My only complaint about C.L. Miller’s The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea was the large number of characters. You might want to keep score as you’re reading it. Other than that, it’s a fast-paced mystery set in the world of black market antiques. It’s obvious Miller knows antiques when you venture onto the cruise with Freya Lockwood and her Aunt Carole.

Freya inherited Crockleford Antiques from her late uncle, Arthur Crockleford, although they had been estranged for twenty years. Now, she hopes to keep the business afloat while working with a side business of restoring stolen antiques to their rightful owners. She has her first case when a docent at a small museum calls. There was a man murdered in the alley behind the museum, so the police are only interested in that, not in the theft of a small painting of a fire on a ship. When Freya and Carole learn more about it, they suspect Arthur was sending them a message. He’s the one who donated the painting, and even hung it.

It’s that painting that kicks off their adventures. Freya had been invited to be an expert on an antiques cruise toward the Red Sea in Jordan. Carole is all about fun and adventure, and Freya is following clues. Although the invitation was cancelled, Carole found a way to get the pair on board the ship. There, Freya finds the missing painting, but also a gallery filled with stolen antiques. And, no one on the ship can be trusted, except for Phil, an undercover FBI agent who is upset the pair might be in his way.

With a ship full of people who trade or steal items on the black market, Freya and Carole are way over their heads. In fact, Freya’s guesswork muddles up the people involved. And, the two women seem to get in trouble, although they try to be careful. It takes an unusual ally to extricate everyone from the trouble involved when desperate people compete for power in the black market antiquities business.

Freya and Carole were in over their heads at times. At the same time, this was a fun book, with one wonderfully funny scene back at home at the antiques shop. And, Miller, the daughter of the authors of Miller’s Antique Price Guide, knows her antiques. Her background and knowledge is obvious in this fun caper.

C.L. Miller’s website is https://clmillerauthor.com/.

The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea by C.L. Miller. Atria Books, 2025. ISBN 9781668032039 (hardcover), 304p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley through NetGalley to review for a journal.