Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron

Hello my cozy friends,

Today I am reviewing "Bayou Book Thief” the first instalment in A Vintage Cookbook Mystery series by Ellen Byron set in New Orleans.  What a great start to a new series! 

A fantastic new cozy mystery series with a vintage flair from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award–winning author Ellen Byron.

 
Twenty-eight-year-old widow Ricki James leaves Los Angeles to start a new life in New Orleans after her showboating actor husband perishes doing a stupid internet stunt. The Big Easy is where she was born and adopted by the NICU nurse who cared for her after Ricki’s teen mother disappeared from the hospital.

Ricki’s dream comes true when she joins the quirky staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, the spectacular former Garden District home of late bon vivant Genevieve “Vee” Charbonnet, the city’s legendary restauranteur. Ricki is excited about turning her avocation – collecting vintage cookbooks – into a vocation by launching the museum’s gift shop, Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware. Then she discovers that a box of donated vintage cookbooks contains the body of a cantankerous Bon Vee employee who was fired after being exposed as a book thief.

The skills Ricki has developed ferreting out hidden vintage treasures come in handy for investigations. But both her business and Bon Vee could wind up as deadstock when Ricki’s past as curator of a billionaire’s first edition collection comes back to haunt her.

Will Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware be a success … or a recipe for disaster?
 

I absolutely loved this story, and it has made me want to visit the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum and New Orleans. 

I really like Ricki, Zellah, Lyla, Madame Noisette, and Virgil almost makes you wish you were part of their little community.  The interaction between Ricki and Detective Rodriguez I found entertaining as well.

The mystery is interesting and well plotted, and had plenty of twists to keep engaged right to the very end.  I kept guessing and second-guessing myself but I was right on who the killer was.  The story moves at a steady pace, and I had a hard time putting it down. I also liked how the author left the ending making us wait in anticipation for book 2 . 

I highly recommend this book to all my cozy lover friends. I can’t wait for book two!

I requested and received an Advanced Readers Copy from Berkley Publishing and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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