Review of "Mardi Gras Murder: A Cajun Country Mystery" by Ellen Byron

 

In this fourth book in the 'Cajun Country Mystery' series, amateur sleuth Maggie Crozat helps investigate two murders and judges a hometown pageant. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****



After a bad breakup with her boyfriend, artist Maggie Crozat moves from New York City to her home town of Pelican, Louisiana. There Maggie shares a shotgun house with her Grand-mère;



helps her parents run the Crozat Plantation Bed and Breakfast;



and is a paid docent (tour guide) at a tourist attraction that was once the Doucet Plantation.



As the story opens a huge storm causes flooding in Pelican, displacing people from their homes and washing up a dead body. Police Detective Bo Durand gets the case.....



.....and tells his girlfriend Maggie Crozat, who's helped the police in the past, that the dead man - who can't be identified - is a murder victim. Maggie muses about the deceased stranger but is too busy to dwell on the matter.

Mardi Gras is just weeks away, and all of Pelican is involved in the preparations. Maggie's responsibilities include tasting her father's practice recipes for the gumbo cook-off, which he takes VERY seriously;



replacing her Grand-mère -who's sick in bed - as a judge for the Miss Pelican Mardi Gras Gumbo Queen pageant;



and preparing for the Courir de Mardi Gras - a sort of Mardi Gras trick or treat. During the Courir, people don outlandish masks and costumes and go house to house 'begging' for ingredients for the communal gumbo pot.



Judging the Miss Pelican Mardi Gras Gumbo Queen contest turns out to be Maggie's most onerous task. The competition is taken very seriously by the contestants AND their mothers - who tend to lobby, cajole, and even threaten the judges.



Moreover, the head judge, Gerard Dambois, calls meeting after meeting - both for procedural discussions and to judge the contestants.



The entrants, aged 14 to 17, are (supposedly) evaluated on the basis of demeanor, evening gown, talent, interviews, etc.



However elitist Gerard seems bent on crowning the girl with the most prestigious Louisiana ancestry.

Besides disdaining Gerard's snobby attitude, Maggie disagrees with him about another matter. The Mardi Gras festivities were supposed to include a display about the 'Orphan Train' that carried parentless children from New York to Louisiana in the early 1900s, to be adopted.





Gerard, who's President of the Historical Society, puts the kibosh on the exhibit and won't hear another word about it.

Before long a Pelican citizen associated with the pageant is murdered and Maggie feels compelled to investigate. It turns out the Pelican victim has a connection to the man washed up by the flood, and someone in town would do ANYTHING to prevent the link coming to light.

Mardi Gras is a festive background for the story, and other fun elements include a hidden treasure map; Grand-mère's new boyfriend; a gumbo pot crisis; delicious food (recipes included); and more.

This is an enjoyable series with likable characters, recommended to fans of cozies.

Recipes in the book include:

Oyster Soup


Banana Pancakes with Brown Sugar Butter


Easy Peasy King Cake (made with cinnamon roll dough)


Chicken and Sausage Gumbo


Seafood Gumbo


Cajun Country Potato Salad

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Silent Bite: An Andy Carpenter Christmas Mystery" by David Rosenfelt

 

In this 22nd book in the 'Andy Carpenter' series, the attorney represents an ex-convict accused of murder. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Ever since he inherited a large fortune, New Jersey defense lawyer Andy Carpenter takes very few cases.



Instead, Andy devotes his time to hanging out with his wife, son, and dogs; schmoozing with his friends; helping run a canine rescue operation called 'The Tara Foundation'; watching sports; and so on.



Still, when Andy's ex-con friend Willie Miller, who helps run The Tara Foundation, implores the lawyer to defend his old cellmate Tony Birch, Andy (reluctantly) says yes. Tony Birch once belonged to a gang called the Fulton Street Boyz, and is accused of killing two former gang members who ratted him out to the cops, sending him to prison for three years.



Tony has been out of jail for six years now, running an auto repair shop, and Andy deems it unlikely the ex-con waited this long to get revenge. Moreover, Andy learns that the Fulton Street Boyz was a satellite gang of The Blood Dragons, which is led by a thug called Luther.



Andy thinks Luther may have killed the dead Fulton Street Boyz and framed Tony. Things get even more complicated when additional bodies turn up, all of them connected to gang activity is some fashion.

Once Andy gets the Tony Birch case, he prepares his team to defend the ex-con. Andy's crew includes a new hire, attorney Eddie Dowd, who's a former football player;



secretary Edna - who does no work;



and computer genius Sam Willis - who can hack anything.



Andy is also assisted by his wife Laurie, an ex-cop who runs a detective agency.



Laurie's partners are Marcus Clark - the scariest man on Earth;



Corey Douglas - a former cop; and Simon Garfunkel - Corey's ex K-9 partner.



All this takes place during the Christmas season, which - in Laurie's eyes - lasts four months. This means four months of Christmas decorations and Christmas music, which is a tad too much for Andy.



Andy observes, "It doesn't take me long to get sick of Bing Crosby telling me that Santa knows when I've been sleeping and when I'm awake."

Andy's a good husband, father, and doggy-daddy, and he's very attentive to the family pooches Tara and Sebastian.



In this book Andy also helps care for Tony's dog Zooey, who's staying at the Tara Foundation while her owner is in the clink awaiting trial.

Part of the charm of the Andy Carpenter books is the humor, and new character, attorney Eddie Dowd - who loves sports expressions, adds to the fun. Eddie is replacing Andy's old partner Hike, who's moving away, and Eddie says, "I'd just like to say that it's a pleasure to pinch-hit for Hike, and as long as I'm in the lineup, I'll give a hundred and ten percent." Eddie also talks about legal matters in terms of spiking balls, the end zone, making a play, a slam dunk, and so on.



