CANR

• A Very Woodsy Murder ("Golden Motel Mystery Series" book one) Kensington (New York, NY), 2024
• Murder in the Bayou Boneyard Crooked Lane (New York, NY), 2020
• Cajun Kiss of Death Crooked Lane (New York, NY), 2021
• Long Island Iced Tina Kensington (New York, NY), 2021
• Bayou Book Thief Berkley (New York, NY), 2022
• Wined and Died in New Orleans Berkley (New York, NY), 2023

1. A very woodsy murder LCCN 2024934890 Type of material Book Personal name Byron, Ellen, author. Main title A very woodsy murder / Ellen Byron. Published/Produced New York : Kensington Publishing Corp., 2024. Projected pub date 2408 Description pages cm ISBN 9781496745354 (hardcover) (ebook) Item not available at the Library. Why not? 2. Wined and died in New Orleans LCCN 2023525164 Type of material Book Personal name Byron, Ellen, author. Main title Wined and died in New Orleans / Ellen Byron. Edition First edition. Published/Produced New York : Berkley , 2023. Description x, 274 pages ; 18 cm. ISBN 9780593437636 (paperback) 0593437632 (paperback) CALL NUMBER CPB Box no. 4472 vol. 10 Copyright Pbk Coll FT MEADE Copy 1 Request in Rare Bk/Spec Coll Rdng Rm (Jefferson LJ239) - STORED OFFSITE 3. Bayou book thief LCCN 2023445017 Type of material Book Personal name Byron, Ellen, author. Main title Bayou book thief / Ellen Byron. Edition First edition. Published/Produced New York : Berkley, 2022. Description viii, 294 pages ; 18 cm. ISBN 9780593437612 (pbk.) 0593437616 (pbk.) CALL NUMBER CPB Box no. 4459 vol. 4 Copyright Pbk Coll FT MEADE Copy 1 Request in Rare Bk/Spec Coll Rdng Rm (Jefferson LJ239) - STORED OFFSITE 4. Mardi Gras murder LCCN 2022286003 Type of material Book Personal name Byron, Ellen, author. Main title Mardi Gras murder / Ellen Byron. Edition Trade paperback edition. Published/Produced New York : Crooked Lane, 2021. ©2021 Description ix, 319 pages ; 21 cm. ISBN 9781643851259 (paperback) 164385125X (paperback) 9781683317050 (hardcover) (ePub) (ePDF) CALL NUMBER PS3552.Y79 M37 2021 FT MEADE Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 5. Cajun kiss of death LCCN 2021289924 Type of material Book Personal name Byron, Ellen, author. Main title Cajun kiss of death / Ellen Byron. Edition First edition. Published/Produced New York : Crooked Lane, 2021. Description ix, 307 pages ; 22 cm. ISBN 9781643857381 (hardcover) (epub) CALL NUMBER PS3552.Y79 C36 2021 FT MEADE Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 6. Murder in the Bayou Boneyard LCCN 2021289427 Type of material Book Personal name Byron, Ellen, author. Main title Murder in the Bayou Boneyard / Ellen Byron. Edition First edition Published/Produced New York : Crooked Lane, 2020. ©2020 Description viii, 290 pages ; 22 cm. ISBN 9781643854601 (hardcover) 1643854607 (hardcover) (ebook) CALL NUMBER PS3552.Y79 M87 2020 FT MEADE Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 1. Long Island iced Tina LCCN 2020057460 Type of material Book Personal name DiRico, Maria, 1956- author. Main title Long Island iced Tina / Maria DiRico. Edition Large Print edition. Published/Produced Waterville, Maine : Wheeler Publishing, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2021. Projected pub date 2105 Description pages cm. ISBN 9781432887049 (trade paperback) Item not available at the Library. Why not?

• French Quarter Fright Night - 2024 Severn House, London, England
• The Witless Protection Program - 2024 Kensington, New York, NY
• Four Parties and a Funeral - 2023 Kensington, New York, NY
• It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder - 2021 Kensington, New York, NY
• Here Comes the Body - 2020 Kensington, New York, NY

• Ellen Byron website - https://www.ellenbyron.com/

  USA Today bestselling author Ellen Byron’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won multiple Agatha and Lefty awards. Bayou Book Thief, the first book in her new Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, was nominated for Agatha and Anthony awards, and won the Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery. She writes the Catering Hall Mystery series, (under the name Maria DiRico) and recently debuted the Golden Motel Mysteries with A Very Woodsy Murder.

  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.

  She blogs with Chicks on the Case, is a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America, and serves on the national board of Mystery Writers of America.

  ​

  A native New Yorker, Ellen is a graduate of New Orleans' Tulane University, hence her love of both cities. She lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband, daughter, and a rotating crew of rescue pups.

• Fantastic Fiction -

  Ellen Byron
  USA flag

  aka Maria DiRico

  Ellen Byron is a television writer, playwright, and freelance journalist. Shes also an author; Her debut novel, Plantation Shudders: A Cajun Country Mystery, will be published in Fall 2015 by Crooked Lane Books. She is also a recipient of a William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic Grant from the Malice Domestic Conference.

  TV credits include Wings, Still Standing, and Just Shoot Me, as well as network and cable pilots. As a journalist, she's written over 200 magazine articles for national publications. She recently served on the Editorial Board for the UCLA Writers Program's books, Cut to the Chase and Inside the Room. Her plays, published by Dramatists Play Service, include the popular Graceland and Asleep on the Wind.

  A graduate of Tulane University, Ellen lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband, daughter, and the familys spoiled rescue dogs, which they describe as a corgi-jack-huahua and a cherrier. A native New Yorker, Ellen still misses her hometown and still drives like a New York cabbie.

  Awards: Agatha (2021) see all

  Genres: Cozy Mystery

  New and upcoming books
  July 2024

  thumb
  A Very Woodsy Murder
  (Golden Motel Mystery, book 1)September 2024

  thumb
  French Quarter Fright Night
  (Vintage Cookbook Mystery, book 3)
  Series
  Cajun Country Mysteries
  1. Plantation Shudders (2015)
  2. Body on the Bayou (2016)
  3. A Cajun Christmas Killing (2017)
  4. Mardi Gras Murder (2018)
  5. Fatal Cajun Festival (2019)
  6. Murder in the Bayou Boneyard (2020)
  7. Cajun Kiss of Death (2021)
  thumbthumbthumbthumb
  thumbthumbthumb

  Vintage Cookbook Mystery
  1. Bayou Book Thief (2022)
  2. Wined and Died in New Orleans (2023)
  3. French Quarter Fright Night (2024)
  thumbthumbthumb

  Golden Motel Mystery
  1. A Very Woodsy Murder (2024)
  thumb

• Fantastic Fiction for Maria DiRico -

  Maria DiRico

  A pseudonym used by Ellen Byron

  Maria DiRico was born in Queens, New York, and raised in Queens and Westchester County. She is first-generation Italian-American on her mother’s side. On her father’s side, her grandfather was a low-level Jewish mobster who disappeared in 1933 under mysterious circumstances. She also writes the award-winning, bestselling Cajun Country Mystery series under the name Ellen Byron.

  Genres: Cozy Mystery

  Series
  Catering Hall Mystery
  1. Here Comes the Body (2020)
  2. Long Island Iced Tina (2021)
  3. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder (2021)
  4. Four Parties and a Funeral (2023)
  5. The Witless Protection Program (2024)
  thumbthumbthumbthumb
  thumb

• Amazon -

  Maria DiRico (the pen name of award-winning author Ellen Byron) was born in Queens, New York, and raised in Queens and Westchester County. She is first-generation Italian-American on her mother’s side. On her father’s side, her grandfather was a low-level Jewish mobster who disappeared in 1933 under mysterious circumstances.

