Kate Hamilton Series: Book 6
Publication Date: December 9, 2025
Antiques expert Kate Hamilton dives into the past to solve a fourteenth-century mystery with disturbing similarities to a modern-day murder in the sixth installment of the Kate Hamilton mystery series.
Kate Hamilton and her husband, Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, have settled into married life in Long Barston. When archaeologists excavating the ruins of a nearby plague village discover the miraculously preserved body of a fourteenth-century woman, Kate and her colleague, Ivor Tweedy, are asked to appraise the grave goods, including a valuable pearl. When tests reveal the woman was pregnant and murdered, the owner of the estate on which the body was found, an amateur historian, asks Kate to identify her and, if possible, her killer. Surprised, Kate agrees to try.
Meanwhile, tensions within the archaeological team erupt when the body of the lead archaeologist turns up at the dig site with fake pearls in his mouth and stomach. Then a third body is found in the excavations. Meanwhile, Kate’s husband Tom is tracking the movements of a killer of his own.
With the help of 700-year-old documents and the unpublished research of a deceased historian, Kate must piece together the past before the grave count reaches four.
Kate Hamilton is back for an all-new mystery in A Grave Deception by Connie Berry.
Kate and her boss, Ivor Tweedy, are invited to an archaeological dig to evaluate the goods discovered, including a beautiful and haunting pearl. When the dig goes from one body to two, Kate and her husband Tom must work together to find who could have killed the dig’s lead archaeologist. Between finding the identity of the ancient body found in the dig, as well as finding the killer of the archaeologist, Kate must stay on her toes and solve the mystery.
Coming back to a Kate Hamilton Mystery is so comforting. The writing is wonderful, and the characters we have seen in previous books help you engage with the story right away. I found the archaeological dig incredibly interesting and loved following Kate dig into that mystery.
I did struggle a bit with the volume of characters introduced for the dig, however. When the murder happened, I was very confused about who died and who was a suspect because there were so many names. Of course, eventually I did catch on, but it did make it a little harder to engage with the murder mystery than I would have liked. I was able to guess the killer very quickly, which was a little disappointing. But I really enjoyed the twist that was introduced near the end. Overall, Berry continues her incredible series that you just can’t help but love.
A Grave Deception is a wonderful addition to the Kate Hamilton Mystery series with twists and turns that keep you guessing every step of the way.
Connie Berry is the author of the Kate Hamilton mysteries, set in the UK and featuring an American antiques dealer with a gift for solving crimes. Like her protagonist, Connie was raised by antiques dealers who instilled in her a passion for history, fine art, and travel. During college she studied at the University of Freiburg in Germany and St. Clare’s College, Oxford, where she fell under the spell of the British Isles. In 2019 Connie won the IPPY Gold Medal for Mystery and was a finalist for the Agatha Award’s Best Debut. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America and is on the board of the Guppies and her local Sisters in Crime chapter. Besides reading and writing mysteries, Connie loves history, foreign travel, cute animals, and all things British. She lives in Ohio with her husband and adorable Shih Tzu, Emmie.
