A great book by a fantastic author. The writing is excellent and the mystery keeps you turning the pages. Characters are well developed. Highly recommend.

Wren and Death return for another fun mystery. Death is investigating the counterfeiting of a minor work of art while Wren pokes her nose into the disappearance of a young woman at a renaissance fair more than 40 years earlier.

Adding to their problems, having heard about Wren's engagement to Death, her parents descended upon them and they're anything but impressed with him.


The Auction Block mysteries aren't all that surprising. Honestly they're not particularly original.  What they have going for them is great characters and that's what makes these books just a little better than the competition. I don't often get to book four in a Cozy series. Honestly, I can only think of one other series that still interested me after four books (Southern Ghost Hunters by Angie Fox) but I'm still feeling the love for this series.

This is the fourth book in a series, and while it might have been helpful to read the series in order, I had no problem picking up this one as a stand-alone.

Wren and her fiance Death (Seriously? How long did I read before I learned that the "e" is long so it is pronounced "Deeth" - and I stumbled on that through the entire book!) are looking for a house to buy. They find the perfect home but it has an unknown body buried in the garden. It seems that the previous owners needed to have a cemetery on the property to save it from being flooded when a new dam was built. So they claimed an unknown body from the local morgue and buried him as "Bob."

There are historical references to events in the general area and of things that happened over 30 years ago and a missing young woman from that time frame is "the Viking's daughter"

The characters are all wonderful. It is easy to find oneself cheering for some and hoping that some recieve the justice they deserve.

I think I will have to go back and read the previous books, not to gain insight for this one, but simply because I enjoyed this one so much and need to read more by this author

I really enjoyed this fourth book in an Auction Block mystery series. It is fun to see the characters develop. Wren's parents visit and it leads to some laugh out loud moments in the story. The mystery is detailed and intricate. All these diverse pieces come together to create the whole story. It was fascinating to watch it unfold.
Wren and Death are engaged and looking for a house. The house Wren likes has a dead body buried in the roses. It's the one thing everyone brings up when they hear about the house,
There is an Auction in an old supper club and there is a Viking reenactment site next door. Death's new case involves a stolen painting of minimal monetary value. Well woven together.

3 stars

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

This is the fourth book in this series. I haven't read the first 3 books, but I didn't feel too lost. The author provides enough backstory for the reader to figure out the history of the main characters. Wren is an auctioneer and her fiancé Death (pronounced Deeth) is a private investigator. They are ready for Death to meet Wren's parents and settle down in a new house together. The company Wren works for is preparing to auction items from an old supper club in the woods near a Viking reenactment camp. One day they run into an elderly man that nearly dies after he sees what he believes is the ghost of his long-lost daughter.

Meanwhile Death is hired to investigate the theft of several art pieces with no real monetary value, but high sentimental value. When both mysteries appear to be entwined, the couple find themselves in the middle of a dangerous situation.

I grew up in Missouri, so it was fun to see locations that I was familiar with in the story. The story was ok for a cozy mystery. The characters are very nice and kind of corny, the storyline is not overly complicated and the book has a predictable, happy ending. The book is a fun, fluffy quick read.

The ending of the last book gave just enough of a tease that left me itching for this mystery and when I received the ARC, I read it in one sitting. Yeah, when these are in book form rather than audio form, they don’t last very long.

Like the mysteries in previous books, this too centered had a bit of an historical bend to it. Death has been hired to look into a forged painting that’s value is more sentimental than monetary. Along the way, he discovers that several historic items with sentimental value have been replaced with forgeries. While he’s been sorting out his mystery, Wren makes a discovery of her own in the form of a blood-caked costume like the Viking’s daughter was last seen wearing. As they continue their investigations, they soon realize the two are connected.

I really enjoyed watching Wren and Death settle into their relationship. They’re still working through some issues. Death’s still getting a handle on his PTSD and he’s worried about sharing such a close space with Wren. He also has the new complication of meeting Wren’s parents. Wren’s dealing with her mother questioning whether she makes the best relationship choices given her last fiancé came out as gay. I just loved watching them grow in their relationship. They’ve finally found their footing and I’m so thrilled for them.

The mystery was a bit different in this one and I enjoyed that she changed up the formula while keeping true to the series. Like the previous books, there are several threads to the mystery and while I had an inkling about some things, I was surprised by the ending.

The secondary characters are just amazing. The entire Keystone brood just makes me smile. They’re a bit kooky at times but so entertaining and lovable. They bring so much heart to this series. Then there’s Randy, Death’s brother, he’s bit over the top but such fun and always there for Death and Wren. This is the first time Wren’s parents made an appearance and I enjoyed them, they added a nice touch.

