Publishers Weekly
At the start of Slan's enjoyable fourth scrapbooking mystery (after 2010's Photo, Snap, Shot), Kiki Lowenstein, part owner of the craft shop Time in a Bottle, in St. Louis, Mo., is fishing in a Dumpster for a lost paycheck when she finds a severed human leg—which turns out to belong to a crafting regular, Cindy Grabowski, who's gone missing. Investigating the murder is Det. Chad Detweiler, an unhappily married cop with serious hots for Kiki and whom Kiki yoyos between loving and loathing. But all romance takes a backseat to the search for the killer, who Kiki is determined to prove is the victim's abusive husband. Holiday season is in full swing as Kiki juggles Hanukkah and Christmas traditions while trying to solve more than one crime. Interspersed are great crafting tips and tasty recipes, though you have to wonder about Kiki's adolescent swings between love interests. (May)
Library Journal
Scrapbooking dovetails with serious women's issues for amateur sleuth Kiki Lowenstein, a feisty young widow who now partially owns the St. Louis shop where local women come to document their memories. She's certainly not expecting to find a woman's severed leg in her dumpster, but things like that happen to her in this fourth outing (after Photo, Snap, Shot). Turns out the limb belonged to a victim of domestic abuse; now Kiki's in danger, since she's never content to stay on the sidelines. Woven through the cat-and-mouse chase (who knew what damage could be done with craft tools?) are Kiki's Hanukkah craft ideas and her at-home challenges with a tween daughter. VERDICT This author's craft mysteries are topically relevant and chock-full of side stories. Compare with Clare O'Donohue's "Someday Quilts" series for women's empowerment topics.
Kirkus Reviews
Struggling to make ends meet while dealing with a complicated love life? The worst is yet to come.
Her search for a missing paycheck takes Kiki Lowenstein into the dumpster behind Time in a Bottle, the beloved scrapbook store in which she's acquired part ownership. Instead she finds a human leg. Since her husband was murdered, Kiki is used to threatening messages, but her anal-retentive co-owner Bama faints when the detectives show them a threatening note also retrieved from the dumpster. Bama has secrets of her own, which make her abusive husband beat her to a pulp and almost kill Kiki before the police arrive. And it's not as if Kiki doesn't have problems of her own. The man she loves is already married; her teen daughter has become awfully independent; and with Hanukkah and Christmas fast approaching, she has so little money that she's forced to wear a jacket smelling of cat pee to survive the cold St. Louis winter. By contrast, her customer Cindy Gambrowski seemed to have it all, at least until Kiki found her leg. Investigation reveals that she was battered by her controlling husband, who's high on the list of suspects. But Cindy's hidden clues in her scrapbooks, and it's up to Kiki to find them before she becomes the next victim.
Kiki's adventures (Photo, Snap, Shot, 2010, etc.) are a cut above the usual crafting cozies. If the mystery is pedestrian, the characters are so well-developed that each installment leaves the reader yearning for the next.
