I saw that someone else had read this & given it a good review so I thought I'd try it. What I didn't know was it is # 4 or #5 in a series that begins with the name Death (pronounced Deeth), so once again I'm ROOing.

What I also realized when I put the other books in the series on hold, is each book's title begins with "Death", and then I had an "Ah...." moment, because I would have sworn that Death's fiancée, Wren, was the main character.

Death & Wren are looking for a new home together as they are planning on getting married. Both like the home Sandburg, which is infamous for the body "Bob" buried in the rose garden. When the Sandburg home was slated to be destroyed by rising waters of a proposed dam, the only way to save it, was for the land to have a graveyard on it.... The County Sheriff had a cold case & unidentified bones, so Myrna Sandburg gave the bones a burial & a stone in her rose garden, thus a "graveyard".

Wren is also working on auctioning off the land, building & contents of the defunct Ozark Hills Supper Club, which was the exact copy of another famous supper club in Kentucky that burned to the ground, when a member of the Viking reenactment group falls off a bridge after seeing what he believes is the ghost of his long lost daughter. The ghost turns out to be two children dressed up in a costume they found above the also defunct yacht club, which belonged to the missing young woman, but is now covered in dried blood.

Adding to the excitement is Death's investigation into a forgery of a painting, which expands to a forged piece of pottery & forged gold coins... all related to the local Viking families & the former owner of the supper club.

The book was light reading and it held my interest. The characters were mostly believable & fun. The manner in which the author connected the dots & tied everything together was neatly written and not wildly unbelievable....

Needless to say, I ordered the others in the series & will begin at the beginning. ( )

Got this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review
A page turner. I really liked this book: it is well written, no hole in the plot or rushed closure. I never read a Loretta Ross' book before but I will go and look for the other ones in this serie. ( )

**SOME SPOILERS AHEAD**

Ex-Marine private eye Death (prounounced "Deeth") Bogart and auctioneer Wren Morgan are ready to move in together, settle down and get married. So in between working, they're house-hunting when they can, and Wren thinks she's found the perfect home for the two of them. Perfect - except for the body buried in the rosebushes...

But it is nearing Thanksgiving, and Wren has a job to do; and it means cataloging the contents of an abandoned old supper club which will be auctioned off by her employers, the Keystone Brothers. While in the process of doing so, she hears what sounds like a call for help, and finds two of the Keystones' grandchildren with a man who has apparently suffered a heart attack.

It turns out the man was struck suddenly when he saw the apparition of his missing daughter in the boat house on the supper club property. The young girl disappeared many years ago in the 70's and Niels Larsen has never given up hope that he will find his daughter Ingrid alive.

While the present owner of the home explains away the presence of "Bob," the unknown man buried there, Wren's natural curiosity takes over and she wants to know more about him. Of course, she goes right to her friend and employers, the Keystones, who seem to know something about everything going on in East Bledsoe. She also wants to know more about the missing girl when ragged clothing stained with what appears to be blood is found in the boat house.

Meanwhile, Death has been hired to find out how an oil painting, protected 24/7 at a gallery, was able to be replaced with a forgery. What makes it so odd is that the painting wasn't even very valuable in a monetary form, but had sentimental value for the owner.

To make things more complicated, Wren, having informed her parents of her engagement, expects them to be happy and supportive; but her mother has serious misgivings - especially while overhearing a potentially sensitive conversation by Death's ex-wife Madeline. It makes her suspicious of the man her daughter's chosen to wed, and she's not happy about the situation at all.

But it isn't until several random facts seem to tie everything together that makes an already confusing situation even more complicated; but the real mystery is how to find the proof to permanently connect it all...

This is the fourth book in the Auction Block Mysteries, following Death and the Gravedigger's Angel. Once again, Ms. Ross has enacted for us another intriguing mystery; this time centering around stolen artwork, invaluable artifacts, and the disappearance of an historical reenactor. She has intertwined the stories seamlessly, so that each one, while at first seeming to have no connection to the next, is linked softly and almost imperceptibly. By the time the fragments are pieced together, the story has come to a logical conclusion that shows the author has a talent for taking multiple story lines and uniting them as one.

I enjoyed this book no end, and loved the interaction between the characters, showing us the love and protection that Wren and Death feel for each other, both willing to do whatever it takes to keep the other safe. There is no saccharine behavior between the two; but the love is still felt, still palpable and real. It does take a while to warm up to Wren's mother Emily; but I liked her father much more quickly; he seemed that while a quiet man, he watched for signs and listened, while her mother was completely opposite. However, many marriages are built on this and quite happy indeed.

The story behind the disappearance of Ingrid was a tad more interesting to me, although I, too, wondered why anyone would want what seemed to be others' mere junk. When all is said and done, we may never know how far people will go to achieve their ends; and that one's idea of right and wrong can be convoluted in someone's mind.

When the book was finished I found myself sorry it had ended so soon, as I enjoy spending time in the company of this group of friends and family. Everything came together nicely, and I look forward to the next in the series. Highly recommended. ( )