Book Review: Bound For Murder

Author: Laura Childs
Title: Bound For Murder
Publisher: Berekley
Publish Date: Nov 2, 2004
Buy: Amazon

Book Blurb: 

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.

Review: I've read books from two of Laura Childs' mystery series, and I have to say I enjoy  the scrapbooking mysteries better. There are a lot of similarities between the series but this one is more fun.

In this book Carmela is helping her friend Wren uncover who murdered her soon to be groom. Jamie Redmond was killed on the night of their wedding dinner.

I enjoyed this book but there were a lot of things that drove me batty about it too. Wren and Carmela found photos from the 80s that were black and white? Huh? My family could never be called wealthy but all photos of my first 5 years were all color and I was born in 1974.

Carmela and Shamus need to sort their relationship out because it is getting really annoying and I've only read one other book in this series. And while we're at it when it comes to Shamus, his sister is a witch, or that word with a capital b. I can't understand why Carmela got booted  out of the family home when Shamus left her.

But back to this story, Jamie seems to have a lot of secrets that he kept from his fiancee that really make you wonder about his character and whether or not he was living a double life. Almost from the moment of his death, Wren is bothered by people wanted to take her home and Jamie's bookstore, not to mention taking all the money from the software program he was developing.

I liked how Carmela and her friends rallied around Wren to help her get on her feet, as well as looking into Jamie's past. I really couldn't understand why there wasn't more of a police presence in this book. Most cozy mysteries have at least one officer telling the sleuth to leave the investigation to the police.

I love the southern setting, which Laura Childs really brings to life in all of her books.  I only wish the resolution to the mystery weren't so easy, though I didn't guess the killer at all.

Rating: 4 flowers