First line: Carmela Bertrand stepped into the dark interior of St. Tristan’s Church and uttered one word.
From the inside cover: The last thing Carmela Bertrand and her friend Ava expected to bear witness to in St. Tristan’s Church was a crime. But now a beloved member of their scrapbooking circle is lying lifeless next to a smashed statue of St. Sebastian – and a mysterious hooded figure has absconded with an antique silver-and-gold crucifix. With the church open to the public and a popular tourist attraction, it looks like the police don’t have a prayer of finding the killer.
But if anyone can get to the bottom of the crime, it’s Carmela’s main squeeze, Detective Edgar Babcock – with a little assistance from some scrappy sleuths. As Carmela and Ava are drawn deeper into New Orleans’s French Quarter in search of the missing crucifix, they may need the help of more than a few patron saints. Because this is one killer they don’t want to cross…
My thoughts: This is the 9th book in Laura Child’s scrapbooking mystery series and I found it to be a fun story, despite the fact that Carmela and BFF Ava find a dead body in a church! When it turns out that they know the victim, Carmela can’t help but try to figure out what happened. Along with the murder, a valuable artifact is stolen from the church. Following up on whatever leads they come across puts the two friends in some pretty sticky situations, and of course, with Carmela’s boyfriend being a detective, things get even more dicey at times. We meet a few new characters in this book – some that become suspects and some that are part of a few of the subplots going on – and get to see some more of the New Orleans area. There are quite a few twists and turns and I was guessing who did it right up until the end.
I love this series and I especially love all the scrapbooking tips included throughout the book as well as at the end. After reading these books, it makes me want to take out all my scrapbooking stuff and get to work on my albums! I look forward to seeing what Carmela finds herself involved in when the next book comes out…
(I borrowed this book from the library.)
