I really love this series and am sorry to have it end. Oh well, there is always next year to look forward to rereading them again.

Preparing his latest creation for a teddy bear show, retired cop Brad Lyon is stumped by the fatal arrow shooting of a local farmer and investigates clues pointing to a growing number of suspects. By the author of The Clockwork Teddy. Original. Bear Collector Mystery #5 (last one) ( )

This is book 5 in the Bear Collector's Mystery series. As with others in this series they are all well written and a joy to read. I found myself wanting to help out with the investigation. The action just kept on coming and I never knew for sure who was going to get involved at any given time. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Finished: 5/25/2011
Pages: 301 ( )

In this fifth installment of the Teddy Bear Collector's series, Ashleigh Lyon is finally front and center with Brad as she uses her position as auxiliary deputy to help in the investigation of a murder that she discovers as she returns to the farm of Everett Rawlins searching for the identity of a car that sideswiped her police cruiser.

Sheriff Tina calls on Brad's expertise as a Homicide investigator and together the three team to find multiple motives and therefore, multiple suspects. At the same time as the trio struggle to solve the murder, Brad and Ashleigh are hosting a Teddy Bear Jubilee benefiting the local church. Trying to keep the victim's family happy along with the town officials and the corporate buyers of Rawlins' farm is a tough scenario.

What a wonderful series with a cozy police procedural and terrific characters that just gets better and better with each book. I heard rumors this is the last in the series, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that rumors are wrong. I want more! ( )

It's just a crime that The Treacherous Teddy will probably be the last book in John J. Lamb's Bear Collector's Mystery Series. These unique mysteries just didn't sell enough books. I will say Berkley Prime Crime gave them terrific covers by artist Jeff Crosby, and there were five books in the series, but I don't know that they ever found the right market.

How do you market an outstanding police procedural series that appears under the auspices of a cozy series, and includes teddy bear shows and collecting? I don't know how Lamb and Berkley could have done a better job, so I feel we bloggers didn't do a good enough job promoting these books. I only discovered them in the last couple months, so I fell a few years short in getting behind these books. And, I apologize to all of Lamb's fans who are going to miss further adventures from Brad and Ashleigh Lyon.

Saying that, The Treacherous Teddy would actually wrap up the series if it has to do that. Brad and Ashleigh Lyon are quite content with their life in the Shenandoah Valley. Brad, a retired homicide inspector from San Francisco, acts as an investigation consultant to the local sheriff's department. Ashleigh is now a volunteer deputy sheriff. And, they enjoy their lives as bear collectors and artists. They have good friends, including the local sheriff, Tina Barron, and the owner of a local restaurant, a Russian immigrant with a mysterious past.

When The Treacherous Teddy opens, Brad is home working on a bear, and listening to the police scanner when he hears Ash assisting the local game warden until she's sideswiped by a car. Giving up the chase when she's afraid to endanger others, she returns to the farm where the car appeared, and finds a body. Now that Saab is of even more interest to the sheriff's department.

It's a busy time for Brad, Ashleigh, and Tina. They're all involved in the first local bear collector's show, but murder takes precedence. And, there are too many suspects, a local poacher, a neighbor that hated the victim, and the driver of the mysterious Saab. As they wear out, running from one suspect to another, and back to the scene of the crime, a local house goes up in flames. Just what they need, arson on top of murder.

John J. Lamb's mysteries are strong police procedurals, with heart. Brad Lyon uses puns and gallows humor to get through life. And, Brad and Ashleigh are a terrific couple, very much in love after over twenty-five years of marriage. It's a pleasure to read about a married team that respects each other, and enjoys their lives together. I'm going to miss Brad and Ashleigh Lyon.

If this is the last book in the Bear Collector's Mystery series, The Treacherous Teddy takes Brad and Ashleigh Lyon out on a high note. I hope John J. Lamb has success with future books. ( )

Adequate but nothing special. There is the usual subplot about artisan teddy bears, but they're not integrated into the main plot like some in the series. Subtract half a star if teddy bears leave you cold. ( )