Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron

Item: Bayou Book Thief
Rating: 5
Author: karenbaron

Posted September 19, 2022 by karenbaron in #BookishRecipe, Mystery, Review, Series / 0 Comments

Bayou Book Thief

by Ellen Byron

Series: Vintage Cookbook Mystery #1
Series Rating:

Published by Berkley Books on June 7, 2022
Genres: Cozy Culinary Mystery
Pages: 304
Format: Audible Audiobook, ebook, Kindle, Paperback
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: Wined and Died in New Orleans, French Quarter Fright Night

A fantastic new cozy mystery series with a vintage flair from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author Ellen Byron.
Twenty-eight-year-old widow Ricki James leaves Los Angeles to start a new life in New Orleans after her showboating actor husband perishes doing a stupid internet stunt. The Big Easy is where she was born and adopted by the NICU nurse who cared for her after Ricki's teen mother disappeared from the hospital.
Ricki's dream comes true when she joins the quirky staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, the spectacular former Garden District home of late bon vivant Genevieve "Vee" Charbonnet, the city's legendary restauranteur. Ricki is excited about turning her avocation - collecting vintage cookbooks - into a vocation by launching the museum's gift shop, Miss Vee's Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware. Then she discovers that a box of donated vintage cookbooks contains the body of a cantankerous Bon Vee employee who was fired after being exposed as a book thief.
The skills Ricky has developed ferreting out hidden vintage treasures come in handy for investigations. But both her business and Bon Vee could wind up as deadstock when Ricki's past as curator of a billionaire's first edition collection comes back to haunt her.
Will Miss Vee's Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware be a success ... or a recipe for disaster?

Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron is all about new beginnings for one Miss Miracle “Ricki” James-Diaz.

Will Bon Vee be okay after a body was found on site? Or will this spell doom for Ricki’s new business venture?

Miracle “Ricki” James-Diaz

Ricki is back in the city she used to call home when she was little, to make a new life for herself after her husband’s tragic death and the scandal she was involved in. She has her own mystery in life about where she actually came from since she was adopted as a baby. Ricki had been collecting vintage cookbooks for a while and has her own neat collection that inspired her to reinvent herself in New Orleans at Bon Vee Culinary House Museum. I do have to say that this sounds like a neat job, and I love some of the old cookbooks she has found that gets mentioned in the book. Ricki is an amazing young lady who was dealt with a tough blow recently, and she has a great new job with amazing coworkers.

I love Ricki as a character, and I think we could be friends if she was a real person. Ricki realizes some tough choices she has to make living in New Orleans, especially when it comes to living on her own. Then again, she has had those choices all her life being an adopted kid to people that don’t have the same skin color as her. Ricki is an amazing person I can’t wait to see what happens in more books.

The Mystery

Ricki, Cookie, and Lyla are all unboxing some books that were donated so that Ricki could get them ready for her store. Cookie opens a trunk thinking it was filled with more books, but instead, their ex-coworker was in the trunk. Ricki thinking it’s her bad luck coming back to haunt her decides to investigate, especially when one of her co-workers who helped get her shop going might be the main suspect. I love Ricki’s tenacity for going above and beyond what any twenty-eight-year-old would do at their new job for a co-worker. Ricki gets so many clues, suspects, and possible motives that I never figured out who the killer was until they were trying to get rid of the sleuth. I hate it when that happens but it just means that the writer did their job perfectly.

Five Stars

Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron is the first delightful book in her new series called Vintage Cookbook Mystery. I love this series so far, and I can see with why Jen went through the books she read of Ms. Byron’s last series on this blog. Ms. Byron is great at making characters that seem so real that I am there with them, even more so when she describes New Orleans as well.

Ricki is a unique character that fits with what Ms. Byron is aiming for in this series. I have my fingers and toes crossed for more books from this series so that Ricki can, at last, find out who her birth parents are. Mostly I want to know because I feel like for Ricki she has been searching and wanting to know who they are and what they did with their lives after they gave her up. Plus, so that she can get to know that part of her and the family as well.

Don’t forget to check out the recipes at the back of the book. Before each recipe is the title, a blurb from the author herself about the cookbook, and then the recipe that she tweaked herself. The recipes are French Pancakes a la Gelee, Swedish Salad, Daisy Canapes, Old-Fashioned Gingerbread, Coconut Patties, and Crawfish Etouffee.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

About Ellen Byron

Ellen Byron authors the Cajun Country Mystery series. A Cajun Christmas Killing and Body on the Bayou both won the Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery and were nominated for Agatha awards in the category of Best Contemporary Novel. Plantation Shudders was nominated for Agatha, Lefty, and Daphne awards. Her most recent Cajun Country Mystery, Mardi Gras Murder, is nominated for Agatha and Lefty awards. In 2020, she’ll debut a second series, The Catering Hall Mysteries, under the pen name Maria DiRico.

Ellen’s TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents. She’s written over 200 national magazine articles, and her published plays include the award-winning Graceland. She also worked as a cater-waiter for the legendary Martha Stewart, a credit she never tires of sharing. A native New Yorker who attended Tulane University, Ellen lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and two rescue dogs. She still misses her hometown – and still drives like a New York cabbie.

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