Queen Anne's Lace, a novel by Susan Wittig Albert

Queen Anne's Lace: China Bayles #26 by Susan Wittig Albert
Published April 3, 2018; Berkley Books
Genre: mystery
Setting: Pecan Springs, Texas  - tearoom

Setting: The Thyme and Seasons tearoom has long been the pivotal point in many China Bayles mystery novels set in the Texas hill country. An herbalist as well as a caterer too, China plays sleuth in the books and solves crimes in and around her neighborhood, as well as provides readers with recipes for dishes that include everything from jelly, cobbler, soup, quiche, to muffins. 

Plot: Antique lace and old photographs found in a loft puzzle and intrigue China, especially when she hears ghostly humming and the fragrance of lavender along with it. A touch of the magical in this novel lends it charm to add to the handcrafted lace from times gone by. Things get complicated when China tries to solve the mystery of the lace and the story of the lacemaker, Annie Laurie. 

A very attractive cover and an intriguing plot makes this book another in the China Bayles series to add to mystery lovers' bookshelf. 

Thanks to Berkley Books for a review copy of this novel.

Book Review: Blood Orange by Susan Wittig Albert

Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph every Tuesday. Share the first paragraph(s) of your current read or book interest, with information for readers

Blood Orange by Susan Wittig Albert, published April 5, 2016 by Berklely
In the newest China Bayles Mystery in the New York Times bestselling series, China comes to the aid of a nurse who ends up in the hospital... (publisher)

First chapter, first paragraph

Today's commercial beers are almost exclusively brewed with hops, the female flowers of the hop plant (Humulus Iupulus).The result is a uniform, easily controlled flavor....  

Every chapter in this novel, in fact in all of the China Bayles mysteries if I remember correctly, begins with a brief treatise or description of plants and plants in the garden or used for food or drink. And all of the books include recipes, an added bonus.

First paragraph of the novel itself:

"Excuse me." I put down my teacup. I don't think I heard that right, Ruby. "I thought you said that Ramona has bought a brewery."

"That's exactly what I said," Ruby sank into the chair opposite mine at her kitchen table and ran her fingers through her frizzy red hair.... 

China tries to find the person who forced a hospice nurse, Kelley, off the road in a car accident, critically injuring her. Things slowly come to light that someone wants to keep his/her other crimes a secret, and the mystery plot gets on the way......
What I like most about the series is the setting - the Hill Country in south Texas, which the author describes in such excellent detail, as well as the interesting main characters, and the detailed information on plants in every book. Not to mention delicious and unusual recipes.

Here are the ingredients for my favorite recipe in Blood Orange, one I am bound to try:

Blood Orange Liqueur

4 blood oranges
1 lemon
Fresh ginger, about 2" long, peeled and sliced
2 cups vodka
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

In brief, add the ginger and vodka to the de-pitted oranges and orange and lemon peel in a quart jar. Add the simple water and sugar syrup and store the jar in a cool, dark place for at least a month. (The complete detailed recipe is on pages 308-309 of the book). 

It sounds absolutely delicious to me! 
Thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book for their book tour of Blood Orange. 

The Darling Dahlias and the Eleven O'Clock Lady by Susan Wittig Albert

 I love mystery novels with a gardening theme or setting. Would you get into this one?

The Darling Dahlias and the Eleven O'Clock Lady by Susan Wittig Albert, published September 1, 2015; Berkley
Genre: Southern historical mystery
 ...the summer of 1934 in the small Southern town of Darling, Alabama—the ladies of the Darling Dahlias’ garden club love to solve mysteries… The eleven o’clock lady has always been one of garden club president Liz Lacy’s favorite spring wildflowers. The plant is so named because the white blossoms don’t open until the sun shines directly on them and wakes them up.

But another Eleven O’Clock Lady is never going to wake up again. Rona Jean Hancock—a telephone switchboard operator who earned her nickname because her shift ended at eleven, when her nightlife was just beginning.... (book description)

Book beginning, first paragraph:

In less than an hour, Violet Sims' well-ordered life was going to change. But right now, she was enjoying what in her opinion was the very best hour of a summer's day -- the earliest hour. That was the time when she went out to work in the vegetable garden behind the Darling Diner, which she owned and managed with her friend, Myra May Mosswell. And this hour, on this Saturday, seemed especially perfect. It had been hot and sultry all week, and the day ahead was likely to be another hot one, with the prospect of a storm in the afternoon. But the morning air was still cool and fresh, the dew was a silvery sheen on the ripe and flawless tomatoes, and the sun had just begun to peer over the rooftops of the little town of Darling to see if something of interest might be happening there on this very last day of June 1934. 

