A pretty fun cozy mystery collection featuring the ghost of a mother-in-law, a bayou, and three Louisianna girls who, each for her own reasons, has been avoiding men for years. Each book of the set contains a serious mystery to go along with the ghost hijinks and the touch of romance.
Trouble in Mudbug – 5 stars
Maryse Robicheaux is stunned when her mother-in-law, Helena Henry, rises from her coffin during her funeral. But apparently Maryse is the only one who can see her.
As early as the next day, somebody starts trying to kill Maryse. Helena follows her home to her little house deep in the bayou. And a mysterious, very handsome man is trying to share her office and snoop on her computer.
She discovers that Helena has left her the Mudbug Game Preserve and Wildlife Center, a piece of property currently being leased to the state, and the money state is paying for the lease. The game preserve includes, or is adjacent to the bayou where Maryse lives. Helena’s husband objects, claiming the Preserve should have been left to his and Helena’s son, Hank who is also Maryse’s husband. Hank left Maryse shortly after they were married, and Maryse has been trying to find him to divorce him ever since. Hank also left a collection of large gambling debts, which Helena loaned her the money to pay, but then exacted repayment by the month at a high rate of interest. This is why Maryse considered Helena to be evil incarnate.
It turns out that Helena is not so bad after all, although she does have trouble learning how to function as a ghost. They eventually discover who is trying to kill Maryse and why, but don’t solve the mystery of who murdered Helena.
Mischief in Mudbug – 5 stars
Maryse’s best friend, Sabine, has been searching for any family members practically since her parents were killed in an accident when she was a small child. Without success. Now a cancer diagnosis has made finding any remaining family members even more urgent.
To make matters worse, Sabine can now hear, and later see, Helena Henry.
Sabine’s mentor and friend, New Orleans psychic Raissa, hires a detective on her behalf to see if he can locate the missing family. With some help from Raissa and Helena, the detective, Beau, turns up a family of reclusive millionaires with a crazy daughter who seem to be related to Sabine. But their behavior is very strange, and about the same time she first contacts them, somebody starts trying to kill Sabine.
Showdown in Mudbug – 5 stars
Maryse and Sabine’s friend, the New Orleans psychic, Raissa, sees on the news that another little girl has been kidnapped. It turns out that Raissa is actually a former FBI agent herself and that she has been using the psychic persona as a disguise to hide from mafia types she formerly had under surveillance. In her former life, she had found some evidence related to this string of kidnappings although that wasn’t her primary assignment, and she can’t resist offering the police the benefit of what she knows. Unfortunately, this brings her to the attention of the FBI again, so Raissa is happy to get away to Mudbug to cover Sabine’s shop while she is on her honeymoon.
It also brings her into contact with Helena Henry, and now Raissa too can suddenly see her.
A very twisted tale involving alien abductions, a strange threat to Hank Henry, car chases involving black cadillacs, and doctors behaving strangely. Also, a bit of romance with the cop Raissa first tells her story to.
Amid all the other twists and turns, we finally find out who killed Helena and why. And it’s not at all like it looked to begin with.