by Ellen Byron
Part of Vintage Cookbook Mystery
First published 2022
Ricki James returns to New Orleans at twenty-eight, a widow starting over after her actor husband died in a foolish internet stunt. She joins the staff at Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, a stunning Garden District mansion that once belonged to legendary restaurateur Genevieve "Vee" Charbonnet. Ricki launches Miss Vee's Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware in the museum's gift shop, turning her passion for collecting old cookbooks into a business. Her excitement turns to horror when she opens a box of donated cookbooks and discovers a corpse inside. The dead man is a former Bon Vee employee who was recently fired for stealing books. Ricki's experience hunting down rare culinary volumes proves useful for tracking clues, but her investigation threatens both her new venture and the museum itself. Her past work curating a billionaire's rare book collection surfaces to complicate matters further. Ricki must solve the murder before her fresh start becomes her final chapter.
Genres: american-fiction, mystery, contemporary, adult-fiction, cozy-mystery
Vibes: atmospheric, charming, cozy, engaging, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, fish-out-of-water, second-chance
Setting: New Orleans, Garden District, Bon Vee Culinary House Museum
Period: 21st-century, contemporary
304 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Berkley
Content warnings: death, murder