Business is slower than slow
at Zydeco Cakes. So slow that office manager Edie Bryce wants
to cut the staff hours. Rita Lucero half-owner of Zydeco Cakes,
is not ready to change anything. She feels she will be letting
Miss Frankie Renier (the other half-owner) down.
So when a friend, Old Dog Leg, asks for Rita’s help,
she figures it will give more work to her staff if she is
away for several days. Old Dog Leg, a 78 year old blind trumpet
player, received a letter from his long lost brother, Monroe.
He wants Rita to find out for sure if it is his brother. The
brother has a birth mark on his shoulder. It sounds easy enough.
However, she will be going undercover to a B&B called
The Love Nest with hunky bartender and sometimes date, Gabriel
Broussard.
Things start off fine, with the staff and residents throwing
the “newlyweds” a champagne celebration. There
is a lot of bickering going on between the staff and residents.
Then Monroe shows up and no one is glad see him. Finally able
to escape to their room. Rita and Gabriel hear a scream. Dontae,
one of the residents, is found dead in the garden. Everyone
thinks he was a heart attack waiting to happen. So it comes
as a surprise when the police are calling his death suspicious
and calling Homicide.
Things to ponder: Where was Monroe all these years? What
is Lula Belle hiding? Why was Dontae in the garden so late
at night? Where is Monroe now?
Jacklyn Brady has written another page-turning mystery. She
has put Rita with a bunch of quirky characters who hold many
secrets. This was a fast read and I am anxiously waiting for
the next book in the series. So if you like your mystery with
a taste of New Orleans, then Arsenic and Old Cake
is the book for you to read.
Reviews of other titles in this series
A
Sheetcake Named Desire #1
Cake
on a Hot Tin Roof #2
Arsenic
and Old Cake #3
The
Cakes of Wrath #4
Rebel
Without a Cake #5
The
Cakes of Monte Cristo #6
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