Secrets, Lies, & Crawfish Pies

Welcome Back, Booklovers!

I know during this time many of you are looking for something light-hearted to take your mind off everything going on in the world right now.

I read this one when it originally released back in 2018. I've already spoken about my love hate relationship with cozy mysteries in the past. Sometimes I crave a light-hearted mystery but I don't like reading a completely white world. And most cozy mysteries are very white. So at the time of this post the Kindle Edition of this story is 99 cents!

https://amzn.to/2RB9686

Romaine Wilder is a medical examiner as opposed to a baker, restaurant owner, or homemaker usually present in cozy mysteries.  It adds an interesting element that allows her to have a legitimate  reason to work closely with the sheriff on the case and receive key details to the case. She performs the autopsy and helps determine the victim's cause of death. Often in these stories the lead just happens to conveniently overhear details or people around town are so charmed by her they easily spill details. And when you're reading a lot of cozy mystery series in a row like I was at one point it can become a slight annoyance.

But if you want someone who goes around pushing and probing people for details her Auntie Zanne does that in her determination to solve the case and absolve her best friend of a murder charge. Auntie Zanne is that family member  you love one minute and then they grate your nerves the next. She's a New Orleans Creole Queen with a touch of Texan Southern Belle. Auntie Zanne is well known around town for being involved in just about every committee and for her business the Ball Funeral Home & Crematorium. Her occupation and natural need to be involved put her right in the middle of the drama. She tends to narrow in on one suspect and convinces herself they are the murder while trying to twist the clues to fit them. This is the opposite of Romaine who is trying not to accuse anyone without the proper facts.

My only complaint  about Auntie Zanne that sometimes her big personality and pushiness outshines Romaine as she drags her from place to place determined to solve the mystery in between planning the county's big festival. I haven't had the chance to read the rest of the series to see if that changed.

All in all it's a fun story set down south that will have you craving some sweet tea and crawfish pies.