Christina Freeburn

Faith Hunter Scrap This Mystery was a very entertaining story. Faith has returned home to Eden, West Virginia and her grandmothers after a disastrous situation. Even her grandmothers do not know the whole story. She worked for JAG in the armed forces and her husband has ended up in jail. I really liked Faith and wanted her to be able to share her secrets with her friends. The store where she works, owned by her grandmothers, sounds like a great place to hang out. The group of ladies are all great friends and I would love to get to know them. When there is a murder at the Art Show and it turns out that the victim was one of Scrap This' employees estranged husbands, it seems normal that she is arrested. Marilyn begs Faith to help her by finding the real killer, and she can not refuse. The mystery is not as cut and dried to Faith as it is to the police. Faith starts asking questions and puts off many people. The police are also not happy with her. There seem to be many other suspects to Faith and she will not stop even though she has been warned off by the police and the prosecutor.

I love the other characters in the story. Her two grandmothers, Hope and Cheryl, are a hoot. They want Faith to find a new man and push Steve, their neighbour and the town prosecutor at her. The detective, Roget, is a thorn in Faith's side, but he is there when she needs his help. When the town gets wind of the men taking crop classes, there is an unexpected situation that is quite funny. There is just the right amount of humour, romance, family dynamics, crafting and of course mystery, to make this a great story. I was kept guessing all through the book. The story drew me in from the beginning and kept me interested right to the end. I recommend this book to cozy mystery lovers whether you are interested in scrapbooking or not.… (plus d'informations)

This is the first book in a new series starring protagonist, Merry Winters.Merry was adopted as a baby after being found on the steps of a church on Christmas Eve. She has recently divorced her two-timing husband Samuel. She wants to be a full-time crafter, so when her step-daughter offers to sell her an RV she jumps at the offer, using most of her savings. It is not until she arrives at a craft show and tries to find out what the terrible smell in the RV is, that she finds Samuel, dead in the bench seat. Of course, she is the main suspect. What follows is a wonderful introduction to the important people in Merry's life, the ones she is not so happy with and her nosy, annoying neighbour.

I enjoyed the characters in this book. Merry is a great character that is quite upbeat most of the time. She is caring, loves her family and wants to protect those close to her. The town is quaint, but we need to see more of its citizens to really get a feel of the place. There are a couple of possible romantic interests for Merry, but she does not seem interested. I really enjoyed the characters of Grace and Abraham. It is nice to see a character with autism, who is able to lead a relatively good life, but the worries of his mom are real. Ebenezer, the guinea pig is a delight. He has free run of the house and seems more like a cat or dog. I love how his noises and antics are described. Overall, this was a solid introduction to this series. The mystery was quite interesting as it turns out, there were many people that might have wanted Samuel dead. Throw in a missing "ticket", a lottery where the winner has not come forward, and a totally destroyed RV and there are a lot of clues and red herrings. There are many twists as Merry begins to explore what happened, The police seem to think they know who the murderer is, so if she wants to stay out of jail, she better find out who really killed Samuel. I did figure out who the murderer was earlier than the reveal, but it was still an exciting time to see what was going to happen next. This book was the right mix of Christmas cheer, family relationships, mystery and community. I am looking forward to seeing where Christina Freeburn takes us in the next outing with Merry Winters.… (plus d'informations)