Mardi Gras Murder

A SIMMERING WHODUNIT It's Mardi Gras season on the bayou, which means parades, pageantry and gumbo galore. But when a flood upends life in the tiny town of Pelican, Louisiana--and deposits the body of a stranger behind the Crozat Plantation B and B--the celebration takes a decidedly dark turn. Maggie Crozat is determined to discover the man's identity and find out why he was murdered. Then a judge for the Miss Pelican Mardi Gras Gumbo Queen pageant is shot, and Maggie is convinced that the deaths are connected. Does someone covet the pageant crown enough to kill for it? Or could the deaths be related to the opening of a controversial exhibit about the historic Louisiana Orphan Train? The leads are thin on this Fat Tuesday--and until the killer is unmasked, no one in Pelican is safe.