A Cajun Christmas Killing: A Cajun Country Mystery

I enjoyed reading A Cajun Christmas Killing by Ellen Bryon, her third book in her A Cajun Country Mystery series. This story captured my interest from the first chapter. Maggie Crozat has returned home to the family B&B in Pelican, Louisiana for the holidays when she finds herself trying to determine who killed Donald Baxter, since her family and boyfriend are the main suspects. It becomes vital for them to solve this crime sooner rather than later. Maggie finds herself working with Rufus Durand, a longtime family enemy, as they uncover many suspects she needs to find the killer before she becomes the next victim. This story is a fun read. There really is a lot that happens in the book and just when I thought I had it figured out, something else would happen. Lots of yummy recipes added too, that I plan to try. I genuinely enjoyed reading this book and had trouble putting this book down. The story line was riveting and kept my attention to the very end. Ms. Bryon does an excellent job keeping her readers on their toes as they read her stories. I highly recommend this book to other readers and look forward to reading other books in this series. I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

I have been utterly charmed by this series. Even though every book adds to Maggie’s discovered-body count, there’s something kind of light and fun about the stories. The villains and their machinations continue to be downright evil, but the citizens of Pelican we’ve been introduced to so far still have an ease about them. Besides the fact that I’ve spent part of every book laughing my behind off, I love this series so much for the fact that I have not yet been able to outthink the plot. I’ve always got my pet theories, but by the end of every book I’ve been proven wrong. I kind of never want to see this series end. I read a borrowed copy of this book.

law-enforcement, bayou, Louisiana, Cajun culture, situational-humor, cozy-mystery, family-dynamics, relationships Maggie is a smart, observant, paint artist with old school family lineage, kooky relatives, and a whole lot of figurative brush fires to put out. The main family home is a B&B with someone sabotaging the approval rating, the other family plantation is registered as historic but is being run by a corporation with delusions. The obnoxious owner of the corporation is staying at the B&B, but ends up murdered in the plantation house. Not only Maggie, but her whole family, some friends, and even her nice new boyfriend the cop are on the short list, even her crooked former boyfriend from NYC, who is a paid consultant for the deceased. Very twisty with lots of situational humor and a lot of red herrings. All of the characters are well developed and are very interesting, as is the trip to the Garden District of NOLA. And then there's all the mentions of the terrific local food! Thanks be that there are several of the recipes given at the end of the book! I requested and received this book courtesy of NetGalley.