The strong points of the book were the knowledge of antiques by C.L. Miller and her enthusiasm. I really liked that the story was told from different points of view. There was also one minor character who seemed very interesting and I would have liked to learn more about her. On the other hand, I did not find the protagonists compelling. I found that there was too much introspection by one of them and I found the other one annoying and dreaded when she would appear in the story. The main character seemed to have an interesting backstory but it just took too long to get there. Overall the book was a pleasant read. Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the advance reader copy.

Freya Lockwood is a former antique hunter, but that’s long passed. Now her only child is off to college and her ex is ready to sell the house she lives in as he moves on with his life and she’s feeling stuck.

When Freya’s aunt calls to let her know about the suspicious death of Freya’s former antiques employer, and her aunt’s best friend, she’s once again back in a world of international intrigue, antiques, and … murder. Freya has never felt more alive.

I loved this!! This was the perfect Cozy Mystery that I needed in my life! Absolutely obsessed with this. I need more, quickly!! Loved it!!
I just reviewed The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller. #NetGalley
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Loved this one! Whodunnits are a favorite of mine, and as the season gets cozier in my hemisphere of the world, cozy mysteries are starting to stack up on my shelf.

Freya is a divorced mother of one who had a background in finding antiques/pieces of history and returning them to their rightful place. She left the business due to some mysterious circumstances and now hates her mentor. Well now her mentor has died and has left some clues making it seem like the death was unnatural. Freya gets dragged into solving Arthur's death with her Aunt Carole.

Speaking of Aunt Carole, she is an ABSOLUTE HOOT. I love her and the fact that her role in life is to distract others and be the loudest one in the room. Whether that means outrageous story or flashy outfit.

Freya and Carole learn more about the mystery behind Arthur's death and you get to watch Freya regain her confidence in the investigation field.

10/10 cozy read!

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria books for my review copy! Traditional contemporary cozies are not my favorite cup of tea. If they're heavy on the typical British cozy elements of; the countryside, red herrings, maybe an old lady solving murders and some hygge, then I will give them more of a consideration. This book was a good mix of the two. I enjoyed the location descriptions; my inner Ms. Marple loves a good village. I enjoyed the relationship between the main character, Freya & her aunt Carole as they hunted for clues & for missing antiques. The character of Freya was annoying though; being in her mind the whole time was tedious and whiny. I'm guessing this wont be a stand alone, and we'll be seeing more of Carole & Freya in the future (hopefully, with more Carole & less Freya). Check it out!

I was first drawn to this book because of the title. This was a who done it mystery that reminded me of Agatha Christie. Freya Lockwood has been left clues by Arthur to unlock the mystery of his death. This will all lead back to Cairo and she will discover the truth that he tried to hide from her.

Freya at first isn't sure of herself and her ability to solve the mystery. Then as she slowly remembers all the lessons that Arthur taught her she gains confidence. She slowly unravels all the riddles left behind.

Her Aunt Carole always believes in her and encourages her. She loves her and nurtures her as best she could after tragedy of loosing her parents.

This was a quirky, cozy mystery that will sure to entertain you.

This fun mystery was the perfect mix of fast paced and cozy. I love a whodunnit and how much to mix in antiques and archaeology. I would gladly follow our protaganist, Freya, through more stories.

Loved this book! National treasure meets Miss Maple in this charming debut about solving a long ago mystery, hunting down clues and fishing one’s self again.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

First time reading C L Miller. I enjoyed The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder. No spoilers. Writing is solid, characters well developed, and keeps a good pace for reader. Really like an intelligent lead. Good lead in for a series. Hope to see more of Freya Lockwood (main character).

I received an e-galley of this book compliments of NetGalley and the publisher.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to receive this book for an honest review.

I love a good whodunnit and this one did not disappoint. It was like Agatha Christie meets Knives Out.

I highly recommend reading this one but you will have to have some time set aside because you won't want to put it down.

