by Ellen Byron
Part of Vintage Cookbook Mystery, book 4
First published 2025
Ricki James-Diaz receives the perfect Christmas gift when her parents visit New Orleans for the holidays. She plans to use this time to learn more about her adoption, which her mother Josepha has always kept deliberately vague. The truth proves darker than Ricki expected. Josepha reveals she endured years of blackmail from someone who threatened to expose details about the adoption. When this blackmailer turns up dead in her own home, police immediately focus on Josepha as their main suspect. Ricki must now solve another murder case while Christmas approaches. She turns to her colleagues at the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum for assistance as she works to clear her mother's name. The investigation forces Ricki to confront family secrets while racing against time to prove Josepha's innocence before the holiday arrives.
Genres: american-fiction, mystery, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction, cozy-mystery
Vibes: cozy, emotional, fast-paced, festive, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-detective, family-secrets, found-family, holiday-mystery
Setting: New Orleans, Bon Vee Culinary House Museum
Period: Christmas
240 pages · Hardcover · Severn House
Content warnings: murder