Wined and Died in New Orleans

February 13, 2023

Wined and Died in New Orleans

Wined and Died in New Orleans (A Vintage Cookbook)
by Ellen Byron

About Wined and Died in New Orleans

Wined and Died in New Orleans (A Vintage Cookbook)
Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Setting – Louisiana
Berkley (February 7, 2023)
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593437632
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593437636
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09TZPW81C

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.

About Ellen Byron

Ellen’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel and multiple Lefty Awards for Best Humorous Mystery. Bayou Book Thief will be the first book in her new Vintage Cookbook Mysteries. She also writes the Catering Hall Mystery series under the name Maria DiRico.

Ellen is an award-winning playwright, and non-award-winning TV writer of comedies like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. She has written over two hundred articles for national magazines but considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. An alum of New Orleans’ Tulane University, she blogs with Chicks on the Case, is a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America and will be the 2023 Left Coast Crime Toastmaster. Please visit her at https://www.ellenbyron.com/

Q&A With the Author:

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I loved creating the sketchy Charbonnet relatives who came out of the woodwork once news went viral about the discovery of a valuable cache of 19th century Madeira hidden under the historic Bon Vee Culinary House Museum.

I also really enjoyed tapping into my experience of debating whether to evacuate or ride out a hurricane in New Orleans.

Do you have any other books you are working on that you can tell us about?

Yes! I’m writing A Very Woodsy Murder, the first book in a new series, the Golden Motel Mysteries. The premise is that Dee Stern, a burned-out TV writer whose career is on the downswing, impulsively quits her job on the Kidz Channel sitcom “DUH!” and buys a rustic motel in a small California Gold Rush town at the foot of a national park. Dee soon finds herself totally out of her element as both a motelier and an amateur sleuth when a dead body pops up straddling her property and the national park’s.

The Golden Mysteries can be described in shorthand as Hacks meets Schitt’s Creek

Can you tell us about what you have planned for the future?

I’m excited about my new series. I also have a few other proposals I’m looking forward to pitching to publishers. And a producer is currently shopping the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries as a television project.

How long have you been writing?

I won’t tell you my age – but my first play, Graceland, was produced and published in 1982! It’s about two Elvis fans both determined to be the first person to set foot in Graceland on the day it’s opened to the public.

Anything more you would like to say to your readers and fans?

I love you! And am so grateful to everyone for reading my books and even sharing lovely reviews of them.

Author Links

Newsletter: https://www.ellenbyron.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/ellenbyronauthor/

https://www.facebook.com/CateringHallMysteries/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/ellenbyronmariadirico/

Bookbub:

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ellen-byron

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/maria-dirico