Book two of the series. Charley is at it again, finding dead bodies and being attacked. Good thing her hunky detective boyfriend is nearby. Didn't care for the online bullying, and felt that was quickly ignored. At times felt a bit easy to skim in the middle, but that have been just me. Liked the first book better, but would still recommend this one. Like the characters and fun cozy mystery series.

Interesting characters (both good and bad which is rare), an engaging mystery that kept me guessing, and a well drawn setting with just enough details. It's a solid cozy that I will recommend to anyone looking for a small-town mystery.

A well-written murder mystery that kept me turning the pages. The characters seemed very realistic as was the setting and background. The murder plot twists and turns right to an unexpected ending. There is some language used but it is easy to overlook and does not take away from the story

Book Review: The Antique House Murders by Leslie Nagel 🌟🌟🌟

I was so excited to read the sequel in this series. Unfortunately, the book did not strike the same note. It felt redundant at times. The author used phrases enough that I started to notice the repetition. The mystery itself was so so. The boiling romance between Charley and Detective Trenault Is steamy. All in all, the book was just okay for me. What I do enjoy is the way Leslie Nagel writes about the adrenaline rushes Charley gets when putting together clues and investigating the crimes in the series. It’s clear that’s where the strength comes in this novel. I think despite not loving this one, I would still happily pick up the next book and give it a try, because I loved the first one too much.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'm very sorry that I didn't get this reviewed. I have now lost interest, but thank you for the chance.

This is one of those books where I kept shouting to the heroine, "That's stupid!" but she didn't seem to hear me and went ahead with what she had planned.

This is the second book in the series and it would seem that I really should have read the first one before this. Perhaps I would have a better impression had I done that.

But all in all, while the story line itself was fun (old house set for demolition, investigation of a murder from long ago, a secret tunnel, what's not to like?), I was put off a little by the language used and the steaminess of the romance in the novel. If I wanted things like that, I'd pick up a "bodice-buster."

The Antique House Murders by Leslie Nagel is Book Two in the Oakwood Mystery Series.
Book #2: The Oakwood Mystery Series. This is a exciting mystery and a book you cannot put down.
The author has a well crafted series with protagonist Charley Carpenter. She owns a fabulous antique store in small town Ohio and is attending a auction put on by her friend . She is hoping to win bids on some of the estate items being auctioned from a estate in town that is in the middle of town controversy.
When Charley arrives her friend is dead. She is sure his murder is tied to the estate and begins to investigate against the request of her boyfriend a detective. Soon they are not speaking and Charley is forging ahead immersed in clues and suspects.
This is a delightful series. The location, store and characters are done to perfection. Charley is written as smart, independent and a great investigator. I always enjoy antique based mysteries and love how the author incorporates antiques into this series. I enjoy the many clues and twist and turns of the sleuth. This is a wonderful addition to a great series.

Thank you for the ARC which did not influence my review. I look forward to the next in series.

The Antique House Murders by Leslie Nagel is the 2nd book in the Oakwood Mystery series, and another great addition. I loved the first book, Book Club Murders, and this one does not disappoint. Charley Carpenter owns Old Hat Vintage Fashions, where she sells vintage used clothing. Calvin Prescott, a dear family friend and an estate auctioneer, helps her find estate clothing. When Charley fines Calvin dead, she is determined to get to the truth, despite her boyfriend,  Detective Marcus Trenault, telling her to stay out of it. The story moves at a good pace and features enough surprises and detours to keep you guessing. If you love mysteries, I strongly recommend this book/series.

I was given a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to try something new to me. I'm sure the writing is more enjoyable to folks who read this genre. This just wasn't my cup of tea. Best of luck!

Charley Carpenter owns a vintage clothing store, and is making a deal with Calvin Prescott to buy clothing from the estate of Augusta Mulbridge. But while there, she hears and sees an argument between Millie Peache and Calvin - it seems Millie thinks Augusta made a will leaving the home to the preservation society, not to her children. The unfortunate thing is that Millie is insistent it's inside a book that is to be sold at the sale, but which one? Before she's evicted, Charley also hears the sniping remarks by Augusta's daughter Holland.

