Paper Scissors Death

Paper Scissors Death is the start of a new mystery series by Joanna Campbell Slan. Kiki Lowenstein's husband is found dead and naked in a hotel room. Kiki is in a state of shock, but tries to keep it together for her daughter Anya. She also finds out their finances are a mess, and she is going to have to start over. The good thing is she has a mother-in-law who loves her granddaughter, and Kiki never really felt comfortable in the gated community she lived in anyway. The bad news is the mother-in-law hates her, knew about her husband's affairs and Kiki has a self-esteem problem. But she just can't accept that George would just die of a heart attack. He was too young, and who were the women he was dinning with just before it happened?

Slan gives us a heroine to be proud of. Kiki is forced to grow and get out of her comfort zone - just so she and her daughter can survive. The ironic part is - she gets more help from her "lower-class" friends, then the community she once was a part of. And she manages to get the attention of a police detective who is also not sure this case is over. Her well written friends and their support system are the type of folks that you want behind you when the chips are down.

For anyone who loves scrapbooking, Slan really has the crafting part down pat. Kiki ends up using her scrapbooking skills to earn money, and Slan - an author of non-fiction scrapbooking books, knows her stuff. She flavors Kiki's story with reasons why people love scrabooking. And she writes about the amount of emotion there is in the craft. And best of all she gets it right.

I'm looking forward to the next adventure. Forensic scrapbooking indeed! A great read, for mystery and scrapbooking fans alike.