  While growing up in Queens, Maria/Ellen's cousins uncles ran the Astoria Manor and Grand Bay Marina catering halls. MARDI GRAS MURDER, the fourth book in Ellen Byron's bestselling Cajun Country Mystery series, won the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel. The series has also won multiple Best Humorous Mystery Lefty awards from Left Coast Crime. Fun fact: she worked as cater-waiter for Martha Stewart, a credit she never tires of sharing. Maria/Ellen loves to translate what she learned from Martha into recipes for her books.

• Lesa's Book Critiques - https://lesasbookcritiques.com/ellen-byron-interview-giveaway/

  Ellen Byron, Interview & Giveaway

  All these years I’ve been reading Ellen Byron’s mysteries, and I’ve never interviewed her for Lesa’s Book Critiques. We are remedying that today. And, she’s launching a brand new series, set in New Orleans, with a giveaway of a copy of her new book, Bayou Book Thief. Details will be after the interview itself.

  Thank you, Ellen, for taking the time to answer questions.

  First, Ellen, would you introduce yourself to readers? It’s hard to believe, but some of my readers might not know of you. Honestly, I’m thrilled that anybody knows who I am, lol! I’m a sitcom writer/producer-turned-mystery author. I had a long career writing for comedies like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. butI’ve always loved mysteries, so during a hiatus I tried writing one, and now that’s my fulltime job. I currently have three series published: The Cajun Country Mysteries, which have won two Agatha awards and three Lefty awards; The Catering Hall Mysteries, which I write under the pen name “Maria DiRico” and are inspired by my own life; and my new series, the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, which I’m really excited about.

  Would you introduce us to your new series, the Vintage Cookbook Mystery series, and the first book, Bayou Book Thief? I’d love to! In the series, twenty-eight-year-old Ricki James-Diaz leaves Los Angeles to start a new life in New Orleans after her showboating actor husband perishes doing a stupid internet stunt. Ricki gets to turn her avocation – collecting vintage cookbooks – into a vocation by launching Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware at the culinary house museum once owned by Genevieve “Vee” Charbonnet, a legendary local restauranteur. Ricki also finds herself in the unexpected role of amateur sleuth, putting to use the observational skills she’s developed ferreting out hidden treasures to help solve murders. She’s also searching for the teen mother who disappeared from Charity Hospital after giving birth to her.

  In Bayou Book Thief, the first book in the series, Ricki opens the shop, but she’s bedeviled by a nasty tour guide who also proves to be something of a kleptomaniac. When his body shows up in a trunk she assumes will be full of donated cookbooks, she fears the scandal could not only ruin her shop, it could also take down Bon Vee, the mansion-turned-museum where the shop is housed. This motivates Ricki to do whatever it takes to help find the killer, and with NOPD overworked and understaffed, it means a lot of investigating on her own.

  All the books in the series will include recipes adapted from my own collection of vintage cookbooks, which range from the late 1800s to the late 1970s.

  Tell us about Ricki James-Diaz. Ricki is entertaining, impulsive, self-deprecating, and a passionate defender of the people and things she cares about. She’s a bit of a fish out of water in New Orleans, even though she lived there until she was seven, when her mother Josepha – the NICU nurse who adopted her as an infant – married Luis Diaz, a grip in town from Hollywood working on a film. They moved to Los Angeles, where Ricki lived for the twenty years prior to returning to NOLA. She’s still a bit of an L.A. girl in a different LA – Louisiana. She does yoga, she uses mantras to calm herself, and she tries to eat healthy… all of which is a challenge to maintain in the Big Easy – especially the healthy eating part!

  Like you, I have a home of my heart. I love Ireland. Tell us about your love of New Orleans. Where does it come from? Why is New Orleans so special to you? Oh, I’ve always wanted to go to Ireland! I envy you. As to New Orleans, I transferred to Tulane University in the middle of my sophomore year. I would have gone earlier but family finances precluded it. Tennessee Williams has always been my favorite playwright, so living in the city that inspired him was magical. My mother brought me up to adore historical architecture and New Orleans has that in buckets. You can’t turn your head without seeing some gorgeous historic confection. Plus, so many of the people who live there are incredibly unique. One of my best friends was not only born and raised in NOLA, her dad’s side of the family dates back to the early 1700s settlers. The stories she tells me! I’ve used a couple in my Cajun Country Mysteries and plan on “borrowing” a few for the Vintage Cookbook series. But in general, the fact that the city’s citizens are generally and proudly quirky gives me carte blanche to create some really fun characters – I hope.

  Tell us about your own collection of cookbooks, and how it led to the new series. The collection began in an offhand way. I was browsing an antique shop in Connecticut with my brother and picked up a cookbook called The Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places because I loved the colorful 1950s artwork. I’m a regular at our local library sales and I found myself gravitating towards the cookbook section searching for similar cookbooks. Since then, I’ve amassed a collection of about a hundred of them. I’m fascinated by the way our eating and cooking habits have changed over the decades – and centuries, since one of my books dates back to the late 1800s.

  But here’s the funny thing. Even though all my books include recipes, I’m not a cook. Until I created this series, I’d never made a single recipe from any of the books in my collection. A side benefit of the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries is that it’s forced me to take a deep dive into the recipes themselves to choose those to adapt and include in my books. That’s actually been a lot of fun.

  The cover of your second book in the Vintage Cookbook series, Wined and Died in New Orleans, is gorgeous. Can you give us a hint about the new book? OMG, isn’t that cover absolutely gorgeous? I love how the artist incorporated the series’ peacocks into the stained-glass window.

  The plot was inspired by two things: me being in New Orleans before and after two hurricanes, and an article I read about a couple who discovered hidden bottles of booze under the old house they bought. In Wine and Died in New Orleans, repairs to Bon Vee Culinary House Museum reveal dozens of bottles of 19th century Madeira wine. But when the discovery goes viral, thanks to Ricki’s attempts at social media, distant family members suddenly show up demanding a piece of the proceeds when the wine is auctioned off, and murders ensue. All of this is set against the threat of an impending hurricane.

  You just ended The Cajun Country Mysteries. It seemed as if it was a natural ending, but how did it feel to close out a long-running, award-winning series? It was hard!!! I’m still in mourning. The characters in that series are so real to me I feel like they’re family. I can’t face saying goodbye to them. I actually have put together a proposal for a spin-off feature Grand-mere as the protagonist. If I can’t find a traditional home for it, I may wind up publishing it myself.

  Would you tell us about the Catering Hall mysteries? This series is very personal to me. My pen name, Maria DiRico, is my late nonna’s maiden name. Mia Carina, my protagonist, actually lives in Nonna’s two-family home in Astoria, a section of the New York City of Queens. She lives upstairs, where my aunt, uncle, and their four kids lived; Mia’s nonna Elisabetta lives downstairs where my real-life Nonna lived. And when I was growing up, two cousins by marriage ran catering halls in Astoria. Mia works at the one where my husband and I had our New York wedding reception.

  Here’s a little description of the series: After being cleared as a person of interest in her husband’s presumed death, Mia Carina moves back home to Queens, where her father Ravello, a capo with the Boldoni crime family, has been tasked with running a rundown banquet hall that was surrendered to him by a broke gambler. Mia has always wanted her father to go straight and she’s determined to help him run the place, with its view of Flushing Bay and the LaGuardia Airport runway, as a legitimate business. Who knew working for a catering hall could be as dangerous as working for the Mob?

  I like to say that the Catering Hall Mysteries offers up a series you can’t refuse. My protagonist Mia would roll her eyes at my use of that old Godfather sawhorse, but I’m pretty proud of myself for incorporating it into a tagline!

