This was a very good mystery that kept me engaged. There were many clues throughout and I really enjoyed the chart.
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton is back in England to manage Ivor Tweed’s Cabinet of Curiosities shop while he recovers from surgery. It also gives her a chance to once again spend some time with DI Tom Mallory. On her last trip she was.involved in a murder investigation at Finchley Hall and befriended Lady Barbara and Vivian. Now she is a guest at Vivian’s Rose Cottage on the grounds of the Finchley estate. At the shop Kate receives a Chinese urn from the Han dynasty on consignment from Evelyn Villiers. Evelyn’s husband collected antique pieces from around the world before his death and she signs a contract for Kate to sell a number of the pieces. The next time that Kate sees her is the night of the local fair when she staggers on the stage during a performance of the Green Maiden, a local folk play. Someone had attacked Evelyn and she dies before the audience. As Kate reels from the murder, she and Tom are notified that Ivor’s shop has been broken into and the urn has been stolen.

As Evelyn’s murder is investigated, Kate is asked to do an inventory and evaluation of Evelyn’s collection. Evelyn’s husband kept detailed records and Kate discovers that several other pieces are missing. Also missing is Evelyn’s daughter Lucy. Years before she had fallen in love with the chauffeur but before they could elope they were stopped by her father just before his death. Lucy was sent away and was never seen again.

Reflecting on her meeting with Evelyn, Kate feels that something wasn’t right. Now Ivor is responsible for the lost urn and Kate begins her own investigation into why Evelyn was killed, what became of Lucy and how is this tied to the Green Maiden. The recovery of the stolen urn is also a concern since its’ loss is having an effect on Ivor’s business. Through it all she has the support of Lady Barbara and Vivian, who fill her in on all of the local gossip and history. This is the third book in Connie Berry’s Kate Hamilton series. Her characters continue to develop their relationships but it can also be read on its own. With some surprise twists and an unexpected ending, this will please fans of cozy mysteries. I would like to thank NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing this book for my review.

Kate is looking forward to a relaxing May in England which will include time spent with Det. Insp. Tom Mallory. She will also be helping out a friend, Ivor Tweedy. He is going to be recovering from hip surgery and Kate will run his antique shop for him. The village of Long Barston is picture perfect...until Kate confronts a homicide when she takes a very valuable Chinese funerary jar from the Han Dynasty on consignment. The reclusive woman is killed in Ivor's shop and the Chinese antique is stolen. What had started out as a possible windfall for Ivor now threatens to bankrupt him as the insurance won't cover the value of the theft and Ivor really has a lot of medical costs. Tom is on the case and so is Kate along with a wonderful cast of characters.
Not only is this a very well crafted mystery but the character of Kate is a nice change - she is middle aged and is at a crossroads in her life. The rest of the cast, the setting and the humor and Fergus, the Pug all come together to make this a series that has a permanent spot on my must be read list of mysteries.
My thanks to the publisher Crooked Lane and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

(4.5 Stars) Murder and antiques collide again in the third book in Connie Berry’s series about American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton and her British suitor, Detective Inspector Tom Mallory.

The Art of Betrayal opens with Kate minding the shop for her friend Ivor, who is recovering from a double hip replacement. A nervous, mysterious woman brings in a húnpíng, a Chinese funerary jar with an intricacately detailed top. Kate’s sixth sense—one she tries very hard to explain away scientifically—tells her it is authentic, so when the woman asks her to take the jar on consignment, Kate signs the contract with only a small qualm. But when the woman is killed and the húnpíng stolen from Ivor’s storage room, Kate is determined to help Tom solve the case and recover the húnpíng to save Ivor’s reputation (not to mention his finances.) A long-lost daughter, a local legend, a nearby auction house whose partners seem a little over-eager, and a secretive Chinese society seeking to return looted Chinese art treasures all add to the complexity of the case.