I thoroughly enjoyed this quick, cozy murder mystery. It was a nice side-step from my typical reads.

The pacing of this was excellent, and I felt that the stakes remained high throughout the book. Short chapters kept me coming back for more. Though primarily told through the MC’s perspective, other characters’ POV take over as the story unfolds to keep the reader guessing at their involvement and intentions.

If you’re a cozy mystery fan (or just interested in trying out this genre), I think this was a solid debut from C.L. Miller!

Thank you Net Galley and Atria Books for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Freya has just sent off her daughter to university in America, and her dick of an ex-husband is selling her house out from under her. When her Aunt Carole—who raised Freya after her parents died in a fire when she was 12—calls her to say that her former mentor Arthu (with whom Freya had fallen out) is dead and has named her in his will, Freya’s curiosity gets the better of her. She drives up to the small village where her Aunt Carole lives and is unexpectedly thrust back into the exciting world of antiques (both legally traded and some not so legally) that she left behind two decades ago.

The acknowledgements made me cry. This is such a love letter to CL Miller’s parents, and especially her mum who was on Antiques Roadshow for years. Miller even started out as an editorial assistant for her mum. Adorable. And the aunt is based off of her godparent and former Bond girl Carole Bouquet. Wild.

I do think there were some clunky devices and dialogue, but overall, this was a lot of fun. It very much fulfills the National Treasure, Indiana Jones, intrigue, mystery lover in me. I definitely understand the comp to Thursday Murder Club, though I think the tones are very different. Thursday Murder Club is very intentionally funny, I find, and this was more cozy (even with murder…) Overall, it was just a lot of fun, and I think the series that’s being set up is going to be delightful, especially given Miller’s closeness to this subject matter.

emotional-abuse, inheritance, relatives, murder-investigation, amateur-sleuth, cozy-mystery, unputdownable, suspense, stalker, antiques, grieving, country-house, England, small-town, small-business

I hope that this is the beginning of a new, fun mystery series!
Freya Lockwood has returned home at the request of her eccentric aunt Carole when a family friend and former mentor is found dead in his antique shop. The man leaves Carole his antiques business and a sequence of clues to follow assisted by Freya. The goal is to find his murderer and more. The characters are fun and well developed, there are a plethora of suspects, and a slew of red herrings. The pacing is irregular at times, but firsts are there to get the wrinkles out. Fun read!
I requested and received an EARC from Atria Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers at Atria for providing this digital ARC in return for an honest review.
I am an Agatha Christie, Knives Out, wrap-yourself-in-a-blanket-while-trying-to-figure-out-whodunnit-type of gal.
This premise and the fact that it’s a debut for author C. L. Miller grabbed me immediately. Freya Lockwood must return to her hometown that she’s been avoiding as long as possible upon the mysterious (and potentially murderous) death of her mentor and fellow antique-lover. Freya’s avid past as a detective capable of reuniting lost antiques with their true and original owners has been locked away and stored tightly - but she’ll need to tap into those skills to solve this case and uncover the suspicions and motives of all involved.

Freya spent childhood with her Aunt Carole and had inherited an eye for beautiful pieces from both of her parents. Alongside Arthur Crockleford, Freya threw herself into the passion of restoring stolen antiquities to their rightful owners. Aunt Carole begs Freya to take a closer look into what happened to Arthur.

The story is told in first person from Freya’s POV. (I’m not the biggest fan of first person - I tend to struggle with liking a MC in general and find that feeling trapped inside their mind makes it worse).

I enjoyed that while the story unfolds, we experience multiple POVs that leave the reader guessing about multiple characters’ motives and eager to discover more.

As far as what I disliked, several moments Freya reminisces about feel disjointed, thrown haphazardly into the story to provide more depth to the character, but dwelling on everything lost to Freya over and over again, which began to be tiring. Ultimately I found the mystery of this story to be fairly boring and found the characters flimsy and hard to connect with - once the big reveal happened I remained unimpressed.

