A Cat in the Manger (An Alice Nestleton Mystery #1)

Author:  Lydia Adamson
Genre:  Mystery

Paperback; Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780792706632; 9780451167873
Signet Publishing
208 Pages
Various Prices Amazon
November 6, 1990

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Off-off Broadway actress-turned-sleuth Alice Nestleton is just crazy about cats, particularly her Maine Coon cat Bushy and zany alleycat Pancho.  Now she's hoping for a merry little Christmas peacefully cat-sitting at a sprawling Long Island estate, where she expects to be greeted by eight howling Himalayans.  Instead, she finds herself face to bloody face with a grisly corpse.  Alice has unwittingly stepped into a deadly conspiracy of high-stakes horse racing, sinister seduction, and missing cash.  She knows she'd better count on her cat's clever instincts and nine lives, since her own curiosity has landed her just a whisker away from death...

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Alice Nestleton is an actress who makes ends meet by cat-sitting.  Every year she heads to Long Island to cat sit for Harry and Jo Starobin, and this year is no different.  Except when she arrives Harry isn't there to greet her.  And when she arrives at the little cottage she stays at, no one is there to greet her, either...except for Harry's corpse, strung up behind the door.  Now Jo wants her to help find out who murdered Harry, because she's convinced it's murder.  And even when there's another murder and Alice decides to step back from the investigation, she can't help the nagging feeling she's getting that she's close to something terribly wrong that just might be the right answers after all...

I decided to read this book because it was about Christmas, which I love (except it isn't), and cats, which I also love (except her cats play an extremely minor role - as in practically non-existent).  In fact, I can't even think of when I've read a first-in-a-series book that disappointed me so deftly.

This book is, in fact, All About Alice.  All about how Alice is an 'actress' but evidently not enough of one to get asked to actually act, since she's gone off the rails and only wants to do avant-garde productions; and I would think that most (if not all) actresses know that if you want to act, you have to act.  In other words, take the roles that are offered and then perhaps you can command something you want to do.  Which roughly translates to Alice is a cat-sitter who sometimes gets to go on stage.  She sure isn't making a living at it.

We rarely get any time at all with her cats; they exist, but not much is said about them.  I get the feeling that if Alice was a little more lively, then Pancho might be willing to settle down and allow her to pet him.  Alice has no personality, to speak of; she's boring as all get out.  She seems like one of those women that you never see smile or show any kind of emotion; which is probably why she likes to act - at least she gets to feel something.

Then there's the factor of Alice's sex life (not love life, sex life).  Because she certainly doesn't have a love life, and the person she's decided to have sex with is, well, just that:  the person she's decided to have sex with.  Not to mention she calls him by both names.  As in Charlie Coombs.  Sort of as if she thinks if she doesn't mention both his first and last names we'll get him confused with someone else named Charlie (we won't; he's the only one in the book).  Who on earth calls their lover by both their first and last names even in their heads?  That's just strange.

Which brings us to the fact that our Alice is deluded.  As in bipolar, or worse.  She thinks Charlie is spying on her, she thinks she's being followed (when probably neither are true).  You also have the requisite police detective who thinks she's bonkers (and he's not far off) and of course, Alice solves the case (as we knew she would).

Then there's the little fact that Alice was upset because she didn't get to sleep with a man who was (almost) twice as old as she was.  That's right; she's 41; he was 79.  I.  Can't.  Even.  Imagine.  I don't care how funny or attractive he was, he was almost eighty years old and she rues the fact that someone else got the chance to have an affair with him.  It's a major 'ick' factor right there.

In the end, this book was all over the place, with nearly every conversation taking place in Alice's head and a lot of them were ramblings on her love life and career - neither of which seemed very interesting.  I'm not sure I'd be willing to read another in this series, and I'm puzzled how it went on so long unless it seriously improved.

https://www.amazon.com/Cat-Manger-Alice-Nestleton-Mystery/dp/0451167872/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2389033719

More on Lydia Adamson's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/lydia-adamson/

In Cold Chocolate (A Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery #3)

Author:  Dorothy St. James
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781683317432
Crooked Lane Books
263 Pages
September 11, 2018

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The vintage seaside town of Camellia Beach, South Carolina seems like the perfect place for romance with its quiet beach and its decadent chocolate shop that serves the world's richest dark chocolates.  The Chocolate Box's owner, Charity Penn, falls even further under the island's moonlit spell as she joins Althea Bays and the rest of the turtle watch team to witness a new generation of baby sea turtles hatch and make their way into the wide ocean.

