French Quarter Fright Night by Ellen Byron

 

First Line: Muhwaa ha ha!

 

It's Halloween in New Orleans, and the staff of the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum is busy setting up a fantastic haunted house tour despite all attempts from the next-door neighbor's nasty assistant to put a stop to it all. 

Gift shop manager Ricki James-Diaz is in for a shock when, in trying to put a stop to the assistant's machinations, she learns that the new next-door neighbor is none other than popular movie star, Blaine Taggart. Yes, there's a history there between the two.

When the aforementioned nasty assistant's body is found in Bon Vee's prop tomb, everyone at the museum becomes a suspect, and that means Ricki and her friends have a killer to catch.

~

French Quarter Fright Night is another enjoyable entry in Ellen Byron's Vintage Cookbook cozy series. I really enjoy the New Orleans setting as well as all the merchandise Ricki finds for her gift shop. I also liked seeing how folks in New Orleans get ready for Halloween.

There's a good mix of characters in this third book in the series. Ricki is likable and smart, and she certainly has an interesting mix of friends. Movie star Blaine Taggart is an interesting addition, often showing how celebrities seem to be from a different planet. Ricki's friend, Cookie the "recovering children's librarian" rapidly became tiresome with all her attempts to flaunt her charms right in Taggart's face, but there are others-- like Mordant "the human Eeyore" and college intern Olivia Felice-- who took my mind right off Cookie.

The mystery is a strong one that kept me guessing, and I liked the continuing search into Ricki's family history. If you like cozy mysteries with a strong sense of place and a good cast of characters, try Ellen Byron's Vintage Cookbook series. The first book is Bayou Book Thief.

French Quarter Fright Night by Ellen Byron

eISBN: 9781448312665

Severn House © 2024

eBook, 256 pages

 

Cozy Mystery, #4 Vintage Cookbook

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley

Wined and Died in New Orleans by Ellen Byron

 

First Line: Ricki's heart hammered as she glanced at the ominous black clouds hovering over New Orleans from the front window of her shotgun cottage home.

 

It's hard to focus on business when it's hurricane season in New Orleans and you're a hurricane virgin, but Ricki Diaz-James needs to keep Miss Vee's Vintage Cookbook and Kitchenware Shop stocked. When a trove of valuable vintage wine is unearthed during some repair work on the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum and the news goes viral, Ricki is thrilled at the thought of the potential boost in her sales.

Eugenia Charbonnet Felice, head of the Louisiana Charbonnets as well as the museum, immediately begins planning for an auction and other related events. The money all this brings in will help keep the museum afloat. But one thing that Eugenia didn't plan for was every possible Charbonnet relative popping out of the woodwork and heading straight for New Orleans and their share of the proceeds.

Then a dead body turns up on the museum grounds and Eugenia is the prime suspect. Ricki isn't about to let the older woman take the blame for a crime Ricki is positive she didn't commit, so for the second time in a few months, it's Ricki to the rescue.

~

This second Vintage Cookbook mystery is every bit as entertaining as the first. I enjoyed reading about seasoned New Orleanians' reactions to hurricane season as opposed to newbie Ricki's, and I certainly enjoyed tagging along as she bought stock for her shop. As someone who's always hated cooking, you'd think that I wouldn't touch a series with a theme of vintage cookbooks and kitchenware, but I find myself a bit enchanted with it. Perhaps it's because Ricki and her stock bring back memories of my mother and grandmother. Who knows? But this series isn't solely vintage-- I also appreciated Eugenia's granddaughter's crash course in using social media to boost sales.

Speaking of Eugenia, the head of the Louisiana Charbonnets, another source of entertainment was watching all the distant relatives scuttle out of the woodwork when the cache of extremely valuable wine was uncovered. I never knew when a new branch of the family was going to pop up next (or where it would be from). 

There are a lot of family dynamics in Wined and Died in New Orleans, and it doesn't just concern who's going to get a share of the wine profits. Byron's series is shaping up to be one of my favorites because, not only does it have a strong, interesting main character, but it also entertains and educates. Who could ask for anything more?

