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Summary
Summary
"In a class with...sleuths V.I. Warshawski and Stephanie Plum," (Publishers Weekly) China Bayles stumbles over old secrets in a Shaker village. China's friends and family are urging her to get some rest--and a Kentucky Shaker village seems the ideal place for it. At Mount Zion, China can assist with some herbal workshops--while absorbing all things Shaker, from their furniture to their peaceful ways. But the restored modern version of the village, striving to become a popular tourist attraction, is plagued with misfortune and strife-- some of it the likely result of sabotage. China and her friend Martha are hoping to get to the bottom of it. However, much like Shaker history itself, the case appears simpler at first than it is. There is tension behind the serene exterior. And after a shocking death occurs during her stay, China will plunge into the archives of another time to connect the sins of the past with a modern-day murder.
Author Notes
Susan Wittig Albert was born in Illinois in 1940. In 1985, she changed careers from working as the vice president and an English professor at Texas State University to becoming a full-time writer.
During the mid- to late-1980s, Albert was a ghostwriter for the Nancy Drew mystery series. She wrote the acclaimed "Work of Her Own: How Women Create Success and Fulfillment off the Traditional Career Track" in 1992. Under the pseudonym of Robin Paige, Albert and her husband, Bill Albert, co-authored a twelve-volume mystery series set in late Victorian/Edwardian England.
Albert writes the bestselling China Bayles mystery series, which features as its main character a Texas herbalist who had been a criminal attorney in Houston. Albert also writes the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter historical fantasy series, which is set in England during the early twentieth century.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Murders past and present with a Shaker link intersect in alarming ways in Albert's engaging 17th China Bayles puzzler (after 2008's Nightshade). Recent painful events help prompt China, who runs an herb shop and tearoom in Pecan Springs, Tex., to visit her herbalist friend Martha Edmond at Kentucky's Mount Zion Shaker Village, whose board president, Rachel Hart, wants to turn the quaint Shaker museum center into an upscale spa, contrary to the spirit of the original believers. Martha asks China to investigate recent disturbing events, including vandalism, the suicide of a thieving gift shop manager and, according to financial director Allie Chatham, Rachel's embezzlement of funds. When Allie's later found dead in Zion's pool, where a Shaker woman drowned in 1912, Martha and China suspect murder. Shaker-inspired recipes, excerpts from a fictional Shaker journal, insights into the Shaker religion and plenty of herbal lore enhance another winner from this dependable veteran. Author tour. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
This seventeenth mystery in Albert's series finds herbalist China Bayles leaving her comfort zone in Texas and traveling with her friend Martha on a two-week vacation to a restored Shaker village in Mount Zion, Kentucky. Martha will be giving a series of herbal workshops and wants China's assistance both in the presentations and in solving the mystery of why Martha's Aunt Charity abruptly left the Shaker fold back in 1912. China is intrigued with the chance to learn more about Shaker history and especially their tradition of gathering medicinal herbs. It turns out, inevitably, that besides Aunt Charity's mystery, there is a present-day problem to solve. A series of unexplained tensions and acts of sabotage at the seemingly idyllic village suddenly escalate to a shocking death. Albert's love of historic research comes shining through in this novel, which offers a fascinating portrait of the Shaker way of life. As usual, the author's knowledge of herbs enlivens the text, as do the recipes that are scattered throughout.--Coon, Judy Copyright 2009 Booklist