Before the babies arrive, gunshots ring out in the night.  Cassidy Jones, the local Casanova, is found dead in the sand with his lover Jody Dalton - the same woman who has vowed to destroy the Chocolate Box - holding the gun.  It's an obvious crime of passion, or so everyone believes.  But when Jody's young son pleads with Penn to bring his mother back to him, she can't say no.  She dives headfirst into a chocolate swirl of truth and lies, and must pick through an assortment of likely )and sometimes unsavory) suspects before it's too late for Penn and for those she loves.

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Charity Penn, known as simply Penn, owns a building that also house her custom chocolate shop, both deeded to her by her grandmother, Mabel.  While she never knew of her family growing up, Mabel's children aren't happy with the decision - they don't want the shop but want to sell the building - Penn is sticking to her guns and refusing to cave, keeping the shop open.

One night she's with her friend Althea on the beach ready to watch sea turtles hatch.  While she's not on the team, she's being allowed as an observer.  When Althea leaves for an errand, Jody Dalton, her attorney Harley's ex-wife and the bane of her existence, shows up.  Jody isn't supposed to be there, having been kicked off the team, and is raring for a fight.  When she sees lights on at a house down the beach, (all lights need to be off for the hatching) she pulls out a gun and tells everyone she'll take care of it.  While Penn is horrified, she later hears shots and a woman scream.

When she and others arrive at the scene, Jody is holding two guns and standing over the body of Cassidy Jones, a realtor who wants to buy Penn's building and Jody's paramour.  Then Jody shoots Penn in the shoulder (a graze, and, she claims, accidentally).  Soon Jody is in police custody for murder.

But the next day Jody and Harley's son Gavin begs Penn to find a killer, telling her he knows his mom couldn't kill anyone.  Harley doesn't really agree, and neither does anyone else.  Jody is a nasty piece of work and makes everyone around her miserable, but Penn can't resist Gavin and agrees to help.

There's also the fact that not only is someone stealing her new chocolate turtles - all of them - and the eggs of the sea turtles.  While these two things can't possibly be connected, Penn isn't sure.  At least until she starts getting threatening messages - enough to make her stop asking questions.

When she starts looking, however, she finds nearly everyone had a reason to hate Cassidy and want him dead.  But did Jody do the deed, or is she just a convenient scapegoat?  And will asking questions put Penn in harm's way?  But when she's still being threatened, Penn starts up her investigation again because she decides that there must be a reason why, and she's determined to find out what it is...

I really enjoyed this book.  I felt the plot was done well, and there was enough going on around Penn that her focus wasn't completely on the murder, so we had a few nice subplots as well.  Enough to form the opinion that her biological family is a nightmare, and the people she's surrounded herself with in Camellia are true friends (except for the aforementioned Jody, who isn't anyone's friend I would imagine).

Anyway, while I figured out the killer early on (I read a lot of these, so my Spidey senses are honed) it didn't detract one whit from the pleasure.  While I haven't as yet read the first two in this series, I certainly plan on doing so.  Ms. St. James has given us likable characters (mostly) and I find it interesting that two very different people as Althea and Penn have grown to become great friends.  While I lean more toward the tendencies of Althea in real life (believe in ghosts and magic, but not too 'woo-woo'), I can see how she is drawn toward Penn, who appears to be a damaged soul deeply in need of love surrounding her, and the residents (well, not all) seem to be doing their best to fill that void.  They are an eclectic bunch, and I like them.

The setting of Camellia Beach seems like a perfect place for a vacation during hatching season.  I would love to watch sea turtles hatch, but I imagine it's not something that's widely advertised; and I most likely would find my way to Penn's chocolate shop before I even checked into a hotel.

When all is said and done, this was a very good read indeed, and I look forward to the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Chocolate-Southern-Shop-Mystery/dp/1683317432/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2386896123

More on Dorothy St. James's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/dorothy-st-james/

Bought the Farm (A Farmer's Daughter Mystery #3)

Author:  Peg Cochran
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780425282045
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.99; $7.99 Amazon
June 5, 2018

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Wedding preparations are in full swing at Love Blossom Farm as food-and-lifestyle blogger Shelby McDonald transforms the property for her friend Kelly's down-home country-style reception.  But when the lead singer of the wedding band turns up dead - drowned in a trough full of rainwater and strung up like a scarecrow - the police round themselves up a barnful of suspects.

