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