The book (and the whole series) straddles the line between cozy and traditional mystery; it combines the amateur detective and village setting of a cozy mystery with the more serious, realistic elements of a traditional mystery—and even, thanks to Tom’s presence, a few scenes reminiscent of a police procedural. Kate, who narrates in first person, is a well-developed and likeable character: a widow in her mid- to late-forties, with two adult children, she has been falling for Tom since they met in Scotland in A Dream of Death. Like Kate, Tom is widowed; he lives in Suffolk, near the village of Long Barton (the site of the second book in the series, A Legacy of Murder, as well as of Ivor’s shop.) Kate’s relationship with Tom is complicated, not by their mutual attraction but by distance—she owns an antiques shop in the US; he’s a police detective in the UK—and by Tom’s mother, who is the opposite of enthusiastic about Tom’s relationship with Kate. That relationship, a mature but by no means staid romance, is one of the things I like best about the books, along with the character of Kate herself. She comes across as a real person, someone I could easily be friends with. I particularly appreciate her determination not to give in to her more negative feelings, like jealousy or anger. It’s not that she doesn’t experience those feelings, but she tries not to act on them, which saves a lot of unecessary drama and angst and seems very realistic for a woman of her (or my) age.

Another thing I love is Berry’s propensity to play fair with the reader. You see everything through Kate’s eyes and are privy to her thoughts; there are no clues withheld from you. If you pay attention, you have as much chance as Kate to solve the mystery. In the last book, I figured out the solution(s) about the same time Kate did. In this one, I was slightly ahead of her in solving several pieces of the puzzle, but the murderer’s identity did come as a bit of a surprise… or at least, some of it did.

I also enjoy the world Berry has created. Yes, this book and the last are set in and around Suffolk and Essex, but the village of Long Barton, its surroundings, and its inhabitants are entirely Berry’s creation… and they feel utterly real. Berry’s England isn’t an idealized American vision, all cottagecore and afternoon tea. Tom and his colleagues are investigating a large-scale drug operation in the county; Kate’s friend, Lady Barbara Finchley-fforde, is anxious to keep her lovely, crumbling Elizabethan manor from disintegrating before the National Trust can take over; and the people living in the area exhibit a variety of class and ethnic backgrounds (including several from former British colonies.) These secondary characters are less developed than Kate or even Tom, but they too come across as real people, with lives and dreams and disappointments we catch only glimpses of.

Kate’s involvement in what proves to be a complex mystery deepens when Tom’s antagonistic boss, at Tom’s urging, hires her as a consultant to inventory the victim’s late husband’s art collection; the estate’s solicitors ask her do to the same for them. Tom has a healthy respect for Kate’s insight and intelligence (not that he’s lacking in either trait himself), so between her commissions and the information Tom shares with her, Kate’s involvement in the case appears both natural and inevitable.

Berry makes it easy to jump into the series at any point, giving you the necessary background information without making it feel like an awkward info dump. All the same, if you prefer to follow the characters’ developing relationships from the beginning, I would suggest starting with A Dream of Death.

The Art of Betrayal comes out on June 8, 2021.

Connie Berry is a new-to-me author and although I came into this series on the third book, I don’t feel as if I’ve missed anything by not having read the previous books in the series. The writing is excellent and the mystery is compelling. As you meet different characters, you begin to feel something isn’t right with them, but you don’t know what it is – and won’t until the end when all of the players – good and bad – are sorted out. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters and am looking forward to another visit with them in the next book.

I don’t know if Kate Hamilton, an antique dealer in the USA, had left England after the last book or not, but, if she did, she is back now. Her good friend, Ivor Tweedy, had to have both hips replaced and he couldn’t just close his shop, so Kate left her best friend Charlotte in charge of her Ohio business and planned to spend the month of May looking after Ivor’s shop. As a widow with grown children, she didn’t have family to worry about, so spending time in the small Suffolk village of Long Barston wasn’t a problem for her.

Kate is rocking along managing Ivor’s shop and expanding her relationship with Tom Mallory, a detective inspector with the local constabulary. Evidently, something that happened in one of the two previous books cost Tom a promotion to DCI and he now has to report to a real jerk. Hopefully, that jerk will go away in the next book or two and Tom can get his promotion.