It seems that Travis sowed the seeds of discord wherever he went and when it becomes clear that everyone from the groom to Shelby's own staff has motive, tracking down Travis' killer is going to be more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack.  As Shelby finds herself drawn deeper into the investigation, she'll have to move quickly before the killer decides to put her out to pasture...

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When Shelby's best friend Kelly is getting married, she wants to have the celebration at Shelby's farm.  Performing is the band that Kelly's cousin is in, but Kelly doesn't know that there's a long-ago resentment between the lead singer Travis and Kelly's fiancé Seth.  It seems Travis caused Seth to miss a much-needed exam in order to graduate from medical school, and it caused his grade to drop by a hair.

At any rate, when the party is over and the guests are departing Shelby's friend Bert mentions something about Shelby's scarecrow.  When she tells Bert she doesn't have one, they go to investigate.  But the 'scarecrow' happens to be Travis, strung on the empty pole and wearing Seth's hat.  Once officials are called, the barn becomes a crime scene.

Still, life must go on, and Shelby tries to keep everything normal for her kids.  Little does she know that trouble is still brewing, closer than she thinks, and then someone else is murdered.  Now if she doesn't stop asking questions there might just be a third one on the way...

I will say that I liked this book better than the first two.  The writing has improved and the plot is a very good one.  However, there was still something that bothered me:  her kids do nothing - and I mean nothing - around the house.  Shelby is doing all the cooking, cleaning, and working around the farm, while her daughter spends time in her room texting her friends and sitting on her computer and her son just plays and watches television.  I don't know about you, but I would guess kids growing up on farms don't get a free pass to entitlement - they have to actually help out; but not her kids.  They don't help with the planting or weeding; don't help with meal prep or cleanup (there was one mention that Amelia helped Kelly clean up, but if Shelby wasn't there how would she know?)  She has to hire someone to help out along with her friend Bert; so why is she complaining about money being tight when she could save some if her kids would actually get off their behinds and do a little work?  She's not helping them except to be lazy adults who live at home when they're out of school.  Trust me, we all had chores growing up, and I lived in the city.

Aside from this, I did like the fact that there were plenty of suspects thrown out and a lot of lies to sift through to get to the truth.  I also liked the fact that she's moving toward Matt romantically; there was just a small 'ick' factor when she was considering dating her brother-in-law in the last book. 

The author did a good job on this book, giving us plenty to think about and a nice scene toward the end that was a bit of a nail-biter; it was very well done indeed.  When the killer was discovered and everything fell into place it did so quite satisfactorily, and the reader ends up feeling that their time has been very well spent indeed.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Bought-Farm-Farmers-Daughter-Mystery/dp/042528204X/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2384921024

More on Peg Cochran's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/peg-cochran/

Cinco de Murder (A Taste of Texas Mystery #3)

Author:  Rebecca Adler
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780425275955
Berkley Publishing
302 Pages
$7.99; $7.99 Amazon
April 3, 2018

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It's fiesta time in Broken Boot, Texas, and tourists are pouring into town faster than free beer at a bull roping for the mouthwatering Cinco de Mayo festivities.  Tex-Mex waitress Josie Callahan, her fiesty abuela, and even her spunky Chihuahua Lenny are polishing their folklórico dances for Saturday's big parade, while Uncle Eddie is adding his own spicy event to the fiesta menu:  Broken Boot's First Annual Charity Chili Cook-off.

But Uncle Eddie's hopes of impressing the town council go up in smoke when cantankerous chili cook Lucky Straw is found dead in his tent.  And when Josie's beloved uncle is accused of fatal negligence, she, Lenny, and the steadfast Detective Lightfoot must uncover who ended the ambitious chilihead's life - before another cook kicks the bucket.

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When Josie's Uncle Eddie is heading a chili cook-off, everything seems to be going well, aside from the fact that one of the entrants, Lucky Straw, has been causing dissension between entrants and even cornered Josie about his "special dietary needs" at the restaurant.  The next day when Josie is checking water and electricity hookups to the entrants, she sees that a tent is covering those hookups, so finding it open, enters and discovers Lucky's body.  After calling the police, Detective Lightfoot arrives and between Josie and her family he agrees to allow the cook-off to continue if they move everyone at least 100 feet away from the crime scene.