When Charley is able to pick up the clothing from Calvin's she finds him dead, and immediately calls the police - her boyfriend, Marcus Trenault. Since Calvin was also a family friend, she has a personal interest in finding his killer. But Marcus warns her to stay out of the investigation and let him do his job.

Charley, however, isn't about to let it go. She decides that while she conducts her own investigation, if she finds anything of interest she'll tell Marcus, and he'll be grateful that she's helped solve the murder, right? But what Charley doesn't figure on is that the killer - or killers - have a vested interest in finding the supposed will and aren't about to let a little problem like Charley get in the way, even if they have to kill her to keep her quiet...

First off, let me say that this is not a cozy mystery. There are (although not graphic) sex scenes and quite a bit of swearing. Those things alone exclude it from the genre; but it wouldn't make a difference if I enjoyed the book otherwise. While this book was written well, it could have been so much better. There was something niggling at me throughout the book about Charley, and I was trying to figure it out while reading.

Finally it was Charley herself who figured it out for me: she states at one point that she was determined to investigate on her own, but reinforced Marc's opinion that she was unfit to take part in police business and he would discuss his cases with her anymore. Say what??? She's not a police officer and isn't fit to take part in police business! She's the owner of a vintage clothing shop. He shouldn't be discussing cases with her. She acted like it was a contest, and she was determined to solve the murder before he did - just so she could get him to admit she was better at it than him. (Talk about self-esteem issues).

In fact, the police rather come off as buffoons with Charley feeding them clues because they're too dumb to figure it out. Not once did Marc say something like, "We already know that, Charley," but he always seemed dumbfounded when she put things together. Perhaps she should be the officer and he should run the store (because it's certain she's not doing it anyway). It appeared as if the only reason they're together is so that Charley can solve his cases.

While I like strong women in books (who doesn't?), I don't like women who think they have to one-up their police officer boyfriends. After all, in real life do you think that police officers allow their wives and girlfriends to 'take part' in police business? Not gonna happen unless they're officers themselves. Yes, this bothered me. Not once did it seem that she was trying to solve Calvin's murder because of Calvin; it honestly seemed like she was doing it for the reasons mentioned above. And that is why I found her rather unlikable.

What you have with Marc and Charley is immovable object meets irresistible force - but in this case, 'nothing's gotta give'. They're like tigers circling each other to see who's got domination, and that's not a good thing. He's controlling and jealous, she's manipulative and narcissistic. A toxic relationship. They fight and yell at each other. Yeah, that's a good relationship all around. I can't see it lasting a year unless they get help. It's called emotional and mental abuse, people. It's not a good thing. Neither is making a joke of rape.

Unfortunately, there were also too many characters, and I found myself asking 'Who?' several times throughout the book. Also, while she's a business owner, she's out solving crimes. I think she really does believe herself to be Daphne from Scooby Doo. Supposedly she can pay an employee a decent starting wage, but where is her money coming from? There wasn't a single customer, she never spent time in her store, which was odd; and she had no problem committing crimes (we're talking felonies, folks) in the course of her 'investigation', and dragging her friends in on the mix at times (who were, for the most part, stereotypical). Not to mention the eighteen-year-old who thinks the bad guy with a gun shooting at her is fun and exciting and wants to chase him down and a 'sharpshooter cop' who can't hit the guy shooting at him (huh?) among others.

But what saved the book and gave it two stars was the ending - which was quite a rush and put together well. It was riveting, believable and satisfying; unfortunately it wasn't enough to save the rest of the book.

I received this free from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.
This is the second in a series, reading the first one is a must to really understand what is happening in this one. I enjoyed this book, although I wouldn't put it in the cozy category, too much profanity and violence. The mystery is really good, the action is fast-paced. A really good read.

This book is a serious disappointment, especially after really enjoying the first book in the series. The main character, Charley makes pretty much every dumb decision possible in this book and is then confused about why her boyfriend is upset with her. There was one chapter with the POV of Marc, which was weird. Outdated phrases are used, such as she “powered up” her smartphone, or she “fired up” her laptop. The resolution at the end was very predictable. For the icing on the cake, anxiety, mental illness, and asperger’s syndrome are all incorrectly and badly portrayed, in my opinion.

