Roxy Reinhardt is, when we meet her, working in a customer service call center in Chicago. It's an awful job for an awful company, but it pays the bills and lets her build some savings--more or less.

Then she loses the job, goes home, and learns she's lost her boyfriend as well. With him moving in with his new love, and with no job, she obviously can't afford the apartment.

In a mad moment of impulsivity, she takes her cat and her few possessions that matter to her, and heads to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. She booked a room in a tiny inn, the only one she could find quickly that she could afford and which would accept her cat. She's not sure what to make of the inn, never mind of New Orleans, and least of all of the staff--the owner, Evangeline; Nat, the tattooed waitress; Sage, the spiritualist who does the inn's website; Sam, owner of a modest laundry business who does the inn's laundry and also any odd jobs needed--and who owns a custom Rolls Royce.

As Roxy begins to become friends with these people and at the same becomes very fond of New Orleans, chaos descends on them all. A developer who was determined to buy the inn add redevelop it out of existence is found murdered, and Evangeline seems to be the most obvious suspect.

Roxy thought she was going back to her real life, finding a new job and a new place to live in Chicago after her brief, mad getaway in New Orleans. In fact she's embarked on a new life, centered around the inn, her new friends, and solving murders in New Orleans. It's mad, crazy, and a lot of fun. Recommended! ( )