Outstanding Praise for Jane Cleland's

Antiques to Die For

When her friend is killed, appraiser Josie Prescott, hired to locate a valuable antique, finds the murderer to boot....

The third in the series (Deadly Appraisal, 2007, etc.) contains all the usual antiques lore along with romance and a fine set of suspects. 
Kirkus Reviews

Read Tayler Bloom's October 15 interview with Jane

Praise for Deadly Appraisal

Antiques dealer Josie Prescott thought she left trouble behind in New York City, where she weathered a price-fixing scandal in 2006's Consigned to Death , but her efforts to start afresh in New Hampshire stall when she gets mixed up in murder in Cleland's adept second cozy. After the Portsmouth Women's Guild representative, Maisy Gaylor, drops dead from potassium cyanide poisoning at a benefit gala that Josie has sponsored, Detective Rowcliff insinuates that Josie might have been the possible target. Cleland keeps the reader guessing about the true target of the poison and the possible suspects. Did Britt Epps, the chairman of the fete, have it in for Maisy, or does the theft of a $20,000 Chinese porcelain tureen mean Josie should still be worried about her nemesis from her former New York auction house? With the help of her lawyer and the intermittent cooperation of a nosy reporter, Josie finds some surprising answers.
Publishers Weekly

Deadly Appraisal is the second winning entry in this entertaining series by Jane K. Cleland that features New Hampshire antiques dealer and amateur sleuth Josie Prescott.

Josie's antique consignment shop is starting to do well, and she is quickly becoming known throughout the community. An opportunity to showcase her expertise comes up when .... [More at Hidden Staircase Mystery Reviews]

Betty, The Betz Review

DEADLY APPRAISAL is a fun, fast read cozy. Jane Cleland’s descriptions of the warehouse makes you feel like you are there. You can see the antiques, almost reach out and touch them. Scattered through the text is great information about antiques. Not only did I have an enjoyable escape, I learned about antiques. Delightful! Charming. I highly recommend it!

On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.9.

Cynthia Lea Clark, Psy.D., FMAM Mostly Mystery Review

Antiques a deadly business in mystery novel

Elizabeth Macik, August 1, 2007, OakPark-Leaves.com — Member of the Sun-Times News Group

If you like the Antiques Road Show and/or auctions, you will enjoy this book.

Josie Prescott is the owner of Prescott Auctions in southern New Hampshire. She has allowed her auction space to be used for a Gala Benefit, at which guests would bid on antiques on display. At the end of the dinner one of the organizers, Maisy, gasped for air and dropped dead. Was it natural causes or murder?

Josie, her staff, and her lawyer try to figure out what happened and when. The story moves along well and gives a good look at the antiques business.
Sara Berger, Mysterious Women Quarterly, Issue 2007-2

I love this series. Josie is such a fun character. Even though antiques are not my thing, I really enjoy this antiques mystery series. The mystery is very well crafted and the information about antiques does not hit us over the heads. The author has done a great job of this! I love the New Hampshire setting as well. Great place to set a mystery.
Mysterical - E

Josie Prescott is back in the middle of a controversial murder investigation again.
 
She sponsors a Gala auction for a local charity at her auction house. Maisy Gaylor, a Guild representative dies right there on stage in front of the 100’s of people that are attending. Naturally everybody there thinks it has to be natural causes. There are no outward signs of injury or wrong-doing. The next day, however, the police come to cord off the entire area. It was no accident or natural causes. It was murder....
 
Josie is paranoid - is someone trying to kill her? - is someone trying to ruin her reputation? She needs to move fast and figure out what’s going on before her business reputation is in ruins. She feels the police are just not moving fast enough. With the help of Wes, a reporter for the local paper, she starts her own investigation. There are multiple suspects and many secrets uncovered before the truth comes out.
 
In Deadly Appraisal Josie’s character has developed somewhat.... Intertwined throughout the book is information about antiques buying and selling which will be of real interest to mystery readers that are into antiques. A particular plus in this series is that each book stands alone. The first does not have to be read to understand the second and that is always good.
Reviewed by Diane Kasperski, Front Street Reviews

Josie Prescott, antiques dealer, escapes a price fixing scandal in New York City, by starting fresh in the New Hampshire town of Portsmouth.

