Publication October 7, 2025
Enjoy a good mystery but like to laugh? This one's for you.
This is part of a series I'm happy to pick up any time. The adventures, or frequently misadventures of Brandy Borne and her mother Vivian are always entertaining. I won't even try to summarize the plot other than to say it involves antiques, getting arrested, a casino heist, suspicious deaths (where they seem to always be the ones to find the bodies), an eventful road trip, a rent a horse, and, well, too many more to list. You'll like the two main characters, who run an antiques shop in Serenity, Iowa, where Brandy's boyfriend is with the police. Let's just say, Serenity is anything but when they're around, especially if Vivian is off her bipolar meds. They're also famous, though some would say infamous, for their books and crime solving, which makes it hard for them to remain inconspicuous. Not that Vivian could be inconspicuous if her life depended on it. I mean, she sneaked out on Brandy and rented a horse? Vivian whose only riding experience turns out to have been a pony in her youth?
Anyway, it's a fun ride. While Vivian tends to go off on various topics as they occur to her, frequently movie or television related, not to mention topics most of the younger generation isn't familiar with, Brandy at least tries to focus on the main target. In this case, it's finding antiques to resell at their store, never mind she keeps getting dragged into investigating with Vivian. It's hard not to shake your head in wonder at this duo but it's also hard not to like them. Brandy and Vivian alternate chapters for the most part, each here tending to end with a recipe and hint on adding antiques and/or collectibles to your own collection. While you may get lost in Vivian's, uh, thoughts at times, not seeing the point, even the most absurd are somehow entertaining. I did miss the regular characters and having diabetic dog Sushi around this go-round but he was left at home in the care of another long-suffering regular, Brandy's boyfriend police chief. Something tells me he wasn't surprised at the number of calls he kept getting from police departments as they travel to Texas in their RV to see what they can find at a town wide antiques yard sale as a fund raiser.,
Bottom line, there's a good mystery here and lots of laughs. Characters who'll make you laugh and, most likely, shake your head in disbelief. I wish I had Vivian's energy, not to mention her guts. Thanks #KensingtonPublishing and #NetGalley for allowing me this laugh-out loud early peek at the zany world of the Trash 'n' Treasures dynamic duo.
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