I’m happy to share the great debut of a promising new mystery series, the first Glory Broussard Mystery by Danielle Arceneaux. If you love mysteries set in a colorful small-town Louisiana, I highly recommend looking at this one. Glory Be is a great invention; the story is a wild ride that never slows down.

I was hooked from the first page. Glory Be describes  herself as “an old, fat black woman.” Not the usual brawny, isolated crime-buster.

This hero breaks the often dull form of the modern mystery ( a miserable and lonely detective with a dead wife, troubled daughter, and bad dreams.” Glory Be breaks the stereotypes: she is original and appealing. I’m guessing this book will be a big success.

The story starts on a Sunday in Lafayette, Lousiana; Glory Broussard (Glory Be, as she is known) is sitting at the usual table at the local bar, taking bets from locals as they get out of Church or come out for an early drink. Glory is profoundly religious and wears her Red Hat (she belongs to her Church’s Red Hat club) and laments the changes the barn owner constantly makes to keep up with young people.

Glory Be takes off from there and never entirely stops. Rural Louisiana is a star in this story; it’s good to be reminded of just how different one part of America can be from all the others. There is lot of atmosphere in this mystery.

Sitting at her usual corner table taking bets, Glory hears from a local police lieutenant that her best friend, a nun loved in the town, is dead, an apparent suicide, according to the police.

In classic mystery style, Glory doesn’t believe the police’s conclusion and sets out to find out what happened to her friend.

She ends up stirring up the whole town and sticking her own neck out,  taking shots at Southern racism, uncovering things nobody wants to see unearthed. There is no stopping Glory Be.

It’s a standard plot in a lively and rich new setting without any cliches that I could find. Good writers with rich stories are precious; Arceneaux is one of them

This is another creative book from a young writer who isn’t afraid to re-imagine a genre.

Being a bookie is a gift since many townspeople owe her money, and other customers know almost everything about what is happening..

Glory is working with her reluctant and moody daughter, who has her troubles. Delphine is a high powered New York City lawyer.

Glory undertakes a shadow investigation and ends up encountering Lafayette’s many hidden secrets and characters – oil tycoons, churchgoers and gossips, voodoo priestesses, nosy neighbors, slick cops, and down-on-their-luck bums, crooks, and troublemakers.

The characters in the book are memorable and distinctive, and Arceneaux does a great job of portraying them. The book is rich in local detail. I’m excited that this is the first in a series, a winner, and I’m in for the next Gloria Broussard mystery.

If you love mysteries, as I do, this is a great-to-read new series in a year that is kind to mysteries, thanks  mostly to a new generation of women mystery writers who aren’t shy about upending the norm. Seeing so many women at ease in a genre often dominated by men is fascinating.

Arceneaux gives Glory a great platform and background. From the first page, I never doubted that Glory Be, a character of depth and savvy, would figure it all out, no matter what.