I'd give this book an easy five stars because I've grown to love the series and its characters, but for a couple reasons this is my least favorite of the series. His increased presence in this book doesn't QUITE make up for the lack of Calvin, but it does help. The excellent writing and characterization is still here, though, and I can't even describe how much I love the series-long redemption arc a certain character has gone through in the past four books. Unfortunately that sort of takes away from the cozy feeling that I get from the others. This lends a sense of urgency and tension to it that is missing from the other books. Calvin is in peril for a good two thirds of it, which I don't think is a spoiler because it's mentioned in the blurb. This book is structured a little differently than the other books in the series, which is both good and bad. I hope it's released on audio relatively soon, and Wyatt Baker has grown on me as Sebastian enough that I'd love to hear him narrate it. I absolutely need more of this series, and lo and behold, a fifth book is in the works, to be released (on kindle) at the end of this month, and I'm champing at the bit to get my hands on it. But it’s not Sebastian who may become the next target - it’s Calvin.

The clock is ticking to recover a long-lost artifact linked to paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope and to capture a murderer. Before Sebastian knows it, his closest friends and family are dragged into a series of horrific murders with antiquated clues hinting to the infamous Victorian American Bones Wars. Sebastian patently disregards the mystery of a lifetime because he is done with death and danger - but the killer escalates. Then Snow’s Antique Emporium receives a decapitated human head in the mail and the holidays are gory once again. Although Sebastian is now New York City’s best-known busybody, he’s finished with crime solving and wants nothing more than to plan a romantic budget wedding. Patience, sanity, and their very lives have been put to the test, but love has persevered.

It’s been a full year since the mystery that brought together antique shop owner and part-time amateur sleuth Sebastian Snow with homicide detective Calvin Winter.

Joy by C.S. Poe