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Having traded in her career as a successful investigative journalist for the life of a stay-at-home mom in picturesque Cumberland Creek, Virginia, Annie can't help but feel that something's missing. But she finds solace in a local "crop circle" of scrapbookers united by chore-shy husbands, demanding children, and occasional fantasies of their former single lives. And when the quiet idyll of their small town is shattered by a young mother's suicide, they band together to find out what went wrong. . .
Annie resurrects her reporting skills and discovers that Maggie Rae was a closet scrapbooker who left behind more than a few secrets—and perhaps a few enemies. As they sift through Maggie Rae's mysteriously discarded scrapbooks, Annie and her "crop" sisters begin to suspect that her suicide may have been murder. It seems that something sinister is lurking beneath the town's beguilingly calm façade—like a killer with unfinished business. . .
"A scrapbook of zany small town life with characters you'll want to visit again and again in each new novel." —Emilie Richards, author of Sunset Bridge
"Imagine the housewives of Wisteria Lane sipping tea, scrapbooking, and solving murders, and you have this gem of a debut." —Lois Winston, author of Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun
"Intriguing characters, eerie happenings. . .kept me guessing 'til the end." —Clare O'Donohue
Includes tips and a glossary of terms for the modern scrapbooker!
Vera just looked at her calmly. "Well, now, Mother, we need to call someone, an ambulance ... a doctor.... I don't know. Should we pull it out, or what?"
If Vera only had a nickel for every time her mother gave her that look. A look of unbelieving pity, as if to say, Sometimes I can't believe the stupidity of my grown daughter. Having a brilliant mother was not easy—ever—especially not as an adult. As a child, Vera assumed all grown-ups were as smart as her mother, and it was easy to acquiesce to her in all of her grown-up, brilliant, scientific knowledge. At the age of eighty, Beatrice showed no signs of slowness in her mind or any forgetfulness. Nothing. Vera almost looked forward to the day she could help her mother remember something or even tell her something that she didn't know.
As she sat in the X-ray waiting area, looking out the window over a construction site, with a huge dilapidated barn in the distance, she marveled once again at her mother's strength and tenacity. Evidently, she was stabbed during her travels through the town this Saturday morning. She didn't feel a thing—and with three grocery bags in her hands, Beatrice walked four blocks home, the same path she'd traveled for fifty years. "Four different grocery stores have been there and have gone out of business," Beatrice would say. "Yet, I'm still here, walking the same street, the same path. I refuse to die."
Beatrice would not allow her daughter—or anyone—to pick up groceries for her or take her shopping. She said that as long as she could keep getting herself to the grocery store, she knew she was fine. Food is life. "It's the ancient food-foraging impulse in me. I feel it even stronger, the older I get. I want to take care of myself."
How could a woman who still fended for herself every day—cooking, gardening, canning, cleaning, and writing—not feel a knife jab into her neck?
"Vera?" said a man in medical garb who stood in front of her.
"Yes," she said, standing up.
"I'm Dr. Hansen. We've just X-rayed your mom and looked over the film," he said, smiling, revealing two deep dimples and a beautiful set of teeth. He held the film in his hands. "Would you like to see them?"
She followed him over to the wall, where he clicked on a light and clipped on the X-ray to it.
"As you can see, the knife is pretty deep." He pointed to the blade. His nails and hands were the cleanest Vera had ever seen on a man. An overall well-manicured appearance.
"Y-yes," she stammered. That was a knife in her mother's neck. A knife. Long and sharp. Menacing.
"Here's the thing, rather than give you a bunch of medical mumbo jumbo, I'm just going to put this in lay terms."
She despised his patronizing tone. He wasn't even born yet when her father was practicing medicine out of their home. She knew about the human body. She was a dancer; her father was a physician. Her mother might be old, but she was no slouch.
"The reason your mom didn't feel this is because it's lodged in an area where there are few nerve endings, which is a blessing because she is not really in any pain," he said, taking a breath. "You just don't see this every day."
"No," Vera said.
"We can pull it out, using local anesthesia, with great risk for potential blood loss and so on. If she flinches or moves while we're removing it, the damage could be severe. We can also operate to remove it, put her under, which I think is the safest thing."
Vera looked at him for some guidance or answer. Damn it, Bill is out of town. "Have you talked to her about it?"
"Well, yes...."
"And?"
"She doesn't want surgery. She wants us to pull it out."
"So what's the problem? It's her body. I can't make decisions like that for her."
