16. Fragile Designs by Colleen Coble

listened on Audible
352 pgs.
2024
adult murder mystery 

Finished 2/27/24
Goodreads rating: 4.24
My rating: 2
Setting: Contemporary Beaufort & Savannah, Georgia

My comments: I'm afraid there were more things I disliked about the story than liked.  Very little that happened was believable.  The series of events and their numerous characters were even less believable.  The outcome was ridiculous.  Over-the-top mean, jealous sisters who instantly change their tune after many years.  And at the HEA, the baby that was adopted three years previously - a huge part of the plotline -  was not even in the picture! Absolutely no mention.  And the 70-year-old reunited twins discovered their birth mother was still alive and kicking.  On top of all that, add a whole lot of praying and I can't believe I even finished this story. So much eye-rolling during this listen.      I DID like the setting.

Goodreads synopsis:   NOTE:  This synopsis says the neighbor/co-protagonists' name is SIMON.  It's Not!  If I remember right it's Lucas.... Family secrets can be the most dangerous of all. When Carly Tucker’s police-officer husband is killed during a home break-in, she knows that her side hustle finding the antique treasures at flea markets isn’t enough to support her and their infant son, Noah. So her grandmother’s proposal to have her and her two sisters restore the family’s waterfront Beaufort home into a bed-and-breakfast--that Carly will run--is immediately intriguing. But it’s equally daunting with the animosity that exists between the three sisters. What Carly never expected as she begins to go through the attic was to find a letter in a trunk, written in her husband’s handwriting . . . dated two days before his death. Eric had discovered that Carly’s grandmother was adopted--a fact Carly is certain Gram is not aware of--and had already begun trying to track down her birth family. Is it possible that Eric’s death wasn’t random after all? With few options, Carly reaches out to Gram’s neighbor Simon—and the older brother of her high school sweetheart--who is a local homicide detective. One of the items in the trunk is an enameled egg. If it truly is a Faberge egg, the value could set Carly up for life . . . and would certainly be worth killing for. The journey to find the truth and protect her family will have Carly delving deep into the lost treasures of Eastern Europe--if she and Simon can survive that long.