Literary Scene: Three New Mysteries from June

By Ryan G. Van Cleave | July 2022

Bayou Book Thief

by Ellen Byron • (Berkeley, June 2022) 

Cozy mysteries aren’t typically my thing, but my cozy-loving reader friends have been talking about Ellen Byron for years. Given that, when I heard she was launching a new series, I gave Bayou Book Thiefa shot. From the start, the richly rendered environment of New Orleans holds a lot of flavorful appeal. It’s easy to see why Byron has earned so many fans—her ability to create ambiance is impressive.

In this story, late 20s widow Ricki James leaves LA because her actor husband died in a dumb internet stunt. She’s from New Orleans, so home she goes as anyone might do in the face of such a tragedy. Ricki’s got a love for collecting vintage cookbooks. This translates into her joining the fun-but-weird staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, where she launches a new gift shop that sells vintage cookbooks and cookware. Things go wrong when she discovers a box of donated cookbooks that also contains the body of a Bon Vee tour guide who’d been killed with a vintage cookware item—a can opener. Worse, Ricki is sure she’ll be the prime suspect, so she takes it upon herself to find the real killer.

While Ricki’s not a professional sleuth, she’s got great skills for sleuthing out hard-to-find things thanks to years of chasing down vintage cookbooks. She’s also a friendly, likable character who has good on-page chemistry with Detective Rodriguez. The mystery itself is interesting throughout with just enough twists and red herrings to keep readers moving ahead without feeling cheated when all is revealed. The ending cliffhanger promises more mystery goodness to come with book two. 

If you’re looking for a new series that doesn’t include a lot of sex or foul language but has interesting Southern characters without the exaggerated dialect or cliches, this might be the one for you. Plus, there are several recipes in the back of the book from actual vintage cookbooks—the author’s introduction explains how she came across these rare titles.

Ryan’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The Tuesday Night Survivors’ Club

by Lynn Cahoon • (Lyrical Underground, June 2022)

Since I had such good luck with Ellen Byron’s new series, I gave another new cozy series a shot with New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lynn Cahoon’s The Tuesday Night Survivors’ Club. Breast cancer survivor Rarity Cole has recently moved from St. Louis to Sedona, Arizona where she has devoted her life to helping others find their way to health and healing. To this end, she launched Next Chapter Bookstore which brings together Eastern and Western medicine, but she also started a book group that serves as a support community—yep, that’s where the book title comes from. When one of their members goes MIA and her car is found abandoned on a trail, Rarity is sure something terrible has happened to poor Martha. Rarity helps by taking in Martha’s teensy Yorkie named “Killer,” and that hilariously cute dog becomes her constant companion in the story.

When Martha is found to have been murdered, the book group pools their collective powers to sleuth out whodunnit and why. Along the way, a budding romance is in the air for Rarity and a hiking tour guide, as well as a Sedona detective (Drew Anderson) and Sam, Rarity’s high school best friend, who owns a crystal shop. 

Cahoon manages to keep cancer front and center throughout the book in a way that feels authentic and appropriate, yet without melodrama, even as we run across doctors with “miracle cures” and those who push their wares on people at their most vulnerable time. Even better, it’s not a cancer book—it’s a book that’s far more about community and friendship. 

This fast-paced story features a group of quirky characters that are the type of women most people would very much want to know if not be like. As a bonus, Cahoon’s book includes a recipe for chocolate cake with a chocolate glaze. I haven’t tried it yet, but I probably will—it looks good.

This series starts strong and looks to be worth following.

Ryan’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Forever Past

by Marty Ambrose • (Severn House, June 2022)

I’ve always been reluctant to jump into a series without having read the previous books, but that’s exactly what I did with Marty Ambrose’s Forever Past, which is book three in the historical mystery trilogy that’s centered on the Byron/Shelley “Haunted Summer of 1816” group. 

The book follows Claire Clairmont—the stepsister of writer Mary Shelley—in Italy 1873 as she works to discover the fate of her daughter, Allegra, who was believed to have died of typhus years before in a Capuchin convent in Bagnacavallo, Italy. Even though she’s now in her 70s and still aching over her spurning by Lord Byron, Claire learns that Allegra might be alive. At this news, she heads to the convent to confront an abbess who might know far more than anyone suspects about betrayals both old and new. 

Claire’s enemies will stop at nothing to keep long-buried secrets from coming to light. And readers soon begin to wonder—is one or more of Claire’s companions working against her, too?

I read the story in one sitting because the narrative tension was coupled with enough action to keep the pages turning as I romped through Italy alongside Claire as she refused to give up. And while I’m no Italian historian, the setting feels rich and well-researched—a quick Internet search gives me confidence that the author made good use of historical people, places, and situations beyond what Wikipedia offers.

If this book sounds like your cup of romantic historical mystery tea, you’ll want to seek out the previous two books in the series, Claire’s Last Secret and A Shadowed Fate (the latter earned a starred review at Publisher’s Weekly). Even if this book is your only foray into the trilogy, it’s rewarding enough to merit a read, even if you’re not overly familiar with the Byron/Shelley quartet (George Gordon, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary Shelley, who is Claire’s stepsister).

Ryan’s Rating: 4 out of 5