Mardi Gras Murder
by Ellen Byron
Series: Cajun Country Mystery #4
Series Rating:
Published by Crooked Lane Books on October 9, 2018
Genres: Cozy Culinary Holiday Mystery
Pages: 294
Format: Hardcover
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Also in this series: Murder in the Bayou Boneyard, Cajun Kiss of Death, Plantation Shudders
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.
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. They are Oyster Soup, Banana Bon Temps Cocktail, Banana Pancakes with Brown Sugar Butter, Easy-Peasy Bundt King Cake, Cinnamon Roll King Cake, Gaynell’s Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, Gaynell’s Seafood Gumbo, Ellen’s Cajun Country Potato Salad, and Gaynell’s Potato Salad.
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.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron.
Anyways, until next time, enjoy this review brought to you by,
Happy Fat Tuesday and enjoy your Mardi Gras!
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.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2019 Cloak and Dagger
- 2019 Craving For Cozies Reading Challenge
- 2019 Cruisin' Thru The Cozies Reading Challenge
- 2019 Goodreads Reading Challenge
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