The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree (Darling Dahlias Mysteries)

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780425234457
• Notes: BUY WITH Poise, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and assignment to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
• Condition: New

Description

The country may be struggling through the Great Depression, but the good ladies of Darling, Alabama, are determined to keep their chins up and their town beautiful. Their garden club, the Darling Dahlias, has just inherited a new clubhouse and garden, complete with two beautiful cucumber trees in full bloom.

But life in Darling is not all garden parties and rosemary lemonade.

When local blond bombshell Bunny Scott is found in a suspicious car wreck, the Dahlias decide to dig into the town's buried secrets, and club members Lizzy, Ophelia, and Verna soon find leads sprouting up faster than weeds. The town is all abuzz with news of an escaped convict from the prison farm, rumors of trouble at the bank, and tales of a ghost heard digging around the cucumber tree. If anyone can get to the root of these mysteries, it's the Darling Dahlias.

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Customer Reviews

Wonderful read!
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Different from so many of the mysteries on the market. I hope there will be many more in this series.

2010-07-27 | Book Lover (Colorado) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Susan Wittig Albert
I was sort of disappointed that this was not a China Bayle book. I have gotten hooked on those. This is good but I guess it was not what I had been expecting. Well written with good information thrown in for horticulture.

2010-07-22 (Northern MI United States) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Fun time travel!
As a fan of the China Bayles books by this author I was alreay predisposed to liking this book, but it was really a treat. Not only are there great characters and good storylines, the references to clothes, home appliances, movies and prices of goods at the time really enrich the story. It's an uplifting story about friendship, "making do" in tough times and knowing what's important, and it's a well-plotted mystery.

2010-07-17 | doc lesser (Valdese, NC) | Helpful Votes: 3 | Rating: 5

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FRIENDSHIPS AND FLOWERS
An above average novel set in 1930 in a little town in Alabama. The Darling Dahlias are a group of women who like friendships and flowers. They are of various ages and occupations. There are three mysteries in this book and various Dahlias set out to find the answers. A very good introduction to the characters of this new series.

2010-07-11 | JEANNE (Dallas, TX) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

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The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree
This is the first book of a new series by Susan Wittig Albert. It's set in the 1930s.

The 'Darling Dahlias' are members of a club consisting of a group of friends who love to garden. (Darling after the name of the town, and Dahlia after the name of the founder of the club.) They have inherited Dahlia's now rundown house and what had been a beautiful garden. As they begin to work on the place, now their clubhouse, they become involved with a ghost who haunts the gardens of the house, with an accident that turns out to be a murder, a friend who is accused of embezzling from the bank, and an escaped convict!

The people are fun to know, (even the grumps), and gossip about a possible bank failure, possible illicit affairs, and a stolen car runs rampant in the town.

Following the various women as they set about to solve the mysteries and pin down the gossip is intriguing and entertaining.

Different from the China Bayles stories, but just as good a read. I very much enjoyed it.

2010-07-10 (El Segundo, CA) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

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Wormwood (China Bayles Mystery)

Product Details

• ISBN13: 9780425233863
• Prepare: New
• Notes: BUY WITH Belief, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and appointment to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Description

Evil can worm its way into the purest of hearts...

China Bayles needs rest, and a historic Shaker village in Kentucky seems the ideal place for it. There she can learn about the intriguing, dwindling Shaker culture and its medicinal herbs. Unfortunately, the village is plagued with misfortune and strife. China wonders if, with the help of some age-old journals full of scandal, she can get to the bottom of it. But 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.

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Customer Reviews

A wonderful book
I have read all the books in the China Bayles series, and think this is one of the best. I really enjoyed learning about the "Shakers." Ms Albert's style of going from the past to the present was done very well and added a lot to the story. I certainly recommend this book.

2010-05-06 (Pacific Northwest) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Mystery story and Shaker history
I really enjoy anything written by Susan Wittig Albert. This book only gets 4 stars because China is on a road trip with a friend to a retreat center at an historic Shaker village. I prefer when China is solving mysteries at home in Pecan Springs, with her family and friends we have grown to love and know so well. The novel has a mystery that took me a while to figure out; there is also a history lesson about how the Shakers lived, I enjoyed this and learned a lot. And there is a mystery from the Shaker time, the resolution of that was surprising to me. The author has an email newsletter that has fun facts about herbs and lots of interesting information, if you really enjoy her writing, take a minute to go to her website and sign up.

