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FRILL KILL
by Laura Childs
Berkley, October 2007
288 pages
$22.95
ISBN: 0425217302


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

When Carmela Bertrand, creative whiz and scrapbooking store owner, attends her best friend Ava’s party just before Halloween, she gets more than she bargained for. Leaving with a box of ceramic skulls for her soon-to-be ex-husband’s parade float, she is hit from behind in an alley on the way to her car. Before being knocked out, she hears a strange sound behind a dumpster. When she awakens, she learns that another party guest, an up-and-coming model, has been murdered.

Thus begin the Halloween chills in another Laura Childs scrapbooking mystery. Set in New Orleans’s French Quarter, this story has all the atmosphere needed for an already spooky setting, combined with the charm of Southern living, recipes included. Carmela and Ava are perfect Southern belles of the modern variety, whose focus on food, fashion, and entertaining will have a broad appeal. Whether attending parties, decorating a local clothing boutique for a Halloween fashion show, or digging up clues about the murder, these women feel like true friends.

Like any good mystery, clues point in several directions. Is the murderer the handsome Giovanni, Ava’s new hire at the Juju Voodoo shop? Or is it his brother, a circus performer, who was once the model’s boyfriend? Then there’s the owner of the local costume shop, who has recently dated the model, as well as a host of other suspects. Causing even more distraction is a reckless television reporter, who seems intent on making her own story of the murder mystery.

Add to all this mix, Carmela’s impending divorce, her scrapbooking business, a lot of friends (as well as a few enemies), and any number of New Orleans parties, and you’ve got a book filled with action and intrigue, as well as fun. Childs shares this fun via the ideas coming from Carmela’s scrapbooking store and the fantastic food described in her story, and follows up her novel’s conclusion with scrapbooking tips and easy-to-follow Cajun recipes at the back.

Reviewed by Christine Zibas, October 2007

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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