Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book; Audiobook
ISBN #: 9780451189548
Berkley Publishing
320 Pages
$26.00; $12.99 Amazon
October 2, 2018
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It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans and scrapbook shop owner Carmela Bertrand is excited to be attending the Pluvius parade along with her best friend Ava. Carmela's ex-husband Shamus rides by the duo on his float at the head of the parade, when suddenly the revelry turns to disaster. Shamus' float crashes and explodes, and although Shamus escapes unhurt, a member of his krewe is killed.
Carmela and Ava plunge into an investigation of the krewe-member's death, but as they dig deeper it starts to look less like an accident and more like murder...and Shamus seems less like a victim, and more like a suspect.
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Carmela Bertrand lives in New Orleans and owns a successful scrapbooking shop. She's enjoying the Mardi Gras festivities when a float practically explodes right in front of her. Since her ex-husband was one of the krewe, she rushes over to make sure he's okay, then sees that someone else is hurt badly. When the man dies, everyone thinks it was a horrible accident. But when Shamus, her ex, shows up at her shop the next day begging for help, her first instinct is to refuse.
Shamus insists that he's on the suspect list - and her fiancé Edgar Babcock, homicide detective for the NOPD, is targeting him as the killer. While she knows Shamus is sleazy, she also knows he's too weak to be a killer and decides to help him. But when she starts investigating, she doesn't count on the many suspects to be closed-mouthed about their hatred of the dead man. Still, she keeps on digging - on the down low, since Babcock has warned her away - but it's not low enough as someone discovers what she's doing and decides that Carmela needs to go away...permanently...
I really enjoyed reading this book. While I thought it started with a bang as it were, it stalled for a couple of chapters but then picked up again almost immediately. Carmela is an interesting character; she's smart, strong, a savvy businesswoman, devoted to her friends fiercely, in love with Babcock deeply, annoyed by her ex-husband, and detests Shamus' sister Glory. She's definitely a colorful personality, and I like that.
She's also smack-dab in a murder investigation, and doesn't want to be, but she has an innate curiosity that won't let her back out. Unfortunately, it's also that curiosity and her bluntness that, merged together, rub some people the wrong way. Some of the wrong people. And one of them is out to do her in. But with a host of suspects - the victim's wife and various krewe members - it seems every one of them had a reason to want the man dead. He had a hedge fund that somehow went wrong and people lost money...a lot of it. Now she's trying to figure out who decided that a final revenge was the way to get even.
Ava is a hoot as a best friend, always on the lookout for a new man in her life, and pretty much dresses as risqué as she can get away with. Carmela realizes she's not going to change her, but does her best to be the voice of reason. Ava just eggs Carmela on to investigate. They're quite a pair together. The situation with Ava house sitting would have made my blood boil and I can tell you that there would have been a few choice words with every single member of Harrison's family when they returned. It wouldn't have been pretty to watch.
I did have a couple of moments that made me cringe a little when Carmela was blatantly asking people questions about Wilder (the dead man). For some reason, it seemed terribly invasive and not like she was merely curious. No wonder they clammed up. While I realize this is just her personality (and while I also consider myself to be brutally honest, I try to step back when need be) it still made me skim those pages a little bit.
But when the last chapter finally arrived and I got close to the end, everything fell into place just as it was supposed to. Carmela finally got the pay off (just as expected) the killer was discovered, and it came as a complete surprise. There was a hairy moment or two (not a situation I'd like to find myself in at any stretch of the imagination) but everything tied together nicely.
There were plenty of twists in the story and it seemed around every corner there was another question that needed to be answered; and lots of red herrings to sift through. While I thought a few of the characters were nasty pieces to deal with, Carmela managed to hold her own with them. She's an admirable woman and I'm happy to see that she's successful, not with a struggling business like so many of the cozy characters. Carmela's got it going on.
I'm sorry to say that this is only the second book in this series that I've read by this author; but in my defense I have to add that I have read her other series, and with so many other authors I try to give everyone an even chance, and it really was on my list to begin again. I also will add with this book, I plan on going back and reading every single one from the beginning. This is a series worth following, and worth reading every single book. Highly recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Glitter-Scrapbooking-Mystery-Laura-Childs/dp/0451489543/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2529110061
More on Laura Childs' Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/laura-childs/
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