While the judges aren't happy - for some odd reason they're blaming Josie's family for the death, like if there's a death in your neighborhood, everyone in the neighborhood must be guilty of having something to do with it - but anyway, they continue on with the contest.  After all is said and done, the winners are named and everyone continues with the rest of the festival, where there is a parade and vendors have set up along the street.  Since it is Cinco de Mayo (coincidentally, so is the day I am writing this review) the restaurant is crowded and they are doing a great business.

But while the police think that Lucky merely died from natural causes - it seems his pacemaker had an interruption and that it sometimes happen - Josie is convinced that it was anything but natural - and proceeds to question several of the cook-off attendees to try and find out if any of them are guilty of the murder.  What she does find out is that Lucky was in a position of power where he worked and laid several of them off and they haven't been able to find employment since.  This gives them motive and the cook-off gives them opportunity, but which one of them hated him enough to see him dead?...

This is the third book in the series and it definitely has improved over the other two.  The plot was well-done and the writing is good.  However, I felt that there weren't enough clues to lead us to the killer (as we know there has been a murder) and therefore, in finding out the identity we weren't given a decent chance, so it was a complete surprise all around; actually, we didn't find out until the end the reason why this person wanted Lucky dead, and I did feel that it was rather a cheat, since we were given "red herrings" throughout that lead to someone else; Josie basically accidentally came upon the killer as there were no clues, either.

Also, this book was pretty much more about Josie's love life, and since in the previous book she was stating that she wasn't interested in men, in this book she did a complete 180.  I also didn't like the fact that the author made Ryan a complete 'player' in this book as to 'disqualify' him from ever being her boyfriend again, leading us (none too gently) toward Lightfoot as the love interest.  I know it's a personal thing, but I don't care for men with long hair at all, so he never appealed to me as a love interest anyway.  (We sometimes project our feelings - heck, usually - onto the book we're reading and that's mine).

At the last, there was a nice nail-biting scene toward the end although I don't like the idea of using pets as bait.  It's cruel and uncalled for, as I felt was done in this scene, and that's why I couldn't give it five stars.  An easy cozy mystery that can be read in a few hours and has colorful scenes.

https://www.amazon.com/Cinco-Murder-Taste-Texas-Mystery/dp/0425275957/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2382844592

More on Rebecca Adler's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/rebecca-adler/

The Good, the Bad, and the Guacamole (A Taste of Texas Mystery #2)

Author:  Rebecca Adler
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780425275948
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.99; $5.99 Amazon
November 1, 2016

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Tourists are pouring into the town of Broken Boot for the annual Homestead Days celebration.  Opening the festivities at Two Boots dance hall is smooth-talking country singer Jeff Clark, the ex-boyfriend of Josie's best friend, Patti Perez.  When the charming Clark woos Patti onstage in an attempt to rekindle some parks with his old flame, Josie fears her friend will end up as just one more notch on the singer's guitar strap.

To impress her editor at the Broken Boot Bugle, Josie and her chihuahua Lenny, pursue the singer to Patti's house, hoping for an interview.  Instead, they discover Clark facedown in a bowl of guacamole with a bloodied guitar at his side.  With Patti suddenly a murder suspect, Josie must use her reporter skills to find out who had a chip on their shoulder - before the killer double dips...

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When Josie's friend Patti Perez' ex-boyfriend Jeff Clark is set to play at Two Boots, Josie's uncle's dance hall, they go to see him.  When Clark pulls Patti up on the stage to croon a song to her, Josie has a bad feeling.  But bad goes to worse the next day when she goes to Patti's home to interview him and finds him dead in the living room.

After a cursory investigation on the part of the police, they arrest Patti and charge her with murder.  But Josie knows Patti's innocent and begins an investigation on her own.  While nothing really seems to speak to her, it's the bits and pieces she gleans that makes her realize that there's a killer still on the loose, and she might be the only one looking for them.  Since the case seems to be all but closed, she realizes she has to act fast - with a little almost-too-late help from Lightfoot - to find the real murderer before Patti is locked away for a very long time...