  Where can readers find you online? Website, blogging, Facebook, etc.? The best way to keep up with me is through my newsletter, which you can sign up for at ellenbyron.com. It’s monthly, although I will send out alerts when there’s a special sale or deal. You can also find me on Facebook and on Instagram. And do follow me on Bookbub and Goodreads. Here’s all my contact info:

  Newsletter: https://www.ellenbyron.com/

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ellenbyronauthor/

  https://www.facebook.com/CateringHallMysteries/

  Instagram:

  https://www.instagram.com/ellenbyronmariadirico/

  Bookbub:

  https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ellen-byron

  Goodreads:

  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23234.Ellen_Byron?from_search=true&from_srp=true

  I always end with this question. I’m a public librarian. Tell me about a library or librarian in your life, please. Oh, I love this question!! Public libraries have always been a refuge for me. When I was a kid of about eight or nine in Queens, I have a vivid memory of walking by myself the half-mile or more to our local branch to show the librarian how I’d completed the summer reading list. When I was ten, we moved to a suburb called Scarsdale, which had a gorgeous stone library. I loved curling up in the club chair by the bay window overlooking the wide grass lawn to read. And these days, my local Studio City branch of the Los Angeles Public Library system is a godsend. I checked out tons of books for our daughter when she was growing up and I’m always checking out my friends’ books. And as I mentioned, my current series was inspired by the money I’ve dropped on vintage cookbooks at their library sales. I’ve also done events at the branch.

  I developed such a great relationship with our adult librarian that I wrote a post title “Ode to Emily” for a Sisters in Crime library newsletter. Sadly for us but happily for her, Emily got a promotion to branch manager and is no longer at Studio City. But here’s what I wrote about her. It’s a tribute to all librarians, really:

  Ode to Emily

  In my view, all librarians are A-list stars. But there’s one star who shines particularly bright in my personal firmament – Emily Aaronson, the adult librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library’s Studio City Branch, my local library.

  I donate a copy of every book I write to the Studio City library branch, and that’s how I first got to know Emily. She invited me to do a mystery panel, which was followed by other panels and mystery trivia nights. Emily has also helped me with research, providing invaluable answers to my many questions, always with her perpetually sunny disposition.

  You can keep your personal trainers, masseuses, and stylists. For me, there’s nothing better than having my own personal librarian. Or at least feeling like I do. I’m sure A-list library star Emily makes every Studio City patron feel she is theirs and theirs alone.

  Thank you, again, Ellen. I hope the readers enjoy the interview as much as I did.

  Now, here’s the information about the giveaway. As I said, Ellen is giving away a copy of Bayou Book Thief. Email me at Lesa.Holstine@gmail.com. Your subject line should read: “Win Bayou Book Thief.” Please include your name and mailing address. The giveaway will end Thursday, June 9 at 5 PM CT. Entries from the U.S. only, please.

  And, congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Carol V. from Lake Stevens, WA won Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead. The Investigator goes to Joan R. from Staten Island, NY. I’m mailing the books out today.

  Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron. Berkley, 2022. ISBN 9780593437612 (paperback), 304p.

• Miss Demeanors - https://www.missdemeanors.com/meet-ellen-byron-award-winning-author-of-cozy-mysteries/

  Meet Ellen Byron, Award-Winning Author of Cozy Mysteries
  March 31, 2023 Keenan Powell #inspiration, Writers habits
  I met Ellen at Malice Domestic in 2015, the year that Cynthia Kuhn and I won the William F. Deeck-Malice Domestic grant. Ellen has been a mentor, a supporter, and a friend ever since – -living proof that crime writers are the most generous people you’ll ever meet. She kindly sat down and answered my questions about her writing career.

  (By the way, if you need a big laugh – and who doesn’t? – pick up a copy of Wined and Died. It’s full of kindness, gentle humor, dead bodies, and big LOL moments. – Keenan)

  How does your experience as a TV series writer influence your book writing career?
  In my years writing for TV, I worked on probably close to 200 episodes, and some techniques I learned have carried over into my mystery career. I lay out my story in a detailed outline. In TV or film, you can’t go to script until your outline is approved at multiple levels: studio, network, showrunner. I call mine a fluid outline because I’ll realize I need a new story beat or even a character. The outline is really like my first draft, which is why I consider it organic. TV also taught me to end a chapter on an “uh oh” or a “what’s going to happen next?” On network TV, you want to make sure you hold on to viewers through the commercial. With streaming shows, you want them to binge or commit to a series. As an author, I’ve translated that into chapter breaks that hopefully make it hard for readers to put down the book.

  How do you do it? Write multiple series at a time and market? Are you extremely organized or fly from crisis to crisis (like I do)?
  LOL, I’ve morphed into my late father – I’m a workaholic! I’m writing this blog post at 9:40 p.m. It’s the release day for Wined and Died in New Orleans, I got home from almost a month in New York late last night and was up at 7 a.m. thanks to jet lag. I’ve been going since then. Basically, I set goal for myself and unless the house is on fire, I glue my butt to the seat. (Or I stand. I finally got a desk riser so I don’t atrophy in the office chair!) But my husband once said to me, “Ever since you started writing books instead of working in TV, I see you more but I talk to you less.” It was because I’d tell him not to interrupt me so many times! Since then, if I’m writing a draft, my goal is 2K a day Monday through Friday. On the weekend I do work that allows interruption. Blog posts, graphics, etc.

  Some say there’s no such thing as writer’s block. What do you say?
  I’ve said before that I can’t afford writer’s block! I’ve spent my entire writing career – except when I wrote plays, and even then sometimes – writing to deadlines. When you’re being paid for your work, there is no such thing as writer’s block. You can’t tell the magazine waiting for your piece, “I was blocked.” If you told your showrunner you couldn’t finish your script because you’re blocked, the reaction would be, “GET THE F—OUT OF HERE, YOU’RE FIRED! AND YOU’LL NEVER WORK IN THIS TOWN AGAIN!!” But I did experience blockage twice as an author. Once, after the 2016 election and then after I evacuated from Hurricane Ida. How could I write light, humorous mysteries under such dire circumstances?

  If you’ve experienced writer’s block, how do you break through it?
  To break through, I followed the advice to write fifteen minutes a day. The writing time grew until I was on track.

  Tell us about the inspiration for your latest book, Wined and Died in New Orleans.
  Actually, evacuating from Hurricane Ida was the inspiration for one of the major plotlines. I happened to be in NOLA researching for the book and visiting my daughter. I wanted to stick it out. She insisted we evacuate. Thank God I followed her lead because the city was a disaster for weeks after the hurricane. But I translated that experience – and others I had in New Orleans regarding hurricanes – into my protagonist’s dilemma over whether to leave or stay when a hurricane is approaching. The second major plot point where a valuable cache of 150—year-old wine is discovered hidden under the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum was inspired by an internet story I read about a couple who discovered bottles of whiskey hidden during Prohibition under the house they’d just bought… proving that procrastination on my part can pay off!

  WINED AND DIED IN NEW ORLEANS, VINTAGE COOKBOOK #2
  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.

  BIO FOR ELLEN BYRON
  Ellen’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and Lefty Awards for Best Humorous Mystery. She also writes the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, the Catering Hall Mysteries (under the name Maria DiRico) and will soon debut a new series, the Golden Motel Mysteries.

  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, serves on the national board for Mystery Writers of America, and will be the 2023 Left Coast Crime Toastmaster. Please visit her at https://www.ellenbyron.com/

• Due South - https://duesouth.media/author-ellen-byron-gets-inspired-by-cajun-country/

  Author Ellen Byron Gets Inspired By Cajun Country
  Author Ellen Byron Gets Inspired By Cajun Country
  by Ellen Byron

  When I attended college at New Orleans’ Tulane University, my parents took advantage of this wonderfully-situated school to visit the Big Easy. We would also venture past the Crescent City limits to explore Cajun Country. There, we discovered a region of America that had its own cuisine, its own music – even its own language. To this day, you can hear locals chatting in the Cajun French spoken by the Acadian settlers who made the area their home after being expelled from Canada in the mid-18thcentury. During these visits, I developed a fascination with Cajun Country that eventually found its way into my writing, first as a playwright and eventually as a mystery novelist.

