FEATURED AUTHOR: ELLEN BYRON

ABOUT THE BOOK

USA Today bestselling author Ellen Byron is back at it with fan-favorite plantation B&B owner Maggie Crozat in a fourth installment of the Cajun Country mysteries. 

Southern charm meets the dark mystery of the bayou as a hundred-year flood, a malicious murder, and a most unusual Mardi Gras converge at the Crozat Plantation B&B.

It’s Mardi Gras season on the bayou, which means parades, pageantry, and gumbo galore. But when a flood upends life in the tiny town of Pelican, Louisiana―and deposits a body of a stranger behind the Crozat Plantation B&B―the celebration takes a decidedly dark turn. The citizens of Pelican are ready to Laissez les bon temps rouler―but there’s beaucoup bad blood on hand this Mardi Gras. 



Maggie Crozat is determined to give the stranger a name and find out why he was murdered. The post-flood recovery has delayed the opening of a controversial exhibit about the little-known Louisiana Orphan Train. And when a judge for the Miss Pelican Mardi Gras Gumbo Queen pageant is shot, Maggie’s convinced the murder is connected to the body on the bayou. Does someone covet the pageant queen crown enough to kill for it? Could the deaths be related to the Orphan Train, which delivered its last charges to Louisiana in 1929? The leads are thin on this Fat Tuesday―and until the killer is unmasked, no one in Pelican is safe. 



A simmering gumbo of a humorous whodunit, Mardi Gras Murder is the fourth piquant installment in USA Today bestselling author Ellen Byron’s award-winning Cajun Country mysteries.

Book Details:


Title: Mardi Gras Murder

Author: Ellen Byron

Genre: Cozy mystery

Series: Cajun Country mysteries, book 4

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books (October 9th, 2018)

Print length: 304 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT WITH ELLEN BYRON

A few of your favorite things: My rescue dogs and all my gorgeous needlepoint. Especially the Christmas ornaments.
Things you need to throw out: Pretty much everything else. Our house could be on that show, Hoarders, these days.


Things you need in order to write: My fingers and a computer.
Things that hamper your writing: The Internet and… the Internet.


Things you love about writing: The magic of coming up with a great plot twist or a truly unique turn of phrase.
Things you hate about writing: Having to tear myself away from Facebook.

Things you love about where you live: My neighbors! I live in the Hollywood Hills, and five of us gals power-walk at least one night a week. We call ourselves the West Donas Walkers because our neighborhood is nicknamed the Donas, and we’re on the west side of it.
Things that make you want to move: Typical Los Angeles complaints: terrible traffic and self-involved people. Also, I love rain and desperately miss is.

Words that describe you: Funny, loyal, pragmatic, driven, honest, questioning, passionate, caring, emotional.
Words that describe you but you wish they didn’t: Annoying, impatient, neurotic, stubborn, self-centered, opinionated, procrastinator.

Favorite foods: Chocolate, pasta, pizza, jambalaya, cake, gumbo, all kinds of meatball soups.
Things that make you want to throw up:  Coffee and cilantro. I despise them both. I have to rinse out my mouth if I accidentally eat either of them.

Favorite song: “Get Down Tonight,” by KC and the Sunshine Band. I consider it the best pop dance song ever written and no one will ever convince me otherwise.
Music that make your ears bleed: Heavy metal and anything by Drake. He is ALWAYS off key!

Favorite beverage: Unsweetened iced tea.

Something that gives you a pickle face: Sweetened iced tea – or any sugary drink.

Favorite smell: Night-blooming jasmine.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Tar.

Something you wish you could do: Dance en pointe in ballet. A dream of mine I never realized.
Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Spend money!

Something you like to do: Dance.

Something you wish you’d never done: Roll stop signs. All the tickets I’ve ever gotten – except for one speeding ticket – have been for rolling stop signs.

Last best thing you ate: Rum raisin cake. I was testing a recipe that will go into the fifth book in my Cajun Country Mystery series. Thumbs up for me, it came out great!

Last thing you regret eating: Rum raisin cake. It totally demolished my Weight Watchers points for the day.

Things you always put in your books: Recipes.
Things you never put in your books: Gory violence or torture of any kind. Yuck!

Things to say to an author: I love your series! 

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: You’re shorter in person than I thought you’d be.

Favorite things to do: Read, dance, needlepoint, hang with family and/or friends, wine-taste, just plain drink wine.

Things you’d run through a fire wearing gasoline pants to get out of doing: Cleaning my house.

Things that make you happy: My doggies and my family, when everyone’s in a good mood. Also, see my list of “favorite things to do.”
Things that drive you crazy: People who would rather be right than happy.

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:

Plantation Shudders
Body on the Bayou
A Cajun Christmas Killing



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ellen Byron authors the Cajun Country Mystery series. A Cajun Christmas Killing and Body on the Bayou both won the Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery and were nominated for Agatha awards in the category of Best Contemporary Novel. Plantation Shudders, was nominated for Agatha, Lefty, and Daphne awards. Mardi Gras Murder launched October 9th. Ellen’s TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents. She’s written over 200 national magazine articles, and her published plays include the award-winning Graceland. She also worked as a cater-waiter for the legendary Martha Stewart, a credit she never tires of sharing.

Connect with Ellen:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon  |  Instagram

Buy the book:

Amazon  |  
Barnes & Noble  |  Bookbub

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