Although this one is labeled as a cozy mystery, it’s has so much more depth to it and it brings so many serious issues to light and I like how she incorporates the hard-hitting issues with the lightness and humor of the characters without diminishing seriousness of the issues.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Wren and Death (pronounced “Deeth”) are stepping up their relationship and are looking to buy a house together. Wren thinks she has found the perfect place. Just a little problem, there’s a body buried beneath the rose bushes and everyone knows it’s there. Wren is also helping to organize an auction at an old supper club, situated right next to a Viking reenactment settlement. One of the participants almost dies when he thinks he sees his daughter’s ghost. She went missing 20 years ago, it is still an open police case but with no new leads. Wren decides to try to help him with her own investigation. Death is working on his own case of a theft from a museum. It is not long before all these things start to connect. But solving all the mysteries could have deathly consequences.

Loretta Ross has created such rich characters for this series and you need to read this series from the beginning to appreciate their growth. Death and Wren have come so far since they first met, but there are still obstacles in the path forward. Obstacles they know they can work through together. Death’s PTSD is a huge hurdle but Wren loves and supports him in every way she can. Her parents finally meet him in this story and her mother especially has several concerns. The ebb and flow of this part of the story touched me as both a mom and a daughter.

I really enjoyed that all the mysteries in this series started from events in the past, 20 years ago, 40 years ago and more. Solved with newly found evidence, research, perseverance and a hastily formed plan. The author has her readers along for a fascinating ride. I was on the edge of my seat for the exciting ending which is exactly what I have come to expect from this author.

The setting of this one and the history of the supper club and how it was created in the image of an actual place was compelling. I also like the background of the Viking Settlement historic site.

I love this author’s writing style. She takes on some stirring topics but injects humor in all the right places. Her characters draw you in and the mysteries hold you tight. I read the book all in one sitting. Another thing I have come to expect from this author.

A great series and a perfect escape!

This is the fourth book in the series and I would encourage reading them in order. That way all of the back story is known. But, if you are new to the series and like the sound of this one, it can be read as a stand alone - it just won't have as much depth of character development.
Wren is an auctioneer in the MidWest and has become engaged to a Marine vet, Death (pronounced Deeth) Bogart who is now a private investigator. Adding to her busy life are her extended family and friends. Her parents are traveling the country but head home to join her for Thanksgiving. Before that celebration, while organizing an auction, she comes to the aid of an elderly gentleman who has collapsed from what, at first blush, seems to be a heart attack. The cause is shock over seeing what he thinks is the ghost of his missing daughter. She was last seen in the late 1970's - she just vanished. As the whole family are Viking re-enactors, she is the title character.
I don't want to give too much away about the mystery or the continuation of Wren and Death's relationship but I will say that I would love to meet her parents and Death's brother, Randy. Heck, I would like to have all of them as friends.
The pace of the mystery is slow in the best way and the story and clues play fair with the reader. Great character development and some very funny bits. I can't say more because I don't want to spoil it. But trust me, you will smile a lot.
I will not hesitate to read all future entries in this series.
My thanks to the publisher Midnight Ink and to NetGalley for giving me an advance reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

This series has been a favorite since the very beginning and this was my favorite book yet! In the past 3 books there’s always been a transition. First Death and Wren meet and then they have a lot of Death’s past to deal with and even in book 3 things didn’t feel quite settled. In this book, really for the first time, Death and Wren are able to focus on their future - and of course art theft, an old missing persons case, and a body in the rose bushes.

I really enjoyed following Death around on his investigation. He’s good at what he does and is also just thoroughly likable. I especially liked that he discussed his investigation with his brother, Randy and Wren and they brainstormed a bit together. I'm a big fan of the team effort. As well as Randy, Wren's employers the Keystone family get in on the action as do Wren's parents Edgar and Emily.

Now this isn't a typical dead body shows up in the first 50 pages/killer is arrested in the last 50 type book. If you're wanting a standard mystery this isn't the book for you. However, if you like a bit of history and a stone cold missing persons case (which is so me!) than this is a serious page turner. I wasn't sure how it would all work out but I couldn't put it down until it was all revealed. I was sick in bed reading this one and it pulled me completely into the book and I forgot all about just how miserable I was feeling.

If you're looking for a great cozy with characters that you want to be friends with, a good dash of history, and an unusual plot than this is a must read!

I first heard of this series when Angela @ Simply Angela‘s blog reviewed book one and then I saw the books praised on a few different blogs. I caught sight of this latest release in the Auction Block mystery series and decided to give it a go.

Death and the Viking’s Daughter worked fine as a standalone in many ways, but I can see that this series is one the builds on the installments before it. Death and Wren’s relationship, their healing over their separate troubled past issues, intro to regular series characters and situations… it all develops as it goes. I got the recap in this one, but I definitely want to go back to the beginning- meet the characters where they were back then and see them come along even while getting a fun mystery.

