Photo Finished

Rating:
Summary: An exciting amateur sleuth mystery
Review: After a year of marriage, her husband quits his job at the bank and moves to his family place in the Bayou. Although Shamus comes from old world money he wants to be free and get his photographs into a high class gallery. The bond that ties Carmela to her husband is still strong so that neither has filed for a divorce. Still Carmela has moved on with her life in a professional capacity, opening a store in the French Quarter. Memory Mine sells scrapbooks and gives lessons to customers who want to turn them into art.

Next door to Memory Mine is Menagerie Antiques owned by Bartholomew, a man who Carmela believes works on the wrong side of the law. One night while giving a craft lesson, Carmela?s assistant finds Bart dead in the alley, a scissors in his chest. Everyone from her assistant to her best friend expects Carmela to uncover the identity of the killer and she does her best to accommodate their expectations.

PHOTO FINISHED is an exciting amateur sleuth mystery starring a heroine that is impossible to not like. She moves at supersonic speed which means a fast plot, plenty of action and a lot at hair-raising adventure though why involvement in a homicide investigation seems stretched. Laura Childs takes the reader on a tour of New Orleans that seems so realistic that the audience will believe they are there. One should not read this novel on an empty stomach because the mouth watering descriptions of foods will make the reader visit the nearest five star restaurant.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: An exciting amateur sleuth mystery
Review: After a year of marriage, her husband quits his job at the bank and moves to his family place in the Bayou. Although Shamus comes from old world money he wants to be free and get his photographs into a high class gallery. The bond that ties Carmela to her husband is still strong so that neither has filed for a divorce. Still Carmela has moved on with her life in a professional capacity, opening a store in the French Quarter. Memory Mine sells scrapbooks and gives lessons to customers who want to turn them into art.

Next door to Memory Mine is Menagerie Antiques owned by Bartholomew, a man who Carmela believes works on the wrong side of the law. One night while giving a craft lesson, Carmela's assistant finds Bart dead in the alley, a scissors in his chest. Everyone from her assistant to her best friend expects Carmela to uncover the identity of the killer and she does her best to accommodate their expectations.

PHOTO FINISHED is an exciting amateur sleuth mystery starring a heroine that is impossible to not like. She moves at supersonic speed which means a fast plot, plenty of action and a lot at hair-raising adventure though why involvement in a homicide investigation seems stretched. Laura Childs takes the reader on a tour of New Orleans that seems so realistic that the audience will believe they are there. One should not read this novel on an empty stomach because the mouth watering descriptions of foods will make the reader visit the nearest five star restaurant.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Great Fun!
Review: As an avid scrapbooker and rubber stamper, I really enjoyed this book. The characters are fun (and funny) and the various suspects really kept me guessing. The main character, Carmela, is very believable as a small business owner and the details of running a scrapbooking shop are compelling. Her friend Ava is a hoot and the rest of the cast are pretty crazy, too. This is a great meld of a cozy mystery and "chick lit" but without the profanity.

Rating:
Summary: Characters Fail to Engage Me
Review: Being interested in scrapbooking and having read a lot of romances and mysteries over the years, I picked up Photo Finished. Unfortunately the first two chapters finished me. The writing seems stiff and the characters unremarkable. I was having trouble keeping track of the various scrappers since their personalities didn't jell.
I'll give the book the benefit of the doubt, as the plot sounds reasonably intriguing, and perhaps a more dedicated scrapbooker will overlook some of those deficiencies for the joy of reading about fellow craftspeople. That wasn't enough of a hook for me.

Rating:
Summary: an interesting premizzzzzz
Review: I actually lied when i said i "read" this book. I actually read the first few chapters, put it down, and have felt no compunction to pick it back up again. The characters are not interesting or engaging, and the mystery itself is that of a "who cares" variety. Skip this, and go read an Anne George mystery instead.

Rating:
Summary: an interesting premizzzzzz
Review: I actually lied when i said i "read" this book. I actually read the first few chapters, put it down, and have felt no compunction to pick it back up again. The characters are not interesting or engaging, and the mystery itself is that of a "who cares" variety. Skip this, and go read an Anne George mystery instead.

Rating:
Summary: Who was that character again?
Review: I thought this would be a fun read when I saw it had crafts and a mystery, two things I really enjoy. This book could have been a lot better if there was more mystery and more time taken to get to know the characters and less crafts, food and extra characters. There were so many characters and so much going on that had little to do with the mystery that I found myself lost at times. I never quite knew who the different people were or why I should care about them.

I love the scrapbook and crafts theme. The main character was so involved with crafts for so many different clients and events that there was no need for the food and recipies already used in several culinary mystery series. In one book there were recipes, scrapbooks, papercrafts involving menus and invitations, pumpkin carving, glass stamping, pendant making, floral aranging and photography. It was all just too much once you added in the descriptions of New Orleans, the mystery and the main character's relationship with her estranged husband and his relatives, friends and dog. The mystery part of the story feels like one of the side plots that gets solved but the clues and motives are never fully explained.



Rating:
Summary: More like 3.5, really
Review: Laura Childs' books drive me just a little bit crazy. Sure, they're great for a couple of hours of enjoyment, but...why do I keep coming back, reading each book the woman writes? There is certainly no mental stimulation to be had and after you've finished one you don't get that rush of pleasure and satisfaction that follows a fabulous book. But it just seems to come down to the fact that, even though the books are silly, you are still entertained on some level.

My complaint about all of Childs' novels, and *Photo Finished* is no exception, is that her characters are very light and lacking dimension. Their motivations and thought processes often seem suspect. And silly. Have I mentioned the silliness factor? And, another complaint, the mystery is really no mystery at all. Just a crime that gets resolved (and in this case not very efficiently) at the end. The reader is still left in the dark to an extent regarding what actually happened to prompt the crime. Now that I think about it, some aspects of the book are downright aggravating. Like Carmela's husband, Shamus, and everything that goes along with their relationship. (But to go into that would be just too much.)

I must say, though, that it is worth it to read this particular title in the Scrapbooking mystery series simply for one of the last scenes, which had me laughing out loud quite unexpectedly. A scene that will no doubt prompt me to read the next book.