Entry Way Built Ins – Day #1
September 24, 2023
Protected: Throwback | Upkes School Pictures Through the Years
September 28, 2023
My Rating:
An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.
As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.
With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?
For a good refresher of the first three books, I found this post super helpful!
Trigger Warnings:
Dementia, Alhzeimer’s, animal death (very minor…), assisted suicide, drugs
Characters
- Kuldesh – antique store owner; killed
- Dom – heroin dealer, works for Mitch
- Mitch – heroin dealer, in trouble with the Afghans
- Luca – heroin dealer
- Samantha Barnes – forger, used to be a clean antique dealer
- Garth – Samantha’s husband
- Connie Johnson – cocaine dealer, in prison
Recurring characters
- Elizabeth – ex spy
- Joyce – ex nurse
- Ibrahim – ex therapist, sometimes practices still
- Ron – member of the Thursday Murder Club
- Ron’s son – boxer, into some sketchy stuff also
- Steven – Elizabeth’s husband
- Donna – detective
- Chris – detective
- Patrice – Donna’s mom, Chris’s girlfriend
- Bogden – polish felon, Donna’s boyfriend
My Review
If you haven’t read the prior books – go back and do it! While this technically could be read as a standalone.. I think it’s worth it to read the first books to get the character development and some of the backstories.
I enjoyed this book more than the third book. The ending was a little convulted but I think it did give the book a little more depth. It can be challenging to keep up with all of the characters that are thrown at you, but reading it and being able to flip back and forth through the pages is really helpful (although the narrator for this series is top notch!). I really enjoyed some of the new characters thrown in this one, specifically Garth. Connie Johnson also was an interestingly fun character to bring back.
Osman did a heartbreakingly, great job with Steven’s worsening dementia and the way it affected those around him. Watching my Grandpa struggle with it in his final years made it all the more relatable and emotional.
I love this series and was so excited to get this book when it was released this month. I hear it’s going to be a long while, but another one will be coming out. I will have that on my to buy list immediately.
Spoilers/Summary
Antique guy, Kuldesh, dies; he had a box that had heroin dropped off at his antique store. He was shot in the head thinking he would be safe since he had the box.. but someone shot him point blank.
Ibrahim gets some help with his client, Connie Johnson (a cocaine dealer who is in prison from previous books), to identify who the person might be that dropped off the box. It was a heroin dealer named Dom.
Donna and Chris get kicked off the case by FBI. Donna never turned the phone in that she found at the antique shop. The team exchange information that they have. Donna and Chris tell the club about a professor that the antique dealer had called the day he died.
Steven has written himself a note, telling himself that he has Alzheimers. He wrote it a year prior and had it held and sent a year later.
Joyce and Ibrahim go to visit Samantha Barnes to ask about the call to her before he died. She is an art forger and doing well for herself. Her husband (Graham?) is also very intimidating.
Dom ends up dead, shot… Chris finds him but needs the crew to pretend they found him since he wasn’t supposed to be investigating.
The Thursday Murder Club has a dinner with Luca, Samantha and her husband, and Mitch to try to plot a way to find the heroin. Mitch and Luca go to Kuldesh’s storage shed. Samantha ends up dead, pushed down the stairs.
Steven takes a drug to end his progressing into Alzheimers. Elizabeth feels lost without him. While she is in her thoughts, she realizes where the heroin in hidden. She brings the crew together and they dig up the heroin box near the radishes. Kuldesh had actually called Elizabeth’s house (the 777 code!) and Steven hid the drugs.
Ibrahim goes to talk to Connie Johnson and mentions that they found the heroin, but not to tell anyone!
It turns out the box is the expensive thing, not the heroine. Nina was the murderer of Kuldesh. She killed him for the box. She had to murder him because she knew he wouldn’t let her sell it. Garth threw Luca off of the car park because he thought he had killed his wife, but it turns out he knew that she was dead because he was working with the cops.
Nina did not kill Samantha, Mitch did. Mitch Maxwell goes to the the garbage dump to try to find the box. He needs to find the box so that the Afghans don’t kill him. He is trying to get out of the business but ends up dying from a heart attack (?) while searching for the box.
Caroline is Connie’s hit person. Connie had originally paid her to kill Luca. She had decided to take over the heroine business. She hired out for Dom’s murder. Samantha Barnes had also been murdered by Caroline, she had also intended to kill Garth but he didn’t come to the house. Nina is still being accused of Samantha’s death. Connie is now the leading heroine dealer.
We also find out that Ibrahim lost the person he loved – he had been in love with a man, which was not an acceptable thing at the time or place. His love died and he has carried that grief with him.
Antique guy, Kuldesh, dies; he had a box that had heroin dropped off at his antique store. He was shot in the head thinking he would be safe since he had the box.. but someone shot him point blank.
Ibrahim gets some help with his client, Connie Johnson (a cocaine dealer who is in prison from previous books), to identify who the person might be that dropped off the box. It was a heroin dealer named Dom.
Donna and Chris get kicked off the case by FBI. Donna never turned the phone in that she found at the antique shop. The team exchange information that they have. Donna and Chris tell the club about a professor that the antique dealer had called the day he died.
Steven has written himself a note, telling himself that he has Alzheimers. He wrote it a year prior and had it held and sent a year later.
Joyce and Ibrahim go to visit Samantha Barnes to ask about the call to her before he died. She is an art forger and doing well for herself. Her husband (Graham?) is also very intimidating.
Dom ends up dead, shot… Chris finds him but needs the crew to pretend they found him since he wasn’t supposed to be investigating.
The Thursday Murder Club has a dinner with Luca, Samantha and her husband, and Mitch to try to plot a way to find the heroin. Mitch and Luca go to Kuldesh’s storage shed. Samantha ends up dead, pushed down the stairs.
Steven takes a drug to end his progressing into Alzheimers. Elizabeth feels lost without him. While she is in her thoughts, she realizes where the heroin in hidden. She brings the crew together and they dig up the heroin box near the radishes. Kuldesh had actually called Elizabeth’s house (the 777 code!) and Steven hid the drugs.
Ibrahim goes to talk to Connie Johnson and mentions that they found the heroin, but not to tell anyone!
It turns out the box is the expensive thing, not the heroine. Nina was the murderer of Kuldesh. She killed him for the box. She had to murder him because she knew he wouldn’t let her sell it. Garth threw Luca off of the car park because he thought he had killed his wife, but it turns out he knew that she was dead because he was working with the cops.
Nina did not kill Samantha, Mitch did. Mitch Maxwell goes to the the garbage dump to try to find the box. He needs to find the box so that the Afghans don’t kill him. He is trying to get out of the business but ends up dying from a heart attack (?) while searching for the box.
Caroline is Connie’s hit person. Connie had originally paid her to kill Luca. She had decided to take over the heroine business. She hired out for Dom’s murder. Samantha Barnes had also been murdered by Caroline, she had also intended to kill Garth but he didn’t come to the house. Nina is still being accused of Samantha’s death. Connie is now the leading heroine dealer.
We also find out that Ibrahim lost the person he loved – he had been in love with a man, which was not an acceptable thing at the time or place. His love died and he has carried that grief with him.