Hour is Come is the prequel novella to a delightful new cozy mystery series by Victoria Tait. You can only get a copy of this book by joining her newsletter (link below).  But it is well worth it, as it sets up the entire series.

Dotty Sayers (there is a wink to several English mystery heroes in the series) is the main character. She’s a young military widow who is about to be moved out of her “company” house. She doesn’t have a job, in fact she has no work experience at all. She is quite at a loss.

The ex-wife of her older deceased husband sees an opportunity and immediately moves to her advantage. Before Dotty can think it through, Angela has crated out most of the furniture from Dotty’s house and sent it to an antique auction. Angela says she is in “dire need” of the money (boo-hoo) for the schooling of hers and Dotty’s ex-husband’s children.

Quite by chance Dotty finds herself at the auction house (to retrieve a few forgotten items in a chest of drawers), and accidentally discovers a dead body in a huge old grandfather clock. (See the book cover. These are wonderfully drawn to portray many of the aspects of the stories in the series. Yes, even the black Labrador.)

Dotty is interviewed by a pompous old police investigator and his fumbling female constable who both assume she works at Akeman’s Antique Auctions. And by the time the murder investigation is over (Dotty helps in innumerable ways to solve it), she is hired!

I love this beginning of the Dotty Sayers Antiques Mystery series!  Victoria Tait has the perfect “voice” for a cozy English mystery. The characters are all pictured clearly in the book so you either like them, laugh at them, or are strangely suspicious of them. The story moves along quickly with hints and clues, besides all the interesting facts about antiques, auctions, and military family life.

In the next post I will review the actual first book in the series – FAKE DEATH