About the author:
\nConnie 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 deale
rs who instilled in her a passion for history\, fine art\, and travel. Dur
ing college she studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany and St. C
lare's College\, Oxford\, where she fell under the spell of the British Is
les. 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 A
merica and is on the board of the Guppies and her local Sisters in Crime c
hapter. Besides reading and writing mysteries\, Connie loves history\, for
eign travel\, cute animals\, and all things British. She lives in Ohio wit
h her husband and adorable Shih Tzu\, Emmie.
In A Collection of Lies\, As Kate Hamilton and her new hu
sband\, DI Tom Mallory\, honeymoon in Devon\, a local history museum asks
them to trace the provenance of a bloodstained dress said to belong to a V
ictorian lacemaker accused of murder. If genuine\, the dress and its puzzl
ing connections to a nineteenth-century Romani family who camped on Dartmo
or will be the centerpiece of a new historic crimes exhibit&mdash\;exactly
Kate&rsquo\;s kind of mystery. But matters turn deadly when a shot is fir
ed during a fundraising gala\, injuring the man who donated the dress.
The injured donor\, Gideon Littlejohn\, is a cybersecurity expert who lives and dresses as a Victorian gentleman\, but everyone believes the re al target of the attack to be another attendee&mdash\;a controversial poli tician intent on rooting out local corruption. This belief is overturned w hen Gideon is found dead in a pool of blood. But then the politician recei ves a death threat.
\nWho was the real target? Who would want to kil
l both a man with an obsession for history and a tough-on-crime politician
? When asked to assist in the investigation\, Kate races to discover the t
ruth\, as it becomes clear the killer isn&rsquo\;t going to come quietly.<
br />
Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Ma
c's Backs - Books on Coventry.
\;