  After graduation, I grabbed every opportunity I could to not only retrace the journeys I took with my parents but expand on them. I wandered the back roads of south Louisiana, meeting the warm, friendly locals, and gorging on crawfish and boudin. During one of these travels, I happened upon two charming small towns, St. Martinville and Breaux Bridge. Both are situated along the banks of Bayou Teche, which meanders picturesquely through Cajun Country for a hundred and twenty-five miles. St. Martinville proudly bills itself as the “Home of Evangeline,” while Breaux Bridge claims the distinction of being the “Crawfish Capital of the World.”

  The Bayou, Louisana
  When it came to creating the fiction village of Pelican, Louisiana featured in my Cajun Country Mysteries, I borrowed memories from visits to these quaint locales. A village green, historic storefronts sporting cast-iron galleries, a church over two hundred and fifty years old – St. Martin de Tours in the semi-eponymously named St. Martinville – all found their way into my imagination as I worked to create a setting readers might fall in love with. (Crozat Plantation Bed and Breakfast, home to the family of my series protagonist, was inspired by the plantations found along Louisiana’s east and west River Roads.)

  I get great joy from sharing my passion for this magical region with readers, and nothing makes me happier than when someone tells me, “Now I want to visit Cajun Country.” I hope after reading this, you’ll feel the same way. If you do, let me know and I’ll tell you how to get to the “Home of Evangeline” and the “Crawfish Capital of the World.” Until then, as they say in Louisiana, laissez les bons temps rouler – let the good times roll!

  The Duchamp Opera House Martinsville, Louisiana
  Ellen Byron is the USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of the Cajun Country Mysteries. Her latest book Murder In The Bayou Boneyard won a Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery.

• Bookfrolic - https://www.bookfrolic.com/author-interviews/the-cozy-52-qa-with-ellen-byron-maria-dirico/

  The Cozy 52: Q&A with Ellen Byron / Maria DiRico
  June 21, 20232 Commentson The Cozy 52: Q&A with Ellen Byron / Maria DiRico
  Ellen Byron, who also writes under the pen name Maria DiRico, joins us for this week’s The Cozy 52 interview. I’m so excited to have Ellen visit book frolic! As a cookbook collector (my collection is 200+ cookbooks!) her Vintage Cookbook series is right up my alley. Read on to find out more about how she got started writing culinary cozies, the TV shows she’s worked on, and what she has coming up next!

  Who or What is The Cozy 52? Each week I will be sharing an interview with someone involved with Cozy Mysteries – an author, blogger, Facebook Group host, podcaster, cover designer – so that we can showcase this amazing community! I hope you’ll discover some new authors, plus learn more about what goes on behind the scenes with the people who write, publish and promote cozy mysteries!

  banner for interview with Ellen Byron / Maria DiRico
  Introducing Ellen Byron / Maria DiRico
  NAME: Ellen Byron / Maria DiRico

  LIST ALL YOUR COZY MYSTERY SERIES:

  The Vintage Cookbook Mysteries
  The Catering Hall Mysteries (as Maria DiRico)
  The Cajun Country Mysteries
  And in August 2024, the Golden Motel Mysteries!
  HOW ARE YOUR COZY MYSTERIES PUBLISHED? Traditionally

  The Q&A

  TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF

  I’m a native New Yorker who moved to Los Angeles to write for television. I’m proud to say I achieved that goal, writing for shows like WINGS, JUST SHOOT ME, and FAIRLY ODD PARENTS in a twenty-five-year roller-coaster of a career. I now write mysteries fulltime and couldn’t be happier. I share a mid-century ranch house on the Valley side of the Hollywood Hills with my husband, our brand-new rescue pooch, and our twenty-three-year-old daughter, who boomeranged back home after college while she embarks on a career in the business world. My favorite hobbies are needlepoint and coming up with fun swag I can gift to my readers. I love to dance – despite what you’ll read below – and basically have the musical taste of a tween because pop music is my jam, past or present

  LIST THREE FUN FACTS ABOUT YOURSELF THAT WE WOULDN’T READ IN YOUR ‘OFFICIAL’ BIO.

  My big regret is that I never went en pointe when I studied ballet.
  When I was fourteen, I auditioned for Paul Newman for a role in a movie he was directing. I told him this, and he told me not to give up hope because his wife went en pointe at thirty-five – his wife being fellow film star Joanne Woodward.
  I obviously lacked the dedication of Ms. Woodward because despite Paul’s encouragement, I never did go en pointe.
  WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START WRITING? WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO WRITE COZY MYSTERIES?

  My dad was an advertising Mad Man – he literally worked at ad agencies on Madison Avenue – and both my brothers became writers, so it may be in our genes! I have to write. Have to. I literally can’t not write. I can’t articulate why – it’s like a primal need for me. As to why I write cozies, I don’t like reading violence and I was trained as a playwright that you only use profanity when you can’t think of a better way to say something – and 99.9% of the time I find that you can. Plus, I can’t write sex scenes to save my life. I full-on suck at it. So cozies, which eschew graphic sex, violence, and profanity, are a natural fit for me. Plus, all my series have a humorous bend, which skews more towards the cozy genre.

  WHAT SUBGENRE(S) OR THEMES OF COZY MYSTERIES DO YOU WRITE?

  I somehow wound up writing culinary cozies, which is a headscratcher because I’m not much of a cook. When I was writing Plantation Shudders, my first Cajun Country Mystery, I found I was making myself hungry and I figured if that was happening to me, it might happen to my readers. So I added some recipes to the book and an accidental culinary cozy author was born! I’m not kidding when I say that creating the recipes is sometimes harder than writing the actual books. My upcoming series, the Golden Motel Mysteries, is not a culinary cozy, which oddly enough feels weird now.

  photo of street Intersection in Astoria, Queens, where the Catering Hall Mysteries are set
  Intersection in Astoria, Queens, where the Catering Hall Mysteries are set
  TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR COZY MYSTERY SERIES. WHAT INSPIRES YOUR SERIES?

  An aspect of my life has inspired each of my series. My first, the Cajun Country Mysteries, was inspired by the passion for New Orleans I developed as a student at Tulane University, coupled with an overnight stay my husband I once experienced at Madewood Plantation on Bayou LaFourche. I’m half Italian and the Catering Hall Mysteries draws from growing up attending event after event at the catering halls that cousins ran in Astoria, Queens. (My pen name “Maria DiRico” was my late nonna’s maiden name.) With the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, I combined my passion for vintage cookbooks with my love of New Orleans’ Garden District. And the inspiration for my new series, the Golden Motel Mysteries, which will launch in August of 2024, dates back to my first trip to California in 1975, when my great-aunt took me to Columbia State Park, which is an actual Gold Rush village dating back to the early 1850s. I never forgot that fascinating visit. But the series has a connection even more personal. My protagonist is a burned-out sitcom writer. Hmmm, I wonder who could inspired that, wink wink?

  ONE OF YOUR SERIES, THE VINTAGE COOKBOOK MYSTERIES, IS ALL ABOUT A VINTAGE COOKBOOK FAN. HOW BIG IS YOUR OWN COOKBOOK COLLECTION AND WHICH ONE IS YOUR OLDEST (OR MOST VALUED)?

  I now have over a hundred books. I think fellow collectors will relate to my inability to stop snatching up great finds despite the fact I have zero room for another book in our house. My favorite cookbook isn’t the oldest in my collection but it’s my most valued: The Photoplay 1928 Cook Book [sic] of the Stars. I adore this book because it ties into my fascination with silent movies. 1928 was the transitional year from silents to talkies in film, and the cookbook includes recipes from both classic film stars and silent stars whose names and careers have been lost in the mists of time.

  ASIDE FROM BEING AN AUTHOR, ARE YOU INVOLVED IN THE COZY COMMUNITY IN ANY OTHER WAY?