Wined and Died in New Orleans by Ellen Byron

eISBN: 9780593437643

Berkley Prime Crime © 2023

eBook, 288 pages

 

Cozy Mystery, #2 Vintage Cookbook mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

 

First Lines: No. Nup. That wouldn't do. It reeked of PhD. This was meant to be read by normal people.

 

Horse is based on the true story of the record-breaking Thoroughbred, Lexington.

 

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay Thoroughbred foal form a bond that will determine the course of both their lives. When the Civil War breaks out, the painter who made his name by his paintings of this racehorse joins the Union army only to reunite with the stallion and groom on a perilous night far from any racetrack.

 

New York City, 1954. Gallery owner Martha Jackson becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century painting that has a murky provenance.

 

Washington, DC, 2019.  Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian find themselves connected through their shared interest in the horse-- one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the unsung history of the Black horsemen who were critical to the horse's racing success.

~

Geraldine Brooks has done it again: written a transcendent book that is so much more than the sum of its parts. Brooks is a must-read author for me, but Horse was made even more special by my teenage racehorse madness years. I read every book I could get my hands on about Thoroughbred racing and its stars. My mother indulged my obsession: when she went to Kentucky on a genealogy trip, I got to overdose on racehorses, meeting greats like Citation and actually seeing the grave of Lexington, the horse that Brooks centered her book upon.

In Brooks' Afterword, she says, "As I began to research Lexington's life, it became clear to me that this novel could not merely be about a racehorse, it would also need to be about race," and she does this in masterful fashion. Whether it's watching the years pass and Lexington's groom being known as one owner's Jarret after another to-- finally-- having his own name untainted by slavery (Jarret Lewis) or watching the unfolding relationship between the interracial couple Jess and Theo in 2019 and the differences in their experiences and outlooks on the world, the reader becomes totally engaged in the characters' lives. 

Horse is so much more than a fascinating animal story. It is also a powerful story of art, science, and-- above all-- race. It is a story to take in deep. It is a story to remember.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

eISBN: 9780399562983

Viking © 2022

eBook, 401 pages

 

Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron

First Line: In some cities, a middle-aged woman dancing down the street dressed as a cross between a 1970s disco queen and Wilma Flintstone would be unusual.

When her husband dies attempting a stupid internet stunt, 28-year-old widow Ricki Diaz-James returns to New Orleans, the city where she was adopted by the NICU nurse who cared for her when Ricki's teenage mother disappeared from the hospital.

Now she's got her dream job: running the gift shop in the spectacular Garden District mansion Bon Vee which is now the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, an homage to its former owner, celebrated restauranteur Genevieve "Vee" Charbonnet. Ricki's passion is collecting vintage cookbooks, so Miss Vee's Vintage Cookbooks & Kitchenwares is just the business to make her heart sing. That isc until she opens a trunk of donated books to find instead the body of a cantankerous Bon Vee employee who'd been caught stealing books and fired.

Ricki doesn't want to see her new career crash and burn before it truly starts, so she begins using some of the skills she's honed in ferreting out vintage treasures to find a killer. But will her past prove more of a liability than she anticipated?

~

New Orleans, vintage cookbooks and kitchenwares, a book thief, a fabulous Garden District mansion... Ellen Byron's Bayou Book Thief was an irresistible siren call to my imagination, and reading it was a delight.

Ah, New Orleans, which dubs itself as the home of the original foodies. From streetcars to peacocks named Gumbo and Jambalaya to po'boy contests, the city is a character in this enjoyable mystery. I had to smile at a running thread throughout the book which concerns Ricki's air conditioner breaking down, her investigation of a repairman, and her purchase of a swamp cooler-- an item that I'm quite familiar with here in the Sonoran Desert (where it works much better than in soggy New Orleans).

The cast of characters is rich and varied, and I enjoyed learning about them all: Ricki herself, Cookie the "recovering children's librarian," Madame Noisette whose signature color is purple, nonagenarian German Guillory, Eugenia Charbonnet, and all the rest. Byron has peopled the first book of her series with just enough characters to keep the focus moving from mystery to mystery.

