesy (such as some of the names – like Sterling Glass!) but overall I enjoyed the book.  I think that Jenkins’ expertise really added to the book, making it more than just the same old cozy; of course I don’t read that many cozies, so maybe more of them have these differentiations than I think.  Once I got going in “The Big Steal” I became engrossed in the story, enough that I would like to read the Jenkins’ other books in this series, and forgot about any problems I had with names or anything like that.

Overall, an entertaining, lighthearted read.

Thanks to Algonquin Books for sending this to me!

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.