Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron

Series Name: Vintage Cookbook Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: June 7, 2022

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?

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Dru’s Short Musing:
I love this book. We are introduced to Ricki James who relocates to New Orleans to start a new life. What should be a joyful occasion is marred when a body is discovered, and Ricki must put on her sleuthing cap to find a killer among the new people she has met.

The author did a great job in staging this finely tuned mystery with suspects galore and clues that kept me intrigued throughout. When I thought I had a handle on what was going on, the red herrings splattered in the story kept me in the game, reveling in watching this all play out until the killer’s identity was revealed. Good job. Good job. The author’s love of New Orleans and vintage books are present in her depiction of both which enhanced the visually descriptive narrative and the telling of this tale. A bountiful of quirky, yet lovable diverse characters shine through in this delectably and delightful new series. The way the story concluded, I’m more than eager to read what happens next with Ricki and her friends.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.