Book Review: French Quarter Fright Night by Ellen Byron (Vintage Cookbook Mysteries #3)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Ricki and the rest in a third strong mystery

Cons: All cons frightened away

The Bottom Line:

Fresh body in crypt

Hollywood moves in next door

Glad series is back

Frightful Time with the New Neighbor

Since I’m a fan of Ellen Byron, I was disappointed when her Vintage Cookbook Mysteries were canceled after two entries.  That also means I was happy when a new publisher picked them up.  French Quarter Fright Night is the third overall and the first with the new publisher, and it was another great book.

This series is set in New Orleans, where Ricki James-Diaz runs a vintage cookbook and kitchenware shop at one of the stately homes in the city.  The home itself, Bon Vee, is a museum because it was owned by one of the culinary families of the city.  We’ve learned a bit about Ricki’s backstory in the previous two books, so that would be a reason to read those books first, but this book does give you the bare bones version, so you could jump in here.

This book opens in October, and Ricki has a great idea for Bon Vee – a haunted house.  In a city that goes all out for Halloween (and any excuse to party), this will be a draw.  The rest of the staff is on board, and soon they are plotting ways to turn the downstairs of the manner into the event of the season.

However, whoever bought the house next to Bon Vee is less than happy.  Granted, this person is complaining about everything that happens at Bon Vee.  When Ricki goes to try to reach a compromise, she discovers that the new owner is mega movie star Blaine Taggart.  Ricki and Blaine have a history – in fact, Ricki blames Blaine for her late husband’s death.  Ricki isn’t happy about Blaine being back in her life, but she tries to ignore him as much as she can.  That is until a body from next door turns up in the crypt that Bon Vee has created for their haunted house.  With Ricki and her friends on the suspect list, can she clear them of yet another murder?

I was so happy to slip back into Ricki’s world.  She has a good group of co-workers turned friends, and I enjoyed getting to hang out with all of them again.  We saw some progressions in a few of those relationships as well, which was nice.  The suspects fit in well with the other characters.  And, while not all of Ricki’s relationship with the detective is realistic, I found the progression in their relationship nice as well.

As an entertainment junkie, I always enjoy it when Hollywood shows up in a book.  Since Ellen Byron was a sitcom writer before she started writing mysteries, I feel like there’s a hint more realism to that aspect of the book than in some of the mysteries that try to include it while acknowledging that I’m sure some aspects are exaggerated for fiction.

And the mystery itself was great.  It had a few twists I was not expecting and it led up to a logical climax that answered my questions.

As I mentioned, Ellen used to write sitcoms, and she works humor into all her books.  I laughed multiple times as I was reading, mostly from the characters and their interactions.

Ellen also has quite a collection of vintage cookbooks.  She’s chosen five recipes from various books in her collection to feature here.  She’s updated the directions some to make them easier for us to use today.  Yes, we have a couple of pumpkin themed recipes, but they aren’t all seasonal.  (And yes, there is a sixth recipe, but, well…I’ll leave it for you to see why I didn’t include it in my count.)

Speaking of the season, I did enjoy getting to visit the city during October.  While the action was centered around Bon Vee, we got a glimpse of the other fun happening in New Orleans during the month.

Fans of the series will be just as happy as I was that the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries are back.  French Quarter Fright Night is a welcome return.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.