  I am so involved! I’m on the national board of Mystery Writers of America, I lead workshops for MWA and Sisters in Crime chapters all over the country, and I’ve volunteered for many other activities. I just completed a stint on the committee that planned the California Crime Writers Conference. And I’m launching an inaugural event at this year’s Bouchercon: Cozies and Cocktails. It will be like Noir at the Bar but for cozies.

  books by Ellen Byron Maria DiRico
  WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVOURITE WRITERS?

  Dame Agatha, of course! And since I love historical mysteries, Jacqueline Winspear and her Maisie Dobbs series is a favorite. (Honestly, I’d be hard-pressed to think of a historical mystery author I don’t love.) I’m blessed with a huge number of talented friends – too many to single anyone out. I love reading all their books, from suspense to Cozy. I’ll also read anything Hallie Ephron writes and I haven’t missed a single Inspector Gamache mystery.

  IF YOU WERE MAROONED ON A DESERTED ISLAND, WHAT 3 BOOKS WOULD YOU WANT WITH YOU?

  A compilation of all the Miss Marple mysteries, Wuthering Heights… and a blank journal!

  DO YOU HAVE ANY PROJECTS COMING UP THAT YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE WITH US?

  I’m super excited about my new series. Here’s the logline: Dee Stern, a burned-out TV writer whose career is on the downswing, impulsively quits her job on the Kidz Channel sitcom “DUH!” and buys a rustic motel in a small California Gold Rush town at the foot of a national park. Dee soon finds herself totally out of her element as both a motelier and an amateur sleuth when a dead body pops up straddling her property and the national park’s.

  The Quickie 5
  FAVOURITE FOOD: don’t make me choose! Or think about it. I’ve gained 25 pounds in the last couple of years – and that’s on top of the twenty I already had to lose!
  BEVERAGE OF CHOICE: Tea, either jasmine green or Early Grey, hot or cold.
  MOST PRIZED POSSESSION: the single photo we have from 1929 showing my father in a “perambulator,” my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my grandfather, who was a low-level Jewish mobster who disappeared in 1933.
  FAVOURITE SEASON? I don’t care what native Californians say, we don’t have them here! But growing up in New York, I’d say fall when the leaves were glorious, and early spring when the leaves are newly green, and the weather makes the heady transition out of winter to soft spring air.
  FAVOURITE VACATION SPOT? New Orleans, chere! But also, Cambria, CA.

Byron, Ellen FRENCH QUARTER FRIGHT NIGHT Severn House (Fiction None) $29.99 9, 3 ISBN: 9781448312658

Joining forces with their neighbors brings both rewards and challenges for the staff at Bon Vee Culinary House Museum.

It's hard to imagine a celebration better suited to showcase the essence of New Orleans than Halloween, whose antic revelry digs deep into the city's historic multicultural roots. And it's hard to imagine a better guide to that celebration than Miracle Fleur de Lis James-Diaz. Born in New Orleans but raised by an adoptive family in the San Fernando Valley, Ricki returns to "The City That Care Forgot" to work at Bon Vee, in the Garden District, where she discovers a birth-family connection to Genevieve Charbonnet, Bon Vee's original owner. As Ricki prepares for the massive collision of drinking, partying, and spookiness that mark Halloween in her new hometown, she runs into a traumatic reminder of her life in California. Actor Blaine Taggart, who took part in an internet stunt that led to the death of Ricki's husband, moves into Duncan-Sejour, the mansion next door to Bon Vee. Ricki struggles to balance her resentment of Taggart with her appreciation of his boundless energy and willingness to partner with Bon Vee's efforts to take Halloween in New Orleans to a whole new level. Even the murder of his assistant, Miranda Fine, can't dampen Taggart's gung-ho spirit. Ricki's attempts to merge the Bon Vee gang with the Taggart clan have more ups and downs, especially when they shine new light on her mysterious family origins.

Byron's heroine navigates a bumpy road with grace and panache.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Byron, Ellen: FRENCH QUARTER FRIGHT NIGHT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A806452799/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5dd2f41f. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Byron, Ellen A VERY WOODSY MURDER Kensington (Fiction None) $27.00 7, 23 ISBN: 9781496745354

A Los Angeles scriptwriter chases her dream of revitalizing a midcentury motel in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Like so many cozy heroines, Dee Stern is ready to give up her hectic big city job for a quiet life in the country. Fortunately, unlike so many cozy heroines, she's remained on excellent terms with her ex-husband, Jeff Cornetta. So when Dee falls in love with the worn but picturesque Golden Motel in Foundgold, California, she's able to persuade the data analyst to join her in restoring the quaint property to its former glory. The two "citiots," as their new neighbors call them, face a host of challenges. Foundgold is the poorer of the two towns nestled at the base of Majestic National Park. Apparently, once the miners found the gold, they took the money and ran. Neighboring Goldsgone, on the other hand, is populated by descendants of the miners who, finding no gold, stayed put and over the years built a thriving tourism economy. The last thing folks in Goldsgone want is a revitalized Golden Motel to compete for their tourist trade, and they sabotage Dee and Jeff at every turn. The biggest blow, however, comes when their very first guest is murdered outside his newly refurbished room. Foundgold's citizens rally around Dee and Jeff, including Elmira Williker (whose All-in-One General Store dates back to the Gold Rush and whose homemade baked goods taste like they do too) and Serena Finlay-Katz (a Hollywood agent's wife whose trendy handcrafted charcuterie boards prove a surprise hit). It's a close call, but justice prevails.

Filled with small ironies, Byron's debut novel is well paced, good-natured, and, as promised, very woodsy.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Byron, Ellen: A VERY WOODSY MURDER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332813/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b6adda56. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Byron, Ellen. A Very Woodsy Murder. Kensington Cozies. (Golden Motel Mystery, Bk. 1). Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9781496745354. $27. M

Sitcom writer Dee Stern has seen her career spiral slowly downward until she's writing for a kids' show. She's so depressed that she gets in her car and just drives until she comes across a rustic motel in Foundgold at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There, she's excited to discover that she has a new dream: restoring the Golden Motel to its 1940s glory, with the assistance of her first ex-husband and best friend, Jeff. He'll be the tech side, designing the inn's website and taking reservations, while she cleans and renovates the cabins and lodge. Dee is suspicious when their first guest is Michael Adam Baker, a fellow sitcom writer who sabotaged her career. He's a favored son from the neighboring town of Goldsgone, so why is he staying in Dee's rundown motel? When a neighbor finds Baker's dead body, Dee and Jeff are suddenly murder suspects. They're desperate to save their investment in the motel, so they turn amateur sleuths, but they're only a little better at investigating than they are as motel owners. VERDICT Byron ("Cajun Country" mysteries), an award-winning novelist and sitcom writer, has written a model cozy with delightful, slightly inept sleuths, quirky characters, and an entertaining mystery.--Lesa Holstine

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Holstine, Lesa. "Byron, Ellen. A Very Woodsy Murder." Library Journal, vol. 149, no. 7, July 2024, pp. 78+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A800536085/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6ca05dae. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Byron, Ellen WINED AND DIED IN NEW ORLEANS Berkley (Fiction None) $8.99 2, 7 ISBN: 9780593437636

Ricki James-Diaz gets another crack at sleuthing when a horde of the owner's grasping relatives descends on New Orleans' Bon Vee Culinary House Museum.

