The author, on how her actual dogs influenced the creation of some fictional ones:Gopher, the basset hound in my Cajun Country Mystery series, was inspired by our late lamented basset hound rescue, Lucy. I featured a dog inspired by Wiley in a mystery I’ve yet to sell, and I used Pogo as a model for a stray that Maggie, my protagonist, helps save in Body on the Bayou, the second book in my Cajun Country Mystery series. Then I felt badly about Wiley being in a book that hasn’t sold, so I turned him into...[read on]About Byron's new novel, Body on the Bayou, from the publisher:
The Crozats feared that past murders at Crozat Plantation B&B might spell the death of their beloved estate, but they’ve managed to survive the scandal. Now there’s a très bigger story in Pelican, Louisiana: the upcoming nuptials between Maggie Crozat’s nemesis, Police Chief Rufus Durand, and her co-worker, Vanessa Fleer.Visit Ellen Byron's website.
Maggie, inexplicably tasked with being Vanessa’s Maid of Honor, quickly discovers why everyone else refused the assignment when the Bridezilla hands her along list of duties–the most important of which is entertaining Vanessa’s cousin, Ginger Fleer-Starke, a mysterious woman with dangerous secrets. But just days before the wedding, Ginger’s lifeless body is found on the bayou behind Crozat Plantation and the Pelican PD, as well as the Crozats, have another murder mystery on their hands.
There’s a gumbo-potful of suspects, including an ex-Marine with PTSD, an annoying local newspaper reporter, and Vanessa’s own sparkplug of a mother. But when it looks like the investigation is zeroing in on Vanessa as the prime suspect, Maggie reluctantly adds keeping the bride-to-be out of jail to her list of Maid of Honor responsibilities in Body on the Bayou, the second in Ellen Byron’s charming and witty series.
Coffee with a Canine: Ellen Byron & Wiley and Pogo.
--Marshal Zeringue
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