Kate Hamilton sits down for a Q&A in conversational form with dru’s book musings responding to twenty or more questions so that we can learn more about her. Are you ready? Let’s get to know Kate.

Hello, mystery readers! I’m Kate Hamilton, back for my second visit to dru’s book musings.

In case you don’t remember me, I’m an American antiques dealer and appraiser with a shop in Jackson Falls, Ohio. I work with my best friend and only full-time employee, Charlotte, who doubles as my fashion guru (I’m not allowed to shop for clothes unattended). She runs the business when I’m in the British Isles, which is where I’ve been spending most of my time recently, specifically in a small Suffolk village called Long Barston.

To explain how that happened, I’d have to go back to the late autumn of 2019 when I was driving along a snow-covered road on the Isle of Glenroth in the Scottish Hebrides and nearly collided with Detective Inspector Tom Mallory of the Suffolk Constabulary. That chance encounter changed the trajectory of my life. Wouldn’t you know it? Of all the single men in the world, I had to fall in love with a policeman who lives three thousand miles and a great big ocean away. More about that later.

My full name is Kate Larsen Hamilton, and I describe myself as a young widow, either 45 or 46. I could pretend my age is a secret, but the truth is my author, Connie Berry, has so far neglected to assign me a birthday, which is too bad because I love cake. I’m planning to bring that up with her very soon.

When I’m at home in Ohio, I rattle around a three-story Queen Anne Victorian in the town’s historic district. Since my husband’s death and since my children have left the nest, my days are spent working—at the shop or combing the local auctions. My evenings are spent with Fiona, my sweet Scottish Fold cat. In spring and summer, my favorite spot to hang out is the big, wrap-around front porch with a glass of red wine, a British mystery novel, and Fiona purring in my lap. In winter we can be found in front of a crackling fire, with a knitting project to work on, and classical music on Spotify.

I was born into a Danish-Norwegian community in southern Wisconsin. My parents were antiques collectors and dealers, which is how I learned the trade and fell in love with history and the objects that connect us to the past. I had one brother, Matt—my hero. He was a Down Syndrome child who succumbed to congenital heart disease at the age of eleven. I was five when he died, and I’ve never really gotten over it.

Losing people I love has been an unwelcome thread in my life. First my brother. Then my father, who was killed in an auto accident on Christmas Eve when I was seventeen. And then my late husband, Bill, a transplanted Scot. He died suddenly, leaving me with two teenagers to raise. My son, Eric, is a graduate student in nuclear physics at The Ohio State University. I never know where his research will take him. Last time it was northern Italy, and I’ve heard rumors recently about Sweden or Finland. My daughter, Christine, is reading history at Magdalen College, Oxford. She’s the one who keeps me up at night. I once described Christine’s love life as somewhere between Miss Havisham and Monica Lewinsky. She keeps falling for unreliable men, which I suspect stems from the trauma of her father’s sudden death.

The one constant in my life has been my mother, Linnea, who lives at Oak Hills, an active retirement community in Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine country. Recently she became engaged to Dr. James Lund, a retired physician who lives a few doors down from her. Not only is my mother a font of knowledge about antiques, she is also the wisest person I know. No matter the circumstances, she refuses to feel sorry for herself. Instead she turns her face toward the sun, and embraces whatever life has to offer. That’s where we differ. My mother usually believes things will turn out right in the end. I’m usually pretty sure they won’t.

Which brings me back to Tom Mallory. Do I have a future with him? I don’t know, but for now, I’m enjoying life in a quaint English village with people who’ve become very dear to me—Lady Barbara Finchley-fforde, the closest thing Long Barston has to aristocracy; Ivor Tweedy, owner of The Curiosity Cabinet, an antiquities shop on the High Street; and Vivian Bunn, the bossy, opinionated, and loveable seventy-something with whom I am currently living.

Life in England has a slower pace. When Tom isn’t catching criminals, he and I like to take long walks along the River Stour and grab a meal at The Trout, a tiny, ancient pub specializing in Scottish salmon and a cloud-like Pavlova.

Life in Long Barston isn’t completely idyllic, however. Last Christmas I became involved in the death of a young museum curator. Now, in May, the Suffolk Constabulary has hired me as an antiques consultant in an investigation involving the murder of a reclusive widow and the disappearance of a Chinese Han-dynasty funereal jar. It’s a strange case, leading me down murky paths into Anglo-Saxon legends and the addictive nature of collecting art.

Ever since that snowy night in the Scottish Highlands, murder seems to follow me. Once you stumble upon a body, trust me—they just keep turning up. Tom says I have a gift for recognizing patterns and noticing anomalies. That may be true, but if someone wrote a biography of my life, they’d probably call it The Reluctant Sleuth.

If I were to write my own memoir, I’d call it Catching Monkeys. To understand what that means, you’ll have to read my latest adventure, The Art of Betrayal.

The Art of Betrayal, A Kate Hamilton Mystery #3
Genre: Traditional
Release: June 2021
Purchase Link

In Connie Berry’s third Kate Hamilton mystery, American antique dealer Kate Hamilton’s spring is cut short when a body turns up at the May Fair pageant.

Spring is a magical time in England–bluebells massing along the woodland paths, primrose and wild thyme dotting the meadows. Antiques dealer Kate Hamilton is spending the month of May in the Suffolk village of Long Barston, enjoying precious time with Detective Inspector Tom Mallory. While attending the May Fair, the annual pageant based on a well-known Anglo-Saxon folktale, a body turns up in the middle of the festivities.

Kate is even more shocked when she learns the murder took place in antiquity shop owner Ivor Tweedy’s stockroom and a valuable Chinese pottery jar that she had been tasked with finding a buyer for has been stolen. Ivor may be ruined. Insurance won’t cover a fraction of the loss.

As Tom leads the investigation, Kate begins to see puzzling parallels between the murder and local legends. The more she learns, the more convinced she is that the solution to both crimes lies in the misty depths of Anglo-Saxon history and a generations-old pattern of betrayal. It’s up to Kate to unravel this Celtic knot of lies and deception to save Ivor’s business.

About the author
Connie 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 dealers who instilled in her a passion for history, fine art, and travel. During college she studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany and St. Clare’s College, Oxford, where she fell under the spell of the British Isles. Besides reading and writing mysteries, Connie loves history, foreign travel, cute animals, and all things British. She lives in Ohio with her husband and adorable Shih Tzu, Emmie.

All comments are welcomed.