Tiaras, pedigrees, murder and Mardi Gras, fun!
Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron is a delightful southern cozy mystery. This book is the first that I have read of Ellen Byron. I first saw this book last year when it was published, and I knew then that I had to read it. OK, the cover totally drew me in but the plot summary is what made me buy it. I am so glad that I did.
Magnolia Marie Crozat ~ Maggie
Our sleuth is Maggie, she grew up in Pelican Louisana, went to college, lived in New York for a while and came home. Now, she helps out at her family Bed and Breakfast and works at a plantation house turned into a museum which was once owned by her grandmother’s family.
Maggie has an intuition when it comes to finding clues and figuring out whodunit. She happened to be the one who found the murdered town historian. Isn’t that the perfect sign of a good sleuth?
What I like about Maggie: she is there for her family, she knows what she wants in life, and she is easy to talk to, which is why people tell her things.
What I didn’t like was that she was always running behind and forgetting appointments. However, some of that was due to covering for her Gran and part was due to the murder but still.
Bo Durand
Bo Durand is our sleuth’s love interest and her connection to the police force. Yep, he is a detective on Pelican PD. Bo is a great guy, he has a son with Asperger’s, but Bo handles its stride. He and Maggie are close at the beginning of the book, but then things start to change.
Bo does take Maggie’s clues and follow up with them. He also doesn’t try to stop her from getting involved. I like that he trusts that Maggie knows what she is doing. I also like that Bo is a sweet guy, not just with his son and Maggie but with everyone. He is a true gentleman.
Mystery
The mystery is my favorite part. It is filled with genealogy, family secrets and lies. There is blackmailing, conniving and threating. It was so fun to read. I truly loved the parts about the local history and orphan train. I had never heard of anything like that before, but I did a couple of google searches and wow. Super cool.
The entire story is so well written, and it highlights the Mardi Gras true meanings which I didn’t know anything about before. I thought that instead of Mardi Gras in New Orleans as I now have on my bucket list I might go to one of the small towns that the author talks about at the end. I will forever have a different opinion of Fat Tuesday.
5 Stars for Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron
My rating for Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron is five stars. The combination of history, pedigree, beauty pageants, gumbo all in small-town Cajun country is so perfectly balanced. I couldn’t put the book down. As soon as I have the time I plan to go back and read the first three books in the series.
Oh, and don’t forget there are some great recipes included.
And I wanted to send out an “awesome job” to Stephen Gardner who created the cover. As someone who-totally-first-judges-a-book-by-the-cover, you really caught my eye.
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Happy Fat Tuesday and enjoy your Mardi Gras!This review was originally posted on Baroness' Book Trove