Antiques Con

March 10, 2014
In Allan’s humorous eighth whodunit (after 2013’s Antiques Chop), Brandy Borne and her quirky mother, Vivian, travel from quiet Serenity, Iowa, along with their blind, diabetic shih tzu, Sushi, to New York City, where they hope to auction their prized possession—an original Superman drawing—at a comic convention. On arrival at Bufford Con, organized by comic purist Tommy Bufford, the pair soon learn that all is not well. The old comic convention guard are none too pleased about Tommy’s new competing event, which may explain why the prize pen ends up as a murder weapon. Mysterious deaths follow Brandy and Vivian wherever they go, but these two spunky out-of-towners always manage to find crafty ways to avoid sticky situations in the big city. Tips about comics collecting add to the cozy fun. Allan is the pseudonym of Barbara and Max Allan Collins. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.

May 1, 2014

Brandy, her mom, and Sushi (the sleuthing shih tzu) take on New York, attending a comic-con, no less. The seventh series entry (after Antiques Chop) is a hilarious collaborative effort by Barbara and Max Allan Collins. Antiquing tips included.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2014
The latest zany adventure featuring Brandy Borne and his mother, Vivian, finds them not in their usual setting of small-town Iowa but in New York City, at a comics convention, hoping to sell a valuable comic they found in a storage-locker auction. Instead, they wind up trying to solve the murder of the convention's director, Tommy. Barbara and Max Allan Collins, writing under a pseudonym, bring their considerable experience of the comics world into the humorous details of the Comic-Con, from crazy costumes to fierce rivalries and the backstories on the comics being displayed. Fans of the series will enjoy the banter between this pair of engaging characters, and the insider look at convention politics makes a fine backdrop.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)