To promote her antiques business, Prescotts Antiques, she sponsors the Portsmouth Women's Guild annual fund raiser. In the middle of the evening's festivities, Maisy Gaylor, one of Portsmouth's Women's Guild representatives, drops dead from potassium cyanide poisoning....

This is an enjoyable story of a young woman who is trying to put her past behind her and build a new life for herself. The plot is well constructed with the action fast and the suspense constant. The characters are well-developed, being people one would recognize or know. There are some insights into the world of the antiques houses such as Sothebys. MyShelf.com -- June, 2007 (Click to read the entire review.)

Deadly Appraisal by Jane K. Cleland
Josie Prescott is settling into her new life. She loves her business and has great employees. When she offers to do sponsor a Gala event for the Portsmouth Ladies Guild, she has nothing but great hopes for it. That all falls apart when one of the main members, Maisey dies suddenly on the stage before they can announce the winners of the different items auctioned. Josie is looked at as the prime suspect in the murder so she once again has to battle to clear her name. With her only support being her lawyer, she desperately does her best to hang in there. She has little successes throughout with her business but she wonders if she is just trying to do too much on her own.

I enjoyed the second book in the series by Ms. Cleland. She has a wonderful way of portraying the characters that emotions are felt when you are reading it. I was swept up in this book and didn’t want it to end. Boy I hope there is more!

I loved seeing past characters finding their way into the story like Sasha, Gretchen, Eric, and Fred. They are wonderful employees to have and I loved seeing the relationship between them and Josie deepens further. I got really irritated with Detective Rowcliff. I know he was just doing his job. Max put it wonderfully when he said the Detective had a problem of “persistent jerkitis” on page 245. I could not have described it better. Max really came to the top for Josie. He had done so in the last book but I really felt you got a better sense of whom he is. Josie is a sweet person but gets overwhelmed easily but when uncertainty is all around it makes complete sense.

I give this book a 5/5 because it carried the storylines from the previous book very well. I felt like I was coming home and I hope there are more to come. It was wonderfully written and expressed. I loved seeing how things changed and how Josie did get some more confidence. Great series and one I highly recommend but do please read Consigned to Death first.
Lover of Books Blog, May 2007

Josie Prescott's new life in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is going well until a friend, and the benefit organizer, is poisoned at a gala benefit she's hosting. 

Detective Rowcliff isn't easy to deal with, especially since he isn't sure if Josie is a suspect, the intended victim, or is just holding back information.

Unfortunately Josie's new love, Rocky Point Police Chief Ty Alvarez, is out of town taking care of a sick aunt and isn't much support or help to Josie in this situation.

Soon Josie sees everyone as a potential suspect, even her staff.  Plus she has some close calls herself.  Also a valuable tureen goes missing from the benefit's auction.  She knows she must help solve this murder quickly so that life can get back to normal.  Reporter Wes Smith helps Josie get to the truth.  Can Josie figure out who the murderer is before any more harm comes to her or her business?

I love this series.  Josie is such a fun character.  Even though antiques are not my thing, I really enjoy this antiques mystery series.  The mystery is very well crafted and the information about antiques does not hit us over the heads.  The author has done a great job of this!

I love the New Hampshire setting as well.  Great place to set a mystery.  I highly recommend this book and the series.
Dawn Dowdle, www.mysteryloverscorner.com -- mysterybks@yahoo.com -- May 21, 2007

Jane K. Cleland’s first mystery, Consigned to Death, was nominated for an Agatha Award for best first novel in 2006 -- I reviewed it and gave it 4½ quills. Deadly Appraisal is a worthy successor to that first effort. The bottom line for me is whether I want to read more mysteries by an author. My response is “yes.” With great dialogue and description, a strong but insecure heroine and enough inside info about Josie’s business to satisfy an Antiques Roadshow fan – what’s not to like?
Mystery News, April-May 2007

For a sedate antiques dealer and appraiser, Josie Prescott gets herself into plenty of dangerous and precarious situations.  In the debut novel in the series, Consigned to Death, she was involved in a murder.  In this sequel, Josie is again in the midst of a murder investigation—even as a possible suspect—when a friend is poisoned at a gala charity benefit she is hosting at her establishment.  And the murder is complicated by the question:  Who was the intended victim, Josie or the person actually killed?