Kate is at The Cabinet of Curiosities, Ivor’s antiquities shop, when a lady identifying herself as Evelyn Villiers came into the shop with a rare and very valuable Húnpíng stoneware jar found in the Han dynasty tombs of early imperial China. Then, the new client dropped an even bigger bombshell – she wanted to sell several additional pieces of Meissen pieces. Kate was a bit leery of the lady – could she have stolen the goods and was just trying to fence them through Kate?

Later, at a local festival, a woman staggers into the crowds and dies. She had been stabbed – and the lady was none other than Evelyn Villiers. Right on the heels of that, Tom is called out to a break-in at Ivor’s shop. The only thing taken was the Húnpíng jar.

The Villiers family tale is a sad one. Eighteen years ago, the husband died while stopping his headstrong teenage daughter from eloping. Then, the mother, blaming their daughter, Lucy, for the death sent her daughter off to live with an aunt. The daughter ran away after about a year and nobody has seen her since then. Does the current death really start eighteen years ago? Are the theft and the murder related? Where is Lucy?

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery. There are plenty of hints and red herrings dropped throughout the story, and they’ll just keep you guessing. You’ll think you know – but do you really? If you love mysteries, I hope you’ll give this book a try.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Kate, an American, is in Long Barton keeping an eye on her friend Ivar's antique shop and enjoying time with DI Tom Mallory. Of course, when a man brings in a potentially very precious Chinese vase, well, the story takes off. There's a murder and some dastardly doings but what makes this better than the usual cozy, I think, are the characters. Kate's a 40 something widow, Tom is a widower, Lady Barbara is a hoot, and, of course, there's a dog. There are several threads which will pull together past the red herrings (I kept guessing wrong). Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A good read, even if you haven't read the earlier books. I'm eager to see what Kate's future holds.

The Art of Betrayal is the third book in the Kate Hamilton Mystery series, I haven't read the previous books but this wasn't a problem and this was easily read as a stand alone. I loved the setting, the characters and the story. There was nothing that I disliked at all and I intend to read the previous books in this series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my ARC.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because I was pleasantly surprised.

I thoroughly enjoyed this new-to-me author's cozy mystery, which I received from NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books. Although this is the third volume in the series, it worked just fine as a standalone.

Kate Hamilton is an American antiques dealer living in the Suffolk village of Long Barston. Her stay is meant to be temporary, but there is a romance budding between Kate and Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, so Kate is torn about when and if she will return to America and her elderly mother (who has a surprise for her daughter!).

The mystery was complex but solved in a believable manner. The romance is sweet. The main characters are engaging, and the cast of secondary characters includes some typically eccentric English village folks. In keeping with what I like about the cozy genre, there were no car chases or shootouts, but there was a bit of violence, mostly from Mother Nature.

I recommend this title to cozy mystery fans, and I intend to go back and read the first two volumes.

I was unable to download a review copy, so no review is possible. I have another recently downloaded book with "Betrayal" in the title, so I didn't realize that I didn't have this title until I looked more closely. I downloaded the book on April 10th, started seriously looking for it (on my Kindle, on Amazon's Manage Digital Content, etc.) on May 2, but I can't find it anywhere. The archive date for this book passed on April 22, so I can't download it again. I apologize for not being able to provide a review.

The third book in this terrific series - I have yet to go back and read the first to discover how this all started - and while it can be easily read as a standalone novel, it is richer all around if you have read at least one of the previous two. Kate is an excellent protagonist - smart, steady, curious, kind - and surrounds herself with a cast of equally delightful, and some eccentric, characters who aid her in her investigations.

Her romance with the solid, dependable DI Tom Mallory is ongoing and comes across as very realistic, in that they are on two separate continents yet somehow manage to make it work - and very well. The ending leaves them in a bit of a tricky place, relationship-wise, and yet I think it will be resolved perfectly.

The story and plot are complex and move quickly at times - with a bit of a dramatic denouement - and I read this steadily over several days. I'm very much looking forward to the next installment! Definitely one of my favourite 'new' series out there.

Ohio antiquities dealer Kate Hamilton is back in the UK, spending time with the English police detective she’s been seeing and helping Ivor Tweedy with his antique shop while recovers from surgery. Things are looking up for Ivor's shop when a woman brings in a valuable vase with a positive provenance. They sign consignment papers, but before Kate can even start advertising it, things go sideways.