I will admit that this book was better than the first, which was fair at best.  But I never got the feeling that the police had any real evidence to convict Patti of murder.  Yes, the guitar had her prints on it - it was her guitar, so why wouldn't it?  Just because she had an argument with him does not a murder make - and others had arguments with Clark the same night.  That was all they had:  a guitar with fingerprints of the person who owned it.  Now, what seems strangest about this is that the killer's prints weren't on the guitar.  Did the murderer (whom I won't name here) bring gloves to Patti's house?  Because otherwise the killer's prints would also be on the guitar; and if they wiped it clean, then Patti's prints wouldn't have been there at all.  So are we supposed to believe that the true killer has no fingerprints?  This was never explained, but it's the type of thing that I think about.  It never made sense to me, and I don't see how it could be accepted without explaining why the killer's prints weren't on the guitar as well.

Aside from that BIG thing, there's the fact of Josie herself.  She's pretty blah.  She has no personality to speak of, and I can't understand why either man would be interested in her.  She's nosy, of course, but doesn't have anything in the way of personality to set her apart.  She's trying to set up the would-be love interests (which is fine since I don't really care for either one - they're both very blah also without any real traits to help carry the series; they're just dull); she's not funny, doesn't come off as particularly smart (just nosy), and seems so desperate to be a newspaper reporter again that I wonder why she's even working at the restaurant - when she does, which isn't often.   In fact, she's so less-than-smart that she couldn't figure out the murderer until she saw their face.  Any of the readers of this book would have figured it out before her.  She really needs to find another line of work.

While I'm not a fan of this particular series, I will read the third book to see if there's an improvement; hopefully, the clues to the murder in the next book will get better, and both men will have found other love interests as well and maybe the author will actually introduce a man who might have some kind of personality to the mix.

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Guacamole-Taste-Texas-Mystery/dp/0425275949/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2381949019

More on Rebecca Adler's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/rebecca-adler/

Here Today, Gone Tamale (A Taste of Texas Mystery #1)

Author:  Rebecca Adler
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780425275917
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.99; $2.99 Amazon
December 1, 2015

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After losing her newspaper job in Austin and having her former fiancé unfriend her on Facebook, Josie Callahan scoops up her Chihuahua, Lenny, and slinks back to Broken Boot, Texas.  Maybe working as head waitress at Milagro - her aunt and uncle's Tex-Mex restaurant - isn't exactly living the dream, but it is a fresh start.

And business is booming as tourists pour into Broken Boot for its famous Wild West Festival.  But when a local jewelry designer is found strangled outside Milagro after a tamale-making party, Josie's reporter instincts kick in.  As suspects pile up and alibis crack faster than taco shells, Josie needs to wrap up this case tighter than her tia's tortillas - before another victim calls for the check...

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Josie Callahan works as a waitress at her aunt and uncle's restaurant in Broken Boot, Texas.  After a disastrous meeting between committee members for the town's festival, one of the attendees, Dixie, is found dead outside the restaurant.  Without any other suspects, the police arrest a young man who works at the restaurant and charge him with murder.  Josie and her family knows he didn't do it, but the police aren't so sure, and Josie decides to try and find out who the killer is before he's wrongly convicted...

You know how some books grab you from the beginning?  This one didn't.  It started slow and I was hoping that it would grab me at some point, but even the sniping between committee members didn't do it.  I actually began to wonder why they were all on the same committee if they didn't get along.  Someone must have known, but obviously they didn't...

But what really lost me is the fact that Josie's little dog is [almost] kidnapped and left outside their restaurant, tied to a post, with his fur shaved off one side and the words "Man's Dead Friend" written in lipstick.  Do the police think this is a clue?  No.  They have Anthony, the murderer!  Does it matter that he had no motive?  No.   Do they even think of looking at the lipstick and trying to find out who uses this shade?  No.  Instead, they tell her it is just a 'prank' pulled on her by a kid.  Yeah, sure.  Kids steal peoples' dogs every day, shave their fur and write threatening messages, because, you know, it's just a prank and they can't get in trouble for it.  Threatening messages are never going to be taken seriously, at least by any officer in this town, anyway.  For me, the book at that point became unbelievable.  Any officer who doesn't take any lead seriously doesn't need to be working as one.  Unfortunately, the lipstick could have been a huge clue - as I would think women in small towns make a point of not wearing the same color as other women - but the police 'have their man,' so what do they care?  Can anyone take the book seriously after this?  I certainly can't.

