by Victoria Tait

A Book Review by Jackie Houchin

Author Victoria Tait has written another entertaining installment in her Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series. In BIDDING FOR REVENGE, Dotty gets plenty of practice bidding for antiques as well as considering a few revenge scenarios, including what “she” would like to do to a certain arrogant copper.

The story opens with Dotty swimming laps at the local Lido, practicing for her part on the Akemans Antiques team in a community-wide Charity Triathlon. The event takes place on the grounds of one of their rich clients, and starts out “swimmingly.”

But when one of the runners collapses near the finish line in a suspicious manner, the police on the scene immediately accuse the most likely characters, even Dotty!  It takes all she has to get out of that mess and ferret out the truth.

I saw some deeper aspects of Dotty in this story: confidence and culpability, defiance and dejection. She doesn’t take a lead in the investigation, but instead stays back and listens and watches. And rolls with a few very nasty punches. But when the puzzle pieces click into place, new courage has her calling out the killer.

Victoria Tait has written a solid mystery with a very likable but flawed heroine, and shows her in real struggles, especially in this book. And wherever the author leads in the series, I will gladly follow.  Good job!

PS: And as I’ve mentioned in my reviews of her other books, be sure to pay attention to the lovely book cover designs (by Daniela Colleo of StunningBookCovers.com). They always show several aspects of the story, and sometimes even clues to the mystery’s solution. And don’t you just love Dotty’s beautiful British Blue cat, Earl Gray?

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