When I moved home to Lilac Grove a year ago, I never imagined I’d be raising a teenager and running a business. Don’t get me wrong—I love my constantly-singing, overly-dramatic, no-filter little sister Tilly. Despite the seven years between us, we’ve grown close since losing our parents last year in a freak car accident. With Tilly graduating high school soon and then leaving for college overseas, Aunt Midge and I are determined to give her the best summer ever. Did I mention how lucky we are to have our very own Auntie Mame? Auntie left her luxurious apartment in Manhattan to move in with us without even batting an eye right after the crash. She’s walking proof that great things come in small packages. With her colorful, bejeweled caftans, her energetic attitude, and her Afghan hound Halston, a sweet, oversized lapdog, Auntie seems to have solutions to every problem.

Which is why I’m not really worried about the strange letter that appeared in our foyer this morning as I was leaving for work. I’ve stepped into my parent’s shoes running Antiquities and Artifacts Appraised in Manhattan, less than an hour from our little lilac filled town. Sure, we get plenty of clients with their great-great-grandmother’s tea sets that just must be worth thousands (spoiler alert: they usually aren’t). But we also get the occasional two-hundred-year-old emerald and diamond encrusted brooch someone found at a second-hand shop that ends up being worth a cool quarter million. Yep, that actually happened. My parent’s colleagues—my colleagues now—Micah Abbott and Sir Robert are excellent at what they do, and they’ve taught me a lot. Including having the good business sense to always say yes to the high-profile assignments. Like the one Micah and I are scheduled to begin this morning at the Museum of Antiquities, or MOA. There’s no way I could have turned down the opportunity to appraise the largest ruby I’ve ever seen—the acquisitions liaison Francesca told us it might be sixteen carats. (Francesca is Sir Robert’s girlfriend and a little out of his league, but don’t tell him I said that!).

I tried to explain that to Aunt Midge and Tilly just now, after we read the letter; not that last bit, but that I can’t be expected to decline an assignment like this. I just can’t. If the ruby does turn out to be authentic, and as large and flawless as I’ve heard, it could catapult our business to the top of the field. Which is what Mom and Dad spent a decade working toward, only to lose it all a year ago.

It will be fine. I’d be crazy to walk away from this assignment just because a mysterious note slipped through our letter slot this morning warned me off taking the job. I’ll have my colleagues with me, plus museum security is always hovering when we work with valuable artifacts at MOA. I swear, it’ll be fine. What’s the worst that could happen?

Ruby Red Herring, An Avery Ayers Antique Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: June 2021
Purchase Link

In this Avery Ayers Antique Mystery series debut, perfect for fans of Ellery Adams and Jane K. Cleland, an antiques appraiser hunts a missing gem while probing her parents’ deaths.

After her parents’ deaths, Avery Ayers takes over the family business, Antiquities & Artifacts Appraised, from the home office in Lilac Grove and a branch in Manhattan. Now living back at home with her younger sister Tilly and their newly moved-in, eccentric Aunt Midge and her Afghan hound, Avery’s life is filled with jewels, tapestries, paintings, and rare finds. But their world is rocked when Avery learns that the theft of a priceless ruby may be connected to her parents’ demise.

The trouble starts when the Museum of Antiquities hires Avery to appraise a rare, resplendent ruby. It bears a striking similarity to a solitary stone in the museum’s prized Xiang Dynasty bejeweled dragon medallion exhibit, which has long been missing one of its ruby eyes. Now, Avery and her colleagues–ostentatious Sir Robert Lane and fatherly Micah Abbott–suspect they may have the missing gem. But facets of the case remain cloudy. Security guard Art Smith is always underfoot but is not what he appears. Another body turns up connected to the appraisal. And Avery receives mysterious notes that begin to put her life in danger.

Avery enlists possible ally Art’s help in cutting the list of suspects who might have polished off her parents and swiped the jewel. Was it art collector Oliver Renell? Curator Nate Brennan? Acquisitions Liaison Francesca Giolitti? Actor Tyler Chadwick? Was the crime impersonal or perpetrated by someone all too close to Avery? If she can’t find the culprit, lovely Lilac Grove may be the setting for Avery’s own death.

Meet the author
Tracy Gardner’s new antique mystery series debuts with Ruby Red Herring, which finds gemologist and antiquities expert Avery Ayers unraveling the mystery of how a priceless ruby is connected to the tragic car crash that killed her parents, and whether the strange messages she’s receiving could mean her father’s actually alive. Book two in this new series, Peril At Pennington Manor, will be released in summer of 2022. Tracy also writes Hallmark Publishing’s Shepherd Sisters series, with book three, Still Life And Death, coming out August of 2021. A Detroit native, Tracy is a daughter of two teachers. She lives with her husband and best friend of thirty years and a menagerie of spoiled rescue dogs and cats, her front door constantly revolving with her two daughters and son back and forth from college. Tracy is a strong believer in the power of baked goods, live music, family, and friends as staples to a happy life.

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