The Caine Mutiny
Tamar Myers
Avon, May, 2006, $6.99, 384 pp.
ISBN 0060535199

Abby Timberlake, owner of the antique store the Den of Antiquity, is the high bidder at a locked trunk sale in a storage center. Inside were a bunch of canes that Abby put out in a display in the hopes of attracting buyers. Two mornings in a row she comes to open the store to see the canes scattered all over the place, and assumes her assistant and soon to be sister in law CJ failed to clean up before closing. CJ. says that when she left the canes were in the display.

Also in the locked trunk is a bag with a skull in it. Abby thinks it is a human skull, and after being arrested for "unauthorized" possession of human remains by two ignorant policemen she is out on bail. She goes to the bidders who bought a cane from their store. She asks each person why he bid on the item, and when she gets her answers she leaves, but his housekeeper/lover runs after her telling her she has important information. Before she can tell her what it is they are interrupted, and a few days later the housekeeper is murdered. Feeling that all the unusual and tragic things that have been happening are linked to her winning the bid, Abby starts snooping around for answers and almost gets herself killed.

This is the thirteenth Den of Antiquity mystery, and it is as fresh and charming as the first book in this delightful cozy series. The cast of characters, including the heroine, are a bunch eccentrics; their antics make the audience chuckle out loud. The who-done-it is cleverly thought out, complex and totally impossible to figure out. Tamar Myers scores another winner with THE CAINE MUTINY.