Bound for Murder (Scrapbooking Mystery Series) [Mass Market Paperback]

Laura Childs (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Scrapbooking Mystery | Publication Date: November 2, 2004

New Orleans scrapbooking shop owner Carmela Bertrand's pre-wedding party is overshadowed when a friend's intended groom is murdered. Asked by the heartbroken bride to look into the case, Carmela must help her friend pick up the pieces while wrapping up a murder that has more than one lethal loose end.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425199231
• ISBN-13: 978-0425199237
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #429,651 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laura Childs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbook Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. In her previous life she was CEO/Creative Director of her own marketing firm and authored several screenplays. She is married to a professor of Chinese art history, loves to travel, rides horses, enjoys fund raising for various non-profits, and has two Chinese Shar-Pei dogs.

Laura specializes in cozy mysteries that have the pace of a thriller (a thrillzy!) Her three series are:

The Tea Shop Mysteries - set in the historic district of Charleston and featuring Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop. Theodosia is a savvy entrepreneur, and pet mom to service dog Earl Grey. She's also an intelligent, focused amateur sleuth who doesn't rely on coincidences or inept police work to solve crimes. This charming series is highly atmospheric and rife with the history and mystery that is Charleston.

The Scrapbooking Mysteries - a slightly edgier series that take place in New Orleans. The main character, Carmela, owns Memory Mine scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter and is forever getting into trouble with her friend, Ava, who owns the Juju Voodoo shop. New Orleans' spooky above-ground cemeteries, jazz clubs, bayous, and Mardi Gras madness make their presence known here!

The Cackleberry Club Mysteries - set in Kindred, a fictional town in the Midwest. In a rehabbed Spur station, Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, three semi-desperate, forty-plus women have launched the Cackleberry Club. Eggs are the morning specialty here and this cozy cafe even offers a book nook and yarn shop. Business is good but murder could lead to the cafe's undoing! This series offers recipes, knitting, cake decorating, and a dash of spirituality.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars strong amateur sleuth, October 27, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bound for Murder (Scrapbooking Mystery Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

When her rich husband Seamus Meechum walked out on their marriage because he needed his freedom, his sister Glory kicked Carmella Bertrand out of the family mansion. Instead of moping, she finds an apartment in New Orleans' French Quarter and opens Memory Mine, a scrapbooking shop not far from her new abode.

Carmella helps Wren Wright decorate for the latter's pre-wedding gala. Wren is engaged to Jamie Redmond, the owner of a profitable bookstore and creator with his partner Blaine of a software program called Neutron that detects bugs and bombs in newly written software code. When Carmella takes a breather she finds Jamie dead. While Wren tries to cope with her finance's murder, Dunbar Des Lauriers pushes hard to buy Jamie's stock in the bookstore. Glory, who holds the mortgage to Jamie's and Wren's home, threatens to call it in if Wren doesn't sell to her. Blaine claims to have sole rights to Neutron and Carmella finds proof that Jamie was engaged to another woman a year ago without telling Wren. Overwhelmed, Wren asks Carmella to find her fiancé's killer; her inability to refuse places her in danger from a killer without mercy.

Laura Childs is a creative storyteller who grabs reader attention from the time Jaime is murdered and doesn't release it grip until the murderer is found and Carmella is safe. There are numerable suspects with viable motives and readers will have a lot of fun guessing who the real killer is. There are a lot of creative arts and croft tips at the end of the book, a bonus that readers can make use of for the winter holidays. BOUND FOR MURDER raises the bar on amateur sleuth quality.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing third book, July 21, 2006

By 

Monica Gellman (Phoenix, Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bound for Murder (Scrapbooking Mystery Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

This third book in Childs' scrapbooking mystery series was a real disappointment to me. The dialogue was totally sappy, whereas in the previous novels in this series, the characters spoke in a realistic manner. Here, they seemed almost flawless, and more than a little saccharine.

The mystery was pretty easy to figure out and the storyline seemed thin. Aside from Carmela's friendship with Ava, this book did almost nothing to develop the relationships Carmela has with the other characters. The ending (of the book, not the resolution of the mystery) came completely out of left field given the extremely minor interaction between Carmela and another character. I'll hang in there for her next book in this series, but this one really let me down.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Disappearing Groom, October 23, 2005

By 

Karen Potts (Lake Jackson, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bound for Murder (Scrapbooking Mystery Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

Carmela Bertrand is helping her friend Wren with her pre-wedding party when she discovers that the groom has been murdered. The victim was the owner of a bookstore and he was also developing a valuable computer program. One man tries to pressure Wren into selling the bookstore and another one tries to take over the rights to the computer program. Carmela wonders if either man had enough of a motive for murder. Interwoven with the mystery is the tiresome story of Carmela's off-again, on-again romance with her neer-do-well, estranged husband, Shamus. There are some loose ends in the story and Carmela takes some ridiculous chances such as entering a cemetery along at night, although she admits she knows better. The best parts are about New Orleans, scrapbooking, and some of Carmela's interactions with her friends.