What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I read this in the 80's. There was a married couple in it and a domineering mother-in-law. The heroine was called something like Ann and she deals in antiques. There is a fair organised by the mother-in-law and a rare milk jug in the shape of a cow is stolen. There is also a creepy dealer named Soffany or Zoffany. I can't remember who got murdered. The town was by the sea. I don't know if it takes place in England or the US. I really hope that this rings a bell with someone!

Hmmm...this is a long shot but maybe something from the Lovejoy series by Jonathan Gash? Lovejoy is an antiques dealer who solves murders. Lovejoy doesn't sound like Soffany or Zoffany, but Lovejoy is kind of a creepy misogynist, at least in the one I read (The Grail Tree). The series is set in Britain although there may be some that take place in the U.S.?

Thanks Lobstergirl, but it definately isn't Lovejoy. The woman (Ann?) solves the mystery. The Zoffany character owned an expensive Antiques shop. I don't know if the book is a stand alone or the beginning of a cozy series. There was also another guy in it who was best friends with Ann, an irresponsible young man who she had known her whole life.

It may be a Doran Fairweather Mystery Here's a link to the series on Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=...

Thank you, Tab, but this is not it either. It looks like a series I might try sometime though.

The Pew Group?

Naughty, comical, slightly arch doings in an English village--with a heroine who gets away with murder (on page one), a cozy old meddling dear of a sleuth, lots of lust, and much to-do over a priceless piece of Staffordshire pottery. The blithe murderess is Doreen Corder, who trips her antique-shop-owner husband and calmly watches him tumble down the stairs. The sleuth is Doreen's tough old mum, Mrs. Thomas from Cardiff, who investigates not murder (Doreen's crime remains perfect and unpunished) but the disappearance--during the wake--of the "Pew Group a pottery piece which Doreen has just bought from a sexy tinker. . . who himself picked it up at the local charity bazaar. Among the suspects (all of whom come down with diarrhea, thanks to Mrs. Thomas' baked ham): the vicar, who carries on a running dialogue with God; a sex-starved spinster; homosexual partners in a rival antique shop; an American millionaire who's hot for Staffordshire. And before the movements of the Pew Group are sorted out, there'll be unlikely pairings--the tinker with a grande dame, the spinster (a blackmail expert) with a reluctant, handsome young curate, Doreen with antique-r "Betsey" Trottwood--and a fair measure of over-complicated foolishness. (Kirkus)

^
The series is here and all the books have to do with the antiques trade apparently:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/7383...

I believe this is P.G. Wodehouse's The Code of the Woosters. It has all the elements: a cow creamer, a domineering aunt (Aunt Dahlia), an antiques dealer, etc.

seems to be abandoned

Too bad I was curious about this one.

I'm almost positive it's Code of the Woosters. Hard to believe there could be two books with all those elements.