I’m terribly interested in start of the series because I was struck by the depth and humanity of Ross’ characters. Death is a combat Marine suffering from PTSD was discharged for health reasons. His wife left him because being married in the military is tough and other issues she had going. Having thought all his family was gone Death hit bottom after the service and was living alone and out of his car. But now the resilient, calm and capable, but still working to get better, man is farther along the path.

And alongside Death (pronounced ‘Deeth’ by the by) is Wren. Wren had to get past a failed engagement when her fiance finally told the truth about being gay and using her as a beard, but he couldn’t keep lying because he truly cared for her just not in the way she needed. Small town; big uproar. Wren has trust issues. But she picks up the pieces and finds her way as an auction house worker.

I have not seen such well drawn characters even for the lead detective in a cozy mystery series before and I was splendidly in raptures over this.

And, the other fabulous thing about these books is the historical and archeological connections that lead to the mysteries. Because of Wren’s work with a (colorful and eccentric, yet warmhearted) family owned auction business, they encounter old artifacts, quirky old places, historical settings, and people in the fields of historical study. In this one, as can be surmised from the title, the focus is a little on Viking history. It was all cleverly woven into the mystery plot. I learned several details about the Vikings that I was unaware so I ended up like Death’s younger brother, Randy, just bummed that the term’ Viking’ wasn’t what the called themselves, but what they went out doing since it’s a verb form meaning ‘raiding’, that the great dragon head masts of the longboats was not for real, that Vikings didn’t wear those horned helmets, and that women, though definitely leaders in their own right, didn’t become Viking warriors like I thought. Yes, Randy and I were bummed to learn all that, but also fascinated.

I suppose I should actually discuss the book I did read and not just the series in general. Death and the Viking’s Daughter offered several plot threads that were all very engaging. Death is working a forged art case for his PI business, Wren is doing an auction at the old supper club by the lake near the Viking re-enactment group where a woman went missing. They are house hunting and both like a home that has a John Doe named ‘Bob’ buried in its rose bed. And, Death gets to finally meet the in-laws who are wary of him for their daughter.

The story flipped scenes abruptly at times, but I had no trouble keeping track of the various threads or whose point of view I was getting. The pace was good and all the elements eventually found their way together. The mysteries are not tough to solve, but there were still some good twists and a thrilling moment. I found the sum of the parts a great weave rather than any particular elements standing out as stronger or weaker.

In summary, I’m hooked and I’ll definitely be going forward as well as snagging the series back list.

I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I've told you how much I love the Auction Block mysteries, right? The fourth book in the series has a lot to enjoy. The old abandoned supper club that Wren is helping prepare for an upcoming auction was designed after another club that went up in flames years earlier, which gives the reader some vicarious urban exploration in a building I'd love to see in real life. The house Wren and Death are hoping to buy has a dead body in the rose bushes, which the owners had buried there back in 1992 and everyone else in town already knew about. And one of the viking reenactors at the settlement next to the supper club is sure he saw the ghost of his missing daughter. Everything I love about this series keeps getting better and I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out.

There's a lot going on in this slim cozy. Wren's an auctioneer and her fiancé Death is a private investigator. I get that it's a family name but frankly I found De'ath to distracting throughout. They're getting married but Wren's parents, Emily and Edgar (two of my favorite characters) are concerned so they're poking around in his background even as there's 1) a ghost (or not); 2) missing art work; and, a body in the garden of the house Wren hopes to purchase. Whew. I read this as a standalone and suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I was familiar with the back story. That said, it's a good read and I thank netgalley for the ARC.

This is my first Loretta Ross story and I am going to go get the others to read. Except that it took me awhile to get all of the characters straightened out I thoroughly enjoyed 'Death & the Viking's Daughter'. The characters were all engaging, and Wren and Death were especially likeable. The mystery was taut and interesting, and I loved the thought processes used to solve it. I enthusiastically recommend this book!

Wren Morgan,auctioneer,and her PI fiancé Death Bogart,are house hunting. They find a perfect house,and everybody tells them, there is a body buried in the rose bed,which is mildly amusing first time round,but you can over egg the pudding!! There are two mysteries to be solved,a painting that has been stolen and an inferior put in its place,and a young girl disappeared 20 years ago. Her father thought he saw her ghost one night and collapsed and Wren and Death try to find out what happened.
That's the basic story! I found this story entertaining and full of humour,but I thought the main characters to be very lightweight . The best exchanges were between Emily and Edgar,Wrens parents,who were hilarious and quite suspicious of Death and his intentions to marry Wren. My biggest bugbear was Death,what parent calls their child that? Pronounced Deeth,just as stupid in my opinion,that really annoyed me! As a Christian name,no,no,no! As an old,established family name,going back through the centuries ,I know such a family and the pronunciation is De'Ath,so much nicer!!
I have posted this review to Goodreads today.

