Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780425199237
Berkley Publishing
230 Pages
$7.48; $7.99 Amazon
November 2, 2004
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Carmela is creating custom place settings for a friend's pre-wedding party at a French Quarter restaurant when she makes a shocking discovery -- the intended groom, with a butcher knife protruding from his body. When the heartbroken bride asks her to look into the case, she can't say no. But Carmela soon finds that the victim had a much more shadowy past than he let on, and a menu of malicious meddlers is making things tougher than day-old gumbo for everyone involved. Now, Carmela must help her friend pick up the pieces while wrapping up a murder that has more than one lethal loose end...
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Carmela Bertrand owns a scrapbooking shop in the heart of New Orleans. When she's attending a pre-wedding party for a friend, she finally meets the groom and decides she likes him. But when they're getting ready to do the toast, she seeks out a centerpiece that is supposed to be for the bride's table and a surprise. It's in the office of the owner of the restaurant, Quigg, and she goes to retrieve it. Unfortunately, she not only finds the centerpiece, but the body of the groom - Jamie Redmond. Now Wren, the intended bride, wants Carmela to investigate and find out who killed Jamie and why. The only clue Carmela has is the initials INE - which Jamie wrote with his own blood before he died. But is it a clue? Or was he trying to identify his killer? With mysterious happenings and Carmela's inquisitive nature, she wants to help Wren, but hopefully she won't put herself in the sights of a murderer first...
This is the third book in the series and I have to say that it's definitely improving. We have Carmela's regular customers back, although they play a smaller role in this book, and her estranged rogue of a husband, Shamus, who definitely plays a bigger one. He's itching to get his photographs in a showing with Carmela, and finds a scruffy stray dog that he names Poobah and foists on Carmela because his sister doesn't like dogs and he's staying with her.
But then there's the fact that poor Wren is living in an old convent that Jamie bought and is converting into a home, and she doesn't know if she even owns it; and has been working in Jamie's bookstore without pay and now she's being hounded by a giant of a man named Dunbar DesLauriers who's hot to get his hands on it and is pushing her to sell. Carmela wants to know why, and is determined to find out the truth of the matter.
Then there's Shamus - who left her to pursue his own interests but doesn't want her involved with anyone else - especially Quigg, even though she's not dating anyone - yet seems to appear at the most inopportune moments. Carmela, for her part, is still in love with him and is on the fence about whether to divorce the scoundrel or not.
But the mystery is an interesting one. Who's behind everything and what are they looking for? We really don't find out until toward the end of the book, and while I usually find it a cheat (and I'm not saying why in case there are others who haven't read the book as yet) this didn't bother me this time out, but I wouldn't like to see the author make a habit of it. As it is, the mystery was done very well, and I did like the climax with Carmela and the killer (because we knew all along that she would be confronting the person anyway.)
When we discover the identity of the murderer and why it was committed, it's rather sad but yet believable all the same. Evil lies in the hearts of men, and we can never determine who nor why they do the things they do. Recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Bound-Murder-Scrapbooking-Mystery-Childs/dp/0425199231/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3295262139
More on Laura Childs's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/laura-childs/
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