I'm so happy to be joining 

Berkley Mystery today in celebrating the release of  

WINED AND DIED IN NEW ORLEANS

Book 2 in the Vintage Cookbook Mysteries

by Ellen Byron

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. 

  

While procrastinating on the Internet one day, I came across the story of a couple who discovered a hundred-year-old stash of whiskey hidden under the old country home they’d recently purchased. Couple finds bottles of 1920's bootleg whiskey inside NY home (today.com) Since I love both old homes and buried treasure, liquid or otherwise, this sparked a story idea. What if the staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, the centerpiece of my Vintage Cookbook Mystery series, discovered some kind of valuable stash hidden under the mansion by the home’s 19th century builder, Jean-Louis Charbonnet? Historic sites like Bon Vee are always in dire need of funding. Plus, squabbling over the proceeds of a rare beverage’s auction were a recipe for drama… and even murder.

Driven a bit by my own drinking preferences—I don’t love whiskey or hard liquor in general unless it’s in a Margarita or Mojito—I decided to change the beverage from whiskey to wine. This required a consultation with Nadine Nettman, mystery writer and certified sommelier, to find out if any wine might survive a hundred-and-fifty-year dirt nap. Her response was encouraging. “As long as the wine has been stored well, it would still be drinkable,” she wrote back. “I’ve had wine from 1824 and it was delightful.”

Inspired by Nadine, I searched online for an example of centuries-old wine coming up for auction. I hit Internet gold when I landed on a story with amazing parallels to the one I was concocting in my head. In 2015, a renovation of New Jersey’s historic Liberty Hall unearthed one of the largest collections of 18th and 19th century Madeira wine ever discovered in the United States. Wines Found at Liberty Hall Sold at Auction; Will Improve Access to Museum - Kean University. When put up for sale by the world-famous Christie’s auction house a couple of years later, individual bottles claimed bids of $16,000 and even higher. Just like in the story I envisioned, the funds were put to use upgrading the historic site, which dates back to the 1760s.

The successful saga of the Liberty Hall wine stash was proof positive that my plot for Wined and Died in New Orleans would work. Exultant, I decided there was only one way to celebrate: hoisting a glass of actual Madeira. I’ve drunk a lot of wine in my day – especially during the pandemic – but I’d never had Madeira, described as a “fortified wine” made on the Portuguese Madeira islands.

I embarked on a hunt for a good bottle of it – or any bottle of it, as it turned out. When I asked if they served Madeira at a couple of local restaurants and wine bars, I received blank stares. At Trader Joe’s, a manager apologized for confusing Marsala with Madeira – which they don’t sell. I finally tracked down a bottle at our local wine shop: dating back to 1907, it was priced at twelve hundred dollars. I cracked open a bottle of ten-dollar Chardonnay instead.

At four-figure prices or higher, a bottle of Madeira may never grace my wine rack. But I love the plot it inspired for Wined and Died in New Orleans — with its bouquet of mystery and intrigue, and notes of humor and history.

Ellen Byron is the multiple Agatha and Lefty Award-winning writer of the Cajun Country and Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, as well as the Catering Hall Mysteries, which she writes under the pen name Maria DiRico. She’s the non-award-winning TV writer of shows like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. A former playwright and magazine journalist, Ellen will be the 2023 Left Coast Crime toastmaster, but considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart.

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