E. C. Bateman

E. C. Bateman is the fiction name used by Emily Bateman, an antique-jewellery specialist whose professional experience informs her Stamford Mysteries. Death at the Auction opens the sequence with Felicia Grant returning to her family’s auction house after an accident sidelines her father. A final lot exposes a suspicious death, drawing Felicia into a local investigation shaped by rivalries, antiques, and family history. One More Chapter, a HarperCollins imprint, issued it during 2022, and later editions place it first in the Stamford Mysteries. Bateman works in a Stamford auction house and developed the series while living in the Lincolnshire town, allowing its Georgian streets and auction trade to function as more than decorative background. The novel belongs to the British cozy-mystery tradition, balancing a contained puzzle with recurring community characters. Felicia’s knowledge of objects and valuation becomes part of how she reads people and evidence.