Fragile Designs

I purchased a Kindle copy of Fragile Designs earlier in the year. I never got around to reading it until recently. Fortunately for me, it works for the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge this month.  It was published on January 2, 2024.

The publisher's summary:

There’s only one thing more dangerous than family secrets.

Since her police-officer husband Eric’s mysterious murder, Carly Harris has been struggling to support herself and their infant son. Her career as an antique dealer isn’t sustainable, nor is her dream of becoming a novelist. So when her grandmother proposes she and her two sisters restore the family’s large Beaufort home and turn it into a bed-and-breakfast, she immediately gets to work clearing out the house. In the process, she uncovers a family secret that Eric kept hidden. And an heirloom that the wrong person wouldn’t hesitate to kill for.

Homicide detective Lucas Bennett isn’t his neighbor’s biggest fan, not since she broke his brother’s heart years ago. But when Carly turns to Lucas for help, believing she’s found a lost Fabergé egg that would be worth millions and that could put her family’s lives in danger, he can’t help but get involved. Soon, they’re entangled in a mystery with threads that lead all the way to the Russian mafia. Lucas has gotten in deep, and while he trusts his ability to keep Carly and her family safe, he begins to realize he’s vulnerable to an unexpected kind of danger. And he’s helpless to stop the freefall. As they continue working closely together, Carly and Lucas realize they may have found something more precious than gold. Yet it’s only a matter of time before Carly—or, worse, someone she loves—gets hurt.

I LOVED this story. I was unable to put it down until I finished reading. With a gripping start, the quick pace was maintained throughout the book. Several murders took place in the beginning that were later found to be connected but the connections were not revealed until the end.

Some papers and a gem were discovered by Carly as she went through her grandmother's chest. The papers revealed that Grandma had been adopted and that she had a twin. This was news to Grandma. Carly also found a toy that had been painted red. After cleaning it up, a gleaming white object was revealed. While she wondered if it was a Faberge egg that had been missing for decades, law enforcement was skeptical. However, neighbor Lucas, a police officer, is given two weeks by his boss to follow these leads. Unfortunately, every time he visits anyone who might be able to help him he finds their dead bodies. Lucas has also been searching for Grandma's twin. The twin has a common surname and finding the right person won't be easy.

Halfway through the novel we discover that Carly's husband Eric, a deceased police officer, had been unfaithful. He had gotten a neighbor pregnant. The neighbor gave birth to a daughter just six weeks before Carly had Noah. I thought he was a saint up until this point. Scum! Eric knew that there was a valuable Faberge egg in his attic but whether he told anyone else was unknown until the end of the story.

Fragile Designs was a fabulous story. While it is a contemporary romance story it is also Christian fiction. I highly recommend the book to cozy, mystery and Christian fiction fans. 5 out of 5 stars.