Customer Reviews

Death By Design (A Scrapbooking Mystery)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Laura Childs, author of a terrific Tea Cozy series, offers scrapbookers a cozy just for us. Her characters, and yes New Orleans is a character in her books, jump to life. The mysteries are fun and light, but what makes her books are the characters. By then end of her first book you wish Carmela and her Memory Mine shop were just down the street so you to could enjoy a day of creativity and conversation. This is a great opportunity of have all three of her Scrapbook Mysteries on one book. Enjoy! and Scrap on!

I really enjoyed this - you can't beat it... mystery, romance, cooking, scrapbooking...!

Definitely try this out if you like Nora Roberts, Mary Higgins Clark, and the like... the three in one paperback is great for the price.

I love reading books in a series where you get to know the characters and follow their lives. While this is light recreational reading, there's just the right touch of romance as well as suspense. Set in New Orleans, Camile is a divorced business owner, running a scrapbooking business and branching out with those talents into other entrepeneural ventures. She's faced with living in a "small town" dealing with her ex, his eccentric family while trying to find love again.

As a scrapbooking fan, I like getting new project ideas from these books. Also, as a displaced Southerner, I love that the foods featured in the story comes with recipes in the back. I have all the books in this series and eagerly await the next installment. Despite loving the convenience and portability of my electronic reader, this is one book I get in paper just so I can hang onto those tips and recipes.

Laura Childs has written three Scrapbooking Mystery Books. Death by Design brings them all together in one binding. They are pleasant reads for anyone who enjoys mysteries and wants to while away the hours or occupy themselves between appointments or during commutes. The murders take place in New Orleans and so the books contain cajun recipes as well as helpful scrapbookingesque hints. Teens as well as adults will enjoy Ms Childs' books and her heroine offers young women the realization that they CAN run a business and don't NEED a man to make them a success -- but having one might be really nice.

It isn't a "MUST READ" but it was enjoyable.

So far I've read the first story in the series and I was unfavorably impressed. I live in New Orleans and grew up in the city. I found myself laughing at Ms. Child's rendition of our culture. There certainly is a Garden District culture and believe me these ladies would not drive to the Quarter on a regular basis to go shopping. It would be highly inconvenient to drive to the entire other side of the quarter and find parking. Ms. Child's would have been better served to set the location of the shop on Magazine St. or Prytania. Secondly, I never heard of the term Scrapbooking until I moved to Georgia for college. I might have believed a clothing store, an antique store, gift store, knitting store or book store, but a scrapbooking store does not hold up. As a shop, it doesn't seem plausible in New Orleans. Also, Mardi Gras parades do not pass in front of the French Market, nor do parade goers wear costumes for every parade. The costumes are left for Mardi Gras Day. There were so many misconceptions about New Orleans, I can't even put them all down now. These were simply the first I noticed. It takes a truly sensitive writer to understand the New Orleans attitude and culture, I'm afraid that Ms. Child falls extremely short of that mark.

I am a VERY PICKY reader. Please note that I am a native Atlantan.

This book is set in New Orleans (pre-Katrina). I almost threw this book down when I read, "Belligerent, aggressive, manipulative. In other words, your typical Southern male." on p.23. I finally did give up on it when I found y'all spelled "ya'll" on p. 27. (That could be the fault of the New York editors.)

So, you might enjoy this if you're not a stickler for accuracy and political correctness.