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Kiki Lowenstein loves being a mom, enjoys being married to George, and has a passion for scrapbooking. When her husband George dies, she is bereft and broke. Her standard of living tanks, which makes her mother-in-law Sheila even crazier than before. It's bad enough that George HAD to marry Sheila, now Sheila's only son is gone, leaving her beloved granddaughter Anya in the care of that woman Kiki.
Kiki is not convinced that George's death is the natural one that everyone assumes; he'd just had a check-up and was given a clean bill of health. Kiki takes her only saleable passion and goes to work for Dodie Goldfader, owner of "Time in a Bottle," a scrapbooking store. Kiki can earn enough to live on and do something she loves, and the clients at the store all run in Sheila's social circle, thus knowing a lot more about George's private life than Kiki thought possible.
While Kiki tries to keep her head above water, Sheila tries to suborn Anya and turn her against her mother. She also encourages Anya to not eat, since "One can never be too thin or too rich." This sends Kiki through the roof; she's fought her weight all her life and doesn't want Anya to have any eating problems. Sheila and Kiki are at each other's throats for the entire book; Sheila is the instigator, but Kiki can't let Anya be taken away from her - Anya is all she's got left.
Slan has written a believable mystery. For one thing, it takes almost a year for Kiki to solve the mystery. She has some help from a very handsome policeman, Detective Detweiler (who falls in love with Kiki's Great Dane Gracie), but not more help than one can reasonably expect. Kiki has a great bunch of friends, and they aren't confined to one social stratum, which is a bit unusual. There are plenty of hints and ideas for scrapbookers sprinkled throughout the book, but they are either deftly woven into the natural flow of conversation or serve as chapter dividers. Kiki is good at reading people, but not always as good at keeping her emotions under control, which makes her very human.
The only problem I had with PAPER, SCISSORS, DEATH is one that Slan would be wise to avoid in the future: at one point, a witness gives Kiki a piece of paper with some vital information on it. Slan does not share that information with the reader for quite some time, although Kiki acts upon it. I don't think that is playing fair with the reader. Other than that, I found Slan's first mystery to be more mystery and less "hobby" than I expected, and that's a good thing!
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, November 2008
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