Page 56:

"Sarah's birthday?" Lizzy asked. "I've lost track. How old is she?"

The Friday 56: *Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader. Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. Post it. Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also, visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

Book Review/Tour: BITTERSWEET by Susan Wittig Albert

First Chapter, First Paragraph is hosted weekly by Bibliophile by the Sea. Share the first paragraph of your current read. Also visit Teaser Tuesdays meme hosted by Jenn.

Bittersweet: China Bayles #23 by Susan Wittig Albert
Published April 7, 2015; Berkley
Genre: mystery

First paragraph:

Prologue
The blue and white Cessna 172 dropped out of the gray November sky. The pilot banked sharply, slowing to eighty knots, then turned on the carburetor heat and powered back to 1500 rpm. When he made the field, he extended another ten degrees of flaps, dropped his airspeed to seventy, and corrected for the crosswind that blew off the cliff to the west. He powered back, leveled off, and touched down at the end of the grassy north-south strip  The landing was bumpy but no rougher than usual...

Book description:
It’s Thanksgiving in Pecan Springs, and China Bayles is planning to visit her mother, Leatha, and her mother’s husband, Sam, who are turning their former game ranch into a vacation retreat for birders. But Leatha calls with bad news: Sam has had a heart attack.

How will Leatha manage if Sam can’t carry his share? She does have a helper, Sue Ellen Krause. But China discovers that Sue Ellen, who is in the process of leaving her marriage to the assistant foreman at a large trophy game ranch, is in some serious trouble. Before Sue Ellen can tell her full story, her car veers off a deserted road and she is killed.

Meanwhile, when a local veterinarian is shot, China's friend Mack Chambers believes his murder could be related to fawns stolen from a nearby ranch. China wonders if Sue Ellen’s death may not have been an accident, and if there’s a connection to the stolen animals. But their search for the truth may put their own lives in danger…

My comments and recommendations: 
The only part of Texas I have ever visited is Brownsville on the border with Mexico, so it was very interesting to read more about that state in this novel, Bittersweet. The birding is glorious, but also interesting are other events, such as the craze for game hunting on special ranches that import and breed deer for this sport.

More than invasive species of plants is at stake here. Deer and fawn are being imported from other states, which is illegal. A fascinating story and an equally fascinating mystery that is tied in to game hunting in Texas. I assume that this importing and breeding of deer is factual and incorporated into the mystery. A great read on many levels.

Objective rating: 5/5

Thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy of this book.

Book Review: Widow's Tears by Susan Wittig Albert

Title: Widow's Tears: China Bayles #21 by Susan Wittig Albert
Paperback published April 1, 2014; Berkley Prime Crime
Genre: mystery, paranormal
Objective rating: 4.5/5

There are several things I liked about the new novel in the China Bayles mystery series:

1. The description of various plants and flowers at the beginning of most chapters, and their meaning in flower lore. Blue iris means "I have a message for you" while a violet represents love and faithfulness. Widow's tears are also called dayflowers, are invasive; and represent grief. I have both iris and widow's tears in the back yard. Should I keep the widow's tears?

2. Learning about one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history, if not the most destructive. On September 8, 1900, the Great Galveston Hurricane hit Galveston Island, Texas, killed eight to twelve thousand people, and changed the city and the island with its storm surges and winds.

3. The unique plot of this novel is linked to the hurricane - the story of Rachel Blackwood who lost her family and her beloved house in Galveston in 1900. She rebuilt the house in another location. In the present day, China Bayles and her psychic friend Ruth are left to tussle with a ghost that haunts this house. Ruth's friend Claire inherited the house, wants to turn it into a B and B, but first asks Ruth to deal with the strange noises and a ghostly apparition that wanders in and around it.

I was intrigued by the story although I had to let my guard down a bit for the paranormal aspects of the novel. Paranormal is not my usual genre, though I did enjoy this one. The ghost in the old house is very much present and a part of the plot action in Widow's Tears. The mystery portion of the plot  - bank robberies and a murder - takes a back seat in this novel, but I didn't mind at all. An enjoyable and tantalizing book on many levels.