Wren has called her parents and invited them for Thanksgiving. She wants them to meet Death (pronounced Deeth) because they are engaged. Obligingly they come right away. Both parents trying to decide how they feel about this stranger marrying their only daughter. While father, Edgar, and mother, Emily, checked Death out (and learned about the ex-wife and son that someone wasn't paying child support for) Death went about his business unknowing the scrutiny he was under.

Death is a PI, and he is on a case about a painting stolen from a museum, and the painting was neither valuable nor by a well known artist. Along the way he connects a lot of dots about other stolen items as well. Meanwhile Wren is working with the Keystone Auction company preparing for a sale at an old supper club. Odd thing was, this supper club was modeled after one in Cincinnati that burned down, killing 166 people. The property next to the supper club is a Viking reenactment settlement. In the late 1970's, the daughter of a reenactment member thought he saw his daughter's ghost near the supper club. She went missing from a Renaissance Fair in the Cincinnati area and was never heard from again.

While all this is being presented to the reader, we also learn of a house Wren has found to buy that has an unknown man's body buried in the rosebushes. Talk about a fascinating book with so many unrelated and unusual stories. This is the fourth book in the series by Loretta Ross, and lives up to the excitement and fascinating historical background that cemented my interest in the series during the first book.

The characters in the series have that appealing down to earth attitude found so often in small communities like theirs. While they know so much about each of the other people living in the area, it is ingenious how it all fits together to make a story that is almost impossible to put down once you start reading it. As the books progress, we get to know the main characters and watch them blossom.

I can't recommend this series enough. Read the books in the order they were written and savor them. Death and the Viking's Daughter is proof that some authors and series just get better and better.

This is the first book I've read in this series.
While it was interesting, I think I would need to read the series in order.
I had a difficult time following the characters.
My only other problem was remembering that Death was pronounced Deeth, and it made me irritated having to remember that.

I was interested in the plot and the book was well written. I will read it again once I've read the others first.

I voluntarily read an ARC of this book provided by the publisher and NetGalley.

This is the fourth in the Auction Block series but I haven't read any of the others. While I have some questions that weren't answered in this one, it does stand alone quite well.

Death Bogart is a private investigator. This was not his first choice of career but a roadside bomb when he was a Marine in Afghanistan changed his career path and left him with severely diminished lung capacity. Wren Morgan is an auctioneer with they Keystone family.

Death's latest case has him trying to discover who forged a not-very-valuable painting and steel it from the museum where it has lived for many years. Meanwhile, Wren is working on organizing items for an auction at a long-defunct supper club. The supper club happens to be next door to land owned by Viking reenactors. One of the reenactors had his 17-year-old daughter disappear without a trace in 1973 but thinks he saw her, or her ghost, at the supper club.

Wren and Death have just become engaged and are house hunting. Wren finds a possibility that would work for them and which has, as its claim to fame, a body buried in the rose garden. The body had been found in the woods in the 1980s and had never been identified or claimed.

Somehow, these three threads - the missing art, the missing daughter, and the unidentified body - come together into one satisfying mystery. I liked Death and his relationship with his brother Randy. I liked Wren and her relationship with her parents. I thought the mystery was well-done and interesting.

Fans of cozies will enjoy this book and this series.

I read the 'Death and the Redheaded Woman', the first in this series, and loved it. I didn't realise this was the fourth in the series (already!) but enjoyed it immensely nonetheless. This time, Death and Wren et al are searching for someone who is stealing seemingly unrelated items from museums and replacing them with forgeries, trying to figure out who the dead body in the rosebushes of their new house is and whether a woman is missing or dead. Scariest of all, however, is that Death is meeting Wren's parents for the first time and his attempts to impress aren't always successful...

This series is so well written, it's hard to find anything wrong with it. The plots and mystery are well thought out and satisfyingly complex, the characters genuine, and the story flows extremely well. It's genuinely funny in parts. Ms Ross is a great observer of people and how they interact and speak to each other. I need to go back and find books two and three, so I can fill in the blanks on Wren and Death's relationship.

#4 in the series; I read this courtesy of NetGalley. Auctioneer Wren and her PI fiancé Death (pronounced Death) become involved in separate, but connected mysteries. Wren tries to figure out what happened to a teenage girl dressed in Viking clothing and Death tries to figure out why a not-valuable painting was forged and stolen. Throughout the story is the very humorous house hunting and the not very secret issue of Bob, the body under the rose bushes. Slightly quirky and definitely funny, sometimes LOL, this book was a pleasure to read. Likable characters (Emily was a little dicey and the ex-wife not-so-much) made this cozy seem very familiar and comfortable. I will definitely read the previous three books; although this one was quite able to stand alone with references to past events.