For fans of: Laura Childs’ Tea Shop Mystery Series and Cackleberry Club Mystery Series

It's Halloween in New Orleans and scrapbook-shop-owner Carmela Bertrand and her best friend, voodoo-shop-proprietress Ava Gruiex, have been hired by the New Orleans Art Institute to design and build a giant puppet for the Monsters and Mayhem Torchlight Parade. Carmela and Ava have never done this type of project before, but everything seems to be going well – until late one night when, while working on the puppet, they stumble across the bloody corpse of venture capitalist and krewe captain Brett Fowler. The police suspect float-designer Jekyl Hardy is responsible for Brett's death – especially since Brett owed Jekyl money and the murder weapon was a giant Minotaur head designed by Jekyl – but Carmela and Ava know Jekyl isn’t capable of murder. When Jekyl’s archenemy also turns up dead, however, it looks like someone's doing their darndest to frame him. Can Carmela and Ava unmask the real killer before they become the next victims?

Has there ever been a more perfect setting for a murder mystery than New Orleans at Halloween? In Fiber and Brimstone, Laura Childs takes full advantage of this brilliant mise en scène, moving her characters from fabulous set piece to fabulous set piece: a bondage-themed ball, a Garden District costume party, a Dracula-themed ballet where the audience’s costumes are as extraordinary as the cast’s – the list goes on and on. What’s more, Childs does a wonderful job of bringing these fantastical events to life using lush, vivid descriptions that conjure imagery straight out of a Tim Burton movie. The mystery that takes place in this magical setting is an intriguing one, with clues deftly dropped in all the right places, and the book barrels right along toward a thrilling conclusion.

Unfortunately, Childs’ florid prose, melodramatic dialogue, and generally weak characterization detract from an otherwise first-rate tale. While I love her descriptions of places and things, Childs’ descriptions of people are unnecessarily complicated, and the descriptions of her characters’ actions are often wordy and bombastic. Fiber and Brimstone does contain some fun and intriguing characters (Jekyl, Ava, and the mysterious Mr. Bones, for example) but a large portion of Childs’ cast is rather nondescript (main character Carmela and her boyfriend, Lieutenant Edgar Babcock, fall into this category), and while I like the friendship between Carmela and Ava, the relationship between Carmela and Edgar feels flat and lifeless. Childs’ dialogue often fails to ring true, and her use of overly dramatic signifiers doesn’t do her any favors (there are lots of people shrilling and screeching things in this book).

Stylistic complaints aside, Fiber and Brimstone is a fun read for the season. The plot is solid, and Childs does a wonderful job of capturing the magic of New Orleans on All Hallows’ Eve. And for those of you scrapbookers out there, you’ll find that Childs has artfully sprinkled tips and tricks throughout the book to nicely integrate the theme of the series. ~ Kat