Crepe Factor (A Scrapbooking Mystery, #14)

by Laura Childs

"The Winter Market in the French Quarter is in full swing, but murder isn't taking a holiday in the latest Scrapbooking Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs. The holidays are a busy time for scrapbook shop owner Carmela Bertrand--but not so hectic that she doesn't have time to enjoy browsing the booths at the Winter Market with her best friend Ava. The last thing the ladies expect to see is a thrashing man stabbed by a serving fork, dying in front of them. The victim is loathed restaurant critic Martin Lash, who posted his scathing reviews on the Glutton for Punishment website. And the prime suspect is New Orleans restaurateur Quigg Brevard--who was seen giving the critic a tongue-lashing minutes before someone stuck a fork in him. An old flame of Carmela, Quigg asks for her help, which does not please her current beau, Detective Edgar Babcock, to say the least. Before her relationship is the next victim, Carmela needs to find a murderer who had no reservations about punishing the culinary curmudgeon.."--

• ISBN13: 9780425266700
• Publish Date: 4 October 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 25 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[Max Likes Mystery]

I’ve been interested in cozy mysteries for some time now. I found this one randomly at work right before Christmas. It takes place in New Orleans in December…so that was really interesting to me since I live close to New Orleans and planned to do a bunch of holiday events there. The major appeal was the Winter Market that was described in the synopsis. It sort of lead me to believe it would be a quaint little Orleans story, and it was for the most part. New Orleans was described in great detail and It actually made me look at the map a few times. It really made me want to explore more of the city.

The characters were written great in my opinion. I noticed some reviews were saying that they changed a lot from previous books, but I cant really comment on consistency since I haven’t read any other books yet. I’d imagine it would be hard though, 14 books in, to keep the characters from being stagnant while also keeping them true to themselves. I do plan on reading more books very soon, so I will have a better idea then. The only slight issue I had was with Squirrel and Mooney. I guess they are supposed to be light, fun characters…but they kind of seemed like weird, uncouth to me. I guess that’s a little harsh.

I really enjoyed the plot. The actual mystery related elements were spread out pretty far but the filler bits, society events, scrapbooking, etcs. were fabulous. Gave me such high hopes for the rest of the series. I did figure out the who of the mystery pretty early on… I just didn’t know how or why. It was a pretty interesting crime concept. The only thing that seemed pretty silly was the confrontation and reveal at the end….seemed way to chaotic and dramatic. They could have easily waited outside with handcuffs. In real life, debacles like that ruin peoples reputation….but I guess bookland is different. And I understand that books need to have a big finishing.

I will definitely be reading more in this series as well as other series from this author. I already got another book and am excited to crack it open. This author is consider a “thrillzy” writer…that means thriller/cozy mystery…woot. Maybe my new favorite subgenre.