Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback' Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780425190746
Berkley Prime Crime Publishing
236 Pages
$7.99; $7.99 Amazon
May 6, 2003
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On the fringe of New Orlean's French Quarter sits Carmela Bertrand's little scrapbooking shop, Memory Mine. Business is booming and life is cozy. But when one of the city's elites dies during Mardi Gras, the police tag Carmela's estranged husband as their number one murder suspect. Even though the memory of how he scrapped their marriage hasn't faded, Carmela doesn't think that Shamus is cut out to be a killer. She's an expert at framing things herself -- and doesn't like the pattern being laid out by a disreputable detective and a shady newspaper columnist. Then, as Shamus begs for help, Carmela uncovers an important clue in a most unlikely place -- one of her customer's scrapbooks.
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Carmela Bertrand lives in New Orleans and is still reeling from the fact that her husband up and left her, telling her he wanted to be a photographer instead of a banker, and that he “needed to find himself.” But at least she has her scrapbooking shop, Memory Mine, her friends, and her dog, Boo. Her life might not be perfect, but she’s learning to be happy again.
It’s Mardi Gras, and while attending with her best friend Ava, she’s watching the parade and when a float that’s been touted as the best comes near, she sees that something is wrong - and sirens coming ever closer. When the man is handed off the float to the police, she sees that it’s Jimmy Earl Clayton, and she’s stunned. But more than that, she soon learns that her estranged husband Shamus is suspected of murdering him. Now she can’t find Shamus, people she knows are avoiding her, she’s being questioned by the police, who think she knows where he is, and people are starting to come after her because of it. Carmela’s sure Shamus had nothing to do with the murder, but if she doesn’t find who did, both their lives might just be scrapped forever...
This is the first in the Scrapbooking Mysteries, and I have to say that I’ve read the later ones and decided to go back and start at the beginning. I’m glad that I did, because now I’ve gotten to see Carmela’s backstory, and what happened between her and Shamus. I really enjoyed this mystery, and liked the fact that the scrapbookers gathered around Carmela and refused to believe that she had anything to do with Shamus’s disappearance or the murder itself.
I thought the mystery was done nicely, and really liked the fact that while clues were thrown throughout, we still had to wait until almost the end for it all to come together. The murderer was a surprise, because the red herrings threw us in a different direction. While I was figuring out the reason for the murder toward the middle of the book, I also liked that we were sent in different directions. It gave meat to the story, and made the ending all that much more delightful. All in all, because of this, I will continue to read the books in order until I get back to where I left off and pick it up again. Recommended.
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