Book Tour: Parchment and Old Lace by Laura Childs

First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted weekly by Bibliophile by the Sea. Share the first paragraph of your current read. Also visit Teaser Tuesdays meme hosted by Jenn.

Parchment and Old Lace: A Scrapbooking Mystery #13 by Laura Childs, October 2015; Berkley
Source: publisher

(In) the Big Easy and the historic Garden District, scrapbook shop owner Carmela Bertrand discovers a bride-to-be murdered in the legendary Lafayette Cemetery…

First chapter, first paragraph:

Commander's Palace wasn't just the most storied restaurant in New Orleans. For Carmela Bertrand it was pure magic. 

Carmela knew this for a fact because she was sitting in their Garden Room at this very minute. And not only was she nibbling soft-shell crab and sipping an awesome Montrachet, but she was staring into the inquisitive blue eyes of her fella du jour, Detective Edgar Babcock.  

I always enjoy this series, the setting and atmosphere of New Orleans and the intrigue. That Lafayette Cemetery comes up often in the mystery series, as I recall, as it's a big tourist draw, and a great setting for strange events to take place in a novel. 

Teaser, page 158:

Carmela pointed into the darkness. "Right there. That's the mausoleum where someone knocked me in the head with the gate. I want to take a closer look."

"Be careful," Ellie said.

Makes me want to visit New Orleans. I may be one of the few who have never been!

Sunday Salon: Summer's Over

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. 

Seems summer is over, at least till it warms up again next week. I am wearing sweats and sleeping under a blanket till then.

Finished reading:
The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz, fourth in the Stieg Larssen thriller series. This one is controversial because of the new writer, but I gave it five stars.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn, the first in a new Victorian era mystery series.

The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen by Thomas Caplan, a political thriller.

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, a beautiful book crafted as a mystery novel. A five star read.

Won in a Library Thing giveaway:

A Cup of Water Under My Bed by Daisy Hernandez, published September 9th 2014 by Beacon Press.  In this coming-of-age memoir, Daisy Hernández chronicles what the women in her Cuban-Colombian family taught her about love, money, and race. 

New books on the shelf:

Death on the High Lonesome by Frank Hayes, October 2015; Berkley.
In the Southwestern town of Haywood, the onset of winter ushers in a new mystery for Sheriff Virgil Dalton…

Ghost to the Rescue by Carolyn Hart, October 2015; Berkley
Carolyn Hart’s ghostly gumshoe Bailey Ruth Raeburn is dispatched to her old hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma, to help a single mother and struggling writer.

Parchment and Old Lace: A Scrapbooking Mystery #13 by Laura Childs, October 2015; Berkley
(In) the Big Easy and the historic Garden District, scrapbook shop owner Carmela Bertrand discovers a bride-to-be murdered in the legendary Lafayette Cemetery…

The Ghost and Mrs. Fletcher by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain, October 2015; NAL
Jessica Fletcher cleans house to catch a killer.

What books are tempting you this week?