Book Review: Mardi Gras Murder | Ellen Byron

Mardi Gras can be quite the party, and in the small town Pelican, Louisiana the party quickly turns from gumbo, treasure hunts, and Mardi Gras masks to murder! Even though the citizens of Pelican hope to have a great week and let the good times roll, a dead body washes up in the wake of a pre-Mardi Gras flood and brings more questions than answers. These kooky townsfolk are a blast to hang out with for a few days! I loved the way they interact and their characters, and I thought the merging of old-fashioned values with a new generation of residents was delightful!

About the Book

The whole town of Pelican, Louisiana is ready for a good ole fashioned Mardi Gras celebration in the bayou. When a flood causes a body to wash up behind the Crozat Plantation Bed and Breakfast, there may be more on their schedules than parades, pageants, and gumbo! No one know who the body is, and what they initially write off as a tragic accident quickly becomes a murder investigation.

Maggie Crozat is determined to identify the stranger. However, her investigation is delayed when her gran gets sick and Maggie must fill in as a judge for the Pelican Mardi Gras Gumbo Queen pageant. While Maggie tries to fairly determine which young woman deserves the glittering Gumbo Pot Crown, one of the other judges turns up murdered, and Maggie realizes that judging this pageant may be more dangerous than she thought.

Now with a murderer on the loose, it becomes clear that someone will stop at nothing to ruin Mardi Gras and prevent the controversial Orphan Train exhibit from opening. In a week filled with pageantry and glittering masks, will Maggie be able to “unmask” the killer before hers becomes the next body to be the victim of the Mardi Gras Murderer??

Reflection

When they are done well, cozy mysteries are such fun books! They are quirky, kitschy, funny, and light-hearted, which for a mystery and thriller reader can be a nice break from the darker variety of books. This series is really a top-notch cozy series. Maggie is a great detective/heroine, there are lots of clues to follow, and there aren’t really any of the side-tangents that tend to plague cozy mystery series.

This book can one hundred percent be read as a standalone. None of the previous books are spoiled (in the mystery) and so a reader can truly read them as they become available. One of the best features of this book was a handy little cast of characters list up front. If you dive in mid-series or even if you are coming back after a long break, you can easily reference it to remind yourself of who is related to who, what their job is, and any other quirky information. And if we are being honest, those zany townsfolk are part of the cozy mystery charm!

I loved the way this mystery dealt with the changing of the times. There is the deep history of the town and the people, and that can’t be overshadowed. And yet, maybe the focus on your lineage and excluding people from things because “it was always done that way” is ready for a change. Maggie is really an advocate for tradition being the celebrations themselves, but not necessarily the surface-level things that define them. I loved that! A mix of old values and new generations breathes life into this Louisiana bayou.

Byron is a top notch cozy writer. Her mystery was extremely well-plotted, with clues unfolding along the way. It was easy to feel like I was solving it right along with Maggie. Cheering her on as she had a tough conversation with a suspect, and snooping with her into the spaces and documents of the town. The pace was perfect, with clues spread along the path so that as we approached the big Mardi Gras parade, we also got closer and closer to solving the mystery.

And finally, the characters are all so well-done! They feel like people you might actually meet in this town. I loved the ribbing between the contestants in the gumbo cook-off. I also loved the pageant moms who cared more about their daughter’s winning than about making them into the best, independent women they can be. And I loved that a lot of the characters showed growth. They learned from their misplaced values.

I think cozy mystery fans will love this book! Thank you to Crooked Lane Books for my copy to review.