For someone who doesn't like to cook, you'd think I wouldn't enjoy books with strong ties to vintage cookbooks and kitchenware, but I do. Possibly because those things bring back memories of my mother and grandmother creating amazing things in their kitchens with tools and books similar to the ones Ricki has in her shop. 

Let's see... a fantastic setting, characters who will become your fictional friends, a good mystery to solve, and plenty of (often laugh-out-loud) wit, Bayou Book Thief is a great beginning to a series that I will be returning to again and again.

Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron

eISBN: 9780593437629

Berkley Prime Crime © 2022

eBook, 304 pages

 

Cozy Mystery, #1 Vintage Cookbook mystery

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

The Physicists' Daughter by Mary Anna Evans

 

First Line: September 1944. Justine Byrne liked taking out the trash.

After making numerous repairs on equipment that keeps failing for no good reason, Justine Byrne knows there has to be a saboteur in the factory where workers are constructing planes, ships, and top-secret parts in the Carbon Division.

Having been raised by her physicist parents to think logically, Justine also can't help thinking about the oddly shaped carbon gadgets being manufactured and shipped out as quickly as possible. It only makes sense that those items are important to the war effort and something the saboteur is willing to kill for.

Is there anyone that Justine can trust in her determination to find the spy in the factory? She could be killed if she relies on the wrong person.

 

~

The Physicists' Daughter is quite a break from author Mary Anna Evans' Faye Longchamp series about an archaeologist in Florida, and she handles the World War II setting with aplomb. Justine and her newly found best friend Georgette Broussard give readers a taste of what Rosie the Riveter had to contend with in war-time factory work, but it's not all work and no play. Justine, whose life has always centered on education and the mind, learns how to jitterbug and how to deal with the men buzzing around her like bees-- with the help of Georgette, that is.

 

Other characters, like Mavis, whose job doesn't begin to cover the loss of her husband's wages now that he's fighting in the war; Georgette, my favorite character who comes from a poverty-stricken background out in the bayous of Louisiana; and Justine's Aunt Gloria (is she or is she not paranoid?) keep the story moving as the reader tries to guess the identity of the spy in their midst.

 

An extremely dangerous scene at the end is compelling, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my deductions weren't entirely correct. All in all, The Physicists' Daughter is a fast-paced tale filled with plenty of interesting characters and World War II flavor. 

 

The Physicists' Daughter by Mary Anna Evans

eISBN: 9781464215568

Poisoned Pen Press © 2022

eBook, 352 pages

 

Historical Mystery, Standalone

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

November Road by Lou Berney

First Line: Behold! The Big Easy in all its wicked splendor!

It took a while but wiseguy Frank Guidry, a loyal lieutenant for New Orleans crime boss Carlos Marcellos, has finally learned that everyone is expendable. How? He knows too much about the crime of the century: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Within hours after the assassination, people with ties to Marcello start turning up dead, and Guidry knows he's next. He hits the road for Las Vegas to see an old associate who hates Marcello enough to help Guidry vanish. When he sees a young woman with two little girls standing by a broken down car on the side of the road, he figures they'll be good cover. Marcellos' men will be looking for a man alone.

For Charlotte, Guidry's promise of help in getting a new car in Las Vegas is all-important. That car is her escape from a stifling life in small-town Oklahoma with a hopeless drunk of a husband. What's unexpected is that these two people find each other on their journey. But they're breaking an unspoken rule: a road isn't just a road, it's a trail, and ruthless killers are closing in on Guidry... and Charlotte and her two little daughters.

With writing like "...the towel could have sanded the faces off Mount Rushmore", Lou Berney certainly knows how to turn a phrase, but that's just icing on the cake of November Road. He also is no stranger to crafting a fast-paced, spellbinding story populated with fully-fleshed, memorable characters. The story is told in three voices: Frank's and Charlotte's, the two people on the run, and a hitman most refer to simply as Barone.

