Antiques & Collectibles Mysteries Books in Order

The Antiques and Collectibles Mysteries center on Molly Appleby, a reporter for a magazine devoted to auctions, estate sales, and the sometimes cutthroat world of collecting. On paper her job is simple. She travels through the South and beyond, writing about pottery kilns, high end auctions, specialty clubs, and the people who love old things.

In practice, Molly keeps tripping over bodies.

Each book drops her into a new corner of the antiques trade. In the first cases she covers an exclusive pottery opening in North Carolina, a television appraisal show in Richmond, and a major auction in Nashville. What should be routine assignments turn deadly when a ruthless collector collapses, a charming appraiser is murdered, or a respected dealer winds up dead.

As the series continues, Molly’s personal life changes. Her relationship with coworker Matt Harrison deepens, leading to an engagement and marriage. Their honeymoon in an English village somehow includes a poisoned neighbor and a mysterious eye miniature brooch. Later investigations involve a tight knit doll club and a supposedly haunted antique, a Hollywood star auctioning off prized possessions, a black tie fundraiser where a rare book dealer takes a fatal fall, and a new dealer whose stash of rare coins may be tied to an old, unsolved crime.

The antiques themselves are always at the heart of the stories. Adams and coauthor Parker Riggs use specific objects like pottery, jewelry, dolls, coins, and Fabergé inspired treasures as both clues and symbols. Learning how a piece was made, who owned it, and why it matters often leads Molly to the motive for murder.

Tone wise, the series stays firmly in cozy territory. Molly is curious and determined but not reckless, and she leans on family, colleagues, and sympathetic law enforcement contacts instead of charging in alone. Settings range from Southern small towns to elegant estates and English villages, with plenty of travel details and behind the scenes glimpses of the collectibles trade.

Underneath the puzzles, these books explore questions of value. Some characters will do anything for money or status, while others cling to keepsakes for emotional reasons. Molly’s own journey includes learning which parts of her past she wants to reclaim and what kind of future she is willing to fight for.

For readers who like mysteries grounded in real objects and bits of history, following Molly from one assignment to the next is a satisfying way to see how greed, nostalgia, and obsession can all attach to the same fragile artifact.