Biography

Ellen Byron’s bestselling Cajun Country Mysteries have won multiple Agatha and Lefty Awards. Bayou Book Thief, Vintage Cookbook Mystery #1, won the Best Humorous Mystery Lefty Award She also writes the Catering Hall Mysteries (under the name Maria DiRico). Byron is an award-winning playwright and non-award-winning TV writer of comedies like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. But she considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart.

Schedule

10:00 am to 11:15 am
House Committee Room 4
Figuring It Out: Amateur Sleuths on the Case
with Danielle Arceneaux, Ellen Byron, Cherie Claire, Claudia Gray, and Caroline Haines

11:30 am to 12:15 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

Wined and Died in New Orleans: A Vintage Cookbook Mystery

The second in a fantastic new cozy mystery series with a vintage flair from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award–winning author Ellen Byron.

It’s hurricane season in New Orleans and vintage cookbook fan Ricki James-Diaz is trying to shelve her weather-related fears and focus on her business, Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbook and Kitchenware Shop, housed in the magnificent Bon Vee Culinary House Museum.

Repairs on the property unearth crates of very old, very valuable French wine, buried by the home’s builder, Jean-Louis Charbonnet. Ricki, who’s been struggling to attract more customers to Miss Vee’s, is thrilled when her post about the discovery of this long-buried treasure goes viral. She’s less thrilled when the post brings distant Charbonnet family members out of the woodwork, all clamoring for a cut of the wine’s sale.

When a dead body turns up in Bon Vee’s cheery fall decorations, the NOPD zeroes in on Eugenia Charbonnet Felice as the prime suspect, figuring that as head of the Charbonnet family, she has the most to gain. Ricki is determined to uncover the real culprit, but she can’t help noticing that Eugenia is acting strangely. Ricki wonders what kind of secret her mentor has bottled up, and fears what might happen if she uncorks it.

In the second Vintage Cookbook Mystery, Ricki has to help solve a murder, untangle family secrets, and grow her business, all while living under the threat of a hurricane that could wipe out everything from her home to Bon Vee.