"Your mom is eighty years old and we're not sure she's thinking clearly. And the danger—"
"Doctor," Vera said, trying not to roar. She felt an odd tightening in her guts. She stood up straighter. "My mother's mind is perfectly fine. It's her neck that seems to be the problem right now, and the fact that a knife is sticking out of it."
He looked away. "Vera, I know this might be hard for you. A lot of times we don't see the truth when it comes to our aging parents."
"What exactly are you talking about? I am very close with my mom and would know if something was wrong. I don't understand."
"Well, she's been talking to herself, for one thing."
Vera laughed. "No, she's not. She's talking to my dad. He died about twenty years ago. She talks to him all the time."
He looked at her as if she had lost her mind. "Do you think that's normal?"
"For her, it is."
Vera's mind wandered as the doctor was called away. He said he'd be back. She looked at the crisp blue hospital walls, with beautiful landscape paintings, all strategically placed. One was above the leather sofa so you could lie or sit in style to await the news about your loved ones and gaze into the peaceful garden gazebo landscape; one was above the chair; the hallways were lined with them. Vera saw herself walking down the hall and looking at the same prints twenty years ago. Tranquil settings of barns and flowers did not help the pain. She was only twenty-one then, and she thought she'd soon be back in New York City. As soon as her father healed, got home, and was on the road to being himself, she'd hop on the train to continue her dancing career. She had no idea she'd never see her father again—nor would she ever dance professionally again.
The last time Vera was here was with her father. The hospital had just opened, and he was impressed with the technology and the vibrant pulse of new medicine. The research arm intrigued him. Some older doctors were jaded and looked at the new hospital with suspicion, but not her father. Ironic that he died here, under the new establishment's care.
She sighed a deep and heavy sigh.
"Vera!" It was Sheila running up the hall, wiry brown hair needing combing. She was dressed in a mismatched sweat suit. "Oh, girl! What on earth is going on? I've been hearing rumors. Is your mama okay? Lord!"
For the first time that day, Vera smiled. "Sit down, Sheila. You're a mess."
Sheila took a quick look at herself and laughed. "You know, I just threw anything on. Is your mother—"
"She's fine," said Vera. "She's trying to tell the doctors what to do."
"Really?" Sheila sat up a little straighter, looking very serious. "I can hardly believe that," she said, and a laugh escaped. Then she grabbed her belly and howled in a fit of laughter.
Vera felt tears coming to her eyes through her own chortles. "You haven't heard the best part," she managed to say, trying to calm herself down as a nurse passed by, glancing at them. "Mama was stabbed and she never felt a thing."
"What?" Sheila stopped laughing for a minute. "Are you serious?" Her face reddened and laugher escaped. "Oh, girl, only Beatrice. Only Beatrice."
Vera's mother had just been stabbed, and she and her best friend were laughing about it, like schoolgirls unable to control their nervous giggles. A part of Vera felt like she was betraying her mother. However, she knew if Beatrice had been in this room, she'd be laughing, too.
When the women calmed down, Sheila brought up Maggie Rae, which was the other startling news of the day. "Did you hear the news?"
Vera sighed. "Yes, I heard about it. I saw the ambulances and police at her house and went over to see what was happening. You know, I blame myself. I knew something was wrong. I just didn't know what to do about it, or maybe I just tried to talk myself out of it."
Vera thought about the tiny young mother, always with her children clinging to her, and with a baby on her hip—or in a stroller. She was pretty in a simple way—never made-up, always pulled her long black hair into a ponytail and wore glasses most of the time. Though once or twice, Vera had seen her wearing contacts, which really opened up her face. Even though Maggie Rae rarely made eye contact, she always held herself erect and moved with a graceful confidence and sway in her hips.
"Now, Vera," said Sheila, "you hardly knew that woman. Who really knew her? She kept to herself."
"She brought Grace in for dance lessons once a week," Vera told her. "I know her as well as any of the rest of them. Except she was awfully quiet. And so small. Like a bird. Every time I saw her, it looked like she had gotten even thinner."
"Hmm-hmm, I know. It's odd. She was one of my best customers, but she never came to a crop," said Sheila, who sold scrapbooking supplies for a living. "I invited her. She never came, so I just ... stopped. You know, you can only push so far."
They sat in their own silence, with the hospital noise all around them, each knowing her own sadness and her own triumphs and joys, but neither knowing what it was like to be pushed quite that far. To be pushed far enough to put a gun to one's heart while the children were peacefully sleeping upstairs. What kind of darkness led Maggie Rae Dasher to that moment? And what do people ever really know about the neighbors and townsfolk who live among them?
