Maggie Crozat is back home in bayou country during the most magical time of the year. In Pelican, Louisiana, Christmastime is a season of giant bonfires on the levee, zydeco carols, and pots of gumbo. Except, this year, the Grinch has come to stay at the family-run Crozat Plantation B&B. When he floods travel websites with vicious reviews, Maggie thinks she’s identified him as rival businessman Donald Baxter. That is, until he’s found stabbed to death at Maggie’s workplace. And Maggie and her loved ones become top suspects.
The Crozats quickly establish alibis, but Maggie’s boyfriend, Detective Bo Durand, remains under suspicion. With Bo sidelined during the investigation, Maggie finds herself forced to work with an unlikely ally: longtime family enemy Rufus Durand. Her sleuthing uncovers more suspects than drummers drumming, and lands her in the crosshairs of the murderer.
The sleigh bells are jingling, and the clock is ticking for Maggie and Rufus, who must catch the killer or it will be the opposite of a Joyeux Noël in A Cajun Christmas Killing, the recipe-stuffed third installment of USA Today bestselling author Ellen Byron’s Cajun Country mysteries.
I wavered between 3.5 and 4 stars for this one, but ultimately I enjoyed the story and was able to lose myself in Louisiana for a few hours and that's enough for a solid 4 stars.
The book got off to a shaky start for me because it begins with someone leaving malicious reviews online for Maggie's parent's B&B. Now call me eccentric if you'd like, but while I'm all in for a good old fashioned murder mystery, I'm completely turned off by malicious behaviour. Mean with a motive, I can do; mean for the sake of being mean and I'm out. Luckily, this thread was a thin and short one and once it was resolved, I enjoyed the story and the characters a lot more.
Byron succeeds with the mystery plot be virtue of making it so chaotic there was no telling who done what. The resolution was a tad weak, but not amongst the top 50 worst denouements I've ever read.
My only real complain about the book is that even though it takes place during Christmas and Christmas pops up here and there throughout the story, there's very little Christmas spirit. But I find this to be true of most "Christmas" stories anymore, so I can't really gripe too much over it.
I'll definitely look forward to another Cajun Mystery.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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19 December, 2017:
Finished reading
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19 December, 2017:
Reviewed