"excellent China Bayles mystery"

Between running her shop Thymes and Seasons, Thyme Cottage, and her partnering with Ruby Wilcox for Thyme for Tea and Party Thyme, China Bayles has no thyme make that time for herself. She is there for her friend Ruby who just broke up with her lover Collin, owner of an environmental friendly store. She doesn't tell Ruby that he's an undercover cop who got busted when he told a two level dealer that he was about to be busted. She is also adjusting to the fact that she has a half-brother, Miles Danforth who believes his and China's father was murdered in what was supposed to be an accidental car crash.

China's husband, now a private investigator, takes the case and heads out of town to do some investigating. When she finally gets a moment to breathe, she and a friend go to railroad tracks to pick yucca leaves but find the knifed body of Collin. Ruby is in Fredericksburg trying to get her senile mother into an assisted loving facility and asks China to investigate. With key in hand China goes into Collin's store where she gets the numbers of Lucita who called Collin on unexplained business. When China goes to the nursery where Lucita works, she finds Lucita's dead body with her throat cut. Something rotten is going on in Pecan Springs, Texas and China vows to stop it with the help of a drug sniffing rottweiler.

Susan Wittig Albert has written another excellent China Bayles mystery that is filled danger, action and intrigue. The mysterious stranger who is in town is either the cause or the one who intends to stop it. However he has never dealt with the heroine or Smart Cookie aka the Chief of Police. Readers will enjoy learning about China's past family life and hope that the answer about her father will be found in the next book in this delightful series.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 27, 2007

Summary

Between the herb shop, the catering business, and a weekend paper-making class, China Bayles has her work cut out for her. And now China's half-brother is opening up old wounds, trying to investigate their father's supposedly accidental death, and her husband is taking on the case—meaning she's just bound to get involved.

To put the unsavory business out of her mind, she's gathering supplies for making paper. But in a patch of yucca plants, she finds a body—cause of death unknown. Many residents of Pecan Springs live seemingly simple lives that hide complex and dangerous pasts, and it appears the victim was one of them. Now, while unraveling secrets that hit close to home, China must set the record straight—and find a killer.