Freya Lockwood had a thrilling life as the assistant to Arthur Crockleford an antiques dealer – and an antique hunter, devoted to returning stolen artefacts to their rightful owners. But then in Cairo, events lead to a permanent estrangement. Freya withdrew from the antiques world, married, had a child, divorced… and then she finds herself pulled back into Arthur’s world. Only Arthur is no longer in it.

To find the truth behind Arthur’s death – and the events leading to their estrangement – Freya teams with her Aunt Carole and follows some breadcrumbs left by Arthur to an old manor house, along with some other antiques experts. But nobody at the house is there for an innocent reason. Everyone has something to hide – especially the murderer…

This is the first in a new series – the second is out next year – and it’s an interesting set-up. It’s billed as a “cosy crime read for fans of the Antiques Roadshow” whatever that means but it’s a fun read.

Freya is an interesting character, with her development throughout the story being a highlight as she rediscovers her true calling in life. Aunt Carole is a little bit of a caricature but provides emotional support and we get some insights into the various reprobates populating the suspect list.

The setting is a fresh one and the writing – mostly first person from Freya, but also focussing on the various other characters – is effective at keeping the reader gripped. There are some slight pacing issues – it takes a little too long before we get to the manor for the story to properly kick off, but it kept me turning the pages. It does a good job with a small cast of characters and still manages to pull off a surprise murderer – quite an impressive feat.

It is, however, a case of what I’m going to start calling “Watching The Detectives”. Many of the things that point Freya in the right direction are memories or pictures that we don’t get to see. It’s nothing new – it’s my second read this month with this sort of cluing – but it’s the sort of cluing that doesn’t allow the reader to play detective, merely to watch the leads being detectives. There are plenty of great books with this property – and this is a good read – but it’s worth flagging for those of my readers for which it is important, of whom I know there are many.

As I said, the second book is out next year, and I’m looking forward to reading it – by having Freya start the story with a number of her demons banished, I’m curious to see how things develop.