2010-04-25 | Survivor Fan (Richmond VA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Road trip for China
#17 China Bayles "herbal" mystery, generally set in Texas, but in this book is set in Mt. Zion, KY where China travels with old friend Martha to assist her doing herbal workshops at an old Shaker museum. Or at least that's what China thinks--on the drive there, Martha confesses that she has ulterior motives in asking China along, that there are some problems with the way the Shaker village museum is being run. Martha has ties to the old Shaker village as her Aunt Charity was a Sister in that community for many years, having left abruptly in 1912, not long before it closed down. Martha's also curious about why her aunt departed so suddenly, since she never mentioned anything about it to her family.

She figures that China's cover as an herbalist will work well, even as China the lawyer digs around in the paperwork to find out what is happening legally with Mt. Zion. Since they are well on their way when Martha springs this on her, she reluctantly agrees although she was loathe to leave home for two weeks, with a lot of turmoil there as well. The story is actually two mysteries, one back in 1912 within the Shaker community, the other in modern times, and the narrative of the book goes back and forth between the two.

While I knew a little bit about the Shakers, I found this a fascinating look at their culture and what life was like in one of their communities--certainly not all tranquil bliss like the image they projected! The mysteries themselves were rather easy to work out, but I enjoyed the two storylines entwining, and definitely liked this much better than the last book in the series which was told partly from China's husband McQuaid's point of view. The only thing really missing was China's usual setting back at her herb shop and all her friends and family there--that's two books in a row now where there has not been nearly enough of Ruby, Cass, Brian and his menagerie and the rest of the gang, and I really do hope they are back in the upcoming Holly Blues!

2009-12-25 | Spuddie (Minneapolis, MN, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Where's the mystery?
Love the series but not this book. Sure Pecan Springs is the town I wish I lived in. But Albert showed us in "Bloodroot" that China Bayles can mix herbs and mystery out of PS (and blend some history in for good measure). "Wormwood" has 2 thoroughly predictable "mysteries," herbs definitely take backstage (good grief, her friend even makes the same lunch she served back in "Bloodroot"), and a quite contrived plot device to bring China out of PS and into KY. Also the turn-about in the character of her friend Ms. Edmunds was so drastic. In "Bloodroot," you have a calm and intelligent older woman (same age as China's mother); in "Wormwood" you have someone who acts like she's a few fries short of a full pack herself. Whenever one character said, "Do the [obvious thing that needs to be done]" and the other character says, "Good idea!" I just cringed. And since when did China become a mealy-mouthed little miss with a sheriff? Where's the China of "Mistletoe Man?" I'll keep reading the series; I've read the first chapter of the new book from the website and it already sounds a lot better than Wormwood.

2009-11-02 | BB (NJ, USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 2

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Visit a Shaker Village
"The Wormwoods...belong to the genus Artemesia, a group consisting of 180 species...is remarkable for the extreme bitterness of all parts of the plant." (ref. A Modern Herbal, 1931 by Mrs. M. Griev) The book, Wormwood, by Susan Wittig Albert, may be somewhat of a departure from the normal China Bayles mystery, but it is definitely not bitter in any of its parts as we savor this herbal mystery like a finely brewed cup of tea.

The past few weeks have taken a toll on China; first the discovery of a half-brother she hadn't know about, and then his subsequent tragic murder. (See Nightshade) She is beyond frazzled and as Cass, her business partner and friend puts it, "..the rest of us agree that you have become increasingly egotistical, arrogant, and overbearing, and that you need some time off to regain your humility and sweetness of spirit." Now China is going off on a two week jaunt to visit an historic Shaker Village and teach herbal lore with a friend of her mother's named Martha, whom she met while helping her mother with Aunt Tullie in Jordan's Crossing, Mississippi (see Bloodroot). Little does China know that the easy, relaxing getaway she has planned will turn into another action packed murder mystery that she will be asked to investigate.

Over the years, the character of our heroine has evolved so that a foray on her own without the usual cohorts will show us that a troupe of new characters make for an exciting twist in Albert's writing. Interspersed within the tale are flashes from the lives and journal excerpts of the Shakers who lived at (fictional) Mount Zion, Kentucky. Rich with herbal lore and history, Wormwood gives us a glimpse of Shaker communities that were outwardly portrayed as peaceful, almost like a Garden of Eden. With the finesse of a master composer, Albert has her character plunge into the troubled history of the colony to connect the current day problems with the misdeeds of the past.

Herb fanciers will love the lore and recipes included within the story and followers of the China Bayles series will enjoy a refreshing sojourn into another aspect of her character while meeting new friends that we hope will return to visit in Pecan Springs.

by Rhonda Esakov
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

2009-09-01 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Holly Blues (China Bayles Mystery)

Product Details

• Ready: New
• ISBN13: 9780425232606
• Notes: BUY WITH Conviction, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and putting into play to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Description

"In a class with...sleuths V.I. Warshawski and Stephanie Plum," China Bayles deals with a most unwelcome guest...

