Table of Contents
Praise for the Tea Shop Mystery series by Laura Childs
Gunpowder Green
This mystery series could single-handedly propel the tea shop business in this country to the status of wine bars and bustling coffeehouses. Buon Gusto, Minneapolis, MN
Engages the audience from the start... Laura Childs provides the right combination of tidbits on tea and an amateur sleuth cozy that will send readers seeking a cup of Death By Darjeeling, the series previous novel.
Midwest Book Review
Death By Darjeeling
Highly recommended by the Ladies Tea Guild
Book of Choice by the Red Hat Society
Tea lovers, mystery lovers, [this] is for you. Just the right blend of cozy fun and clever plotting.
Susan Wittig Albert, bestselling author of Bloodroot
Its a delightful book! Tea: a magazine
Murder suits [Laura Childs] to a Tea.
St. Paul Pioneer Press
If you devoured Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, this new series is right up your alley.
The Goose Creek (SC) Gazette
Death By Darjeeling is a good beginning to a new culinary series that will quickly become a favorite of readers who favor this genre. The cozy and inviting setting will quickly draw readers in and a likable cast of characters will have them eager to return. The Mystery Reader
Gives the reader a sense of traveling through the streets and environs of the beautiful, historic city of Charleston.
Lakeshore Weekly News
Shades of Earl Grey
Chosen as a Monthly Alternate by the Literary Guilds Mystery Book Club
A heart-stopping opening scene. St. Paul Pioneer Press
Delicious cozy.BooksnBites.com
Once again, the reader experiences the scents, atmosphere, and elegance of Charleston.
Lakeshore Weekly News
This book is dedicated to my dad,
who died a few short months before I became
a published author.
Find out more about the
Scrapbook Mystery Series
and the Tea Shop Mystery Series
at www.laurachilds.com.
Acknowledgments
A million thanks to my husband, Bob, who urged me to pursue this scrapbooking theme; to mystery great Mary Higgins Clark who has been so encouraging with every book I write; to my agent, Sam Pinkus; to Henri Schindler, Mardi Gras float designer, historian, and author, and Stone and Joan in New Orleans who revealed the fascinating world of Mardi Gras parades, float dens, and balls; to my sister, Jennie, who was this books first reader and critic; to my mother who always believes in me, no matter what; to Jim Smith, dear friend and tireless cheerleader; to my Chinese shar-pei dogs, Madison and Maximillian, who were the inspiration for little Boo; to everyone at Berkley who was so enthusiastic about a scrapbooking series; to all the thousands of scrapbookers out there who are so marvelously creative; and to readers of my Tea Shop Mystery series who expressed genuine excitement over my new series.
Chapter 1
CARMELA Bertrand spun out a good fifteen inches of gold ribbon and snipped it off tidily. This, she told the little group of scrapbookers clustered around her table, gets added to the center panel. Heads bobbed, and eager eyes followed Carmelas hands as she punched two quick holes in the scrapbook page, then deftly threaded the ribbon through.
The ladies had been asking about wedding scrapbooks, and Carmela had come up with a layout that was easy for beginners yet elegant in appearance. Color photos of a bride and bridesmaids were alternated with squares of embossed floral paper, three down and three across, like a giant tic-tac-toe board. A diamond-shaped card, perfect for personal jottings, was positioned in the center.
As Carmelas hands worked to fashion a bow, her mind was working overtime. She had about a gazillion things to do on this late February afternoon. Call her momma, pick up batteries for her camera, check with her friend, Ava, about the Mardi Gras parade tonight, figure out just what the heck she was going to wear.
But there was time, right? Sure there was, there had to be time.
Willing herself to calm down, Carmela pushed an errant strand of hair from her face and took a deep breath.
People always asked Carmela if shed gotten her name because of her hair. Dark blond, shot through with strands of taffy and caramel, it offered a startling contrast to the clear, pale skin of her oval face and blue gray eyes that mirrored the flat glint of the Gulf of Mexico.
Of course, Carmela didnt have the heart to tell folks shed been born hairless, just like a baby opossum.
Over the years Carmela had chunked and skunked her hair, as Ava laughingly called it, in an effort to shed her cloak of conservatism and adopt an image that was a trifle more outgoing and a little more... well, hip.
Too often, people thought her reserved. Not so, she told herself. She only looked reserved. Inside was a zydeco lovin, foot-stompin Cajun. Well, half Cajun anyway. On her mothers side. Her father had been Norwegian, which, when she thought about it, probably had given her a slight genetic tendency toward wearing beige and voting Republican.
When she was little, before her dad died in a barge accident on the Mississippi, hed jokingly told her she was Cawegian. Half Cajun, half Norwegian.
Carmela had been enchanted by that. And as she got older, chalked up her orderly sense of design to her Norwegian side, her passion for life to her Cajun side. It made her uniquely suited for New Orleans, a city that was eccentric, fanciful, and profoundly religious, yet casually tossed ladies panties from Mardi Gras floats.
Carmela had taken to New Orleans like a duck to water. The Crescent City, the City That Care Forgot, the Big Easy. Only lately, things hadnt been so easy.
Carmela finished with a flourish, There, she told her group. The amazing Technicolor wedding layout.
How very elegant, marveled Tandy Bliss. She slid a pair of bright red cheaters halfway down her bony nose and studied Carmelas handiwork. Tandy was a scrapbook fanatic of the first magnitude and one of Carmelas regulars at Memory Mine, the little scrapbooking store she owned on the fringe of the French Quarter in New Orleans. But didnt you mention something about using vellum?
Carmela dug into her pile of paper scraps and came up with a quick solution. Three-inch squares of vellum go here and here, she said as she slid the thin, transparent paper atop the floral paper. Gabby, you want to hand me those stickers?
Gabby Mercer-Morris, Carmelas young assistant, passed over a sheet of embossed gold foil stickers. Carmela peeled one off gingerly and pressed it at the top of the velum to anchor it.
What a lovely, soft look, marveled Byrle Coopersmith. This was her first scrapbooking class, and she was wide-eyed with excitement. I had no idea scrapbooks could be so elegant.
People are always amazed at the sophisticated looks you can achieve, explained Carmela. She picked up a sample vacation scrapbook shed created and flipped through the pages for all to see. See... you can highlight a single photo by creating a gangbuster layout around it, use several photos for a fun montage effect, or turn your page into a kind of travel journal by incorporating your own personal notes and clippings. No matter what you do, scrapbooking is all about preserving memory in a very personal way. She passed the album to Byrle, who accepted it eagerly. Think about it, continued Carmela. Most people have snapshot collections that document all sorts of precious events: new babies, weddings, graduations, vacations. But what do they do with them?
