And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander 3 stars (steeplechase)

[Rachel N.]

Emily Ashton married mainly to get away from her mother so she wasn't heartbroken when her husband Philip died soon after their marriage while on safari. Emily learns that Philip was interested in ancient Greece and she becomes interested in it too after picking up a copy of the Iliad. While looking at Philip's donations to the British Museum she realizes some of them are fakes and becomes determined to find out if Philip was involved in art forgery. I liked Emily and her determination to follow her own pursuits and enjoyment of not having to follow societies rules so much as a widow. I also like Philip's best friend Colin Hargreaves. My main problem is the book moves very slowly. It took forever for the art plot to start going anywhere. This is the authors first book so I'm interested in reading the next in the series and hope that the pacing picks up to match the great characters.

[Theresa]

I agree. It felt like it floundered for a bit there. I have the 2nd to read in the TBR. I liked the characters a lot and also the direction the author took both the plotting and secondary themes.

[Robin P]

I also found this ok but not compelling me to read more. But it's true that many series don't hit their stride till later. For a while I belonged to a mystery book club at my local library, and the leader would deliberately pick books from later in the series for this reason. If I liked the book, I would go back and start the series from the beginning. That's how I belatedly got to Louise Penny.

Sadly, the librarian who was the leader retired during the pandemic and nobody else took it on. The next nearest library also has a mystery group, but they seem to read a lot of thrillers, which for me is a very different and less desirable genre.