The plot builds slowly, with clues—both true and false—strewn along the way.  Building to a completely unexpected conclusion, the story is well-told and carefully constructed. The author’s expertise derived from owning and operating a rare bookstore in Portsmouth, NH, many years ago shines throughout.
Theodore Feit

"Josie is a multifaceted, vulnerable character... the story is framed with details of the antiques business, and numerous well-developed secondary characters populate the book."
Booklist

Cleland skillfully combines a charming locale (coastal New England), an intrepid heroine, and a unique milieu - the high-stakes world of the antiques trade - to create a solid basis for what her readers can only hope will be an enduring series. Amid the crimes, clues, and red herrings, author Cleland sprinkles antiques lore with aplomb, as befits someone who has herself owned a store much like the one run by her character. Whether she has Josie appraising a 14th century Chinese vase, exploring the peculiariities of life along New Hampshire's abbreviated coast, or indulging in her passion for home-cooking, Cleland displays the deft touch of a writer who knows whereof she writes.
Nancy Gratton, Heirloom Bookstore, York, PA

Praise for Consigned to Death

New Hampshire State Library Book of the Week:

Blog: Book Notes New Hampshire
Post: Book of the Week #10
Link: http://nhbookcenter.blogspot.com/2007/03/book-of-week-10.html

"In Cleland's satisfying cozy debut, a New Hampshire antiques dealer, Josie Prescott, formerly employed by a big New York auction house, turns sleuth after a potential client, wealthy recluse Nathaniel Grant, is found stabbed to death in his mansion in Rocky Point, N.H. Cleland, who herself was once an antiques dealer in the Granite State, puts her insider knowledge to admirable use in depicting what is often a cutthroat business, from price setting and haggling to handling difficult clients and competitors. She also proves adept at shifting suspicion from one character to another, including a well-established professional rival of Josie's, his harpy of a wife and the slain man's greedy granddaughter. A few valuable paintings of uncertain provenance that have gone missing and a soupçon of romance for the wary Josie help raise the excitement level. Readers will want to see more of her."
Publishers Weekly

"Antiques Roadshow fans and mystery lovers will delight in this erudite debut and hope for a series featuring the resourceful Josie."   
Kirkus Reviews

Five Stars from "Curled Up with a Good Book"!

This is a very satisfying, tremendously interesting cozy mystery debut by Cleland, featuring an engaging new female sleuth in the form of an antiques dealer.... Read the rest of the review on their site.

Whistle blowers might come off on the high moral ground, but they frequently lose trust among their peers. That's what happened to Josie Prescott, who left her NYC job at a well-known auction house to establish her own company in New Hampshire. Things have gone well for her, but they've been slow—she's had to train a staff from scratch, acquire items, and build a warehouse and showroom. She's excited about her opportunity to land an entire estate of fabulous proportions when she suddenly becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation. After all, the antiques trade can be cut throat in more ways than one. "Antiques Roadshow" junkies will revel in Josie's world; cozy readers will delight in the beginnings of a new, articulate series. Like Oliver, I ask for "more, please."
Molly Weston Meritorious Mysteries

I can’t recall a first mystery I enjoyed as much as I did Consigned to Death. The martini-swilling Josie (she’ll drink one with a burger!) is a great cozy heroine … strong, straightforward and seemingly sophisticated yet vulnerable in some ways. The author has also populated her story with enough terrific secondary characters to keep the series interesting for a good long time. Antique lovers and fans of the Antiques Roadshow will find the book very appealing.
Diana Vickery Mystery News