"Did she leave a note or anything?" Vera wondered out loud.
Sheila shrugged.
A nurse dressed all in blue passed them; a mother carrying a baby in a carrier and holding the hand of a toddler limped along; someone was coughing and another person laughed. A man in a wheelchair wheeled by them, while another gentleman hobbled with a cane. Phones were ringing. Announcements were being made, doctors were paged.
"Damn," said Sheila. "This place sucks."
"Wonder where the doctor is?" Vera looked around. "I'm going over to that desk to see what's going on. I should at least be able to see Mama."
As Vera walked around the nurses' station to try to find some help, she thought she could hear her mother's voice.
"What?" the voice said. "Listen, you twit, you'll do it because I said you will. Stop treating me like I am five. I am eighty, of sound mind and body, except for this friggin' knife hanging out of my neck. And oh, by the way, I am a doctor of physics myself. So don't tell me—"
"Mama," Vera interrupted as she walked into the room. Sitting up in bed, her mother looked so small, which belied the sound of her voice and the redness of her face. "Calm down, sweetie."
She folded her arms over her chest. "Son of a bitch!" She cocked her head and looked behind Vera. "What's the scrapbook queen doing here? Am I dying or something?"
"Hey," Sheila said. "You've got a knife sticking out of the back of your neck. Don't get too cocky, old woman."
"Huh!" Beatrice said, and smiled. "Glad to see you, too. Now, Vera, what are we going to do about this mess?"
"I told the doctor that it's your body. You do what you want, Mama."
"Yes, but," she said, after taking a sip of water, leaning forward on the pillows that were propping her in an awkward position, which forced her to sit up so the knife would not hit the bed, "what do you think? What would you do?"
Vera could hardly believe what she was hearing. Her mother was asking for her advice. She couldn't remember if that had happened before. "Honestly, if it were me, I'd want to be put out. I'd be afraid of moving, you know?"
"I don't know about being operated on at my age.... You know they killed your daddy. What if they kill me, too? I can't leave yet. I've got too much work to do, and then there's you. I can't leave you without a parent," she said quietly.
Vera knew that's what it would come to—this is where he died, not for his heart problems, but from a staph infection.
"Just do what she asks," Vera said to the young doctor, who was still hovering. "She won't move."
Annie sighed. She didn't know if these women would have drinks at their parties. She really didn't know what to expect.
"Why don't you come to our crop?" Vera said to her at the library a few weeks ago. Vera and her dancers entertained at lunchtime. Annie thought the boys would enjoy it. She honestly didn't know what she would do without the library and its programs.
"What's that?"
"We all sit around and work on our scrapbooks, share stuff, and visit. It's a lot of fun," Vera replied.
"Oh, okay, sounds good," Annie said, thinking she would have to dig out her second son's book, and she was not even sure where it was. Poor Ben, he was such a second child. Annie just could not keep up with his baby book, let alone a scrapbook.
One sleepless night, she awoke from a fit of mother guilt and filled in all of the blanks on Ben's baby book. She had no idea if any of the measurements, dates, and whatnots were actually correct. In fact, she was fairly sure they were not. Ben would never know that. At least it would look like his mother had paid attention to these things. Not like the mother that Annie actually was—harried, tired, struggling, and sometimes bored. Yes, even with her own children. And so she still tried to write—but not in baby books.
When Ben's older brother, Sam, was born, Annie did fill in the blanks on all the baby books—well, for the most part. After Ben was born, those blanks went blank as well. And she was going to be the mother who nursed her kids until they were two and fed them only homemade baby food. And they would never watch television, let alone the inane, insane children's videos.
Right.
When they first moved to Cumberland Creek, Virginia, they thought they would be welcomed with open arms. It was a peaceful, rural place. Rural people were friendly, warm, community-minded, right? What Annie and Mike found was that they mostly were met with indifference, sometimes tempered with suspicion, especially in their peaceful little town of Cumberland Creek, with its beautiful Victorian architecture and quaint shops, luring tourists. Pleasant place to visit—but not to live, if you are an outsider. An outsider seemed to be anyone whose family did not stretch back at least three generations, and who did not belong to the much-vaunted First Presbyterian, First Baptist, or Episcopal Churches. And in Annie and Mike's case, that was impossible, since they both hailed from Bethesda, Maryland, and were Jewish.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from SCRAPBOOK of SECRETS by Mollie Cox Bryan Copyright © 2012 by Mollie Cox Bryan . Excerpted by permission of KENSINGTON BOOKS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Reviewed By~JoAnne
Review Copy Provided By~ARC by Publisher
This book took me awhile to warm up to and even when it was finished I really had to think whether I liked it or not. It had promise but really never got there and was choppy in places. There were too many characters and murder suspects which made it hard to feel a connection.
