Jordan Bingham is thrilled that she will be accompanying Vera Van Alt to Summerlea, Chadwick Kauffman's estate for a luncheon where they will finalize the purchase of several first editions of books by Ngaio Marsh. Everything seems to have been perfect except that Chadwick Kauffman turns up dead the next day and Jordan and Vera are prime suspects.

The plot and antics of Jordan trying to prove their innocence is a bit over the top. I wish that some of the stereo typical mob aspects were just eliminated from this series. It would be so much better that way, IMHO. ( )

A funny little mystery in the Book Collector Mystery series. It's really a cozy set in upstate New York, centering on a young woman from a con artist family who has decided to 'go straight', but who falls into all these murderous adventures. ok for what it is. ( )

Jordan Bingham works hard to find rare books for her employer Vera Van Alt, who collects them, and is thrilled when she not only has a chance of getting a collection of Ngaio Marsh’s first editions but to visit the summer estate Summerlea. Things quickly turned sour, however, when Summerlea’s owner Chadwick Kauffman turns up dead the next day and Jordan, Vera, and Uncle Kev are the chief suspects in his death. Jordan knows they are innocent and being set up but can she convince the police before it is too late?

“Marsh Madness” is the delightful fourth book in Victoria Abbott’s Book Collector cozy mystery series. I love the setting and characters in the series and the way the characters have grown throughout the series especially Vera who seems to be thawing just the tiniest bit. Jordan is one of my favorite heroines -raised by uncles who aren't afraid to bend the law, she is determined to stay straight even though she has a penchant for wearing wigs and owns lock picks. The mystery is intricately plotted - it is less of a whodunit then why is someone framing Jordan and her friends. Towards the end of the book I did figure out who the culprit was but it was still fun watching Abbott weave the plot together. There is plenty of tension in the book - this is the kind of book you could stay up all night reading just to see what happens next!

“Marsh Madness” is another nice cozy mystery by Victoria Abbott. ( )

I've been a fan of Victoria Abbott's Book Collector series since the first, The Christie Curse, but in this fourth installment the series has come into its own in glorious style. All the elements mesh together perfectly. The humor is often laugh-out-loud funny, and the plot is a knockout. At first I couldn't believe that Jordan and Vera could be so naive about their Marsh windfall, but when I was proved right, the story immediately kicked into another gear that took me straight to the realm of "What in the world is going on?!?"

The characters are a delight. Jordan, with her love of vintage fashion, Signora Pantone's cooking, her job, and her family's background in the shadier side of commerce. Jordan's Uncle Kevin, who's a one-man disaster area waiting to touch down. Vera's got the curmudgeon-with-tunnel-vision down to a fine art. Friends like Cherie and Lance know just how and when to lend a helping hand. And you can always count on Signora Panetone to make sure you won't faint from hunger. Even the animals in the book-- Walter the pug, Good Cat, and Bad Cat-- have their own wonderful DeMille-like closeups. Detectives Castellano and Stoddard are the only blights on The Marsh Madness's landscape, but even they did their jobs well, since they really made me fear for Jordan.

I could rave about this book for quite some time, but I won't. Instead I'll end with an added bonus this series has given me: the incentive to read books written by the Golden Age authors it has covered. Since I've been avoiding the aforementioned authors for years, that's quite some added bonus. I can't wait to see where this series takes me next. ( )

Warning: this review may contain spoilers

****

When it comes to books in a series, some installments can be harder to find in a given set or of a given edition than others. So when Jordan Bingham hears about a full collection of Ngaio Marsh's Inspector Roderick Alleyn series, in first editions and for a relatively good price, she is keen to obtain them for her employer, Vera Van Alst. Jordan, Vera, and Jordan's uncle Kevin are invited to the owner's house to seal the deal over lunch. The next day, the owner is found dead, and the three lunch guests are suspected of his murder. At every turn, the evidence looks bad and gets worse. Will they be able to clear their name and avoid being convicted of a crime they did not commit?

In some ways this is a culminating volume of the Book Collector series. The ongoing thread about Jordan's ex-boyfriend is resolved in a manner that I inadvertently predicted, but it was good to have that thread resolved. I did find Vera a bit more obtuse and wilfully grumpy than I remembered, and the police seemed almost cartoonishly determined to arrest Jordan for murder. And yes, there were still a few mentions of Uncle Mick's chest hair (STOP IT ALREADY, HE'S YOUR UNCLE). But overall I found this a good installment of the series. It's also making me want to revisit Ngaio Marsh. ( )