Pleased that Eugenia Charbonnet Felice, niece of Genevieve Charbonnet, the original Miss Vee, has allowed her to operate Miss Vee's Vintage Cookbook and Kitchenware Shop at Bon Vee, Ricki tries her best to show her gratitude to the grande dame by being a no-drama contractor. Too bad Eugenia's family doesn't treat her as well. Her cousins Hugo and Ralph have run Charbonnet's, Bon Vee's fine dining arm, almost into the ground with squabbling and mismanagement. And when handyman Mordant Adler offers her a lifeline by discovering a treasure trove of vintage Madeira squirreled away in a cellar, Charbonnets suddenly appear from all over the map to claim a slice of what the rare find is expected to fetch at auction. Blessed Charbonnet Vandeventer of the Texas Charbonnets flies in from Dallas. Gary Charbonnet Hodey, representing the Panhandle Charbonnets, drives over from Florida and pitches a tent on Bon Vee's lawn. But it's Jean-Louis Charbonnet, a distant French cousin, who causes the most grief, first by demanding not only part of the wine proceeds, but a piece of the late Genevieve's fortune and then by getting himself killed on the Bon Vee grounds. Now Ricki must pivot from no-drama to no-stone-left-unturned as she seeks to save Eugenia from becoming the No. 1 suspect in Jean-Louis' murder.

Plenty of suspects and plenty of fun in this wholesome Southern romp.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Byron, Ellen: WINED AND DIED IN NEW ORLEANS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A735117890/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3fce7162. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Byron, Ellen BAYOU BOOK THIEF Berkley (Fiction None) $8.99 6, 7 ISBN: 978-0-59343-761-2

A New Orleans newbie finds charm and murder in the Big Easy.

Like most cozy heroines, Miracle "Ricki" Fleur de Lis James-Diaz left a good job in the big city (Los Angeles) under a cloud (her boss's involvement in a Ponzi scheme). But unlike most of the others, she licks her wounds not in some sleepy backwater but in hustling-and-bustling New Orleans. After renting a shotgun cottage from Kitty Kat Rousseau--who despite her name is not a madam but a synchronized parade dancer--she snags a job at the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, one of the Garden District's premier tourist attractions. Bon Vee is run by Eugenia Charbonnet Felice, last in a long line of elegant but fun-loving Charbonnets. It was Eugenia's grandma Genevieve who turned the old plantation into a historical site. Madame Noisette, a volunteer docent at the Bon Vee who was Genevieve's friend, regales the staff with tales of champagne-filled parties that lasted until dawn. Executive director Lyla Brandt is impressed, but director of educational programming Cookie Yanover is too busy ogling Eugenia's nephew Theo to care. If only the Bon Vee crew paid as much attention to tour guide Franklin Finbloch, they might have caught on earlier to his pilfering of Bon Vee artifacts. When they do notice, he's fired only to show up days later in a trunk together with a giant collection of books. Ricki is eager to keep all the folks she hopes will become her new New Orleans "family" off the list of police suspects. Her sleuthing places her in all-too-foreseeable peril.

Standard cozy fare served up Crescent City style.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Byron, Ellen: BAYOU BOOK THIEF." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A698656081/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=aa858f41. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Byron, Ellen CAJUN KISS OF DEATH Crooked Lane (Fiction None) $26.99 8, 10 ISBN: 978-1-64385-738-1

A fancy new night spot causes an upscale uproar in a sleepy Southern town.

The opening of Chanson’s Cajun Kitchen is a mixed blessing for the citizens of Pelican, Louisiana. The Crozat Plantation, managed by Magnolia Marie Crozat-Duran, is bustling, with members of the kitchen’s copious staff packed in for the long haul. Maggie’s mom is not so thrilled, since she’s pretty sure celebrity chef Phillippe Chanson has stolen the recipe for her renowned calas (fried-rice fritters). Abel Garavant, owner of Abel’s Home Cookin’, is spitting fire because Chanson’s catfish po-boys bear a striking gustatory likeness to his own secret recipe for fried catfish. And JJ, proprietor of Junie’s Oyster Bar and Dance Hall, is even madder. Not only is Chanson’s luring away many of Junie’s best customers with ridiculous deals on Gulf oysters, but someone’s left enough unbagged garbage outside his restaurant to cause the health inspector to shut it down. Things get even worse when Phillippe is killed in a boating accident caused by a faulty thermostat and ruled nonaccidental in the ensuing police investigation. Now Maggie’s new husband, detective Bo Durand, has to decide which of the generally likable suspects he’s going to lock up for Phillippe’s murder. Which means that Maggie has to take a break from her art lessons as well as from her own search for the mystery man (or woman) who’s been plying her with unwanted Valentine gifts to track down the real killer.

Byron’s gutsy heroine makes quick work of the case so the good times can roll again.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Byron, Ellen: CAJUN KISS OF DEATH." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667031442/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a96fd448. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Byron, Ellen MURDER IN THE BAYOU BONEYARD Crooked Lane (Fiction None) $26.99 9, 8 ISBN: 978-1-64385-460-1

Halloween festivities turn deadly for a rural Louisiana family.

Like most owners of large properties in and around picturesque Pelican, the Crozats are feeling the pinch. Young entrepreneurs like Gavin Grody, CEO of Rent My Digs, are cutting into their short-term rental business by buying up older homes and leasing them online under the guise of “home-sharing.” To boost business at their B&B, Tug and Ninette Crozat team up with the owners of the Belle Vista Plantation Resort to offer a Pelican’s Spooky Past package. Belle Vista’s offerings include a mystery play directed by local attorney Quentin MacIlhoney; in addition, the Crozats open a spa, complete with massage, skin care, and a clairvoyant. To mix business with pleasure, the Crozats invite Susannah and Doug MacDowell, distant relatives from Canada, to join them for the length of the promotion. Susie, a trained masseuse, agrees to work in the spa to subsidize their stay. Tug and Ninette’s daughter, Maggie, gives up her art studio for the duration so that the cousins and Doug’s adult children can have plenty of room during their stay but quickly realizes that the Canadians have their eyes on more than one building on the Crozats’ property. Soon the bodies start to pile up, and Maggie, who’s engaged to Pelican Police Department detective Bo Durand, decides that she’d better start another round of sleuthing if she doesn’t want to celebrate her wedding day behind bars.

Kooky characters, Southern charm, recipes.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Byron, Ellen: MURDER IN THE BAYOU BONEYARD." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A629261532/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4c2c99ac. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Fatal Cajun Festival: A Cajun Country Mystery Ellen Byron. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-64385-129-7

Byron's witty fifth Cajun Country mystery (after 2018's Mardi Gras Murder) finds Maggie Crozet, whose family owns the Crozet Plantation Bed and Breakfast in Pelican, La., gearing up for the Cajun Country Live! music and culture festival. The town is abuzz when Tammy Barker, a rising country music star and winner of the popular TV talent show Sing It, signs on to headline the event. Tammy rolls into Pelican with her ragtag entourage of musicians, assistants, minders, and groupies. Can trouble be far behind? Although professing to have matured, Tammy is finding it hard to overcome the mean-girl skills she honed in high school. Her primary target is Gaynell Bourgeois, a local musician and friend of Maggie's. When Tammy's "handsy" manager is murdered and Gaynell is arrested for the crime, Maggie steps up to investigate. Byron supplies a few nasty characters readers can love to hare, along with a joyous dollop of Cajun lore. Cozy fans will enjoy returning to Pelican and dropping in on the Crozet clan. Agent: Doug Grad. Doug Grad Literary. (Sept.)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Fatal Cajun Festival: A Cajun Country Mystery." Publishers Weekly, vol. 266, no. 28, 15 July 2019, p. 58. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A593965763/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=35620b48. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Byron, Ellen FATAL CAJUN FESTIVAL Crooked Lane (Adult Fiction) $26.99 9, 10 ISBN: 978-1-64385-129-7

A Cajun music festival provides an invitation to both laissez les bon temps rouler and murder.

Maggie Crozat, of the Crozat Plantation B&B, has had her hands full ever since her grand-mere came up with the idea of Cajun Country Live!, a music festival featuring Tammy Barker, a hometown girl who made it big. Maggie's wedding to police detective Bo Durand (Mardi Gras Murder, 2018, etc.) is shifted to the back burner as she helps her parents, who are housing part of Tammy's entourage, each of whom has distinct and quirky food demands, and making pralines to sell at Crozat's festival booth. Though Maggie's friend Gaynell Bourgeois is even more talented than Tammy, she hasn't had her big break yet. So Maggie is furious when Tammy steals a song Gaynell wrote and disses her at every opportunity, even after setting up a meeting for Gaynell with her manager, the famous Pony Pickner. When Maggie meets the group Pickner has hired to back up Tammy, she realizes they've all taken the job short-term and for cut-rate prices because they're all dealing with more or less acute problems. Pickner's attempt to fix Tammy's mic after a set including the stolen song sends sparks flying and Pickner to the morgue. Even the police realize this was no accident. Tammy accuses Gaynell, whose meeting with Pickner didn't go well, of killing him. Maggie and Bo, certain of Gaynell's innocence, even pretend to break up so that Maggie can hang around and flirt with the band members, all of whom are staying at nearby Bella Vista. When someone attacks Bokie, the band's nicest member, backup singer Valeria Aguilar gives Maggie a copy of the book she's writing that dishes the dirt on famous musicians, leaving Maggie to wonder if something in the book inspired murder.

Down-home Cajun charm, a climactic surprise, and praline recipes: How sweet it is.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Byron, Ellen: FATAL CAJUN FESTIVAL." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A591279235/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b34ba315. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Fatal Cajun Festival

Ellen Byron

Crooked Lane Books

2 Park Avenue, 10th floor, New York, NY 10016

www.crookedlanebooks.com

9781643851297, $26.99, HC, 304pp, www.amazon.com

Synopsis: Maggie Crozat, proprietor of the Crozat Plantation B&B, plans to be in the cheering section when her friend Gaynell Bourgeois takes the stage with her band, Gaynell and the Gator Girls who are playng in the Cajun Country Live! music festival.

The festival's headliner, native daughter Tammy Barker, rocketed to stardom on a TV singing competition. She has the voice of an angel ... and the personality of a devilish diva. But Maggie learns that this tiny terror carries a grudge against Gaynell. She's already sabotaged the Gator Girls' JazzFest audition. When a member of Tammy's entourage is murdered at the festival, Tammy makes sure Gaynell is number one on the suspect list.

Gaynell has plenty of company on that list--including every one of Tammy's musicians. Posing as a groupie, Maggie infiltrates Tammy's band and will have to hit all the right notes to clear her friend's name.

Critique: The fifth addition to mystery author Ellen Byron's 'Cajun Country Mysteries', readers are once again transported to an entertaining dose of a 'whodunnit' mystery (southern style) in the pages of "Fatal Cajun Festival". Of special note are the inclusion of recipes! While also available in a digital book format for personal reading lists, "Fatal Cajun Festival" is especially recommended for community library Mystery/Suspense collections.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Fatal Cajun Festival." Internet Bookwatch, Sept. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A603753399/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ab97bcdf. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Byron, Ellen MARDI GRAS MURDER Crooked Lane (Adult Fiction) $26.99 10, 9 ISBN: 978-1-68331-705-0

Wish you were in Louisiana for Mardi Gras? Wish again.

Major flooding has dumped piles of trash and an unidentified body in St. Pierre Parish. Maggie Crozat's boyfriend, Bo Durand, is a detective for the Pelican Police Department, but although Maggie's nose for murder (Body on the Bayou, 2016, etc.) makes her curious about the anonymous corpse, she's so busy that she pushes it to the back of her mind until Bo tells her the death was no accident. Replacing her Gran, who feels poorly, Maggie is roped into judging the Miss Pelican Mardi Gras Gumbo Queen Pageant, a chore that quickly entangles her in another murder. The other judges are Constance Damboise and her husband, Gerard, the stuffy, snobbish president of the historical society; convenience store owner Robbie Metz; and star beauty products sales rep Maureen "Mo" Heedles, a vivacious woman with an outsize personality. Constance and Gerard are already squabbling over an exhibit featuring the orphan trains that carried children from the North in search of a better life in Louisiana. While the pageant mothers do their best to influence the judges, Gerard is certain that Belle Tremblay will win because she's an attractive girl from one of the area's finest families. Maggie is literally nudged into the case when Gerard runs into the back of her car and mutters, "Lies. Secrets," before he keels over dead. Then she's asked to restore a picture at the plantation where she works part time, and beneath the peeling painting she finds another one that references a possible treasure site. On top of everything else, Maggie must prepare for Mardi Gras, deal with her father's obsession with the perfect gumbo, and figure out why Bo's been so distant lately.

Byron embeds her tricky mystery in an amusing and informative tale of Cajun life and the logistical travails of Mardi Gras.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Byron, Ellen: MARDI GRAS MURDER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A548138190/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9ce2523f. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Mardi Gras Murder: A Cajun Country Mystery

Ellen Byron. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-68331-705-0

In Byron's superior fourth Cajun Country mystery (after 2017's A Cajun Christmas Killing), Pelican, La., is flooded due to unseasonable rains a few days before the town's annual Mardi Gras celebration. While clearing up debris, the body of an unidentified man surfaces under the bridge over a bayou at the far end of the property belonging to the Crozat family, also the site of the Crozat Plantation Bed and Breakfast. But Maggie Crozat, an artist by training and an innkeeper by inclination, has no time to worry about the body, as the pressure is on to help get the Mardi Gras festivities back on track. "Yes, we Peli-CAN" is the town's rallying cry. When her beloved Grand-mere comes down with walking pneumonia, Maggie takes her place as a judge in the Miss Pelican Mardi Gras Gumbo Queen competition. The murder of a fellow judge puts her knee-deep in plausible suspects and a variety of murky motives. Well-rounded characters, a fair-play plot, entertaining repartee, as well as dashes of Cajun lore and Louisiana history make this cozy a winner. Agent: Doug Grad. Doug Grad Literary Agency. (Oct.)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Mardi Gras Murder: A Cajun Country Mystery." Publishers Weekly, vol. 265, no. 34, 20 Aug. 2018, p. 73. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A552748536/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=628a331a. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

A Cajun Christmas Killing: A Cajun Country Mystery

Ellen Byron. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-68331-305-2

Byron's superb third Cajun Country mystery featuring artist Maggie Crozat (after 2016's Body on the Bayou) finds Maggie's father, Tug, under a lot of stress because the family business, Preferred Property Collection, is under threat. Maggie learns from Uncle Tig, Tug's twin brother, who buys historic properties and turns them into boutique hotels, that unscrupulous hedge fund manager Steve Harmon--a guest at the Crozat Plantation B and B--plans to take over PPC. Later, while giving a tour at Doucet Plantation, her maternal family's ancestral home, Maggie discovers Harmon dead in a wing chair. In addition to various members of the Crozat family, Maggie's main man, Det. Bo Durand of the Pelican, La., PD, becomes a suspect in Harmon's murder. With Christmas and the arrival of the Cajun Santa, Papa Noel, just ahead, Maggie has to work fast to solve the crime. Stir in Bo's ex-wife and Maggie's former fiance, and there's no end to the mischief and mayhem in this exceptional cozy. Agent: Doug Grad. Doug Grad Literary Agency. (Oct.)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"A Cajun Christmas Killing: A Cajun Country Mystery." Publishers Weekly, vol. 264, no. 32, 7 Aug. 2017, p. 54. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A500340343/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3bbf22e4. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

DiRico, Maria HERE COMES THE BODY Kensington (Adult Fiction) $7.99 2, 25 ISBN: 978-1-4967-2534-9

Murder crashes the party.

