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Summary
Summary
Nominated for both an Agatha and an Anthony Award, Susan Wittig Albert's novels featuring ex-lawyer and herb-shop proprietor China Bayles have won acclaim for their rich characterization and witty, suspenseful stories of crime and passion in small-town Texas.
Now, when China's friend Jo dies of an apparent suicide, China looks behind the quaint façade of Pecan Springs and takes a suspicious look at everyone. And though she finds lots of friendly faces, China is sure that one of them hides the heart of a killer.
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 (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this promising though conventional debut mystery, Albert (Work of Her Oum) ably invents a central Texas town called Pecan Springs. While the plotting is somewhat mundane, the book's appealing late-summer setting and descriptions of home cooking are nicely evocative. Narrator China Bayels, 42, a former fast-track Houston attorney who now owns a slowlane Pecan Springs herb emporium, erdoys her laid-back lifestyle until the untimely death of her friend Jo Gilbert. Jo, who was battling cancer, is found after she downed a bottle of sleeping pills with vodka, but some in the closeknit community insist that suicide wasn't Jo's style. China and her brassy, New-Agey pal Ruby snoop around and learn that Jo once had an affair with another woman, a prominent childrens'-TV personality. Did the famous lover fear that gossip might ruin her career? Suspicion in Jo's death-and two subsequent slayings-shifts among members of the insular community before the plausible yet slightly disappointing finale. Motives are determined and a guilty party pegged, but there's a sense that all is not resolved; the narrative loses sight of China's romance with an excop and puts the herb business on the back burner. Presumably these aspects of China's life will be detailed as the projected series progresses, but their obvious neglect here leaves readers with mixed feelings about this story's conclusion. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
This novel introduces China Bayles, former high-powered attorney in a prestigious Houston firm. Buying an old stone building in charming Pecan Springs, deep in Texas hill country, she has definitely opted out of the fast lane. She intends to plant a garden, tend her herb shop, and relax in a comfortable living space behind the store. Unfortunately, China's new-found serenity is shattered by the unexpected suicide of her community-activist friend Jo Gilbert, who suffered from breast cancer. At least, the police think it's suicide, given Jo's medical condition. Others vehemently disagree, including the local real-estate developer who bitterly opposed Jo's efforts to block development of a new airport. China's experience in criminal investigations makes her reluctant to believe in Jo's murder, but devotion to her friends also makes her an ally in considering the possibilities. Albert frequently supplies distracting asides (especially on the use of various herbs) instead of moving the action, but China is an appealing character, and Pecan Springs has an intriguing mix of eccentrics. Despite the less than original scenario and somewhat thin plot, this murder-in-a-small-town story keeps your interest. --Stuart Miller
Kirkus Review
A debut overloaded with good intentions--among them, to create, in lawyer-turned-herbalist China Bayles, a character as strong, forthright, and compelling as Kinsey Millhone or V.I. Warshawski--but, here, there's little follow-through. Instead, we get a younger Americanized version of Miss Marple, and the gossips of St. Mary Mead are now the busybodies of Pecan Springs, Texas. When dear, sweet cancer-riddled Jo is found dead, the sheriff thinks she committed suicide. But China and Ruby, the owner of a New Age crystal shop, think not, and debate who makes the best suspect: Jo's angry daughter, Meredith; TV star Roz, who loved and left her; dotty doll-maker Violett, who was furious with Roz; Roz's high-powered New York agent Jane; or a local nabob eager to build a major airport nearby. There'll be a burglary and two more deaths before China and Ruby turn matters over to the sheriff to wrap up. Heavy-handed in its attempts to be both hip and cozy and, at heart--although it rambles on about liberated, feminist women--an old-fashioned view of small-towners with conservative sensibilities. A stodgy beginning of a proposed series.
Library Journal Review
China Bayles, former rat-race lawyer, escapes to small-town Texas to operate an herb shop and enjoy the simple life. Murder interrupts her simple life, however, when a good friend and local protest organizer dies suddenly. Revelatory letters, a crazy-eyed dollmaker, a nationally known TV personality, her ex-cop lover, and a shifty developer complicate matters as China begins her amateurish investigation. Like her pursuit of the murderer, this provides pleasant escape from routine. The first of a series. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