I love a series that has the next book as good, or even better, than the previous entry. The fact that this is a cozy with antiques and vintage clothing makes it rise to the top of my reading pile. The characters are well developed and the mystery is satisfying. Add some humor and romance, it all worked for me. It's not necessary to have read the first in this series but why skip another good cozy mystery?

I would like to thank Random House Publishing Group - Alibi for providing me with a free electronic ARC of this book, via Netgalley, in exchange for an open and honest review.

Gosh I seem to be giving a lot of 4 out of 5 stars of late… obviously I’ve hit a seam of excellent books in my TBR pile!

‘The Antique House Murders’ is book two in ‘The Oakwood Mystery Series’ by Leslie Nagel and, being open and honest, I fell in love with this series with book one ‘The Book Club Murders’. So was thrilled to be given the opportunity to review this second book. I just feel I need to apologise for not reading it sooner! It’s been a crazy year for me and let’s leave it at that. ;-)

Okay, so for those who haven’t read the first book in the series let me just say - why not? Come one people, keep up! :-D

Actually, what I was going to say was that ‘The Antique House Murders’ can be enjoyed as a stand-alone book if you must. There is enough recapping on Charley’s love, life and adventures to get the reader up to speed pretty quickly. And, thankfully, not so much recapping as half the book seems to be reminding you what you’ve missed. I do so hate books that do that… maybe why I loved this one so much?

The story picks up a few months after the first book and involves the mysteries of an old manor house and the secrets surrounding it and the family that lived there. Charley and her shop ‘Old Hat’ get involved via some estate sold clothing and accessories and that fiery red head just takes it from there.

‘The Antique House Murders’ was definitely my kind of cosy/ mystery and it honestly had me up until 1:30am (on a school night - if it wasn’t the school holidays) just as I simply HAD to finish it. The intrigue, the adventure, the padding and the red herrings - a perfect balance.

What I think I loved the most is it took me a while to figure out the full ‘whodunit’. Yeah, cocky me thought it was so and so… but wait - not that person at all! Then I clicked it was such and such… and it was! But then… Oh!!!! Yeah, I was almost shouting at the book by that point, but it was after midnight and I am playing my “I was sleep deprived” card as my excuse. ;-)

So, yes, a perfect blend of cosy/ mystery for me that literally had me guessing until right near the end of the book. And guessing in a good way, not a “this is just too convoluted to understand” way. Nope, Ms Nagel had me on tenterhooks throughout and I just NEEDED to know! The way she kept weaving ideas, story lines, padding and red herrings together - brilliant.

A quick mention to the formatting of this eBook - it was a bit garbled in places (spaces and paragraphs appearing where they shouldn’t) and there were a few typos and formatting issues… but this was an ARC and they’re allowed to get away with such things. I am sure the final edit is perfect… But you know I do like to mention these things. EBooks shouldn’t be second class formatting.

Would I recommend this book to others?

Gee, I think I’ve given myself a way here, right? Yes, I most definitely would. Again, I feel the reader should do ‘The Oakwood Mystery Series’ the justice it deserves and read ‘The Book Club Murders’ first. But yes, I would recommend this book to lovers of the modern day American cosy/ mystery. Very well written and highly enjoyable.

Would I buy this book for myself?

Yes I would. I am most definitely in love with this series and happily buy them. I can’t wait for the next one either!

In summary: A good, solid second book in a great murder mystery series. Highly recommend.

I'm often hard on cozy mysteries. They're so much of fun when they're done well – which is why, despite all obstacles, I keep reading them – but when one doesn't live up to expectations, I can't help but point out why.

Like here.

The good news first: Leslie Nagel writes well, in terms of formation of sentences and structure of story. This was a quick read, and not awful by any means; the setting was good and the two main characters had some life to them. The climax was climactic. It was mildly funny in places. Hence two stars instead of the one I'm tempted to drop.

