Today, we welcome C.L. Miller to the Cluesletter to talk with us about her latest mystery, The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea.
I enjoyed this cozy whodunnit set on board an antiques cruise sailing to Jordan—it’s a clever installment in this series starring an antiques specialist-turned-detective. Fans of Antiques Roadshow will find a lot to love in these books!
Connect with Cara on Instagram, Goodreads, and her website. Grab a copy of The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea from your retailer of choice here.
Hi, Cara! Thanks so much for joining. Your Antique Hunter’s series follows Freya, an antiques specialist, in pursuit of stolen antiques and dangerous criminals. What do you love about Freya’s character? Which of her qualities make her an excellent detective?
Hello, and thank you for having me. I love Freya’s journey of finding a new direction in life, coming out of her shell and starting over again once her daughter has left home for university. I grew up in the antiques world, my mother was an expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow and wrote over 140 books on the subject, so Freya’s knowledge of antiques and the qualities someone would need to be an antique hunter came from a very authentic place. In the antiques world, we call it ‘the eye’ when you have an instinct about an item. Perhaps there is something not quite right about it that makes you take a closer look, and it might be then that you discover that the item is a fake. This can also help when tracking down a murderer!
The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea is the second in the series, and unlike the first, it’s set largely in one location: an antiques cruise sailing toward Jordan, on which a shady art trafficking ring is doing business. How did you prepare to write this globe-trotting mystery? Did you find a smaller setting more or less challenging to write?
I think both settings, and indeed each book we write, have their own set of challenges but I loved being immersed in the cruise ship setting. For this book I got to go on a brilliant research trip to Petra in Jordan with my family—a place I have always longed to visit—and I also went on a short cruise from Los Angeles down to Mexico, which my kids still consider one of their best holidays! I love worldbuilding, so the setting of Death on the Red Sea was a joy to write and it was fun to change it up in a series, as I think it keeps things interesting for the author and the reader.
Antiques are in your blood, having begun as an editorial assistant for your mother, Judith Miller, on publications like The Miller’s Antique Price Guide. What have you enjoyed most about writing on a subject so close to home?
I love getting to put antiques that I collect or find fascinating into my books and letting readers discover some interesting pieces. Quite a few items from my own mid-century modern collection have found their way into the books! In Death on the Red Sea, we look at costume jewelry and shipwrecked ceramics amongst other things. I also like highlighting the art and antique underworld with topics such as cultural repatriation and trafficking—it’s a world you don’t see on the genteel Antiques Roadshow.
For the writers in the crowd, what have you learned about writing mysteries so far? What do you find most—or perhaps least!—enjoyable about plotting a mystery novel?
I am not a plotter—I wish I was—but murder mystery novels by their very nature are very plot driven, so by about draft three I have a spreadsheet to keep all the clues, motives, and suspects straight in mind while I edit. I love the challenge of setting out a mystery, but it can take a lot of editing to get everything to fit together and for the right antiques to be showcased.
Lastly, what’s next for you? Are you working on more antiques mysteries, and/or is there anything else you’re excited to share?
My third book in the series, The Antique Hunter’s Murder in the Castle, set in a Scotland castle in the snow with a focus on Scottish antiques, has just been handed into my editors and will be with readers in 2026.
Thanks so much to Cara for the interview. Sleuths, I hope you enjoyed it! If you aren’t already subscribed, please be sure to sign up for the Cluesletter and get author features like this alongside other mystery goodies, delivered to your inbox every other Tuesday.