A home-run B&B in a former plantation house is the setting
for this third book in the Cajun
Country Mystery series. I loved the first
installment, PLANTATION
SHUDDERS, so I was delighted to read A CAJUN CHRISTMAS
KILLING. Deep in Louisiana, Maggie Crozat's extended family
live in the town of Pelican. A feature of the festivities is
a Christmas Eve bonfire, and the guests will expect fun
along with sweet potato pralines and pecan--coconut pies.
Maggie is an artist and a tour guide at a larger business
nearby, Doucet plantation, where she and her friend Ione are
rightly offended by stereotypical historic costumes. They
threaten to walk out rather than play the parts. But
Maggie's own family's business is under threat. The
investors are demanding a chance to modernise and upscale,
however tasteless that might be. Combined with bad reviews
on a tourism website, the B&B's days might be numbered.
Then Maggie finds someone dead in suspicious circumstances
at Doucet. That tour has to be cut short.
With so many characters, the tale is fine for people who
have followed the series but may be a little complex for
newcomers. Another new cast member or two arrive, including
a former boyfriend of Maggie's who married someone else in
New York. We also visit a grand home in New Orleans, as
Maggie and her Grannie go to pay a condolence call. These
particular members of the old money crowd don't come across
as good ambassadors.
I'm fascinated by the food consumed during the tale. At
home, Maggie enjoys shrimp, oyster, and crawfish in various
recipes. In New Orleans, she eats hearty gumbo with rice,
crab salad, and I had to look up muffuletta which turns out
to be a packed sandwich of olive salad, mortadella, salami,
mozzarella, ham and provolone in a special round Italian
bun. Plenty of energy in the cool and damp days. A few
recipes follow the adventure, one of which appears to be an
excuse to cook with brandy, and all sound great.
The various dangers, dramas, and deaths are fitted in nicely
around the Christmas festival and bonfires on the
Mississippi levees. If you are looking for a scenic part of
the world to spend Christmas in, this would appear to be top
of the list. A CAJUN CHRISTMAS KILLING by Ellen Byron is
almost as good as visiting Louisiana.
Maggie Crozat must pair up with unlikely ally and
longtime family enemy to catch the killer before Christmas
on the bayou is ruined.
Maggie Crozat is back home in bayou country during the most
magical time of the year. In Pelican, Louisiana,
Christmastime is a season of giant bonfires on the levee,
zydeco carols, and pots of gumbo. Except, this year, the
Grinch has come to stay at the family-run Crozat Plantation
B&B. When he floods travel websites with vicious
reviews, Maggie thinks she’s identified him as rival
businessman Donald Baxter. That is, until he’s found stabbed
to death at Maggie’s workplace. And Maggie and her loved
ones become top suspects.
The Crozats quickly establish alibis, but Maggie’s
boyfriend, Detective Bo Durand, remains under suspicion.
With Bo sidelined during the investigation, Maggie finds
herself forced to work with an unlikely ally: longtime
family enemy Rufus Durand. Her sleuthing uncovers more
suspects than drummers drumming, and lands her in the
crosshairs of the murderer.
The sleigh bells are jingling, and the clock is ticking for
Maggie and Rufus, who must catch the killer or it will be
the opposite of a Joyeux Noël in A Cajun Christmas
Killing, the recipe-stuffed third installment of USA
Today bestselling author Ellen Byron’s Cajun Country
mysteries.
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