The Orkney Scroll (Archaeological Mysteries, No. 10)

From Publishers Weekly

In Hamilton's entertaining 10th archeological mystery featuring Canadian antiques dealer Lara McClintoch (after 2005's The Moai Murders), one of Lara's colleagues, Trevor Wylie, sells a local collector a supposedly authentic Charles Rennie Mackintosh writing cabinet. After the cabinet is revealed to be a fake, Trevor turns up dead. Lara's determination to find out who knocked off Trevor—and who's getting rich knocking off forged antiques—leads her to Scotland's Orkney Islands. What begins as a simple case of furniture fraud gets endlessly more complicated. For starters, Lara keeps running into people she knows from back home, like Trevor's girlfriend, who is bereft not because of heartbreak but because Trevor died owing her money. In a plot that verges on being overly complex, Lara has to contend with ancient treasure maps, a Viking legend, drug-running, money laundering and another murder. Still, Hamilton is a funny writer. Lara's culture shock in super-friendly Orkney is especially humorous. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The tenth in Hamilton's witty Archeological Mystery series has Toronto antique-store owner Lara McClintoch chasing an art nouveau writing cabinet from Canada to Glasgow to the Orkney Islands. The day after one of Lara's clients discovers that the rare Charles Mackintosh cabinet he purchased is a copy, Lara discovers the body of an antiques dealer, the one who sold her client the fake cabinet, with an axe in his skull. Two things are at stake for McClintoch: her own reputation and that of her client, arrested for the dealer's murder. Believing that the dealer may have been the victim of a bait-and-switch, McClintoch traces the real writing cabinet's provenance and follows the paper trail that emerges. Although the plotting is a bit slapdash, the antiques background is satisfyingly detailed, and the descriptions of Glasgow and the Orkneys are enchanting. A great read for fans of Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy series. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.