Wined and Died in New Orleans, the latest release by Ellen Byron
Author Interview + Book & Author Info + Rafflecopter Giveaway + Author Pet Corner
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Wined and Died in New Orleans
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.
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
To purchase Wined and Died in New Orleans, click any of the following links: Amazon – B&N – Kobo
Wined and Died in New Orleans — The Interview
What should readers know about Ricki James-Diaz, the main character in Wined and Died in New Orleans:
She’s enthusiastic, smart, and self-effacing. But she also has emotional scars from the guilt she feels over the disastrous marriage that left her widowed and the trauma of only discovering her billionaire boss was a fraud when the police arrested him for building his fortune via a Madoff-like scam.
Wined and Died in New Orleans is the second in your Vintage Cookbook series. Can it be read as a standalone? Or should readers start with book one, Bayou Book Thief?
Both books stand alone, although once you read Bayou Book Thief, you’ll probably want to read Wined and Died in New Orleans because I accidentally ended the first book on a cliffhanger.
When I say “accidentally,” it’s because I didn’t set out to write a book with a cliffhanger ending. It just seemed the best way to end book one.
If we were to visit Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbook and Kitchenware Shop, what would we find there?
Oh, wonderful things! Cookbooks dating back to the 19th century, but mostly from the 1920s through the 1970s.
You’ll also find an array of vintage cookware from extinct china patterns to extinct kitchen accessories – one of which is a murder weapon in Bayou Book Thief! There’s also a special childrens’ section featuring kids’ cookbooks new and old, and appropriate cookware for children that will encourage their interest in baking or cooking meals.
Ricki also stocks souvenirs utilizing designs created by her friend Zellah, an artist who runs the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum as her day job.
What do you love most about New Orleans, even in hurricane season?
Two things I can never get enough of in the Big Easy are historic architecture and rain. I’ve learned there’s a word for what I am: a pluviophile… someone who adores rain.
Weather figures prominently in the plot of Wined and Died, in contrast to whichever author said to never write about weather. Sorry, but if it’s New Orleans, you have to.
But I think the thing I love the most about New Orleans are its citizens. I don’t think you’ll find a more resilient, good-natured groups of residents anywhere else. Battling against the odds of a city often teetering on the edge of destruction has bred a people who know how to “pass a good time,” in local Louisiana parlance.
As the author of multiple mystery series, how do you choose a new book to read? Do you love series authors, standalones, or a mix? If you start a series, do you go for the first book? Or the most recent?
If I fall in love with a series, I will read it to the bitter end. I like to start at the beginning. Personally, I find it confusing to pick up in the middle and then work backwards.
I read everything from series to stand-alones, with historical mysteries and non-fiction being particular favorites.
What motivates me to pick up a book? A recommendation from a friend; a review; a cover. Sometimes a title alone lures me to a book.
What are you working on now?
I’m in draft mode on the first book in a new series, the Golden Motel Mysteries. The premise is that a burned-out sitcom writer – who isn’t me at all, lol! – impulsively buys a rustic mid-century hotel at the foot of Gold Rush Country and a national park – that isn’t Yosemite at all, lol! – to run with her best friend, who also happens to have been her first husband, due to a very short-lived marriage.
My agent and I describe it as Hacks meets Schitt’s Creek.
Words of wisdom for aspiring writers:
Never stop learning. I still take writing classes as well as marketing classes. There’s always something new to learn that will help you grow as a writer.
Author Pet Corner
I’m so sad to share that on January 10th, we had to cross our beloved furbaby Pogo over the rainbow bridge.
He was over sixteen years old and at a tipping point in his health. We had a vet come to our house. As I wept to her wondering if we were doing the right thing, she said, “Better a week too early than a day too late.”
Having probably waited too long with our two other dogs, this really hit home for me. After he passed, she told us she picked up some other conditions in her check of him that we didn’t even know about, so we clearly did the right thing.
But it’s lonely and heartbreaking. It’s the first time in twenty-four years there’s no doggy in our home.
There will be, but probably not until summer due to my travel schedule over the next five or six months.
It’s going to be a very empty house until then.
I am so sorry for your loss. He was a wonderful dog, and I’m glad that you two had each other for so many years.
Ellen Byron — Author of Wined and Died in New Orleans
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.
To learn more about Ellen, click on any of the following links: Website, Newsletter, Facebook/Ellen, Facebook/Catering Hall Mysteries, Instagram, BookBub/Ellen, BookBub/Maria DiRico, Goodreads/Ellen & Goodreads/Maria
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TOUR PARTICIPANTS
February 8 – Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder – REVIEW (RECIPE)
February 8 – Angel’s Guilty Pleasures – SPOTLIGHT
February 8 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
February 9 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW
February 9 – The Mystery of Writing – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 10 – View from the Birdhouse – REVIEW
February 10 – Lady Hawkeye – SPOTLIGHT
February 11 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
February 11 – StoreyBook Reviews – REVIEW
February 12 – I’m Into Books – CHARACTER GUEST POST
February 12 – Cozy Up WIth Kathy – REVIEW
February 13 – Baroness Book Trove – REVIEW
February 13 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
February 14 – The Mystery Section – SPOTLIGHT
February 14 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
February 15 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT
February 15 – Novels Alive – REVIEW
February 16 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 16 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
February 17 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
February 17 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – REVIEW
February 18 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee – SPOTLIGHT
February 18 – fundinmental – SPOTLIGHT
February 19 – The Book Decoder – REVIEW*
February 19 – Socrates Book Reviews – REVIEW
February 20 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
February 20 – The Plain-Spoken Pen – REVIEW
February 21 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW
February 21 – My Journey Back – CHARACTER GUEST POST
Elena Taylor/Elena Hartwell
All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio.
Silver Falchion Award Finalist, Best Investigator
Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery
The Foundation of Plot, a Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet!) guidebook. Amazon #1 bestseller
Thanks so much for a great interview!