The annual Green Maiden Festival is being held and in the middle of their performance the woman rushes toward the stage, bleeding profusely. She reaches for the young woman playing the Green Maiden, but dies before she day say more than one word. At the same time, someone breaks into Ivor's shop and steals the vase, which could result in devastation for Ivor if it isn't found.

Kate is determined to find the thief and save Ivor's business. Her relationship with Tom continues to improve and back in America, Kate's mother has begun seeing a man. All these storylines begin to merge, along with several others in the book, to draw the book to it's conclusion. I figured it out early in the book, but that did not prevent me from enjoying the story. If you like to read series, you probably will prefer reading this series in order as the relationships have developed over the series. My thanks to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced digital copy of the book to review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Kate Hamilton is spending the month of May in Long Barton helping run her friend Ivor Tweedy's antique shop while he has hip replacement surgery. It also gives her a chance to spend time with her boyfriend Detective Inspector Tom Mallory. When a local recluse comes in with a very valuable Chinese funeral vessel and asks Kate to take it on consignment, she is pleased since Ivor's stint in a care home is really depleting his savings.

However, soon things take a turn for the worse when the recluse is stabbed to death and the vessel is stolen from the shop leaving Ivor on the hook for its value. Kate is determined to solve the mystery and get the vessel back.

There are lots of suspects. The crime scene was discovered by the owner of the local Chinese restaurant but his timeline for his evening doesn't quite match up and leaves him a suspect along with his son who has recently immigrated from China. Then there is the recluse's missing daughter who left home after a family argument which resulted in her father's death and her mother's blame for the event eighteen years earlier. The police aren't able to locate her but they do find an Australian nephew who might be a suspect since he figures he'll inherit some of the art treasures in the house.

Meanwhile, Lady Barbara is in danger of losing her stately home if she can't convince the National Trust to take it on. She decides to sell some of her treasures by consigning them for auction at the new local auction house run by a retired realtor and his son and his son's good friend to hold her over until the trust makes up its mind. Kate wants them to do a test consignment before entrusting the auction house with a very, very valuable antique Chinese tray.

And Tom is very involved in an investigation of the growing drug problem that has been taking over the county along with his work on the murder investigation. His mother is still doing her best to ruin Tom's relationship with Kate even going so fat as to import Tom's recently divorced sister-in-law who is a dead ringer for his deceased wife.

This was a nice mystery with loads of clues and red herrings. I did have a good idea about what happened and who the villains were but it was still fun to follow along as Kate solved the mystery.

The Art of Betrayal is wonderful traditional cozy mystery with an American main character and a strong British feel. This third novel in the Kate Hamilton Mysteries by Connie Berry held me in its grasp throughout. I loved it even more than the first two, that makes three out of three winners! I can't call it fast-paced because it takes time for Kate and Tom to put the whole mystery together but there is so much action that it feels like a dash from end to end; I was barely able to catch my breath. The plot is well constructed which is really important with a book this complex. I love most of the characters and appreciate not only the romantic relationship between Tom and Kate but the amount of respect he shows in her interest in the case.

My thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane for allowing me to read an ARC of The Art of Betrayal. As a big fan of the series, I had to make that request and am more than happy to share my thoughts about the book. I always do when I love a book. Now I am anxious to see what is next for Kate and Tom.

#CrookedLane #NetGalley #ConnieBerry #TheArtofBetrayal

3.5/5⭐️

Full disclosure, I haven’t read the previous 2 books in this series. So while it probably would have helped to have the backstory, I was able to follow along fairly well.

Kate Hamilton is an American antique dealer helping out an ailing friend in a Suffolk village in England. She, along with her love interest (Detective Inspector Tom Mallory), work to solve a murder/theft with ties to an event 20 years earlier.

The mystery was fine (a bit convoluted with a denouement that was over-the-top), but the writing seemed rather simplistic, and Kate seemed to have more chemistry with her ailing 70-year-old friend than with Tom at times.

