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Sunday, August 16, 2015

82) Plantation Shudders by Ellen Byron

The Blurb :

It's the end of the summer and Prodigal Daughter Maggie Crozat has returned home to her family's plantation-turned-bed-and-breakfast in Louisiana. The Crozats have an inn full of guests for the local food festival--elderly honeymooners, the Cajun Cuties, a mysterious stranger from Texas, a couple of hipster lovebirds, and a trio of Georgia frat boys. But when the elderly couple keels over dead within minutes of each other--one from very unnatural causes-- Maggie and the others suddenly become suspects in a murder.

With the help of Bo Durand, the town's handsome new detective, Maggie must investigate to clear her name while holding the family business together at the same time. And the deeper she digs, the more she wonders: are all of the guests really there for a vacation or do they have ulterior motives?

My Thoughts :

I am sucker when it comes to cozy mysteries and I keep collecting more and more review copies because they look so good.  Sometimes this backfires on me but Plantation Shudders was one of the best debut in a new series I have read this year.

Plantation Shudders has everything a good cozy mystery needs.  A super location, quirky characters and a great mystery plot.  The location, the Crozat Plantation, opens up some very nice angles that make this book stand out.  The Louisiana history and culture are very high on that list but also the general feel of the location and for instance the food, makes this location not only stand out but makes the story even more enjoyable.

There are lots of interesting characters to be found in this first installment in the Cajun Country Mystery series and they all have their own little quirks and special personalities.  Maggie's family and the rest of the characters met in this book cover a lot of variety but the guests in the B & B offered and will continue to offer more diversity in the series.  There is never a dull moment due to the different kinds of characters that come together in this book.

A huge thumbs up to the mystery and plot.  The author kept me and Maggie guessing right to the end and there were some lovely twists and turns along the way.  A few red herrings had me coming to the wrong conclusions but when the big reveal came along it all made sense.  Sure it was a little over the top but aren't all good cozy mystery plots?

I am extremely happy I picked up this book and wish I had managed to read it before the release date. There is no doubt that I will be picking up the next book in the series and can't wait to go back to the Crozat planation for another visit.  It will be interesting to see what happens next with the regular characters and also what the kind of trouble the next lot of guests will bring with them.  Plantation Shudders was a wonderful and enjoyable read.  Well worth checking out!






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2 comments:

Diane P said...

Too bad that it is so expensive. I put it on my wish list.

Unknown said...

I just checked the price! It is a little over the top. Even the Kindle version is 3 dollars over the usual price of a book :(

I hope enough people take a chance on this debut because they aren't doing it any favours by starting it off as hardback and so expensive!