Poor Kiki!  It was bad enough that her two-timeing husband George went and got himself killed in the first Scrap-N-Craft myster, but now someone is messing with her new found livelihood at St. Louis' Time in a Bottle.

Kiki, her boss Didi, and newest team member, Bama, are hosting a crop at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  When Yvonne Gardener, the latest scrapbooking star in the metro area, succumbs to a rare allergy, all eyes are cast on those who had access to the afternoon edibles. 

The author brings back the characters from the first book.  First, there's her daughter, Anya, a good kid who is rather spoiled, but not too much.  Then there's Kiki's mother-in-law, Sheila, who is having a heck of a time trying to kill the mole invasion in her pristine lawn as well as manage Kiki's love life.  Detective Detweiler, Kiki's love interest and lead investigator in George's death, is trying to hide a big, big secret and breaking Kiki's heart.  Kiki's former maid and dog-sitting buddy, Mert, is sounding more like a country hick.  Then there's Gracie, Kiki and Anya's beloved horse of a dog.

Kiki meets more than one man, including a felon, who want to pick up the pieces of her shattered heart.

Annotation by: St. Louis Public Library staff.

Annotation by: St. Louis Public Library staff.

Lt. George Hastings is called to the St. Louis riverfront when a hooker turns up dead.  Mostly abandoned, the riverfront leaves few clues for Hastings and his team.  All they can really determine is that the girl was strangled.

The dirl's death is considered tragic, but nothing to worry about until a second hooker turns up dead, this time on the other end of the metropolitan area.  Is there a serial killer loose in the Gateway City?  Hastings and his team of detectives arent' sure, but the one thing they don't want to do is let anything slip to the press.  They don't need panic-stricken citizens.

When a third woman is also found strangled, Hastings is sure a seral killer is on the loose.  However, the third death doesn't quite fit the MO of the other two.  The third woman was not a hooker.  Is it connected, or merely happenstance?

Annotation by: St. Louis Public Library staff.

Annotation by: St. Louis Public Library staff.

This first book in what appears to be a series finds the rich-but-down-to-earth Kiki learning that her husband George has died naked in a St. Louis motel room.  The reader knows it's murder and not something as lurid as a heart attack during an afternoon delight, but Kiki doesn't.

Kiki not only has to deal with George's two-timing death, but he's left her without a penny to her name.  She has to sell her gold Lexus and find a way to support herself and her daughter, Anya.  It doesn't help that there isn't enough money for the staples, but Anya's private school costs more than Kiki could possibly make in a year.  George's mother is willing to do anything for Anya, but she despises Kiki.

Kiki, a scrapbooker extraordinaire, turns to her hobby for income.  She gets a freelance gig at the store she frequented when she had money.  One of her first jobs is as the instructor at a bridal shower.  Kiki makes a supposedly cutting remark to one of the shower's guests.  When the guest, also an old flame of George's turns up dead, Kiki is the primary suspect.

Nonetheless, Kiki not only has two murders to solve, but someone has broken into the shappby place she and Anya now call home.

Annotation by: St. Louis Public Library staff.