Muddy Bites

by Jessica Tastet

Life in Barbeaux Bayou has been fairly normal for Raleigh Cheramie. Family gatherings, weekly visits from her dead Aunt, and waiting for the dead to need her help are all part of her not-so-average life. While volunteering at the local high school, Raleigh’s Traiteur-to-the-dead abilities are put to use when students begin summoning her to their watery graves. Raleigh must untwist the sordid stories of teenagers and uncover the secrets of a cold case to put an end to the untimely demise of Barbeaux’s young. But her own relationship woes with Mike have her distracted. Now she has to balance the will-they or will-they-not over Mike with solving murders and keeping the bodies from piling up. Can she figure out all the answers before it is too late for the young lives they were asked to help?

220 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2020

Reviews

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engrossing and well written mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed.
I loved the storytelling, the solid mystery, the fascinating background and the well rounded characters.
I want to read the other books in this series.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Elouise · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story centers around Raleigh, a Traiteur of the Dead. It is a skill or perhaps a blessing that she can receive messages from ghosts and people who died in a special part of her brain. In Here we have a couple of high school students who drown violently and cannot really rest in peace until the perpetrator is brought to answer to the crimes. Set in Louisianna, we have crawdad farms and shrimp boats involved. As Raleigh and Mike get closer to finding out who did it, we have a lot of action, some of it ghostly in nature, other violent. There is a standoff with a student who knows more than he was telling and decided that the only way to get to the truth was to hold a certain teacher and his classmates hostage with a gun. The story unfolds in its own time, at its own ace and comes to a fantastic conclusion. I thought it was very well written and really put me in the slow, laid back atmosphere that Louisianna is so famous for. I loved it.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the dead reach into the hearts and minds of their bayou region advocates, things are tricky.

Shadows and echoes burn bright and loud when death is sudden, or violent, or unexpected.

The prejudices of an ex, and a grumpy sheriff make locating the deceased, let alone solving the reasons for their deaths, more difficult.

Small town connections, dangers, and paranormal elements

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muddy Bites is the first book that I have read by this author. This was a well-written story and I enjoyed the setting and the characters. I learned that this book is part of a series. While I have not read the other books in this series, I had no issues following the story and I will be looking for the rest of books in this series as well as other books by this author.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book thoroughly enjoyable. It can be read as a standalone but I'm going to go back and was the others in the series. I just felt like there was more I needed to know about the characters. A good storyline and interesting characters made this a pleasant read. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and I'm voluntarily providing an honest review.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! An interesting case, dimensional, likable characters and the mystery of the bayou. Read this in just a few hours and now that I'm done I want another! I only wish I knew about this author when the series began.
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc