The Art of Betrayal is the third Kate Hamilton village cozy by Connie Berry. Released 8th June 2021 by Crooked Lane Books, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
Readers who enjoy British village cozy murder shopfront mysteries are in for a treat with this series. Series protagonist Kate is an American expat antiques expert who involved with local Detective Inspector Tom Mallory. She's just trying to enjoy her month long trip to England to help out in the high end antiques store of her friend Ivor whilst he's recovering from surgery, (and enjoy Tom's company) but bodies simply won't stop turning up.
I liked the characterizations here; the characters live and breathe and the dialogue was never clunky. There were several seemingly disparate plot threads which intertwined into a satisfying denouement and resolution. Despite being the third book in the series, it worked well as a standalone, though there are some minor spoilers for earlier books if read out of order. I was engaged enough with the writing and the mystery, that I've picked up the previous two books in the series.
Four stars. This is definitely one for British village cozy readers. Very well written and constructed. Clean language and mostly off-page violence (though the first murder was fairly gory).
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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