Consigned to Death has been touted as the mystery readers' 'Antiques Road Show.' It's a decent appellation. Jane K. Cleland, the author, knows a good deal about antiques and their value, apparently from her experiences running an antique and rare bookshop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire before she moved to New York City. Wherever she obtained her expertise, Ms. Cleland knows just how to disseminate it throughout a thoroughly engrossing story without you once feeling you're being taught anything! Consigned to Death is a cozy mystery, with a very realistic heroine and a very believable, suspenseful tale. This mystery is chock full of information about valuable antiques as well as important knowledge on stolen art, all written by a very competent businesswoman as well as a talented, gifted writer. Jane K. Cleland is an author to watch closely. If her success in the business world is any indication, she'll probably soar as a fiction writer!
Alan Paul Curtis Who Dunnit

Ms. Cleland's first cozy mystery is a winner. It keeps you turning pages all the way through to the end!
Diane Kasperski Front Street Reviews

Josie Prescott is having a hectic day, multi-tasking the various parts of her burgeoning antiques business. There is the Wilson collection to arrange for an auction. There is the tag sale to organize and set up. There are the usual paperwork and customer service issues to be dealt with. Which means the unexpected arrival of Chief Alvarez throws a major monkey wrench into the works.

Alvarez wants to know about her visit to Nathaniel Grant's house that morning. Josie tells him she went out there to discuss the sale of his collection, but he didn't seem to be home. She is devastated to find out that not only is he dead, murdered, but also it happened right around the time she was standing out on the porch wondering what was going on. Not a good start to a day.

It gets worse. Guess whose fingerprints are on the knife used to stab Mr. Grant? You got it. Josie's. She has a reasonable explanation, but there is at least one viable motive.

Josie has some past. She was the sole whistle-blower in a well-publicized price-fixing scandal at a major firm, which pretty much blew her career on the West Coast. She relocated to New Hampshire, and is finally getting comfortable with how her new business is doing. She knows that the competition is keen, and sometimes cut-throat, but doesn't expect some of the backstabbing that she encounters while investigating (on her own) the murder of Mr Grant.

Josie has some assistants in her investigations. She cuts a deal with a local reporter, who has access to information she can't get any other way. This obligates her to an exclusive, but it's a deal she can live with. Her lawyer is far more supportive, at least in terms of time and access, than one might expect from that profession. He's a great lawyer and a very good friend. Josie also has a knack for utilizing her support staff at work to great advantage; she asks the right questions of the right people.

Making her life even more complex is the definite and totally inappropriate mutual attraction between Alvarez and Josie. He has the good sense to tell her that they can't be involved while he is working the case, but all the signs are there for an extended romance once Josie finds the killer.

Consigned to Death is a very good first novel. The characters, even the seemingly minor ones, are believable and interesting. The settings, both big and small (New Hampshire, antiques business), play an important part in the telling of the story. There is certainly plenty of potential for a long-running series; if Cleland continues to be write as well as she has in CONSIGNED TO DEATH, readers are in for a treat.
P. J. Coldren  www.reviewingtheevidence.com

Consigned to Death by Jane K. Cleland:  Cleland's debut mystery introduces Josie Prescott, an antiquarian appraiser and dealer in New Hampshire. The reader is immediately sucked into this fast-paced story, as Josie finds herself the primary suspect when an elderly client she was working for is found murdered. Josie is still in the process of rebuilding her life after she left a job where she was a whistle-blower, and her father died. Shes lonely, in mourning, fearful and angry that shes a suspect, so shes determined to prove her innocence and her honesty. With its cliff-hanger chapter endings and the sympathetic character, Consigned to Death will have the intrigued reader racing to the end.
Lesa Holstine http://www.bookbitch.com

The hallmark of a successful author is to take a premise that's been done before, many times before, and make it seem fresh. Jane K. Cleland has done just that with her debut mystery, Consigned to Death, featuring antiques dealer Josie Prescott.

Cleland herself was once an antiques dealer, and her expertise in the field imparts an authentic quality to Consigned to Death. The descriptions of how items are appraised, valued, and even sold at auction are fascinating and are well integrated into the plot.

