Winner of the 2016 Best Humorous Mystery Lefty Award and shortlisted for the Agatha Best Contemporary Novel Award, Body on the Bayou finds Maggie Crozat once again using her artist's eye to spot clues and help.
The Crozats feared that past murders at Crozat Plantation B&B might spell the death of their beloved estate, but they've managed to survive the scandal. Now there's a trés bigger story in Pelican, Louisiana: the upcoming nuptials between Maggie Crozat's nemesis, Police Chief Rufus Durand, and her co-worker, Vanessa Fleer.
When everyone else refuses the job of being Vanessa's Maid of Honor, Maggie reluctantly takes up the title and finds herself tasked with a long list of duties—the most important of which is entertaining Vanessa's cousin, Ginger Fleer-Starke. But just days before the wedding, Ginger's lifeless body is found on the bayou and the Pelican PD, as well as the Crozats, have another murder mystery on their hands.
There's a gumbo-potful of suspects, including an ex-Marine with PTSD, an annoying local newspaper reporter, and Vanessa's own sparkplug of a mother. But when it looks like the investigation is zeroing in on Vanessa as the prime suspect, Maggie reluctantly adds keeping the bride-to-be out of jail to her list of Maid of Honor responsibilities in Body on the Bayou, Ellen Byron's funny and engaging follow up to her critically acclaimed novel Plantation Shudders.
The writing could be a little bit tighter, but as it is, this was a good cozy mystery that kept me reading pretty much non-stop.
The start was a little slow, and the writer forced the reader to endure a romantic conflict a la tortured silence that I could have done without and she drove me crazy with all the silly euphemisms for swearing, but the ending had me reaching for the kleenex. That last page bumped my rating up to the full 4 stars both because it was touching and unexpected without being at all overplayed.
The mystery plotting was well done; I was inclined at first to criticise the author for taking the route of fingering the least involved character, but thinking about it, the clues were there and I just didn't put them together. My bad, not hers.
A fun cozy with a heart warming sweet side, a little zaniness, and a pretty good murder mystery.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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28 July, 2017:
Finished reading
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28 July, 2017:
Reviewed