The circumstances revolving around the assassination of JFK are more than plausible, and some of the scenes brought back a childhood memory or two, as well as Guidry's escape route along Route 66. The cat-and-mouse chase can make your heart pump a little faster as first we learn where Guidry and Charlotte are before switching to Barone who's rapidly closing the distance between them. Part of me wanted a fairy-tale ending for Frank and Charlotte, who begin to fall in love the closer they get to Las Vegas, but the other part of me was still in the real world. Berney proved to be skilled at leading me on.

No matter how strong the story and the writing are-- and they are-- it's the characters who make November Road something special. Theodore, a black teenager who finds himself traveling with a hitman. Charlotte, in despair over her life and the life she's giving her children, changes as she makes her escape from her sot of a husband, and her two daughters, Joan and Rosemary, are easily capable of stealing the show from time to time-- a necessary lightening of the tension that builds throughout the book. But those two children are also strong characters in their own right without becoming cloying caricatures. Even Guidry, who's spent his life living in the moment for whatever pleasure he feels like experiencing, undergoes a transformation when he comes into Charlotte's orbit.

Did I get my fairy-tale ending? That's for you to find out. November Road is a marvelous book, in turn nerve-wracking, funny, heartbreaking, and almost impossible to put down. It's going to be a long time before I forget characters like Charlotte and Theodore, and it goes without saying that I'm on the lookout for more books by Lou Berney.

November Road by Lou Berney

eISBN: 9780062663870

William Morrow © 2018

eBook, 320 pages

Historical Thriller, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

 

Postcards from the Dead by Laura Childs

First Line: A dazzling night filled with gigantic floats, silver beads, dizzying lights, fire-twirling flambeaus, and a crowd that was fueled by too much Dixie Beer and Southern Comfort.

It is Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, one of the busiest times of year for Carmela Bertrand and her scrapbooking shop, Memory Mine. Since business still hasn't completely recovered from Hurricane Katrina, Carmela reluctantly agrees to do a puff piece on live television with her least favorite reporter, KBEZ-TV's Kimber Breeze. Instead Carmela finds Kimber's body hanging off the balcony of the Hotel Tremain.

Carmela is quite content to let the police do their job without her assistance, but when she starts finding postcards signed by the dead woman left in her shop, she and her best friend Ava decide that local law enforcement needs a helping hand.

Postcards from the Dead is a fast, enjoyable read that has two mysteries cleverly masquerading as one. (Quite fitting for Mardi Gras, isn't it?) Author Laura Childs gently led me astray on that point, so while I did deduce the identity of one killer, the second criminal was a surprise.

The strengths of this book are to be found in its two main characters, Carmela and Ava-- both strong, smart, successful and quirky women who love their work and enjoy their lives-- and in the setting itself. I loved walking the streets of the French Quarter, visiting the Garden District, and enjoying the Mardi Gras celebrations. I even learned that chicken wire plays an important part in shopkeepers' lives during this colorful, rowdy event. (Who says you can't learn anything by reading mysteries?)

Sometimes the "themes" of cozy mystery series, be they about cooking, book shops, knitting, antiques, or-- in this case-- scrapbooking, seem incidental to the books; almost as if they're just hooks to draw us in. Not so in Postcards from the Dead. As Carmela worked in her shop and taught classes to her patrons, I found the information about scrapbooking and ephemera fascinating. It's a very good thing that I'd taken care of all my errands outside the house before I plunked myself down to read, or I would have been searching out the nearest version of Memory Mine to rifle through all the goodies and bring bags of it home. Childs includes scrapbooking tips as well as recipes in the back of the book for any readers who may be interested, and I have to admit that I'm still feeling the urge to start up a new obsession.

If you're in the mood for a light, enjoyable read with thrills and laughs, Postcards from the Dead would be a perfect choice to curl up with. Worried that you've never read any of the books in this series and this is number ten? Don't be. You can read this without feeling that you're missing boatloads of information... but you may find yourself seeking out the other books in the series!

