French Quarter Fright Night is the third Vintage Cookbook cozy mystery by Ellen Byron. Released 3rd Sept 2024 by Severn House (a new publisher for this series), it's 256 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out from the same publisher in second quarter 2025. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.
This
is a delightfully light and humorous cozy set in and around a
fictitious stately home in New Orleans and the shops and tourist
attractions associated with it. Protagonist and amateur sleuth Ricki
James-Diaz runs a vintage cookbook and kitschy kitchen supply store in
the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum and is a transplant to
Louisiana from California.
Some of the characterizations and plot developments are admittedly a bit over the top and there are some twists which require a healthy suspension of disbelief, but all in all, it's a pretty good example of why the shopfront cozy subgenre is so popular. Ricki's internal Zen monologue ("I choose to feel calm" etc) was slightly intrusive at some points, but overall it added whimsy and a little humor to the read.
The eclectic mix of eccentric
characters left an open field for most of the book for "whodunit" and
why. The denouement and resolution are self contained in this volume and
it works well as a standalone. With 3 books extant in the series, and having apparently found a new home with a new publisher and set to continue, it
would be a nice choice for a mini-weekend binge read or buddy read. As with many shopfront/cooking allied cozy series, this one includes some bonus recipes in the back.
Four stars. The author is prolific and competent.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
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