The writing was skillful and the antiques knowledge interesting in of itself, but otherwise this fell flat.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an ARC copy of the book.

This mystery was a slow revelation of past events being revealed while finding a murderer. Overall, everything felt very slow. It never really felt like there was any danger, when there really should have been.

I was hoping for more Indiana Jones like characters, but sadly, that wasn't the case.

I feel like this is a good definition of "average" for a book.

I didn't fully gel with the tone of this book, but it was diverting enough and I very much appreciate the way cozy mysteries are going more traditional/mainstream mystery. The British charm was there in spades, too, which was nice for this US reader.

This was not my favorite to be quite honest, but I’m sure someone will enjoy it! It is about an antique hunter whose mentor passes and she has to figure out whodunnit. It is a great premise but unfortunately fell flat for me. 3/5 stars.

2.5 ⭐
I think this was a pretty standard cozy mystery in the surprisingly large (but glorious) genre of "English countryside murder." The MC, Freya, was a little bit of a flat character if I'm honest, but her aunt Carole was a lot of fun. The scenes with Freya minus Aunt Carole seemed to drag a bit more and added to the overall lackluster feeling I had about the book. Honestly, I think the plot was bogged down by constant references to that freaking bird and what happened in Cairo. By the end, when we learned the full story of what happened, it felt kind of anticlimactic. We've been beaten over the head with the stolen bird and the dead boyfriend the whole book, and given more than enough information to develop a pretty good idea of what happened, so when the rest of the story is revealed, I felt like, "Is that new information? Is this supposed to be a surprise?"

While I liked the fact that the majority of the book took place in a kind of spooky-sounding old English manor house, I was a little confused about the premise behind their weekend there. I thought that the weekend was meant to seem like it was a retreat for antique hunters, for them to come and mingle with each other, stay at a lush country estate, and buy some antiques in an estate-sale-type situation. Freya was, ostensibly, asked to go to appraise the contents of the house so that the buyers would know how much everything was worth. But, when they arrive, it turns out that no one actually wants Freya or Carole there, and no potential buyers were invited to this weekend, It was kind of weird that Freya didn't immediately ask where everyone else was and when the other retreat-goers would arrive. And I feel like the question of "why pretend?" wasn't answered clearly enough. Why didn't the owners/lawyer load up everything before the "retreat" weekend? It seemed like the only person who couldn't actually get into the vault was the son (the lawyer didn't seem too concerned with following the will to the letter), so why go through the whole song and dance of waiting until the weekend as stipulated in the will? I just felt like there should have been more people at this "retreat," other plants to make the premise seem more plausible. Also, would have made the mystery less obvious.

I read an advanced copy so I know that it hadn't gone through final edits, but I have never read an ARC with so many typos and mistakes. There was a mistake on almost every page. It was so distracting! I really hope that the editors tidy this up a lot before the final publication.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for letting me read an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

What a wild ride this was. I loved that we were solving the mystery of Arthur’s death in real time with Freya and Carole. The black market of the antique world was a fascinating part of the plot. If you enjoy thrillers and who done its, then this book is for you.

The publishing industry is filled with lackluster cozy Murder mysteries, but you can thank your lucky stars this book isn't one of them. This novel will suck you into Freya's world of antique hunting whether or not you are an aficionado.
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Freya used to chase stolen antiques with her uncle until a trip to Cairo with deathly consequences led to their falling out. Now decades later, Freya's uncle ends up mysteriously dead but leaves a trail of clues for her and her aunt to hunt a priceless stolen antique and avenge his killer.
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This book stands out from other cozy mysteries is because the stakes remain elevated throughout, and the plot's pacing is masterfully balanced. Miller provides us with a shady cast of characters to keep you guessing who the murderer is until the very end. The finale includes the classic "laying out the crime in front of all the suspects and uncovering the killer" a la Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, which I find oh-so-satisfying. I can see this joining the modern mystery canon alongside Horowitz's novels. Brava.