I'm pleased to welcome Ricki James-Diaz to Cozy Up With Kathy today. You can find Ricki on the pages of the Vintage Cookbook Mystery series. FRENCH QUARTER FRIGHT NIGHT is the third book in the series and was released earlier this month.
Hi, Ricki James-Diaz here, proprietor of Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbook and Kitchenware Shop in Bon Vee Culinary Museum, the largest mansion in New Orleans’ Garden District. I recently left Los Angeles and moved to NOLA, the city where I was born and lived until I was eight years old. I’ve given my life a jumpstart by fulfilling my dream of creating a store for people who share my fascination with cookbooks and kitchenware from past decades.
Why do I need to jumpstart my life, you ask? Well, I made some questionable choices in Los Angeles, like impulsively marrying a struggling, self-involved actor. With his career – and as it turned out, our relationship - going nowhere, Chris started filming dumb stunts and posting them on the internet. He took the name Chris-azy!, and suddenly became an internet star. Sadly, while doing the Marshmallow Challenge where the goal was to see how many marshmallows he could stuff in his mouth, he choked on one and passed away. We were separated but not divorced, which has led to my current status as a twenty-eight-year-old “young widow,” a term I’ve come to hate, along with the sort of patronizing tone people in people’s voices when they use it.
But my goal is to keep moving forward and I’m doing exactly that here in New Orleans. I’m co-parenting two adopted doggies with Virgil Morel, the extremely handsome former chef and current judge on America’s Next Top Southern Chef, who lives across the street from me and I happen to be dating; a couple of murders that involved Bon Vee haven’t stunted my shop’s success, thank goodness; and it’s Halloween in New Orleans! I haven’t celebrated here since I was a kid. I had the idea of turning Bon Vee into a haunted house at night, which the whole staff is incredibly excited about. The only problem is our nasty new neighbor next door, Miranda Fine. She’s the assistant to some actor who bought the house on a whim, it seems.
Oh no… oh no!
I just found out exactly who that actor is: Blaine Taggart, my late husband’s best friend and the man I consider responsible for Chris’s death. He’s the one who talked Chris into doing the stupid internet stunt that killed him. I thought Blaine was out of my life forever, and now he’s our neighbor? My life just got much more complicated.
But not as complicated as life for everyone here at Bon Vee is about to get.
We just discovered that the dummy in the prop tomb on our Haunted House tour isn’t a dummy. It’s the body of Miranda Fine. And it looks like her death was no accident. She was murdered.. And even though New Orleans proudly bills itself as “The most haunted city in America,” I’m guessing the killer wasn’t a ghost.
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Review
FRENCH QUARTER FRIGHT NIGHT by Ellen Byron
The Third Vintage Cookbook Mystery
New Orleans loves a holiday and it’s going all out for Halloween. With a multitude of activities all over town Ricki James-Diaz and her co-workers decide to get in on the action by transforming the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum into a haunted house with tableaus inside the mansion and an old shed turned into a crypt outside. During the dress rehearsal the staff are shocked to find a real dead body inside the crypt. The victim happens to be the insufferable assistant of their new next door neighbor, the same woman making their lives a misery. With the New Orleans Police Department beyond busy with all of the Halloween happenings and since pretty much everyone at Bon Vee is a suspect it only makes sense they work together once again to solve yet another murder at their property.
Ricki's LA past comes back to haunt her in the third Vintage Cookbook Mystery. While preparing for her first Halloween in New Orleans since childhood she has to deal with neighbors causing problems and ultimately comes face to face with a person from her past she'd rather exorcise from her life. Add murder to the mix as well as hints to her own family mystery and it's another challenging time for Ricki James-Diaz.
I love Halloween and I really enjoyed seeing how the people of New Orleans and the characters of the Vintage Cookbook Mystery series celebrate. The matching costumes of Benny and Jenny, detailed descriptions of decorations, and the camaraderie of friends celebrating make me want to spend Halloween with them in the Big Easy.
I really enjoyed not only the mystery, but how Ricki and her co-workers investigate; working together, albeit with different methods. I appreciate how Ricki deals with disappointment in regards to her investigatory work and her relationships. I also liked learning more about Nina and seeing how she keeps Ricki on her toes. And, of course, I love the addition of Red.
Combining the celebratory atmosphere of New Orleans with a well plotted mystery FRENCH QUARTER FRIGHT NIGHT is the perfect mystery read to get you into the Halloween spirit!
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French Quarter Fright Night (Vintage Cookbook) by Ellen Byron
About French Quarter Fright Night
Cozy Mystery 3rd in Series
Setting - the Garden District of New Orleans
Publisher: Severn House (September 3, 2024)
Hardcover: 256 pages
The third in the fabulous cozy mystery series with a vintage flair from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author Ellen Byron.
Welcome to the Bon Veeevil Festival of Fear! Prepare for the spookiest night of your life . . .
It's Halloween in New Orleans, and the staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum is setting up a fantastic haunted house tour for their visitors. But when flashy movie star Blaine Taggart and his entourage move into the mansion next door, gift shop proprietor Ricki James-Diaz gets a fright of her own.
While Ricki is excited about the potential business the tours will bring to her vintage cookbook shop, she's less thrilled by former friend Blaine's arrival in town. Then Bon Vee's prop tomb becomes a real tomb for Blaine's nasty assistant, and suddenly everyone at Bon Vee is a murder suspect. There isn't a ghost of a chance one of them committed the crime, but with NOPD busy tackling the mischief and mayhem generated by the spooky holiday, it falls on Ricki and her friends to catch the killer.
As the Big Easy gears up for the Big Scary, it seems everyone has skeletons in their closets. Can Ricki reveal the shadowy killer before someone else becomes part of the Halloween horror show?
About Ellen Byron
Ellen is a USA Today bestselling author, Anthony nominee, and recipient of multiple Agatha and Lefty awards for her Cajun Country Mysteries, Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, and Catering Hall Mysteries (as Maria DiRico). Her new series, The Golden Motel Mysteries, recently debuted. She is also an award-winning playwright and non-award-winning writer of TV hits like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents, but considers her most impressive achievement working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. Visit her at Cozy Mysteries | Ellen Byron | Author
Author Links:
Newsletter: https://www.ellenbyron.com/
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellenbyronmariadirico/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ellen-byron
Purchase Links - Amazon - B&N - Bookshop.org
Thanks so much for a wonderful review! And I hope you get to celebrate Halloween in NOLA sometime. It’s a blast!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by. Perhaps on day...
DeleteHere's hoping!
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