Synopsis
What lies buried in a hoarder’s house— precious treasure or ghastly secrets?
One moment of misguided generosity throws estate sale organizer Audrey Nealon’s life into turmoil. She loses a client’s money, cripples her budding romance, and witnesses a murder. Strapped for cash, she accepts a questionable project: clearing out the home of a mentally ill hoarder who may have hidden valuable Civil War letters. What really lies at the bottom of twenty years’ worth of collected buttons and dolls and stuffed owls and atlases? As Audrey digs through the hoarder’s obsessions, she unleashes a vengeful response from all sides. The house has destroyed lives in the past. Will Audrey and those she loves be its next victims?
Read the first chapter here
Review
If you have ever watched the show Hoarders, you will be able to visualize this story! I don’t know about you, but that show amazes me how anyone can live in those conditions..it’s like a train wreck and you can’t look away.
The first 25% or so of the book is another mystery and I was wondering if I had the wrong description on the book…but it sets you up to understand why Audrey and her company has taken on the task of helping someone clean out their house enough to prevent it from being condemned. There are actually 2 mysteries happening in this book and while they don’t tie in together there is some overlap where you think that the actions of some are tied to the missing soup cans when it has to do with the past of those that lived in the house that is filled with items/debris.
It is an interesting cast of characters and while this is the 2nd in the series, can be read without having read the first other than some references to the first book (and the crime involved) and also the personal relationships. I’m not sure I am wild about Ty’s character…but he is young and seems to have a huge chip on his shoulder so he is the “angry” character to create difficulties for others.
We give this book 4 paws up!
About the Author
S.W. Hubbard is the author of the Audrey Nealon estate sale mysteries, Another Man’s Treasure and Treasure of Darkness. She is also is the author of three Police Chief Frank Bennett mystery novels set in the Adirondack Mountains: Take the Bait, Swallow the Hook, and Blood Knot, as well as a short story collection featuring Frank Bennett, Dead Drift. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and the anthologies Crimes by Moonlight, The Mystery Box, and Adirondack Mysteries. She lives in Morristown, NJ, where she teaches creative writing to enthusiastic teens and adults, and expository writing to reluctant college freshmen.
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