What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?
The week before The Art of the Decoy begins, I’d just finished an internship at Christie’s auction house in New York City. I’d left the city and was planning on enjoying a vagabond life for the summer, driving around New England in my van, buying, and selling antiques and art at flea markets and shows.
What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?
Actually, I like quite a few things about myself. My determination for one. The most unique trait would be my knack for finding quality antiques and art, even when they’re hidden amid piles of fakes and other junk.
What do you like least about yourself?
How hard it is to get past events that happened years ago, such as witnessing the single-engine plane crash that killed my grandparents.
What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?
My goodness, Trish is always coming up with strange situations to put me in. But that’s probably because she’s an antique dealer, and she knows firsthand that weird situations happen in real life as well as in the Scandal Mountain Mystery Series.
Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?
Making me face my feelings toward my mom and finding forgiveness. My mom and I have always had a hard time getting along for a variety of reasons. We’ve both held onto our resentments for far too long.
What is your greatest fear?
Having the antique and art business my grandparents lovingly created fail under my watch.
What makes you happy?
Lots of things! The hunt for amazing antiques and art. Spending time with my uncle Tuck and our new employee Kala. Being home in Vermont. I love the town of Scandal Mountain and the historic brick house I grew up in. Not to mention the possibility of rekindling the hot romance I had with Shane Payton, my ex-probation officer.
If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?
My grandparents would never have died in the plane crash. I miss and love them so much. A part of my heart was crushed when I failed to save them that day, no matter how impossible that would have been.
Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?
Felix Graham. He’s a snob and a womanizer—and my family’s biggest competition in the antique and art business. Rumor also has it he might have had a finger in my mom’s arrest for art forgery.
Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?
If I could do anything, it would be turn back time rather than trade places. Things are difficult right now business-wise and emotionally. When I was young, life seems so much easier. Hmmm… on second thought, I’d like to trade places with our new employee Kala for a couple of hours. I’d really like to find out more about her mysterious past, and that’s one way I could do it.
Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?
Trish Esden loves museums, gardens, wilderness, dogs, and birds, in various orders depending on the day. She lives in northern Vermont where she deals antiques with her husband, a profession she’s been involved with since her teens. Don’t ask what her favorite type of antique is. She loves hunting down old bottles and rusty barn junk as much as she enjoys fine art and furnishings.
Trish loves interacting with fans, so be sure to follow her on social media and sign up for her newsletter, too. Links and information about the Scandal Mountain Antiques Mystery Series are on her website.
What's next for you?
Rumor has it that I’m going to get tangled up in an adventure that dives into the world of galleries, art connoisseurs, and high-stake schemes, as I race to untangle a mystery behind an unsettling piece of outsider art.
A Scandal Mountain Antiques Mystery, Book
It should have been a simple appraisal. If it weren’t for the thief.
After her mother is sent to prison for art forgery, Edie Brown returns to Northern Vermont to rebuild her family’s fine art and antiques business. She’s certain she can do it now that her mother’s gone. After all, butting heads with her mom over bad business practices was what drove Edie away three years ago, including a screwup that landed Edie on probation for selling stolen property.
When Edie scores a job appraising a waterfowl decoy collection at a hoarder’s farmhouse, she’s determined to take advantage of the situation to rebuild the business’s tarnished reputation and dwindling coffers. In lieu of payment, Edie intends to cherry-pick an exceptional decoy carved by the client’s renowned Quebecoise folk artist ancestors. Only the tables turn when the collection vanishes.
Accused of the theft, Edie’s terrified that the fallout will destroy the business and land her in prison next to her mom. She convinces the client to give her five days to find and return the decoys before calling the authorities. Desperate, she digs into the underbelly of the local antiques and art world. When Edie uncovers a possible link between the decoy theft and a deadly robbery at a Quebec museum, she longs to ask her ex-probation officer, and ex-lover, for help. But she suspects his recent interest in rekindling their romance may hide a darker motive.
With the help of her eccentric uncle Tuck and Kala, their enigmatic new employee, Edie must risk all she holds dear to expose the thieves and recover the decoys before the FBI’s Art Crime Team or the ruthless thieves themselves catch up with her.
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