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Tuesday, November 07, 2006
mmm... muffins...
Title: Death by Design
Author: Laura Childs
This book is actually a compilation of three previously released books - Keepsake Crimes, Photo Finished, and Bound for Murder. Referred to as "the Scrapbooking Mysteries", the titles rather make me want to gag.
Oh, right, back to the review.
So Carmela lives in New Orleans with her husband Seamus, a reluctant banker. He gets flaky and runs off to the bayou to be a photographer and find himself. The evil sister kicks Carmela out of the family house. Last year (pre-flakiness) Carmela opened a scrapbooking shop. Yes, an entire store devoted to scrapbooking products and techniques and stuff (I'm sorry - most of that seems like way too much effort - I'll take a regular photo album anyday...). Now the store actually has to provide her entire income, but that's okay because apparently folks in New Orleans love their scrapbooking.
Anyway, in the first book a guy dies during a Mardi Gras parade, and Carmela has to figure out who did it, because the police think it was Seamus. In book two, the obnoxious guy who owns the store next to her dies, and she has to figure out who did it because the police think it was the nephew of one of her friends/customers. And in book three, a friend's fiance is murdered. I don't think anyone connected to Carmela was suspected, but she has to figure it out to ease her friend's mind.
Blah, blah, scrapbooks are made while clues are discussed, and each time, Carmela saves the day - at least her friends acknowledge her nosiness, because in books 2 and 3 they ask her to help figure out what's going on. Carmela saves the day each time!
Reading the above, you'd think I hated the books. Okay, they were a little cutesy, and would probably be appreciated more by someone actually into scrapbooking.
However...
At the end of each story, in addition to the requisite scrapbooking tips that I ignored, are a few pages of recipes for food cooked and/or served during the story, like Seamus's bread, Baby's Applesauce, and so on. Food is always a good thing! Plus, I actually made the pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting last week (from scratch, mind you), and they were a big hit. Mmm... pumpkin...Labels: food, mystery/detective
posted by ket at
6:55 PM
2 Comments:
I hate scrapbooking...
But I love pumpkin muffins! Make some more!
11/07/2006 8:13 PM
Mmmm...those pumpkin muffins ket made me were delicious! Combine them with a performance by the Suspicious Cheese Lords (one of whom was a scruffy, cute bass singer with a beard), and they made a good ending to a sometimes not so ideal weekend!
11/12/2006 9:25 PM
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