The bad news … Some of the characters were little more than a collection of characteristics representing a person. I was a bit disappointed in the stereotyping of the main character's good friend who happens to be gay (also called, by one person, "you know".)

One of my biggest complaints is that there are just too many characters. If I had lots and lots of leisure time I'd make a chart to see whether there really were more people inhabiting this plot than others I've read recently, but I don't – my point, though, is that at least two or three times in the course of 232 pages people came on the scene who were clearly not being introduced for the first time, and I said "Who?" My memory's not the best, but I have never had a problem keeping track of what I'm reading. I am generally reading at least a couple of books at the same time, and always have done; right now I've got three going on the Kindle, one audiobook at work and one at home. I've never had trouble getting back up to speed when returning to a book before – but for whatever reason when this author expected me to recognize characters' names, I failed. Whether there were indeed too many people in the cast, or whether I just wasn't paying enough attention, I don't know; if the latter, though, it was because my attention wasn't held.

One other reason for my low rating of this book is that it commits several cozy mystery crimes, and in the first degree instead of any lesser felonies. The main character owns her own business, of course – I guess no one wants to read about an office worker or librarian or something who solves crimes? Or is it that no one wants to write about them? Perhaps because an employee of anyone sensible would be fired if they took as much time off to solve those crimes as most cozy heroines do? One of my pet peeves about cozies is their utter divorcement from reality in showing small business owners – usually tiny retail business owners – who somehow manage to have at least one full-time employee. Charley Carpenter somehow has two, though there's no mention of a customer ever entering her shop in the whole course of the book (unless I wasn't paying attention). Of course, there's little chance for such a mention, since in the whole course of the book I think she's actually in her store for … what, maybe ten pages out of the 232? She is so intent on snooping, on doing all the things she has been specifically told by her cop boyfriend that she should not, cannot do, on <I>breaking and entering</i> (what – it's not wrong, is it?), that she seems to hardly give her not-exactly-thriving business a thought. (Of course, if she greets every one of her few customers with “What special treasure may I help you find today?" it's kind of understandable if she has few return visitors. I wouldn't go back.) Charley's motivation for pretty much everything she does is weak and silly, and her insistence on proceeding with the stupid things she absolutely should not do is idiotic. And at times it endangers not only her own life, but others'. None of this makes me ever want to spend another minute with her, ever again.

I'll say again what I usually say: I'm really good at suspending disbelief, if the author provides a strong enough antigravity device. You give me enough grounding in reality, or a complete enough divorce from reality, and – what's the saying about having a lever and a place to stand? Give me a place to stand, and I've got plenty of lever to believe in dragons, or starships, or boy wizards, or caterers who solve mysteries. If the place you give me to stand in is too small or too unstable, my lever doesn't work, and I will begin to list problems.

And for me Charley's "business" is a problem. Her friends are a problem – of course she has a cop boyfriend. Of course the gay friend and the black careworker and the Middle-Eastern friend are (at least here in this installment) each a collection of stereotyping descriptors – swish, and huge-but-gentle, and dashiki, respectively – and not a whole lot more. There's a stereotypical crazy old lady – but despite obvious red flags does anyone think to try to get her some help? Nope. She might be mentally unsound, and scared, and under the thumb of someone who at least mentally abuses her – but she's got dirty orange hair, and she was kind of nasty, and her house is smelly, and there's a murder that isn't any of Charley's business to solve! She's forgotten in minutes.

There's also a demi-villain in the mix who switches personalities so often someone ought to have called an exorcist. A podcast I listen to talks about the "Gumby-fication" of certain television characters, whose personalities depend on what might be needed by a given week's script: one week misogynistic, one week brilliant, one week kind of dumb or ignorant, etc. This character does that, in one scene grief-stricken and in the next vicious, with no reason at all for the abrupt change. The sequence of emotions makes no sense.

And of course when someone in the cast starts throwing up suddenly and randomly I know exactly what's going on. It's the exact same thing as is going on in every other book ever written where someone who is not being poisoned is suddenly and randomly sick. There's got to be a better way of telegraphing it.

