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Book review cozy mysteries fiction mystery reading

Read and Review (R&R) – Murder in the Bayou Boneyard

COZY MYSTERY LOVERS-Have you read Ellen Byron’s Cajun Country Mysteries? If not, I would recommend you check them out.

I picked up “Murder in the Bayou Boneyard,” which launched in the fall of 2020, won a “Lefty” Award, and was an Agatha nominee this year! It is the sixth book in this series, but can be read as a stand-alone.

With an engaging plot, inviting setting, kooky characters, and recipes, this book is a “delicious” read!

It is Halloween in Pelican, Louisiana and Maggie Crozat and her family own a B&B. To drum up business, the Crozat family and four other B&Bs host “Pelican’s Spooky Past” packages. Things get really hairy when guests start sighting a “rougarou.” A cross between a werewolf and a vampire, a rougarou is a local legend rumored to prowl the swamps and woods of Acadia and New Orleans.

A rougarou sighting turns deadly when one of them stumbles onto the stage of the “Resurrection of a Spirit” play. The neighboring town of Ville Blanc police think they have found the murderer in Maggie, and, as bodies pile up, she must prove her innocence and save her family’s B&B.

I loved the southern charm of Pelican and the crazy cast of characters. My favorite is Gran.

With southern cooking mentioned throughout the book, it was a bonus to see the recipes posted in the back.

Ellen Byron has a new book in this series coming out in August of this year called “Cajun Kiss of Death.” I will definitely put this new one on my “to be read” list!

Categories
Book review cozy mysteries mystery reading writing

Read and Review (R&R)

My latest read was a book by Maggie Blackburn called “Little Bookshop of Murder.” Below is my review~

Snobbish Summer Merriweather, a Shakespearean professor, is returning from England to her hometown, St.  Brigid’s Island, to attend her mother’s funeral. Her seemingly healthy, loved by everyone on the island, free-spirited mother, Hildy, has died of an apparent heart attack. Summer doesn’t believe the preliminary cause of death, as her mother had no underlying conditions or symptoms. When more than one note is discovered left to Hildy that says “Sell the bookstore or Die” Summer’s gut tells her someone very close to her mother put a permanent end to Hildy’s romance reading days. Summer believes her mother was murdered. She enlists the help of her Aunt Agatha, cousin, niece, and the members of Hildy’s beloved Mermaid Pie Book Club to sleuth out the killer. I suspected the perpetrator early on, but still enjoyed the array of beach town characters, including Hildy’s African grey parrot, Mr. Darcy, who I thought for sure would squawk out clues. Maggie Blackburn did an excellent job of bringing the town of St. Brigid Island, the quaint bookstore “Beach Reads,” and the boardwalk to life. I picked this book up at my local library and the one thing that caught me was the number of typos, mix-ups of characters, and repetition. There were more than a couple. Overall, I enjoyed this story and plot line. This is my first read of this author and I will pick up the next book in this series.

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Book review history mystery reading suspense Uncategorized writing

Read and Review (R&R)

When I heard that Liz Milliron was writing a second book involving her character Betty Ahern in the Homefront Mystery Series, I couldn’t wait to read it. Below is my review.

History and Mystery

It’s 1942, and Betty Ahern is back and leaving her mark not only on the engines she builds at Bell Aircraft but as a darn-good private detective in the First Ward, a neighborhood in the City of Buffalo, NY.

In “The Stories We Tell,” Liz Milliron’s second book in the Homefront Mystery series, courageous and bold Betty takes on a case of a co‑worker at Bell who is grief-stricken over the sudden death of her grandmother. Before long, Betty is caught up in a secret dating back fifty years. Determined to solve the case, she enlists the help of her loyal friends, Dot, Lee, and Detective MacKinnon of the Buffalo PD. Betty uses her moxie to uncover the truth as one clue leads to another and more and more suspects die. Betty better watch out, or she may be next!

Liz Milliron does an exceptional job of dropping you into the time period and holding you there. Her characters are real, likeable, and her descriptions of the ethnic neighborhoods, the people, and culture during that era are well-researched and impressive.

A great page-turner. I can’t wait to see what Betty is up to next!