The Price of Truth

Patchwork #20

by Camy Tang

Sarah’s daughter-in-law Maggie is going to an antiques auction in Boston with her friend Nicole, who is visiting from California. Irene Stuart of the Historical society asks Sarah to tag along to bid on a quilt made for one of the early families of Maple Hill. Sarah is excited to spend the week with her daughter-in-law, but when Sarah arrives, she is surprised to find that the historic quilt may not be authentic. As she tries to verify its age, she notices something fishy going on at the auction. Quilts are being sold for far more than their value—and no one seems to realize it. What’s driving up the prices? Can she figure out what’s really going on before the Maple Hill Quilt comes under the gavel? Meanwhile, Nicole opens up about her troubled marriage, and Sarah encourages both of the younger women to cherish their relationships. But will the price of the truth be to high?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Christian Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Christian

310 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Camy writes Christian romantic suspense, contemporary romance, and cozy mystery as Camy Tang and Regency romance under her pen name, Camille Elliot. She grew up in Hawaii but now lives in northern California with her engineer husband and rambunctious dog. She graduated from Stanford University in psychology with a focus on biology, but for nine years she worked as a biologist researcher. Then God guided her path in a completely different direction and now she’s writing full time, using her original psychology degree as she creates the characters in her novels. In her free time, she’s a staff worker for her church youth group and leads one of her church’s Sunday worship teams. She also loves to knit, spin wool into yarn, and is training to (very slowly) run a marathon.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah, her daughter-in-law and her friend go to a quilt auction. The historical society asks Sarah to bid on a quilt for them. Sarah doesn't know much about auctions but she knows that the quilts are going for way too much money. She also notices something odd about the people bidding on them. She does find out what is going on, along with learning a lot about auctions.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah travels to Boston with Maggie to an auction where she is supposed to bid for Irene on a quilt for the Maple Hill Historical society. Proxy bidder, shill bidders and money laundering ensue.

[Ellison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three women visit Boston to attend an antique auction. One woman begins to think that there is a group of bidders making fake bids in an effort to raise prices. With circumstantial evidence she gathers a group of people to run cover for her as she aspires to figure out what is happening. Additional characters back home and spirituality. See 'Killer Stuff and Tons of Money' for a non-fiction version of this.

[Dina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sarah goes with her daughter in law Maggie and Maggie's friend to an antique auction in Boston and red flags begin to turn up right away when antique quilts start going for 3-4 times their appraised value. Sarah is suspicious and uncovers quite a scheme.
Finished 2/22/15

[Jewett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know this series is not great literature or fantastic mystery, but I like the people and I like stories about quilts.

[Loraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah Hart is an expert in vintage quilt restoration. She lives in small town Maple Hill Massachusetts. Her daughter-in-law, Maggie, who own an antique shop and Maggie's best friend, Nicole, from California join Sarah as they head to an auction sale in Boston. Maggie and Nicole are look for antiques while Maggie has been sent by the Maple HIll Historical Society to purchase a quilt made for one of the early families of Maple Hill. But Sarah smells something wrong when the first quilt that she values at approximately $1000 sells instead for $5000. When this trend with quilts continues, Sarah begins to suspect their is a shill driving up the prices. Which one of her suspects will be the shill?

Another enjoyable cozy mystery that is part of Guideposts Patchwork series that all focus on quilts. Many well know Christian authors have contributed to this series. It is an older series and the books are getting more difficult to find. But Guideposts recently developed Kindle versions that can be purchased on their website for $7.99.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe even 4 1/2 stars. I was just a little worried because books in this series are written by different authors and the author of this one, Camy Tang, is a knitter, not a quilter but it turned out to be one of the better books in this cozy series. Unlike most of the books, the action does not take place in Maple Hill, Massachusetts, where Sara, a quilter and quilt restorer, lives and knows nearly everyone.

In this book, Sarah, her daughter-in-law, Maggie, and Maggie's friend, Nicole, go to a quilt auction. Sarah doesn't know much about auctions (we learn along with her) but she knows about quilts, so the Maple Hill historical society has asked Sarah to bid on a quilt for them, if she think it is authentic. Sarah notices that the quilts at the auction are selling for several times the estimated value. She also notices an odd pattern of behavior from the bidders. She starts taking notes and enlists some help to figure out what's going on. Readers learn about proxy bidding, which is legal, and shill bidding, which is not.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great concept for this mystery. I just want this series to go on and on.