Today I’m excited to be reviewing Connie Berry‘s new release, The Shadow of Memory. Read on for more info and my review!
As Kate Hamilton plans her upcoming wedding to Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, she is also assisting her colleague Ivor Tweedy with a project at the Netherfield Sanatorium, which is being converted into luxury townhouses. Kate and Ivor must appraise a fifteenth-century painting and verify that its provenance is the Dutch master Jan Van Eyck. But when retired criminal inspector Will Parker is found dead, Kate learns that the halls of the sanatorium housed much more than priceless art.
Kate is surprised to learn that Will had been the first boyfriend of her friend Vivian Bunn, who hasn’t seen him in fifty-eight years. At a seaside holiday camp over sixty years ago, Will, Vivian, and three other teens broke into an abandoned house where a doctor and his wife had died under bizarre circumstances two years earlier. Now, when a second member of the childhood gang dies unexpectedly—and then a third—it becomes clear that the teens had discovered more in the house than they had realized.
Had Will returned to warn his old love? When Kate makes a shocking connection between a sixty-year-old murder and the long-buried secrets of the sanatorium, she suddenly understands that time is running out for Vivian—and anyone connected to her.
Purchase
Review
The Shadow of Memory by Connie Berry is part of the Kate Hamilton Mystery series but can be read as a standalone.
This is a well-plotted mystery. The pieces fit together as the reader twists and turns through the story. This is a complex puzzle that left me guessing until the very end. I won’t spoil it, but I was surprised.
Connie Berry’s cast of characters is what makes this story shine. Even without having read the previous stories, Kate seems to have interesting and compelling character development over this story. The supporting cast of characters were richly developed as well, creating a very character driven mystery.
This is my first read from Connie Berry and it won’t be my last. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and look forward to reading more.
Thank you to Kaye Publicity and the author for the ARC copy to review. All opinions are my own and unbiased.
Rating
4★
Connie Berry is the author of the Kate Hamilton Mysteries, set in the UK and featuring an American antiques dealer with a gift for solving crimes. Like her protagonist, Connie was raised by antiques dealers who instilled in her a passion for history, fine art, and travel. During college she studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany and St. Clare’s College, Oxford, where she fell under the spell of the British Isles. In 2019 Connie won the IPPY Gold Medal for Mystery and was a finalist for the Agatha Award’s Best Debut. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America and is on the board of the Guppies and her local Sisters in Crime chapter. Besides reading and writing mysteries, Connie loves history, foreign travel, cute animals, and all things British. She lives in Ohio with her husband and adorable Shih Tzu, Emmie.
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Jessica Belmont 