Annie, one of the main characters who had lived in Cumberland Creek only for a year after relocating with her family from Maryland, became the "star" of the show. On the night she was going to her first scrapbooking party, it was cancelled due to a stabbing. But off she went to the hospital to wait with the others since all the scrapbookers would be there giving moral support to Vera, the daughter of the stabbing victim and also one of the scrapbookers. Annie flawlessly became not only part of the group, as if she always was, but also the leader at times. She also took a lot of chances that being a mom of two young children, plus new to the area seemed unlikely. She was also the only non-Christian of the group and they played up the religious aspect as well - not always in a nice way. The detective in charge of the investigations - there were a few mysteries going on at once - also fed her a lot of information which seemed surprising since she was resurrecting her journalism career by writing some articles about it as a freelancer.
All in all I didn't find this a "cozy" mystery at all. There wasn't a romance and there wasn't any laughter or tears from me. I felt the story ended abruptly but we will continue to be exposed to the lives of the characters since it's the start of a new series. The book had a two chapter excerpt from it which tried to hook me from the opening pages. I will try to give the next book by Bryan a chance, but if the storytelling doesn't improve I won't go past book two.
Favorite Quote: "By the way, did they fin out who stabbed you, dear?" Beatrice's stomach sank. She'd never get over it - being intentionally hurt by someone in her community. Who would do such a thing?
"No, but it happened the same day as Maggie Rae's murder. And the brilliant Cumberland Creek police think there's a link," she replied.
9 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 11, 2012
I have been enjoying "cozy" mysteries for many years now and am insulted (mad at myself too!) that I would spend money on such a poor story. You never really figured out who the main character was - if there was one. A murder and a "crop group" just didn't quite come together like it was supposed to for me anyway. I finally quit at page 150 and flipped to the end to find out who the killer was. Ho Hum. End of story. Some new writers are good, some are not so good, this one was not.
8 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted March 6, 2012
This book did not impress me at all. The characters were largely unlikeable, plus there were too many of them, most of whom were irrelevant. There were also long paragraphs of exposition of what the different characters were thinking/feeling about all kinds of stuff that I also couldn't bring myself to care about. All in all, I wish I'd saved my money.
6 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.wynwords
Posted February 5, 2012
I like scrap booking, and I like funny mysteries so I decided to give this one a try. And really, who can resist any novel that begins with “For Vera, all of the day’s madness began when she saw the knife handle poking out of her mother’s neck.” (Never fear, her mother is a force to be reckoned with all throughout the novel).
As a matter of fact, most of the novel revolves around Vera, her mother, and a newcomer to the area, Annie. I really identified with Annie, trying to balance being a wife and mother along with a need for some professional (writing) release.
Although the novel is set up so that you think the author is extremely unsubtle about who did it— it was a surprise when the whodunit was revealed. And all the clues were there! I give this one a solid 4 out of 5 stars.
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged... because once you start reading, you're not going to want to put "Scrapbook of Secrets" down! From page 1, you'll be utterly engrossed by the story and wanting to find out what's going to happen next. And the cast of characters is charming and funny -- you'll wish they were your friends in real life.
I can't wait for the next book!
3 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.DOF
Posted February 14, 2012
Great take on the changing landscape of small towns. Cumberland Creek is inhabited by interesting characters dealing with typical, and not so typical small town life (unless murder/suicides and elderly women being stabbed in the neck in broad daylight, are typical of your small town). Enjoyed the character and plot development so much that I blame the author for my stiff neck from continuous reading!
Can't wait to read the second book in the series to see what else unfolds in Cumberland Creek . . . and of course get more of Beatrice!
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.CozyCrazy
Posted February 12, 2012
What an interesting cozy! I really get how the woman support each other, but still have these times when they're slogging through chores, and raising kids, and that time to gather with friends seems like a golden light at the end of the tunnel.
I was moved by how they felt shock and semi-guilt (why didn't I reach out more? some were maybe thinking) when a neighbor kills herself. And I was really moved when they decided to make scrapbooks for the dead woman's children.
