Tragic Magic

August 24, 2009
The murder of jeweler Melody Mayfeldt, an enthusiast of the supernatural, at Medusa Manor, a New Orleans mansion being converted into a haunted house attraction for an upcoming horror convention, drives Childs's contrived seventh scrapbooking cozy (after 2008's Death Swatch
). Scrapbooking diva Carmela Bertrand and her French Quarter sidekick, Ava Gruiex, know it wasn't a ghost who killed their friend by a blow to the head and then pushed her flaming corpse out of a third-floor window of the manor. NOPD Det. Edgar Babcock, Carmela's boyfriend, and the Crescent City Nancy Drews investigate various suspects, including Melody's husband, Garth, who co-owned Fire and Ice Jewelers with Melody, and a real estate developer who wanted to buy Medusa Manor. While Child conjures up the abiding charm of New Orleans with her usual flair, besides providing recipes and scrapbooking tips, the rushed resolution disappoints.

October 1, 2009
Childs returns to New Orleans for another in her series of scrapbooking mysteries starring Carmela, the likable owner of a scrapbooking shop, who invariably lands in wacky, dangerous situations and proves herself a real heroine. This time she and her friend Ava (owner of Juju Voodoo) are helping to convert an old mansion into a haunted house for an upcoming horror convention. Unfortunately, the owner of the mansion creates an all-too-real scary moment when her flaming body crashes through a tower window. Suspects include spirit hunters and a weirdo who leads ghost walks. As Carmela works to solve the murder before it spoils an upcoming Galleries and Gourmet celebration, she is simultaneously offering imaginative scrapbooking classes and tips for her shops clients and finishing work on the haunted house. This series, one of the best in the current wave of crime-and-crafts novels, is chock-full of scrapbooking tips and projects and includes some favorite New Orleans recipes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)