Bayou Book Thief
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
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?
Reviews with the most likes.
I liked the setting of New Orleans and all the food talk. I liked the vintage cookbooks much more than I expected to. Ricki is trying really hard, but she is not perfect and misses the mark sometimes. I appreciate her humanity and that she doesn't take that too seriously. She does take seriously her friendships and responsibilities. I liked that part of her character as well.
There are a lot of suspicious people around as well. I guessed wrong multiple times about motive and murderer. So I was along for the ride as Ricki was investigating.
This was a strong start to the series. I liked the character development we saw and the mystery. I can't wait to see what is next.
⭐⭐⭐.5 – Love the cover of this book!
I adored this author's Cajun Country series, so I was excited to dive into this new one. Especially since I love anything set in New Orleans! Alas, this one just didn't “wow” me as much as the other series. I loved the setting. The mystery was fine. There is a great cast of quirky and likable secondary characters. And I loved the addition of the vintage recipes.
My main issue was Ricki herself. She was just so obnoxious and unlikable. From her weird obsession with ridiculous murder scenarios (and murderers) to her nasty attitude whenever the police lady didn't jump on whatever outrageous theory she cooked up that hour. She annoyed me the entire book.
Don't get me wrong, the writing, the character development is a LOT better than Murder at Pirate's Cove, but I did find myself drawing parallels: cozy mystery involving person new to the area just taking on the position of book shop proprietor, introduced slow burn love interest, protagonist kind of clumsy in amateur investigating, more up front with police than one might expect, and another series where I won't totally rule out picking up the next book in the series but...not feeling the urge immediately.
There are some fun characters here but there's also hints of some features which I tend to think of as ‘Southern romance' tropes:
~The protagonist is self-effacing/insecure, and proven to be more virtuous the more crap she suffers through without calling someone out on it. Others may do so on her behalf.
~The male love interest is partially identified by more bold (and by insinuation automatically less attractive 🙄) women hitting on him.
~ Some minor villiains are identified clearly not just because they are involved in shady dealings, but because they are uncouth, dress cheaply, look untidy, speak crassly, have disintegrating environs (kind of feels like people forget economic disadvantages are a thing?).
There are characters introduced just to be a friction point, which, okay, conflict is part (necessary to?) of a lot of plots, fair, but I have a certain threshold for asshole behaviour in my escapist reading and this kept pushing the red line.
So, yeah, going to have to weigh the cons before I consider picking up another in the series. 🤷🏼♂️