But then, reputation for Nancy-Drew-ing aside, this Charley person and those around her aren't exactly brilliant detectives.

Something I did not expect was the occasional departure from the cozy format that crops up throughout the book. I didn't expect (or want) the PG-13-level sexy scenes. They're far from explicit, but they're still more than you see in most of this genre. And … did you know that the "f-word" can only be used once in a movie if it wants to avoid an R rating? By that rulebook, this book didn't stay PG-13 for long.

The f-bombs, if I recall correctly, all come from Mitch, Charley's cop boyfriend – who, I admit, has reason enough to swear, given his girlfriend. Their relationship is … nauseating. No, I don't mean the sexytimes – though as mentioned they did feel out of place in this book; I mean the fact that Charley is such an idiot. She lies to Marc – isn't happy about it, but decides she's in the right and therefore does it. Twice. And then once the dust is beginning to settle from that, she blithely commits a first-degree felony. And almost gets herself killed. (Almost gets herself killed <I>again</i>, apparently, based on the references to past books.) Ya know, if you're not a law enforcement official and you keep finding yourself in positions where your life is hanging by a thread, maybe you should a) make an effort to mind your damn business (literally – don't let those employees I can't believe you can afford twist in the wind) and avoid such situations, or b) give up your shop and go sign up for the police academy. I wanted to start a "Save Mitch" campaign, except that he's kind of a jerk himself; at one point he thinks a woman is "pretty enough, but a bit too old and definitely too bossy for Mitch’s taste" – and that is not conducive to making me tolerate him. All is forgiven in the end – that's hardly a spoiler, since it's a cozy – but it <i>shouldn't be</i>. There are some serious problems with this relationship. Again, the disbelief is too big to be suspended.

The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.

This was a fast read and kept me guessing as to who did it. Love the premise of the series and look forward the next ones ... on my author watch list

The Antique House Murders was a great little summer read. A light cozy mystery with plenty of fun moments. This is definitely a "learn as she goes" kind of mystery where her curiosity is just too much to resist. The romantic relationship is done as well with enough internal conflict to add another dimension to the story. Charley is a great character, and I'll be grabbing book one to read a little bit more about where it all began! Great setting, fast paced, excellent characterization, and just enough romance and mystery to satisfy :)

Some cozy mysteries take a few pages or a chapter to set the hook, but not this one. I was hooked right away. Set in Oakwood, Ohio, The Antique House Murders, by USA Today bestselling author, Leslie Nagel, has some unexpected twists and turns. Nagel, who lives in Oakwood, is also a recipient of the Agatha Award and the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense, and was shortlisted for the Pat Conroy Beach Music Mystery Prize. 

In the old money section of town, Holland Mulbridge tries to liquidate her family home after the death of her mother. Make that her decaying family mansion, full of priceless antiques. Enter a neighborhood group determined to preserve history, and prevent the subdivision of the land which they feared would ruin their historic community with its narrow, curvy roads, plus some greedy developers and politicians.  The deceased loved a good riddle, and is likely laughing from her grave, but soon there is a dead body, something she had likely not expected.

The hero or heroine of cozy mysteries is typically a civilian who is adept at solving crimes, and at being able to question people in casual conversation, something the police are not allowed to do. Main character, "Charley" Carpenter and her boyfriend, Detective Marc Trenault, are often at odds over her "meddling" in his cases in this adorable fast-paced, complex mystery.

The Antique House Murders is the first in the Oakwood Mystery Series. It's a quick, easy read, that will keep you guessing almost until the last minute. I can't wait to read the other books in this series. Look for me online as The Grumpy Book Reviewer.

Nagel has written a classic cozy- small town, estate sale, real estate developers, intrepid female amateur detective who works with/against the police detective who is her love interest. Charlie is pretty cool. There's a little romance and some steaminess here but it fits the situation and the characters. It's an easy read with just enough complications to keep you guessing even if you've seen some of the themes before. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Try this one for a good read.

I really like this kind of murderer stories. They are not cruel but kind of funny and very surprising. an easy read.