Authors frequently try to accomplish too much with their first novel, but Cleland strikes just the right balance here. She provides a background story for Josie, but wisely doesn't dwell on it, allowing the reader the opportunity to learn more about her in future mysteries in this series. The adages of Josie's late father provide a moral compass for her, but with at least one being invoked every chapter, one wonders how long Cleland can keep using them without getting repetitive.

Consigned to Death is an absorbing and impressive first mystery, and readers will no doubt look forward to spending more time with Josie in the future.
PJN, Mysterious Reviews http://www.mysteriousreviews.com/

"I was lucky enough to be Jane Cleland's author escort while she was in Dallas/Ft. Worth and I had such a good time!  She is very knowledgeable about rare books and the antiques business and can well hold her own with interviewers.  I sat in on a television interview and a book signing and she never slowed down!  It was so interesting and I learned a lot from her about the book business.  She's very easy to talk with, which was a good thing, as we spent several hours going from bookstore to bookstore as she talked with store managers about carrying her book.  It is so new that most stores didn't have it yet! 

"I hadn't read her book before I met her, so I just devoured it as soon as possible!  I was impressed by not only the story, but how articulate Josie is.  She's someone I'd like to meet!  I have to admit that I was wrong, not once, but twice, about the real killer - that's how good the book is!  The location is well done and I could almost "see" the inside of the house where the murder occurred.  The Nazi art link was a good touch, as something similiar has been in the news in the last few years and probably will be again.  It just seemed so "up to date" and well-written.  I liked most of the characters and I wanted to "slap" only one of them!  I'm looking forward to the second book next year!"
Sherry, Carrollton, TX

"...A delightful addition to the mystery genre with an engaging new heroine. Josie Prescott is a fiercely determined heroine with an appealing personality full of purpose and life. Cleland presents to us the cutthroat world of antiques and auctions. Loaded with insider details of the auction world, Consigned to Death, is a beautifully written mystery, with a deft plot and loveable and detailed characters that pull you into the story and will keep you up into the night until you get to the satisfying finale. I for one am greatly looking forward to another mystery with the charming Josie Prescott."
Andrea Maloney, Spinetingler Magazine: Online Reviews

"As an Antiques Roadshow junkie, I am captivated by Jane K. Cleland’s Consigned to Death. Josie Prescott is an engaging heroine—smart, ethical, and brimming over with antique lore which she communicates so naturally that I never felt as if I were being lectured. Beautifully crafted, thoroughly enjoyable."
Margaret Maron, author of High Country Fall

"Don’t just browse through Josie Prescott’s consignment shop mystery, savor the setting. Consigned to Death in chock full of charm, humor, and intrigue is a cozy city on New Hampshire’s coastline."
Nora Charles, author of Who Killed Swami Schwartz?

"Josie Prescott left a good job at a New York auction house after blowing the whistle on her former employer in a price-fixing scandal. Her new business in a small New Hampshire coastal town is doing well. She is busy setting up an auction when the chief of police shows up to ask questions about a murder. A potential client is dead, and Josie has become a murder suspect. With a great deal to lose and no desire to leave her new life, she must clear her name. Using her knowledge of the art and antique trade, she starts searching for the killer with a bit of help from her lawyer and an enterprising young reporter. The fact that the chief of police is quite attractive--and Josie could use some romance--provides a bit of extra motivation. Josie is a nice addition to the ranks of female sleuths, and the antique-auction milieu provides an interesting background."
Barbara Bibel, Booklist

"Fans of The Antique Roadshow and cozy mysteries will love Jane K. Cleland’s debut mystery Consigned to Death. It’s a real find definitely worth a nod and a bid."
Karen Harper, author of The Fatal Fashion

"Learn from my mistake: Don’t start this one at bedtime. Consigned to Death is a satisfying mixture of suspense and romance set in the highly competitive world of antique auctions. I’m keeping my eye out for the next Josie Prescott mystery."
Donna Andrews, author of Owl’s Well that Ends Well