#75 - Keepsake Crimes by Laura Childs

Carmela Bertrand owns a popular scrapbook shop in the French Quarter in New Orleans. Recently separated from her upper class husband, she moves into an apartment behind a tourist-trap voodoo shop and busies herself with running her shop. But, of course, her plans are interupted by a murder.

Laura Childs injects this story with a healthy dose of New Orleans spice -- mardi gras, the French quarter, southern hospitality, and southern-style murder.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. Some of the plot points seemed a bit over melodramatic though. For instance, Carmela is a very outspoken, independent woman....but she allows her husband's family to be completely over-the-top rude and nasty to her. At times, it seemed like one of those melodramas where you Boo and Hiss the bad guys and wait for them to tie the poor heroine to the train tracks. To me, someone of Carmela's personality would tell her estranged husband's family to shut their pie holes...lol.

50 Book Challenge 2007: 55/50 -- Over My Goal!!