Death of a Rug Lord (Avon Mystery)

Location: Home » body art - tattoo » Comic » Death of a Rug Lord (Avon Mystery)

Similar Items:

•	As the World Churns: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery (Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries with Recipes)
•	Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry (Scumble River Mysteries, Book 10)
•	French Pressed (Coffeehouse Mysteries, No. 6)
•	Murder Is Binding
•	Murder Can Crash Your Party: A Desiree Shapiro Mystery

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description

Business isn't booming for antiques dealer Abigail Timberlake Washburn. A local rug store is luring away her customers with its rock-bottom prices. Eager to check out the competition, Abby is delighted to find a priceless Persian amid the cut-rate carpets—and shocked when Gwendolyn Spears, the store's beleaguered owner, begs her to take it home! Abby feels more than a little guilty about getting such a great deal . . . especially when Gwendolyn is found dead the next morning.

Investigating the brutal murder, Abby soon discovers that the prized Orientals of Charleston's society dames are nothing more than cheap fakes . . . and that a dangerous thief will do anything to pull the rug out from under her.

Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No It's Just a Chicken June 23, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I absolutely love this series and I couldn't wait for this installment to be published. The world of antique dealer Abigail Washburn is always a pleasant place to visit despite the high murder rate in her vicinity. Even she has noticed it and after a dead body shows up early in this book Abby makes a quip about finding as many bodies as Jessica Fletcher. Despite the murder and mayhem though it is always fun to pay a visit to Abby and her family and friends. This is one mystery series where one just never knows what might happen next.

Despite my enthusiasm for this book or more probably because of it, I found the first half of the book to be a bit of a let down. The dialogue between the characters seems a tad forced and not nearly as crisp as it usually is and the comedic timing that this author usually has down to a science was way off the mark on occasion. The whole bit with Aunt Nanny and the tomato aspic was just way over the top and while the Aunt Nanny side plot is usually entertaining in this case it was just very flat. To be honest a good part of the first half of the book was flat and I found myself struggling to read it. Some of the funniest characters in the series barely make an appearance in this book and their absence is very noticeable.

On the bright side, things really pick up in the second half of the book. Once Abby and her mother hit the road in search of a bunch of Oriental rug counterfeiters the story finds itself and roars to life. Abby and her mother Mozella are the only two recurring characters in this series that play any role at all in the road trip but despite the lack of the supporting cast the author pulls off the second half of the book beautifully. The dialogue becomes crisp again and the laughs just keep on coming. Before the trip back to their hometown of Rock Hill is over the bad guys go down, (It's a cozy so it obviously has a happy ending.) Abby learns that she was conceived in a vehicle on a dirt road outside of town and half the state of South Carolina is put to work catching live chickens that have gotten loose on I-26. Apparently they did a good job too because I just traveled that stretch of road and I didn't see one single chicken.

Despite the strong finish this isn't by any means the best book in this series but I still enjoyed it a great deal. The slow start may have had something to do with how long it has been since the last book in this series came out or it may just be that it is hard to keep the laughs coming like this author usually does. Whatever the reason I do hope that we see the next installment of this series without having to wait so long. I look forward to new books in this series like most people look forward to Christmas.

2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing June 23, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This book was a disappointment. It was more disjointed than Tamar Myers' other books and contained many irritating little mistakes; she could use a new editor. If you want to read this latest addition to the "Den of Antiquity" series, wait to pick it up at a discounted price - you won't have to wait very long.

1 out of 5 stars

I'm sorry I bothered... June 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I've read the entire series and also Ms. Myers' Magdalena Yoder series to date. I'd been unhappy with both series for a while, but I enjoy reading series and seeing characters develop, and didn't want to give these two up. I had to stop reading Death of a Drug Lord. Same old, same old. I'm surprised anyone finds the lame attempts at humor to be funny. It's reach the point where the characters are a bore and the outlandishness stupid. I told my sister I'd given up on the Penn Dutch mysteries and now I'll add this series to the "No Read" list.

5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful cozy mystery May 30, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

Here is another delightful cozy mystery from Tamar Myers "Den of Antiquity" series. It features antique shop owner and sleuth Abby Timberlake and her family in Charleston, South Carolina.

This is a series where every book can stand alone. It can be read out of order. There is usually a paragraph or two near the beginning to remind the reader or bring the new reader up to date about the characters and the setting.

Abby runs an antique store. Each book in the series is about a different kind of antique. This book's plot revolves around antique Persian carpets. There are snippets of interesting information about them scattered throughout and some tips on how to spot fakes.

There is a warmth to Tamar Myers' characters that I enjoy. They are quirky, sometimes eccentric, and gently humorous. But they are never put down. Instead they are embraced and woven into the story.

I highly recommend all of Tamar Myers' books. I especially love the "Den of Antiquity" series to learn interesting things, the good and the bad, that go on behind the scenes of the antiques world. She can't write them fast enough for me.

3 out of 5 stars

Very Funny But Light August 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Abigail Timberlake knows when something is valuable - she runs The Den of Antiquity, an antique store. So she is naturally curious when a local rug store is selling good rugs at rock bottom prices and even more curious when the manager gives her an expensive rug for free. She thinks the manager may be sending her some kind of message but before she can figure out what the message might be the manager is found dead in Charleston Harbor wrapped in a rug. Abby decides to investigate the murder and before she knows it she is involved with fake royalty, fake rugs, and fake friends.

"Death of a Rug Lord" is a very funny if light mystery. The emphasis in the book is on humor and there are plenty of laugh out loud moments starting with the characters. All of them are larger than life (C.J. literally) and eccentric. Mozella, Abby's mother, is a prime example as she dresses and talks like a 1950's TV character (author Tamar Myers explains this by saying Mozella has dressed that way since her husband died in 1958, which may either be a joke or a mistake - either way it doesn't fit in with Abby's age, but Myers never lets reality get in the way of a good joke). And there are plenty of jokes, plays on words, puns, etc. in the book. All of this makes for a very humorous book.

While the book is very funny, lost amid all the humor is any real plot. Yes, there is a murder, but it is almost impossible to figure out who the killer is since characters come in and out of the story. Several times Abby will set off to do one thing that sets up a chain of events so funny that by the end Myers seems to have forgotten what she originally planned to write. While regular characters the Rob-Bobs are in the book quite a bit, old favorites Wynnell and C.J. only make cameo appearances and soon disappear altogether leaving an unfinished plot line involving C.J. Myers does introduce some nice twists into the plot involving some of the characters, but it is not the most tightly plotted mystery that I've read.

"Death of a Rug Lord" is perfect for those that like light, funny books (think Janet Evanovich) but look elsewhere if you want to read a well plotted, well developed mystery.

Powered by Associate-O-Matic

T-shirts, Posters

Pentagram T-shirts, bags, etc...

Gothic Posters

Antique Map Reproductions

Che Guevara shirts
and accessories