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    A Killer Collection
    A Killer Collection
    A Killer Collection
    Audiobook5 hours

    A Killer Collection

    Written by Ellery Adams

    Narrated by Andi Arndt

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Molly Appleby is a young writer for Collector's Weekly, and when the attractive reporter isn't covering auctions and antique shows all over the South, she's trying to get her new relationship with a coworker off the ground. When her latest assignment takes her to North Carolina pottery country to cover an exclusive kiln opening, she's certain that the show promises surprising offerings and rare finds. What she doesn't expect to find is a dead body.

    George-Bradley Staunton is known throughout the antiques world as a very wealthy and very ruthless collector, and when he drops dead just after the opening, there are all too few mourners and a seemingly endless list of suspects. When the local police are stumped, Molly steps in to put her journalist's nose to work sniffing out the culprit. But no sooner does she start collecting clues than another dead body falls into her lap.

    As Molly digs beneath the genteel surface of antiques and collectibles, she finds a world filled with backstabbing and competition, and what started as a story about rare collections might leave Molly with nothing more than a collection of corpses.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 16, 2016
    ISBN9781515972648
    Author

    Ellery Adams

    Ellery Adams has written over forty mystery novels and can’t imagine spending a day away from the keyboard. Ms. Adams, a native New Yorker, has had a lifelong love affair with stories, food, rescue animals, and large bodies of water. When not working on her next novel, she reads, bakes, gardens, spoils her three cats, and rearranges her bookshelves. She lives with her husband and two children (aka the Trolls) in Chapel Hill, NC. For reading guides and a list of bibliotherapy titles, please visit ElleryAdamsMysteries.com.

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    Reviews for A Killer Collection

    3.5/5

    91 ratings11 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Very enjoyable story, I especially liked the book quotes about pottery and potters at the start of each chapter.
      Pleasant narration.
    • 4/5
      I liked the story line but not the narrator…great twist towards the end.
    • 4/5
      southern-pottery, magazine-reporter, family-dynamics, relationships, teaching, cozy-mystery****For me the best thing about this book was learning about Southern Pottery making. The collecting aspect is the focus in this cozy as well as the interactions between various collectors--this is the basis for the murder. The characters seemed rather flat to me but the sleuthing was all right.Narrator Andi Arndt did not seem as engaged as usual.
    • 4/5
      Molly Appleby is a writer for magazine "Collector's Weekly," and her latest assignment is checking out a pottery kiln opening, a world her mother, Clara, is intimately familiar with. At the opening, she meets a prominent, arrogant, obnoxious pottery collector. An unpleasant encounter, but most of the people there are pleasant enough, and she knows some of them. She pick up information for her article, and also finds a piece of pottery to buy.And then the unpleasant man collapses in front of her. 911 is called, but when the ambulance carries him away, the siren isn't sounding--he's already dead. The man was a diabetic, and is found in the autopsy to have had far too much insulin in his system. Accidnetal overdoes, is everyone's initial assumption.Except that Molly is sure there was something very strange, and not at all right, about how he was moving just before he collapsed.Molly is a reporter, if a very specialized one. She can't stop asking questions, overhearing conversations, getting to know people, listening when they talk. There are small but valuable pieces missing from the dead man's collection. His former friend, local pharamcist and fellow collector, disappears the day he died. There are all sorts of rivalries and feuds in the pottery collecting world, and little mysteries like why one previously noted local potter suddenly stopped doing any art pottery or selling to the public two years ago. The relationship between the dead guy and his wife was really strange, too, as she hated his pottery collection and it strained their relationship to the point where they lived in separate wings of thei house.What is going on here?It's light, it's fun, and the characters are enjoyable. Recommended.I bought this audiobook.
    • 5/5
      This is the first book in the Collectable Mystery Series and I think it really set the stage for future books. The characters have been introduced, but there is still a lot to learn about them in subsequent books. I loved the setting and the idea of the pottery. I really learned a lot about the history of the North Carolina Potters and the process they used as well as how it was passed on to family members. Having said all that, the story was also a good one. Molly is a writer for a Collectables Magazine. Her mother is involved in collecting and selling pottery so Molly often goes to sales and auctions with her. At a kiln opening, one of the more undesirable, yet wealthy collectors dies. After an autopsy it is determined that he died of an insulin overdose. Was it accidental or murder? Molly begins to investigate and finds out more secrets involving collectors and potters alike. There is a love interest in the story, Matt, who works with Molly. He is shy and quiet, but Molly gets him to open up a little to her. I am sure we will learn more about Matt in the next books. A fun read that I very much enjoyed.

      Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
    • 4/5
      Antiques writer Molly Abbleby goes to cover a pottery show in North Carolina with her mother. Molly discovers that these pottery shows are hardly sleepy country affairs, they are cut-throat events. Pottery collectors are ruthless in their search for the best pieces. One of the worst and most vicious turns up dead, and it seems like anyone and everyone could be responsible. I really enjoyed this mystery. It is well-written, and Molly is a likable main character. I had no idea that pottery collecting was a such a crazy, dog-eat-dog world. Honestly, learning about that was one of the most interesting parts of the book. Overall, it was a compelling and enjoyable mystery.
    • 4/5
      A Killer Collection by Ellery Adams is the first book in the Antiques and Collectibles Mystery series. Molly Appleby is a writer for Collector’s Weekly. She is going to write a series of articles on North Carolina pottery collectors and potters. Molly is attending her first kiln opening with her mother, Clara (who is an expert and collector of pottery). A kiln opening is where a potter sells the wares he has created and collectors can get them at reasonable prices. At the kiln opening of C.C. Burle, George-Bradley Staunton, a collector, collapses. No one is too upset because George-Bradley is not very nice. At one opening he knocked over a woman and she broke her leg. George-Bradley is rude, condescending, and only out of himself. It is determined that George-Bradley collapsed from an overdose of insulin (he was a diabetic). However, someone gave him the overdose intentionally. Molly sets out to figure out who killed George-Bradley. She thinks it will be good for her article. There is no shortage of suspects. During the course of the investigation Molly stumbles upon pottery thefts and another dead body. A Killer Collection provides wonderful descriptions of beautiful pottery as well as information on the making of clay, using a potter’s wheel, and different types of kilns.I give A Killer Collection 4 out of 5 stars. This is an early work of Ellery Adams (originally published under J. B. Stanley). A Killer Collection has satisfying characters, interesting premise, and one of the mysteries takes a little more thought to solve. I enjoyed the descriptions of the beautiful pottery especially face jugs. I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      Originally published in 2006 under the name J.B. Stanley, A Killer Collection is the first book in the three-volume Collectibles cozy series. The author has completely revamped each book to have them reissued under her pen name Ellery Adams. What I enjoyed most about this first book in the series were the behind-the-scenes action at an auction and all the good information about Southern folk art pottery-- and A Killer Collection absolutely glows whenever Adams describes the creative process as a potter sits at the wheel.I was slightly less satisfied with the characters and the mystery. As a journalist Molly has the right training to ferret out the perpetrators of crime and to provide readers interested in collecting with plenty of good information. However, I didn't find enough there to make her stand out from all the other amateur sleuths available today. And for all the readers who prefer justice to prevail and all their plot threads neatly tied up in bows by book's end... they may be left feeling a bit dissatisfied. I have to admit that I didn't particularly care for the way Molly dealt with the information she had.All in all, the book is enjoyable in its depiction of folk art pottery, its history and traditions as well as in showing us the evolution of a writer.
    • 4/5
      Not only was this a very good mystery, but it also gives the reader an interesting insight to the pottery industry in North Carolina.
    • 3/5
      A solid little mystery featuring Molly Appleby, writer for Collectors' Weekly, her mom, and assorted characters many working in the world of Southern pottery. The reader is shown the intensity and passion motivating the potters for generations to craft their unique creations. Molly loves people, writing and food. She has a heartfelt need to understand and unearth as much info as she can about the subjects she writes about. When a bully of a collector dies unexpectedly at a kiln opening Molly can't curb her curiosity. She asks questions, listens carefully and reasons out a solution. If you like mysteries that have mostly pleasant characters, a bit of romance, and simple plots this one will do nicely.
    • 3/5
      Molly Appleby is a reporter for the local Collectible weekly paper and attends a kiln opening where she sees the highest rated collector of pottery in the area die. She's suspicious the more information and interviews she does.The book is definitely fun, the characters are chatty and I'm looking forward to another in the future.