While I’m sure others who are devotees of this series will enjoy this next installment, I would just give this an OK because I’ve read better.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #CrookedLaneBooks for providing me the ARC for early review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Eve is an American working for her friend Ivor in his antiques shop, managing the business while he recuperates from an illness. She loves the quaintness of this village she is working in, gets on well with its inhabitants and has found someone whom she loves. She is also a detective and murder and mystery seem to follow her wherever she goes. This does not endear her to one particular Detective Inspector who looks on all her actions with suspicion.

Meeting Evelyn who brings in a very expensive piece of Chinese pottery and indicates there is much more to follow makes Eve sit up and take notice but when Evelyn is murdered in the shop almost immediately after sets off an investigation which has to go back eighteen years to find out where is Evelyn's daughter the heir to everything. Lucy disappeared years ago and has not been heard of since.
Investigations reveal so many suspicious links that getting to the murder is one thing, and getting to the robbery of the Chinese antique is another.

The story was set in beautiful surroundings, the characterization was interesting and varied and the story had different strands to be brought together - which was done well.

I enjoyed this book a lot. So much so, I purchased the first two in the series. Berry's Kate Hamilton series is well written and highly entertaining.. Her characters are realistic and the in depth information on the antiques trade is enlightening. Though this could be considered a cozy mystery, the story feels more detailed and intricate. I would highly recommend it.

Kate is helping out her friend , Ivor Tweedy, by managing his antique shop while he recovers from surgery.. A Wisconsin native, Kate loves the village of Long Barston in Suffolk, and doesn't mind extending her stay in England to help. Unfortunately, for Kate, she will be involved in a chilling murder mystery that will have at its core - antiques, greed and betrayal.

When I saw the cover, I knew that Kate and I were going to have a great time solving the mystery! The book has a wonderful ambiance that gets the reader in the mood for a story that has taken years to unearth. The family estate where the mystery unfolds is haunting and I guarantee you the final chapters will find you turning on a few lights. I admire Kate's resolve and kindness to those around her and was happy to see her relationship with Tom grow.

There is so much to like about this book - Kate, descriptions of the village and estate so vivid you'll feel as if you're right there finding clues, the village of Long Barston in Suffolk is cozy and the people are eccentric, friendly and enhance the story.

A perfect cozy mystery!

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The Art of Betrayal by Connie Berry is the third book in a series about Kate Hamilton, 40-year-old, widowed antique expert visiting Long Barston in Suffolk, England. Berry cleverly links betrayal throughout her story. Her descriptions of the countryside and the extremely wet weather we all expect of England sets the scene for the spring-showered May Fair. But this year the murder of a reclusive woman disrupts the festivities. Her death may be somehow connected to a robbery at the antiques store of Ivor Tweedy, a store Kate is supposed to be watching over while Ivor has hip surgery. Kate's concern for Ivor's livelihood leads her to become involved in the research of a local legend.. Could there be a connection? Each discovery leads relentlessly to an astounding climax to the story. A lot of mystery, a little romance, but always character-driven because of the folks Kate loves. It is a fitting novel in this Anglophile series. Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for allowing me to read this ARC and give an honest review through NetGalley.

Kate Hamilton is taking care of Ivor Tweedy’s Antique business in Long Barston, while he is recuperating from his hip replacement surgery. This gives her also time to spend with Tom Mallory, the local Detective Inspector. A valuable Chinese jar, theft, murder, double crossing, family intrigue, folklore, and more, another great book in the Kate Hamilton Mysteries Series.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion

Antique Dealer, Kate Hamilton, is still in England looking after Mr. Tweedy’s shop while he is recuperating. It isn’t much of a hardship spending May in Long Barston with her hunky DI Tom Mallory. The May Fair is in full swing with the pageant based on an old folktale about to take place.

Kate is horrified when a woman she recently met rushes the stage with blood pouring and mumbling about getting something right as she drops dead. She is more horrified when she returns to find the murder that took place in the shop and the priceless Chinese jar the woman had asked her to see is gone. Insurance isn’t going to cover this.

As Tom and his crew are busy tracking down who was where when the murder took place, Kate is sticking her refined nose in as well, which just could get her killed.

It’s always a good time with Kate and Tom. This is one of my favorite series. This truly was much like a Celtic knot and I loved unraveling all of it.

NetGalley/ June 8, 2021, Crooked Lane Books