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 19^th 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.

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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.