Someone said once that the most significant events in our lives aren’t the plans but the interruptions. How true! Fifteen months ago, I was a forty-five-year-old widow with a thriving antiques business in Jackson Falls, Ohio. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that today I would be writing to you from my honeymoon in Devon. For the second time in my life, I’m a bride—not quite blushing, but very much in love with Tom Mallory, soon to be a Detective Chief Inspector in the Suffolk Constabulary. Miraculously, I’ve been given a second chance at life, and it all began when our two vehicles nearly collided on a snowy road in Scotland—one of life’s significant interruptions.

Tom and I have had lots of adventures together in the past fifteen months—some of them pretty terrifying. Making it to the church for our wedding was a close-run thing. And who knows what the future will bring?

Today, after two glorious weeks at the Old Bell, a former coaching inn near Okehampton in Devon, we’re about to embark on our first joint investigation for Nash & Holmes, a private investigations firm based in Toronto. Our employer is the Museum of Devon History. Our commission is to establish the provenance of a blood-stained dress, said to belong to a murderous Victorian lacemaker. If authentic, the dress will be the centerpiece of a new exhibit to be called “Famous Crimes in Devon’s History.”

Here’s the story:

At one a.m. on the night of seventh September 1885, Nancy returned to the cottage she shared with her sister, a seamstress, in a state of incoherence. Her hair was disheveled. Her dress was torn and soaked with what appeared to be blood. Witnesses later testified that Nancy had arrived as usual for the six o’clock service at the village church but left abruptly. When she finally did return home, she claimed to have no memory of the events of that night and could offer no explanation for the blood on her frock. The police launched an investigation, but as no person in the surrounding area had gone missing and no body, human or animal, was ever discovered, the case was closed. Nancy died at the age of forty-six without ever speaking of the events that occurred that night.

Now that’s a mystery! Later today Tom and I are driving into Dartmoor National Park, to the market town of Coombe Mallet, where we will meet the museum director and see the dress for the first time. I can’t wait.

At the moment, I’m finishing the last of my morning coffee and waiting for Tom to emerge from the shower. From the window of our suite at The Old Bell, I can see a wild rushing stream. It’s January but the ferns are still green against the backdrop of brown fallen leaves. A cock pheasant and two of his wives have perched beneath a tall oak. “Nothing in the middle of nowhere,” someone called this place, but it’s my idea of perfection. No fancy spa. No gourmet restaurant with tiny portions artistically presented. No signature cocktails. Just comfortable beds, excellent cooking, gorgeous surroundings . . . and privacy.

Frankly, I’m getting a bit restless. I need a challenge, and a bloodstained Victorian dress sounds right up my alley—a nice historical mystery. No danger. No dead bodies.

Assuming, of course, there are no interruptions.

A Collection of Lies, A Kate Hamilton Mystery Book #5
Genre: Historical Mystery
Release: June 2024
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

In USA Today bestselling author Connie Berry’s fifth Kate Hamilton mystery, American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton follows bloodstained clues to discover the truth about the murder of a modern-day Victorian gentleman.

As Kate Hamilton and her new husband, 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 Victorian lacemaker accused of murder. If genuine, the dress and its puzzling connections to a nineteenth-century Romani family who camped on Dartmoor will be the centerpiece of a new historic crimes exhibit—exactly Kate’s kind of mystery. But matters turn deadly when a shot is fired 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 real target of the attack to be another attendee—a controversial politician intent on rooting out local corruption. This belief is overturned when Gideon is found dead in a pool of blood. But then the politician receives a death threat.

Who was the real target? Who would want to kill 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 truth, as it becomes clear the killer isn’t going to come quietly.

About the author
Connie Berry is the award-winning and best-selling 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. 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. You can learn more about Connie and her books at her website connieberry.com.