9 April 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-40972068-4 (PB)
Kat Stanford, the former TV host of Fakes and Treasures has now been living in Little Dipperton in Devon for some years. She is frequently asked to value items. that people have stumbled upon or found clearing out their attic that can turn out to be of great value or more often worthless junk! However, a call from Connie Hicks asking her to meet her at Railway Cottage to value her father’s ‘RARE’ model railway collection from his days of working as a signalman on the old line that made headlines 50 years ago of a botched train heist, she is naturally intrigued.
But the collection turns out to be a muddle of scratched and faded engines, mismatched carriages and broken pieces of track. The only thing she could find of value was a book on English Railways written by George Findlay in 1891. When Kat realises that Connie’s father is still alive and living in Sonny Hill Lodge, she is rather perplexed, firstly she needs Connie’s father to sign that he is OK with her selling his model railway. And second that Connie seems to be in need of every penny she can get, and Sunny Hill Lodge is a very expensive nursing home. It’s a beautiful Regency villa. A further surprise is the new manager, Alison Fisher. What has happened to Margery Rooke, Kat asked? Retired. said Alison.
Soon Kat was back home in her cottage. Unlike her mother Iris who owned Carriage House, Kat rented three buildings from the ailing dowager countess. While the countess was alive, she felt secure. But Rupert the 15th and current earl had made it clear that her future at Honeychurch Hall was far from certain.
On the coming Easter weekend, estate
manager Delia is preoccupied with the grand opening of the Museum Room with a
display on the eccentric explorer Gerald Honeychurch who captured and brought
back Florian the famous white polar bear, and a launch of the Polar Tearoom. However,
a check on the Museum Room showed bare plaster, and dangling wires. Delia
seemed unconcerned with the lack of progress introducing with a dreamy
expression. Keith the builder, who she assured us all, knew what he was doing.
And Delia’s supposed replacement, tall, scowling June, which has alarmed Iris,
who can’t seem to get an answer out of Delia as to why after all the work she
has put into Honeychurch Hall she has now decided to leave.
Meanwhile, Iris, who is a bestselling writer has been struggling under the weight of what she owes to HMRC, and has now decided to start a new series, Harem Historicals. As Kat returns to her cottage she receives a text. URGENT. Want stuff back. Don’t need valuation. Come NOW. Connie. Kat reply’s, ‘Come and collect them, I will be here for the next hour’. Connie was a no-show.
The Dartmouth Antique Emporium is housed in a converted barn with twenty-five spaces rented by a mix of dealers, one of which is rented by Kat. Accompanied by young Harry, the future sixteenth Earl of Honeychurch they go to look at the Kaiser Adler train engine reputed to be worth in excess of eighty thousand pounds. Harry is fascinated and has to be dragged away by Rupert. Later, Kat helps Giles Oxley load the valuable engine into the boot of his car. As Kat drives home, she takes the usual backroad to Honeychurch, but finds it blocked off by two young chaps. Annoyed and not wanting to drive the long way home she skirts around their sign and drives on where she sees Oxley’s Bentley, parked with him inside, dead. And no sign of the Kaiser Alder engine in the boot.
Kat's love life that had begun to look promising when she connected with local detective Mallory, but his current boss is now the impressive Chief Superintendent Stella Greenleigh, Mallory’s ex. Oops. While refusing to answer any questions that relate to Stella, he is shocked when Kat asks him why did Stella insist on taking all the boxes that were Connie’s, which Kat still had in the boot of her car? Then Kat remembered that Connie’s mother had said that somewhere there were diamonds on that train!
Then things get even more murky, June has passed out having seen Florian, the stuffed polar bear, move of his own volition. To sum up we have two dead bodies, no suspects, a missing valuable model train, and a moving stuffed polar bear.
Can Kat solve these tantalising mysteries?
Or will this be the end of life at
Honeychurch Hall? Full of twists and turns and surprise upon
surprise this is a thrilling page-turner as long-held secrets come to light.
Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett
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