October 15, 2017
After the events in Body on the Bayou, Maggie Crozat is back home in Pelican, LA, helping her family run the Crozat Plantation B&B. They're busy fielding guests and preparing for Christmas Eve on the Mississippi levee, where houses along the river will celebrate the holiday with bonfires. The season is feeling less than joyful, though, when an investor threatens the family business and then ends up murdered. With Maggie and her family under suspicion, she plays sleuth along with boyfriend Det. Bo Durand. VERDICT Amid the slew of Christmas cozies, Byron spices up the genre with her colorful Cajun Louisiana setting and entertaining protagonist; the Cajun recipes are an added treat.
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Starred review from August 7, 2017
Byron’s superb third Cajun Country mystery featuring artist Maggie Crozat (after 2016’s Body on the Bayou) finds Maggie’s father, Tug, under a lot of stress because the family business, Preferred Property Collection, is under threat. Maggie learns from Uncle Tig, Tug’s twin brother, who buys historic properties and turns them into boutique hotels, that unscrupulous hedge fund manager Steve Harmon—a guest at the Crozat Plantation B and B—plans to take over PPC. Later, while giving a tour at Doucet Plantation, her maternal family’s ancestral home, Maggie discovers Harmon dead in a wing chair. In addition to various members of the Crozat family, Maggie’s main man, Det. Bo Durand of the Pelican, La., PD, becomes a suspect in Harmon’s murder. With Christmas and the arrival of the Cajun Santa, Papa Noel, just ahead, Maggie has to work fast to solve the crime. Stir in Bo’s ex-wife and Maggie’s former fiancé, and there’s no end to the mischief and mayhem in this exceptional cozy. Agent: Doug Grad, Doug Grad Literary Agency.