Wined and Died in New Orleans by Ellen Byron

Wined and Died in New Orleans
by Ellen Byron

ISBN-13: 9780593437636
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Released: February 7th 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
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.


My Review:
Wined and Died in New Orleans is a cozy mystery. Ricki's the bumbling detective who managed to stumble across a few clues, but it's not really a clue-based mystery. Her boss is the top suspect for the murder, so Ricki's determined to find as many people as possible with motives and to tell the detective about them. Then she's determined to prove that one of the Charbonnet relatives that have shown up isn't really a Charbonnet. It won't save her boss from a murder charge, but, hey. Ricki tried to sneak a used cup to get that person's DNA, yet she's upset when someone else did the same thing to her. Lots of double-standards in this book. A man who drives drunk and cheats on his wife was basically given a pass because 'his wife drove him to it.'

Things really turned absurd by the end. Whodunit's motive didn't make logical sense as a motive for murder. And rather than pass on information to the police like Ricki had been doing all along, she decided to withhold critical information from the police (who were present and better equipped to handle the situation) and instead confronted the armed killer by herself, without a weapon or backup. Seriously foolish woman.

It's the 2nd book in a series. You don't need to read the previous book to understand this one, and this one didn't spoil the first mystery. There was no sex. There were a few uses of bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.