USA Today bestselling author Ellen Byron is back at it with fan-favorite plantation B&B owner Maggie Crozat in a fourth installment of the Cajun Country mysteries.
Southern charm meets the dark mystery of the bayou as a hundred-year flood, a malicious murder, and a most unusual Mardi Gras converge at the Crozat Plantation B&B.
It’s Mardi Gras season on the bayou, which means parades, pageantry, and gumbo galore. But when a flood upends life in the tiny town of Pelican, Louisiana—and deposits a body of a stranger behind the Crozat Plantation B&B—the celebration takes a decidedly dark turn. The citizens of Pelican are ready to Laissez les bon temps rouler—but there’s beaucoup bad blood on hand this Mardi Gras.
Maggie Crozat is determined to give the stranger a name and find out why he was murdered. The post-flood recovery has delayed the opening of a controversial exhibit about the little-known Louisiana Orphan Train. And when a judge for the Miss Pelican Mardi Gras Gumbo Queen pageant is shot, Maggie’s convinced the murder is connected to the body on the bayou. Does someone covet the pageant queen crown enough to kill for it? Could the deaths be related to the Orphan Train, which delivered its last charges to Louisiana in 1929? The leads are thin on this Fat Tuesday—and until the killer is unmasked, no one in Pelican is safe.
A simmering gumbo of a humorous whodunit, Mardi Gras Murder is the fourth piquant installment in USA Today bestselling author Ellen Byron’s award-winning Cajun Country mysteries.
So I am quickly becoming a big fan of this series. Book one was a little iffy for me, but the last two have been really enjoyable. Again, as with the previous books in the series, the writing was great. The mystery kept me guessing right up until the end. I love the Lousiana setting and all the history and traditions the author includes. I love the recipes. There is a fantastic array of secondary characters that keep things lively, and Maggie is a very likable leading lady.
My only issue with this one was I wasn't a huge fan of the discord between Maggie and Bo. It made the book angsty, and I don't read cozy mysteries for romantic angst. If I wanted that type of thing, I'd read a romance book. I prefer that my cozies have established couples (or are single), that remain happy. That said, it all works out in the end, and I assume (hopefully) going forward it will be all smooth sailing for them as a couple.