Thanks to Berkley Prime Crime for a review copy for their book tour of Widow's Tears.   

Two Book Reviews: Naughty in Nice; and The Tale of Castle Cottage

These two cozies are English though written by authors in California and Texas. Naughty in Nice, A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen and The Tale of Castle Cottage: the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter by Susan Wittig Albert are both nostalgic mysteries, one set in the 1930s when the British vacationed on the Riviera and hobnobbed with the rich and famous, and the other in the very early 1900s, when children's author Beatrix Potter lived and wrote about animals in the English countryside.


The Tale of Castle Cottage is a very cozy cozy, set in the English countryside, with various animals representing the inhabitants of a village in the English Lake District. Here Beatrix Potter spends her summer of 1913 working and renovating Castle Cottage, the place where she and her fiance William Heelis will live after they marry. Theft from the construction sites and the death of a carpenter are the meat of the mystery novel, and the romantic aspect is supplied by Beatrix's engagement, which is frowned on by her parents.

This cozy is for readers who have nostalgia for all things British and especially for Beatrix Potter, author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and other children's stories. (My favorite character in the Potter stories was the hedgehog in The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy Winkle!)

In Naughty in Nice, a novel set in 1933, the main character is Lady Georgina (Georgie) Rannoch, a descendant of Queen Victoria. Georgie is a favorite of the current Queen Mary, wife of King Edward, who sends her to the Riviera to recover a valuable snuff box stolen from her by one Sir Toby Groper, an unscrupulous character living in Nice.

Famous persons of the day crop up on the Riviera. The Prince of Wales and Mrs. Simpson appear, and Georgie stays in her mother's villa with the famous designer Coco Chanel, who grooms her as a model for the Chanel collection of the season. When Sir Toby is murdered, however, Georgie finds herself a suspect.

I read eagerly through three-quarters of the book but balked at the spot where Georgie is arrested. This change in the plot didn't sit well with me for some reason, and I flipped through the rest of the mystery just to find how the book would end. I knew of course that the true criminal would be found and charged with the murder. Overall, though, I enjoyed the period setting, descriptions of the Riviera, historical tidbits, and the lively characters of Georgie and her mother.

The books were sent to me by the publisher, The Berkley Publishing Group, for possible review. My opinions are in no way influenced by my receiving complimentary copies of the books.

Book Reviews: A Clutch of Cozy Mysteries

I have been enjoying these cozy mysteries from Berkley Publishing, review copies sent by the publisher. What a bonanza for summer reading! Here are my comments on the books.


Title: The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Release date: July 5, 2011

Comments: In this cute Southern cozy, the Darling Dahlias are a group of women in Alabama in the 1930s who have formed a garden club, and the "naked ladies" is the nickname given to a type of lily that sheds its flowers and leaves and comes up as a naked stalk, only to bloom again in a few days. The title could also refer to the Naughty and Nice Sisters, dancers from the Ziegfeld Frolic, who suddenly show up in town.

"So this woman is incognito," she said, buttering a piece of hot corn bread. "I guess that means she doesn't want anybody in town to know that she was in vaudeville." (ch. 4)

The Dahlias set out to uncover their secrets, and the novel gives the reader the added bonus of gardening information, southern style recipes and some good old fashioned household cleaning tips.



Title: Unraveled by Maggie Sefton
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
Release date: June 7, 2011

Comments: A group of friends near Fort Connor, Colorado welcome Eustace Freemont, a writer of Old West history, who has come to town to do research on "modern" outlaws of the West, namely the big shots in real estate and energy development. Kelly Flynn, a CPA and a member of the local knitting club, accompanies her real estate friend Jennifer to visit a ranch and find the real estate developer/owner shot and killed. She becomes involved in finding out if it was suicide or a crime,and who might be responsible.

Jennifer looked up, her brown eyes huge. "Oh, my gawd! I can't believe we've walked in on another corpse. Kelly...we can't come into the canyon together anymore. Not alone, anyway." (ch. 3)

A knitting pattern for a summer tee, a recipe for Yummy Chocolate Cake, and  the story of Kelly's love interest add to the spiciness of the book. I would have preferred "proper introductions" to the many friends of Kelly's, however, as they enter the story only through conversation and speech. I kept track of them by taking notes!