Andy can follow the baseball, football and basketball allusions, but says "If [Eddie] starts making cricket or badminton references, I'm going to be lost."

Andy's snarky humor permeates the story, including the courtroom scenes, and the book provides a lot of laughs. For instance, Andy has to chitchat in one scene and he remarks, "I'm forced into make conversation mode. It is not my favorite mode; 'cherry pie à la' is my favorite mode."



This is a fun cozy that would appeal to fans of the genre.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (David Rosenfelt), and the publisher (Minotaur Books) for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "The Night Swim: A Novel of Suspense" by Megan Goldin

Warning: There are triggers in this book about sexual assault, physical violence, and bullying.

*****

A rape trial is galvanizing the coastal town of Neapolis, North Carolina. College swimming champion - and Olympic hopeful - Scott Blair.....



.....is accused of raping 16-year-old high school student Kelly Moore.



The Blairs are wealthy Neapolis blue bloods and Kelly's deceased grandfather was a former police chief, so both sides have pull. Thus ace prosecutor Mitchell Alkins.....



.....will face off against hotshot defense attorney Dale Quinn in the largely 'he-said, she-said' proceedings.



Crime journalist Rachel Krall has a popular podcast, called 'Guilty or Not Guilty', that presents the nitty-gritty of criminal trials.



Up until now Krall has covered trials that occurred in the past, but for the new season Rachel plans to stay in Neapolis and podcast about the Scott Blair proceedings in real time.

Even before Krall arrives in Neapolis she starts to find letters on her car's windshield.



The correspondent, Hannah Stills, says her older sister Jenny was murdered on a Neapolis beach 25 years ago, but the police called it an accidental drowning. Hannah wants Krall to investigate and uncover the truth.

Hannah avoids meeting Rachel in person, but sneakily delivers letter after letter, slowly unveiling Jenny's story. Hannah claims Jenny suffered a sexual assault, which is reminiscent of Scott Blair's accuser, Kelly Moore.

Krall is enticed into investigating Jenny's death, but must organize her inquiries around her REAL work in Neapolis, which is covering the Blair trial. Rachel interviews the families of Scott Blair and Kelly Moore; speaks to people in town; and attends all the trial proceedings.



On her broadcasts Rachel presents the testimony and the evidence, trying to be impartial so the listeners 'can be the jury.' Of course many fans think Krall is taking sides, and scathingly berate her for being on either Scott's side or Kelly's side.

As the story unfolds we learn the details of what (allegedly) happened to both Kelly and Jenny. We also observe the multiple traumas a female rape victim might endure - from the assault; to the rape kit (which is VERY intrusive); to her ongoing depression; to her withdrawal from society; to the humiliating testimony in court; to being hazed by the public; and so on. The 'blame the victim' mentality is especially disturbing and is something society needs to curb (in my opinion).



At the end of the book the connection between Jenny's situation and Kelly's situation is revealed, and - try as I might - I didn't guess it. 😏

I enjoyed this well-written suspense story and recommend the book to fans of the genre.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Christmas Cupcake Murder: A Hannah Swensen Holiday Mystery with Recipes" by Joanne Fluke

This 26th book in the Hannan Swensen series is a flashback to the baker's early days as owner of 'The Cookie Jar' bakery in Lake Eden, Minnesota.



In this story Hannah and her friends and family try to help a homeless man with amnesia. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

Hannah Swensen is always at her bakery, 'The Cookie Jar', before the crack of dawn - to prepare the goodies that will be sold during the morning rush. It's Christmas season, and Hannah is inspired to create new delectables for the festive time of year.



Hannah's morning preparations are interrupted by a knock on the shop's back door, where Hannah finds a homeless man who's cold and hungry.



The man asks for food in exchange for work, and Hannah immediately seats him at the work station and joins him for coffee and German chocolate cupcakes. It turns out the unfortunate fellow can't remember his name or much about himself, but he's polite and non-threatening, and Hannah feels compelled to help him.

As the story unfolds the 'John Doe' ends up in the hospital, suffering from an infection, malnutrition, and exposure to the cold.



Doc Knight determines that the amnesiac suffered a blow to the head, possibly due to foul play, and this makes Hannah and her crew even more anxious to discover his identity.

Hannah's helpers include her mother Delores;



sister Andrea;



dentist friend Norman;



detective friend Mike;



and other people in town.

Various members of the group frequently get together for breakfast; lunch; dinner; or more often just coffee and cookies.....and discuss clues they've gleaned about John Doe. (These folks eat sweets all day. No real person could consume this many desserts and cookies and cupcakes and be healthy.)



Slowly the amnesiac remembers that his mother liked to bake and make parties; that he lived near a lake; that he knows how to restore furniture; etc. The crew uses these hints to try to get John Doe back home where he belongs....hopefully without endangering his life. It's fun to see Hannah put together the evidence and solve the mystery of John Doe's identity.

Hannah bakes and cooks all through the book, and recipes are included.

The story is thin but if you like a slight tale with lots of delicious snacks, you'll enjoy this book.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Joanne Fluke), and the publisher (Kensington Books) for a copy of the book.

Recipes in the book include:

German Chocolate Cupcakes


Pink Peppermint Cookies


White Chocolate Eggnog Cupcakes


Christmas Baked Brie


Blue Apple Pie


Santa Hat Pancakes


Cocktail Munchie Mix


Holiday Cheer Cherry Cupcakes


English Eggnog


Pineapple White Chocolate Bar Cookies


Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes


Vegas Cookies

Rating: 3 stars