Postcards from the Dead by Laura Childs

ISBN: 9780425252758

Berkley Hardcover © 2012

Hardcover, 336 pages

Genre: Cozy Mystery, Amateur Sleuth, #10 in the Scrapbooking series

Rating: B

Source: the author

Burn by Nevada Barr

Title: Burn
Author: Nevada Barr 
ISBN: 9780312614560
Publisher: Minotaur, 2010
Hardcover, 384 pages
Genre: #16 Anna Pigeon mystery
Rating: A+
Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.

First Line: "Shit, Blackie, this one's dead, too."

In this, her sixteenth outing, National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is still recuperating from the events of Winter Study and Borderline. While her husband, Paul, keeps on working, Anna stays with a friend in post-Katrina New Orleans, little knowing that she's soon going to be fighting for what's right out in the concrete jungle.

While staying in one of her friend's apartments, Anna sees the creepy Jordan, a bartender by night and a "gutter punk" by day. Observing some of Jordan's behavior, Anna comes to believe he's a pedophile. But Jordan is not what he seems, and his connection to Clare Sullivan, an actress whose family was murdered in Seattle, is at the very heart of Barr's powerful plot.

If I'd known how good this book was, I would've kissed Barr when I attended her author signing at a local bookstore. For some reason, I caught on almost immediately to one of Barr's surprises, and I was able to gobble this book up at a fast clip. (In comparison, my husband was listening to the audio version and was confused. When I ascertained that he was within a very few pages of the reveal, I clued him in, and he settled down to enjoy the book, too.)

Anna isn't all that much different in the wilds of New Orleans as she is out in the middle of a national park, as you can see from her thoughts on the local "gutter punks":

These kids were not her brand of criminal. She wasn't well versed in their migration patterns, did not know their natural habitat, what they preyed upon or what preyed upon them-- but people who valued fear and enjoyed pain were scary. Healthy animals, bunnies and foxes and cougars and grizzlies, ran from what frightened them and avoided pain at all costs. When they stopped behaving this way it was because they were sick, rabid.

Anna may not be in Kansas anymore, but her observations are finely tuned.

A word of warning: this book deals honestly and in some detail with the loathsome subject of child sexual abuse and pornography. Did I enjoy the subject matter? No. Did I secretly harbor a tiny little wish that Anna was in a park keeping visitors away from the bears? Yes, for a few pages. However, one of the most important things I've loved about the character of Anna Pigeon throughout sixteen books is that she constantly evolves as a person.

At the beginning of the series, she fought for what she believed in, but if she could get away with staying away from people, that's what she would do. She's kicked her dependence on alcohol, she's learned to trust another human enough to fall in love and marry, she's knowingly coming to the end of her career, and she's still brave enough to fight-- and in fact she puts more of her heart into the battle than she ever did before.

In Burn, Anna found herself in a situation that literally made her sick, but children needed her desperately, and she refused to turn her back. You can't ask for better than that.

Imagine my surprise when I went to Amazon to check out the reviews for what I believe to be an excellent book, and found that it was rated 2.5 stars out of 5. Why? The subject matter.

"There's so much ugliness in the world today that I refuse to read about it for fun."

There's a lot of truth to that statement; however, I can't help but feel that many of these people turning up their noses at Barr's choice of subject matter in this book would also turn their heads and refuse to see when confronted face-to-face with the actual horror. (It's so nasty and uncomfortable, don't you know?)

I read most of the reviews, and it seemed to boil down to a consumer's version of Tough Love: Write about what I want you to write about, or I won't buy your books. I want blue skies and sunshine and cute animals!

Fair enough. I'm happy to let everyone read what they want, as long as I get to do the same. I'll continue to enjoy Anna's evolution as a character wherever she may roam, and I won't tell y'all that Anna will be at Lake Powell the next time she appears. I'll keep all that azure water, sky and sunshine to myself. I don't know about the cute animals, though. I've seen plenty of birds, fish and lizards at Lake Powell....

Buy from Amazon.

Buy from The Book Depository.

Buy from an Indie Bookseller. 

