Here I go again with another Louisiana mystery novel. This one is set in the fictitious town of Pelican, Louisiana at Crozat Plantation, an antebellum mansion that has been turned into a bed and breakfast inn. Maggie’s parents, Tug and Ninette Crozat, and her grandmother, Charlotte, are doing their best at keeping the B & B up and running when three deaths occur at the inn within a matter of two weeks.
It’s the week before Fet Let, a special summer-ending celebration in Pelican, and the inn is full of guests. The odd mix of travelers include an elderly honeymooning couple, four women from New York who call themselves the Cajun Cuties, a mysterious stranger from Texas, a trio of Georgia frat boys, and a young married couple. The story unfolds with two murders and one natural death. Unbeknownst to the inn keepers, some of the guests have ties to the town of Pelican and to each other which manifests in murder, mystery, and mayhem.
The small town police force is inept in handling such cases. Newly assigned Bo Durand, cousin of the police chief, arrives from Shreveport and assumes his role as lead detective. Everyone in the Crozat family is thankful for Bo and his level-headedness and fine detective skills. Maggie and Bo work closely in solving the murders and that solution will surprise most readers.
Halfway through Plantation Shudders, I read the blurb about author Ellen Byron. Her interest in Louisiana stems from her college days at Tulane. After graduation, she and a friend travelled the east bank of River Road and stopped for a tour at a very dilapidated plantation home. This tour, and the people she met, would be included in a book she was to write later in life. Ellen is, among other jobs, a television writer and has credits to episodes of Wings and Just Shoot Me (two of my favorite TV series!)