Mia Carina would like nothing better than to see her dad, Ravello, a made man in Donny Boldano's mob, go straight. When she hears he's won the Belle View Banquet Manor from hard-luck gambler Andre Bouras in a poker game, she rushes back from Palm Beach to help him run the place, hoping it will provide her dad with enough legitimate income to allow him to cut his ties with the underworld. Despite its dated decor and bone-shaking proximity to LaGuardia Airport, the catering hall has panoramic views out its windows that make it a worthy rival to the overpriced event venues in Manhattan--which Mia's outer-borough friends drive her nuts by calling "the city." ("Queens is the city" is her perennial retort.) And she proves her borough cred by moving in with her nonna in Astoria. But running a catering hall involves more than dealing with bridezillas like Alice Paluski, who's determined to make her wedding bigger and better than her twin sister's, or with momzillas like Barbara Grazio, Alice's prospective mother-in-law, who's determined to make the groom's side of the wedding outshine the bride's. She has to wrangle an ever changing cast of chefs, sous-chefs, waitstaff, decorators, DJs, and the occasional stripper, who all bring a host of quirks and baggage to the banquet table. She also has to deal with more than one corpse. It takes all of Mia's considerable ingenuity to keep Ravello's first legit enterprise from becoming a ticket right back to the slammer.

Her zany cast will have readers wondering whether DiRico's series debut is set in Belle View or Bellevue.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"DiRico, Maria: HERE COMES THE BODY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A608364764/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=af559759. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

DiRico, Maria LONG ISLAND ICED TINA Kensington (Fiction None) $8.99 2, 23 ISBN: 978-1-4967-2535-6

Her best friend’s baby shower turns deadly for a Queens caterer.

Mia Carina is proud of the work she’s done on the Belle View Banquet Manor. Thanks to improved insulation, the planes taking off from LaGuardia Airport, just across Flushing Bay, no longer shake the chandeliers and rattle the dishes. And while new hire Benjy Tutera works hard but does nothing right and longtime employee Cammie Dianopolis does nothing, period, cooks Evans and Guadelupe turn out a steady stream of treats that keep the clients coming back for more. Best of all, the Belle View is legit, allowing Mia’s dad, Ravello, to run a business at arm’s length from his employers, the Boldano crime family. When Mia's friend Nicole Karras-Whitman is looking for a site for a baby shower hosted by her mother, Mia is quick not only to offer the Belle View, but to make sure that Linda Karras’ tasteful affair will provide a stark contrast to the over-the-top showoff shindig thrown by Nicole’s stepmother, Tina. Unfortunately, Linda’s shower is also the swan song for Tina, whose body is discovered shortly afterward floating in Flushing Bay. Mia has two good reasons to look into Tina’s death: She wants to protect her beloved banquet hall from any hint of a connection with the murder, and she wants to make sure Nicole’s dad isn’t the No. 1 suspect.

An amiable, predictable tale of a quick-witted girl from the boroughs who makes good as a sleuth.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"DiRico, Maria: LONG ISLAND ICED TINA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2021. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A648127248/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1a5f7312. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

DiRico, Maria FOUR PARTIES AND A FUNERAL Kensington (Fiction None) $8.99 3, 28 ISBN: 9781496739704

An event planner's busy schedule must make room for murder.

Mia Carina should be over the moon. Her relationship with model Shane Gambrazzo is burning so hot that it's not beyond belief that a proposal is in the offing. Belle View Banquet Manor, her family's catering business, is doing so well that her father, Ravello, can finally claim to be the legitimate businessman he's always promised her he'd become. And now Giles St. James Productions wants to use Belle View to film segments of The Dons of Ditmars Boulevard, a new reality show. As if riding herd on a bunch of feisty dons and donettes in their mid-20s weren't challenge enough for Mia, she's soon placed in charge of the multitude of events surrounding her cousin Jamie's upcoming wedding to Madison Wythe, whose Connecticut relatives' belief that crackers and cheese constitute adequate refreshments for an engagement party leaves Mia's Queens/Long Island family scandalized and famished. Of course, a good planner is never too busy for murder, and Mia gets her chance to investigate when Giles St. James himself turns up dead in the changing room while shooting a pool-themed segment of Dons of Ditmars. She focuses on finding the perp to prevent Little Donny Boldano, another of her cousins, from being charged with St. James' murder. All this keeps Mia from dealing with the youthful indiscretion that prevents Shane from popping the question. In keeping with the Carina-Boldano clan's credo that more is more, DiRico piles it on so thick and fast that readers can't help loving it.

Molto mayhem.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"DiRico, Maria: FOUR PARTIES AND A FUNERAL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A740905281/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=798e1c39. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

DiRico, Maria THE WITLESS PROTECTION PROGRAM Kensington (Fiction None) $8.99 3, 26 ISBN: 9781496744623

The untimely return of her ex means the only wedding New York City caterer Mia Carina can't host is her own.

After numerous false starts, Mia's gorgeous beau Shane Gambrazzo finds the perfect time and place to pop the question: between the third and fourth innings of a Mets-Dodgers game. Unfortunately, after Mia's enthusiastic "Yes!," as the kiss cam pans over the crowd, the flustered bride-to-be sees the face of her supposedly deceased ex-husband, Adam Grosso. After several more sightings, Adam finally approaches Mia and tells her the Witness Protection Program has relocated him under the name Gerald Katzenberger. Mia's quandary over having both a fiance and a husband mercifully ends when Adam's corpse is found near the Astoria house Mia's grandmother purchased as a wedding present for the happy couple. Instead of worrying about too many husbands, now Mia frets over too many suspects. If she can't figure out which of Adam's many enemies killed him, one or more of her friends may end up spending her wedding day in the slammer instead of at the reception. Adding to her distress, the online coverage of Adam's death broadcasts the news that the house Mia's Nonna bought for her was the former residence of the late cartoonist Dan Fee, which brings a horde of Fee fans into the street to call for the place to be declared a historic landmark. Whether Mia will ever live happily in her new home with her handsome hubby is little in doubt, but the road to wedded bliss is paved with a whirlwind of fun.

The solution to the puzzle is merely icing on the cake of this madcap confection.

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"DiRico, Maria: THE WITLESS PROTECTION PROGRAM." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Feb. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A782202764/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f4b76d47. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

"Byron, Ellen: FRENCH QUARTER FRIGHT NIGHT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A806452799/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5dd2f41f. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "Byron, Ellen: A VERY WOODSY MURDER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332813/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b6adda56. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. Holstine, Lesa. "Byron, Ellen. A Very Woodsy Murder." Library Journal, vol. 149, no. 7, July 2024, pp. 78+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A800536085/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6ca05dae. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "Byron, Ellen: WINED AND DIED IN NEW ORLEANS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A735117890/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3fce7162. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "Byron, Ellen: BAYOU BOOK THIEF." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A698656081/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=aa858f41. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "Byron, Ellen: CAJUN KISS OF DEATH." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667031442/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a96fd448. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "Byron, Ellen: MURDER IN THE BAYOU BONEYARD." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A629261532/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4c2c99ac. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "Byron, Ellen: FATAL CAJUN FESTIVAL." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A591279235/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b34ba315. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "Fatal Cajun Festival." Internet Bookwatch, Sept. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A603753399/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ab97bcdf. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "Byron, Ellen: MARDI GRAS MURDER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A548138190/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9ce2523f. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "Mardi Gras Murder: A Cajun Country Mystery." Publishers Weekly, vol. 265, no. 34, 20 Aug. 2018, p. 73. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A552748536/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=628a331a. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "A Cajun Christmas Killing: A Cajun Country Mystery." Publishers Weekly, vol. 264, no. 32, 7 Aug. 2017, p. 54. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A500340343/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=3bbf22e4. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "DiRico, Maria: HERE COMES THE BODY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A608364764/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=af559759. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "DiRico, Maria: LONG ISLAND ICED TINA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2021. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A648127248/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1a5f7312. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024. "DiRico, Maria: FOUR PARTIES AND A FUNERAL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2023, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A740905281/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=798e1c39. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.

Word Count