13½ by Nevada Barr

Title: 13½
Author: Nevada Barr
ISBN: 9781593155537
Publisher: Vanguard Press, 2009
Hardcover, 320 pages
Genre: Thriller
Rating: B
Source: Paperback Swap

First Line: "By the Month or by the Night" read the sign over the entrance to the trailer park.

In a radical departure from her Anna Pigeon mystery series, Nevada Barr gives us a psychological thriller that begins in the 1970s in a trailer park in Mississippi. It then moves to Minnesota with the murder spree of a child dubbed "Butcher Boy." Finally in post-Katrina New Orleans, the adults from both these broken childhoods collide.

Polly escaped from her abusive "trailer trash" childhood at the age of fifteen, running away to New Orleans. Now she's a respected college professor with good friends, her own home, and two small children she adores.

"Butcher Boy" was released on his seventeenth birthday. His surviving brother has vowed to take care of him, and they both head south to that Mecca for runaways: New Orleans.

When Polly meets and falls in love with Marshall Marchand, a restoration architect who's helping to rebuild the city, their pasts are set on a collision course.

I love Barr's books, and although this book is very good, it didn't quite meet my expectations. It has everything to do with the characters. Perhaps it's because my mind is too devious, but there were few surprises with the Marchand brothers. I knew how that part of the plot was going to work itself out. That was a bit disappointing, but the character of Polly did much in making up for the deficiencies of the Marchands.

Even after the train wreck of her childhood, Polly was such a strong, centered, caring person that I wish the book could have focused even more on her. I wanted more Polly. Perhaps you'll understand after reading these two quotes:

Two girls-- children in Polly's eyes but of the age she'd been the first time she'd come to Jackson Square-- rose from a table tucked between the benches opposite the cathedral doors. They were tricked out in the unfortunate fashion that decreed female children dress as prostitutes in a world full of predators.

The dog, his head as high as his mistress's shoulder, walked beside her. The child's face was open and trusting. The dog's was not, and Polly was relieved. Children needed bodyguards.

On the face of it, Polly's just another mother who worries too much and reads too much into innocent scenes. But she's not. She's lived in a world of predators and survived. She knows exactly what's out there that she needs to be prepared for. Her children will not have to face what she did, that is, if Polly has the least say about it.

If you haven't read too many books about the twisted minds of killers (like I have), 13½ should make you jump at each creak of a floorboard or pop of an attic beam. And Polly is one character who should not be missed.

Buy at Amazon.
Buy at The Book Depository.
Buy at an Indie Bookseller.

Them Bones by Howard Waldrop

Title: Them Bones
Author: Howard Waldrop
ISBN: 0-441-80557-4, Ace Science Fiction, 1984
Genre: Science Fiction/ Time Travel
Rating: C+

First Line: "There's a horse in the small mound," said Bessie.

It's 1929 and archaeologists are digging in a mound in Louisiana when they find something very exciting: the skeleton of a horse. What's so exciting about that? From the skeleton's position in the mound, it was in America a few centuries before it was supposed to be. Then the archaeologists dig a little more and find something even more curious: the cause of the horse's death--a cartridge from a rifle.

Them Bones sticks to the Moundbuilder culture of prehistoric America, but the story is told from differing viewpoints: the 1929 team of archaeologists, a scout sent back to the wrong time to prevent World War III, and the group of soldiers who followed him.

The story moves quickly--too quickly--and the chapters involving the group of soldiers tend to be downright confusing. The 1929 group of archaeologists and the scout had the most interesting stories to tell, especially Leake (the scout) who became well-acquainted with the group of Indians he found himself amongst. I've visited Cahokia, the one remaining supreme example of Moundbuilder culture. It is awe-inspiring, so I enjoyed Waldrop's choice of setting and the Indian characters Leake met.

The bones were there for a wonderful book, but they just weren't fleshed out. The setting was a winner, but the pace was too fast and the characters not fully realized. I'm glad that I read the book because it encouraged me to go online and do a bit more research on Cahokia, but Them Bones left me feeling like Oliver Twist. Please sir...couldn't I have had some more?

[Source: Paperback Swap.]