We're also "teased" throughout the book with the promise of a love triangle (insert groan here).  As I've stated (over and over again) I abhor them, and here comes another author who just can't stand the thought that her protagonist might be interested in only one man.  Again, if this were a man, and he was stringing along two women, the reactions would be completely different.  Why authors do this is completely beyond me, but it doesn't add anything to the book to have two men chasing one woman throughout the series.  It's not fun reading at any stretch.

Anyway, as I stated above, when the police ignore what can turn out to be a major clue, and don't even have another one as to who the real murderer is, well, it makes it hard to find the book as barely entertaining.  Since this is the first in the series, I will read another in this series as I hope it will improve.

https://www.amazon.com/Today-Tamale-Taste-Texas-Mystery/dp/0425275914/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2381050632

More on Rebecca Adler's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/a/rebecca-adler/

Mardi Gras Murder (A Cajun Country Mystery Book 4)

Author:  Ellen Byron
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781683317050
Crooked Lane Books
304 Pages
$26.99; $12.99 Amazon
October 9, 2018

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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.

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Maggie Crozat spends her days working at her family's Crozat B&B and Doucet Plantation, which once belonged to her mother's family but has now been deeded to the state and opened to the public for tours, of which she is one of the guides.

But her life is changing once again: there's been recent floods that has left some homes inhabitable, and others who are cleaning up after the floods, of which Maggie and her family are doing.  It's not a good sight when the body of an elderly man floats beneath all the debris, and an even worse sight when it's discovered that he wasn't the victim of the flood.  But without any identification found on him, it's anyone's guess as to who he is or the motive for his death.

Then also she's been temporarily relieved of tour duty to restore a painting at Doucet that was also damaged by the flood; and when she begins she notices another painting underneath, one that could tell a tale on its own.

She's also been dragooned into standing in for her grandmother as a judge for the Miss Pelican Mardi Gras Gumbo Queen contestants, and she's doing her best to get out of that - and not succeeding - while discovering that being a contestant isn't what it's proclaimed to be.

At the last, her relationship with police detective Bo Durand may be in jeopardy since learning that he might not want any more children (due to the fact that his son has Asperger's Syndrome) and Maggie definitely wants at least two, and now they're barely speaking, and probably wouldn't be if it weren't for the murder.

But then another murder soon occurs, and it's one of the pageant committee members who may also have known something about the man who washed up after the flood.  Maggie feels the need to give justice, but what is the connection with these two men, and will it get her killed before she can find the answers?...

Once again we are visiting the small Louisiana parish that Maggie Crozat calls home, this time during Mardi Gras season.  And once again, the locals have their own unique way of celebrating the event.  With her father tirelessly preparing his gumbo day after day in order to perfect it, Maggie thinks she's had enough of the concoction while her mother is unhappy that he's invaded her kitchen; and her friend Gaynell is making Maggie a costume for the Mardi Gras Run, which she has said she'll participate in.

Even Bo's son is getting in on the action, helping make the masks which are so adept at hiding peoples' faces that even their own relatives can't recognize them.  It seems one and all are having fun during the time-honored event.

But when murder strikes one of the judges and the others are threatened, Maggie begins to wonder if it's not the pageant that's the issue, but the Orphan Train exhibit that was to go up at the historical society.  And it makes for a very good mystery indeed as we watch her sift through clues and find the evidence to unmask a killer.

Ms. Byron takes us on another lovely journey into Cajun Country and all its quirky inhabitants, pulling us into the story from the first chapter and keeping us entertained throughout.  It's a tale of, as the deceased judge said, secrets and lies; but oh, more secrets and lies than we could have imagined, and seeing how far someone would go to keep them is a nice taut tale indeed.  When the ending comes and the murderer is finally revealed, it reveals that even those among us that appear the most sane may also have the most to hide.

I truly enjoyed reading this and hope that this series will continue on for a good long time.  Maggie and her family and friends grow on you, and it's wonderful to visit with them whenever I can.  I look forward to the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

https://smile.amazon.com/Mardi-Gras-Murder-Country-Mystery/dp/168331705X/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2380077866

More on Ellen Byron's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/ellen-byron/