There are layers to the small town that get explored. The good, the bad, and the "We love our small town and just want to ignore that ugly over there" --I really related to this as well.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 22, 2013
I read this book during a trip last year and couldn't put it down! The characters were well-developed and interesting. Being from a small town, I could completely relate to the mannerisms of the townspeople and the group of friends in the book. I've also recently read the second book in this series and it was just as good as the first. Pick it up and enjoy!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 22, 2013
I will not by a book that has so many spoilers. Why do people think that a review means "tell the whole story". I have passed up many books because of this
2 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 15, 2013
Interesting combination of practical and mystical with a dash of psychology and a dollop of scrapbooking. These characters seem like comfortable friends who have come to visit and tell a story. Not your typical "cozy". Delightful read.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged. Cumberland Creek, Virginia—on its surface, a small town like many
others, with its charm, friendliness, and sense of safety, but also with
some of the drawbacks familiar to newcomers. Annie and Mike moved to
this village with their young sons for all the advantages of small-town
life but Annie has found it a bit difficult to be accepted because she
is an outsider. Add to that her frustrations at having left an
investigative journalism career behind and the normal day-to-day
feelings of being trapped with the children and Annie is wondering if
this move has really been a good idea. An invitation to join a
scrapbooking party may just be her mental and emotional salvation.
Unfortunately, the party is canceled at the last moment because the
mother of a member of the circle needs emergency surgery to remove the
knife someone stuck in her neck. Soon after, reports begin to circulate
about the suicide of a young woman who left a husband and four young
children. Everyone assumes Maggie Rae was driven to such a desperate and
final act of shooting herself by problems in her marriage and her
emotional isolation. Then, Annie, Vera and Sheila discover piles of
scrapbooking materials dumped on the curb at Maggie Rae’s home the next
day, surely the act of a callous husband who doesn’t care. The ladies
“rescue” the scrapbooks and decide to complete them for her children and
to commemorate her life and, as they do and her secrets begin to come to
light, they begin to question whether Maggie Rae did, indeed, take her
own life. It doesn’t take long for the police to come to the same
conclusion. With more than one potential suspect, how will the real
killer be caught and will there be more victims before then? Is there a
connection between Maggie Rae’s death and Beatrice’s stabbing?
Scrapbook of Secrets is the debut mystery of author Mollie Cox Bryan and
I found it to be charming and entertaining with an edge many cozies
don’t have. Suicide is not often a topic of this subgenre and the
reasons behind the crimes are also unusual. That makes this a refreshing
entry into the heavily populated crafts-related mystery field and,
although there are some plot failures including a rather important one
regarding the handling of evidence, none are so overwhelming as to
interfere with a reader’s appreciation of the story. I enjoyed it very
much, especially the characters and the picturesque setting, and will
look forward to the next installment in the series.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 23, 2012
Held my interest and I fell in love with the characters. I thought it was well written and am looking forward to more from this author!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 22, 2012
Love love loved this book! I just couldn't put it down , love the characters! Looking forward to the next book by this talented created author, mollie! Hope to meet you one day, your are my new favorite author, keep writing!
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 13, 2013
Just finished reading this book and I'm looking forward to the next one, and I don't even scrapbook. It surprised me, kept me interested, and made me laugh. I'm glad I took the chance and bought it!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 29, 2013
No heavy lifting here. A newcomer from the big city gets pulled into a rural scrapbooking group, then finds herself drawn into the mystery of an apparent suicide. Competently written, engaging.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 23, 2013
I never saw the end coming! This book keeps you guessing until the very end as to "who done it"! The characters are very diverse and so well written you can almost see them. I can't wait to read more!!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 21, 2013
The story line and characters were believable, thought provoking and kept my interest until the end. Then it seemed like the author quit writing just to meet a deadline or word quota. It does have a sexual infidelity plotline and uses profanity in all conversation which may offend some readers.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 20, 2013
Scrapbook of Secrets was a very good book. A Mystery that kept me captivated until the very end. Can't wait to get the next book in the series.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 19, 2013
Fun read.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 19, 2013
enjoyed reading about the ladies doing the scrapebooking. they are all interesting and funny. and beatrice is so cool. the mystery was different couldnt wait to find out. cant wait for next book.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
Having traded in her career as a successful investigative journalist for the life of a stay-at-home mom in picturesque Cumberland Creek, Virginia, Annie can't help but feel that something's missing. But she finds solace in a local "crop circle" of scrapbookers united by chore-shy husbands, demanding children, and occasional fantasies of their former single lives. And when the quiet idyll of their small town is shattered by a young mother's suicide, they band together to find out...