The Shadow of Memory by Connie Berry

The Shadow of Memory (A Kate Hamilton Mystery, #4)

by Connie Berry

In Connie Berry’s fourth Kate Hamilton mystery, American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton uncovers a dark secret buried in Victorian England.
 

As Kate Hamilton plans her upcoming wedding to Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, she is also assisting her colleague Ivor Tweedy with a project at the Netherfield Sanatorium, which is being converted into luxury townhouses. Kate and Ivor must appraise a fifteenth-century painting and verify that its provenance is the Dutch master Jan Van Eyck. But when retired criminal inspector Will Parker is found dead, Kate learns that the halls of the sanatorium housed much more than priceless art.
 
Kate is surprised to learn that Will had been the first boyfriend of her friend Vivian Bunn, who hasn’t seen him in fifty-eight years. At a seaside holiday camp over sixty years ago, Will, Vivian, and three other teens broke into an abandoned house where a doctor and his wife had died under bizarre circumstances two years earlier. Now, when a second member of the childhood gang dies unexpectedly—and then a third—it becomes clear that the teens had discovered more in the house than they had realized.
 
Had Will returned to warn his old love? When Kate makes a shocking connection between a sixty-year-old murder and the long-buried secrets of the sanatorium, she suddenly understands that time is running out for Vivian—and anyone connected to her.
 

Reviewed by annieb123 on

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Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Shadow of Memory is the fourth Kate Hamilton village cozy by Connie Berry. Released 10th May 2022 by Crooked Lane Books, it's 352 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. 

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 dealer who is engaged to local Detective Inspector Tom Mallory. She came to England to enjoy a vacation some years prior and wound up staying. She's now a permanent resident and working on an art authentication project at a former sanatorium, which is now being converted into luxury townhouses.

I really enjoy murder mysteries built around long-ago cold cases which resonate down the decades to the present day, and this one is an exceptional example of the subgenre. With the addition of clever plotting, good pacing, and engaging background history, it's a winning combo.

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 fourth 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 books in the series. 

Four and a half stars. This is definitely one for British village cozy readers. Very well written and constructed. Clean language and mostly off-page violence. With four books extant in the series at this point, it would make a good choice for a long weekend binge read or buddy read. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes. 

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Reading updates

  • 19 February, 2023: Started reading
  • 19 February, 2023: Finished reading
  • 19 February, 2023: Reviewed