Title: Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Release date: July 5, 2011

Comments:  Lindsey Norris is director of the Briar Creek Public Library in Connecticut, trying to help one of her librarians, Beth, to get her children's book published. The chance arrives when a well known editor, Sydney Carlisle, visits the town. Sydney is really the editor for Beth's boyfriend, well-known writer Rick Eckman, who lives on a nearby island off the Connecticut coast. Rick, however, is adamant that Beth's book is not good enough to be published.
When Rick is murdered, the police suspect Beth as she was the one who found his body and the one with the most obvious motive. Lindsey thinks otherwise and sets out to prove it, with a little help from her current love interest, Capt. Mike Sullivan.

"Chief Daniels," he said."He's going to take the shortest route from point A to point B and completely disregard anything that doesn't fit into his preconceived notion of what happened." (ch. 9)

I really enjoyed this Library Lover's mystery, being a big library fan myself.



Title: How to Moon a Cat by Rebecca M. Hale
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Release date: July 5, 2011

Comments:  This is the third in the Cats and Curios Mystery series but the first read of the series for me. History buffs interested in California's Gold Rush era will enjoy this mystery that begins with the finding of a California flag and a toy bear in a deceased collector's stash, hidden behind the walls of his old apartment, and discovered by his neice and the curious paws of a cat.

This toy bear might well be a clue to one of Oscar's hidden treasures, I thought excitedly. I flipped the paper flag over and read the message printed on the opposite side.
Shiny gold lettering typed out  the words: NEVADA CITY, CALIFORNIA. (ch. 4)

Other people are searching for the treasure too, and there is danger in Nevada City! Definitely a lot of research went into this cozy!

Book Review: Mourning Gloria by Susan Wittig Albert

Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

Donna held up the flyer reading aloud. "Magical Mystical Plants. Come to Ruby Wilcox's Shamanic Garden to learn about some of the many mysterious plants that have taken people on magical journeys. Tobacco, morning glories, datura, wormwood, Salvia divinorum, and many others. Garden talk by China Byles. Guided garden visit by Ruby Wilcox."
She raised her eyebrows. "You two aren't offering drug trips, are you? " (ch. 2)

Mourning Gloria (China Bayles Mystery) by Susan Wittig Albert
Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; (April 5, 2011)
Genre: herbal mystery
Source: Publisher
Objective rating: 3.75 out of 5

Comments: You learn not only about different plants, flowers, and their medicinal or hallucinatory effects, but you enter the world of the main character, herbalist China Bayles, owner of  the herb and tea shop, Thyme and Seasons, who is also a vendor at the Pecan Springs Farmers' Market.

China is also an amateur sleuth. The plot and murder in this novel revolves around some of these hallucinogenic plants, as suggested in the clever title, Mourning Gloria. A lot of research went into the novel which is informative as well as an entertaining mystery. Garden enthusiasts will enjoy this newest in the China Bayles herbal mystery series.

Publisher's description: "While Pecan Springs bustles back to life in the warmth of spring, one woman's life is tragically brought to an end. China Bayles happens upon a burning house trailer and hears a woman screaming for help. The evidence leaves no doubt that it's arson homicide.
Jessica Nelson, an intern-reporter at the local paper, is assigned to cover the story. But she's gotten herself too deeply involved. When Jessica disappears, China is determined to find her, before she becomes headlines herself."

For more on the series, visit Susan Wittig Albert's website at http://www.susanalbert.com./ Her facebook address is www.facebook.com/susan.w.albert.

Book Review: Spanish Dagger by Susan Wittig Albert

The yucca plant common to the Southwest USA is also known as Spanish Dagger because of its sharp narrow leaves, pointed at the tips.

Spanish Dagger, a mystery novel by Susan Wittig Albert, sets its murder victim right in the middle of a patch of yucca. The body of a man is found by herbalist China Bayles while she was out gathering leaves of the yucca plant for a papermaking class.

Tidbits of herbal lore pepper the leaves of the novel, at the beginning of each chapter:

Tequila is made from the blue yukka (agave), sorry, I mean yucca, and has the same healing properties as the fresh plant. So no problem with those margaritas!

Juice from the Yucca plant is also good for lathering your hair and bathing.

Anyway, if you like your mysteries spiced with herbal lore, here is a book for you.