Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Mass Market Paperback
ISBN #: 9780425212042; 9780425217986
Berkley Prime Crime
263 Pages
[Various Prices]; $7.59 Amazon
October 2, 2007
⭐⭐
In the terrible wake of Hurricane Katrina, Carmela wants to get Memory Mine back in business -- and her relationship with her ex-husband, Shamus, back on its feet. But when Shamus is kidnapped from their home, Carmela hurries to tell his uncle Henry and finds the man murdered in his library. As a memorial to the late Uncle Henry, Carmela puts together a sentimental scrapbook of memories and keepsakes. What she doesn't realize is that her altered book holds a clue to finding the killer and the kidnapper. And the murderer will try to close the book on Carmela once and for all...
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Carmela Bertrand recently reconciled with her estranged husband, Shamus Meecham, and is living once again in their large home in the Garden District of New Orleans. She's lucky in that her scrapbooking shop, Memory Mine, survived Hurricane Katrina when so many other businesses did not. One morning Shamus announces he's going to make breakfast for her (with Carmela's misgivings, as Shamus is messy), and when she hears a crash downstairs she assumes it's him. But when she arrives in their kitchen, the mess is much larger, and includes broken glass -- because Shamus has been kidnapped. After calling the police, she runs for help from Shamus's Uncle Henry, who lives a few doors down, she finds him in his study, shot through the head. When Carmela's dogs jump on the man, he falls over, revealing a book stuffed beneath the cushions of the chair, which Carmela puts on an end table.
Then she calls for police for Henry, but they've arrived at her home, and before she can get a word in edgewise regarding Henry, Shamus's sister runs over screaming about him and passes out. Now there's both a kidnapping and a murder. And Glory -- who hates Carmela -- has just kicked her out of her home and given her five minutes to get out.
So Carmela needs to find Shamus since it seems the police aren't making any headway, and she also wants to know who killed Henry. Even though she's warned to leave it alone, Carmela isn't willing to do that. Especially when she figures out there's more at stake than just the kidnapping. It could mean her own life as well...
First I have to say that while I enjoyed this book, I'm pretty sure that Glory couldn't have just kicked Carmela out of the home she'd been living in without serving eviction papers, even if it did belong to Glory. Carmela was living there with her husband, who's missing, not dead, and if she could just walk up and tell her to leave, there'd be a whole lot of nervous people in this country whose relatives don't like them. Just sayin'. So that kind of threw me. (I'm pretty sure in Louisiana you have to give at least five days' notice, so the police following her around didn't make any sense at all.
Other than that, since this is the fourth in the series, I've decided to go back and read them in order and this was the next on my list. I thought it was decent in the fact that Carmela is no dummy, and can hold her own in a war of wits, but she's not very smart when it comes to Shamus. I've always felt that he's been keeping her around as eye candy, and using her when it's convenient for him. Carmela, citing that "she loves him," puts up with his rude behavior toward her.
Of the first four books, this is my least favorite so far. It didn't take her long to find Shamus, and when she did, she allowed him to call people outside by himself. What if the kidnappers had seen him and found him? Then they'd all be kidnapped.
Also, it appears when it comes to business, neither Glory nor Shamus have any real knowledge of determining character. They seem to lend to people they like, regardless of whether it makes sense to have that person investigated further before parting with huge amounts of money. This also bothered me.
The ending I didn't care for at all. While everything was resolved the way it normally would be, I didn't find it really believable, and it was less than satisfying. While I may read the next in the series, if it isn't up to the standards of the first, I probably won't continue. This book was heavily disappointing.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3434523973
More on Laura Childs's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/laura-childs/
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