China Bayles is fit to spit when her husband's troubled ex-wife, Sally, shows up at her herb shop, claiming to be broke with nowhere else to turn. China isn't sure if it's the goodness of her heart or the scent of Christmas wreaths, but she invites Sally to stay.

Then China starts receiving menacing calls from an "ex" of Sally's, who seems to have a connection to the murder of her parents nearly a decade ago. With her P.I. husband out of town, it's up to China to weed out the truth behind whatever it is Sally's running from before danger catches up to all of them....

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Customer Reviews

Series Going Downhill
I have read all the China Bayles books and always looked forward to them, but the past several have been disappointments, none more so than the latest, Holly Blues. As several other reviewers have noted, it reads as if someone else is doing the writing, and there is certainly a lack of decent editing. Too many inconsistencies, too many stream-of-consciousness thoughts that have nothing to do with the plot, the character development (or lack thereof), or anything relevant or interesting to the reader. There was no mystery...I kept reading to see if there were going to be something unexpected, but there wasn't. And China's ramblings--or inner thought processes--were both repetitive and, quite frankly, inane. I really hate when a previously favorite series goes astray, but I'm afraid that's what has happened here. I may not be visiting Pecan Springs again.

2010-06-20 (Baltimore, MD United States) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 2

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Great!
I truly enjoy this whole series. I eagerly await each new title. This one did not disappoint!

2010-06-06 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Herb Lady again
Years ago when I was really into herbs, growing them, enjoying them I cold not get enough of Susan Wittig Albert. She had her own newsletter full of herbal facts and great stories.
Her books are still a delight although I live in Arizona now and I am limited to a greenhouse herbs. I aways enjoy her books. They follow in line from one book to the others.
If, you could go back to the beginning as her life and books are full of characters who are like your next door neighbor.
A delight and she gives recipes in the back of the book. They are always good ones too!

2010-05-23 | Sierras Creative World (Over the Rainbow .. far away) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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I have the Holly Blues
I own every single one of the China Bayles mysteries, most of them in hard cover. This may be the last one I buy. Why? Because I'm halfway through the book and I have put it aside to read something else. Three China Bayles mysteries ago, I would have read it in one sitting and then been disappointed that there was no more to read.

I thought that Wormwood was a disappointment, but every author is entitled to a miss instead of a hit once in a while. It's not that the mystery in Holly Blues is so lame, or that I object to the different points of view in the novel. I do object to sloppiness. Where did Sally really park her car? In the First Congregational Church parking lot? In the Methodist Church parking lot? Both are mentioned as the location of the missing car, and on the same page, no less. Then there was McQuaid's revelation that when he met China Bayles and she said she was about to give up the law to open an herb shop in Pecan Springs, he immediately decided he would move there. Why then did the previous books usually mention China butting heads with McQuaid when she was a Houston criminal lawyer and he a Houston homicide officer?

The burning question in my mind is, who really wrote this book? It is not up to Susan Albert's standards. Or is the author spreading herself too thin with China, the now-defunct Robin Paige series, the Beatrix Potter series, and the new Darling Dahlias? Is this why China now has an herb shop, a tea room, a catering service, gourmet meal service, and a hard and fast rule that her family all sit down to a home cooked dinner together every evening? (What evening would you be available, China?)

2010-05-20 | haunter of library (Houston, Texas United States) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 3

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Always a Fan!
I have read all of the China Bayles Mysteries and Beatrix Potter's Cottage Tales by Susan Albert because once you meet her characters you can't quit reading the latest events in their lives! Holly Blues takes us into knowing more about China's husband's ex wife and the messes that she creates wherever she goes. The events create glimpses that give soul to China and McQuaid and the "Blues" that often go with families at Christmas. The mystery seemed secondary to what the tale shows about the characters in Holly Blues. I will always be a fan!

2010-05-20 (Englewood, Fl) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Tale of Applebeck Orchard (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix P)

Description

The latest delightful tale in Albert's Beatrix Potter series.

Out of spite for having his haystacks burnt, Mr. Harmsworth barricades a common path through his orchard-and Tabitha Twitchet and her Cat Council want answers. Reliable witnesses, including some Big Folk, say the arson was the handiwork of a lantern-wielding specter. The mournful ghost has a message-and Miss Potter, for one, hopes to figure it out.

Meanwhile in Sawrey, romance buds between the schoolmarm and a confirmed bachelor; Hyacinth Badger hopes to be the first female to earn the Badger Badge of Honor; and a rumor has Beatrix and the solicitor practically betrothed. But the matter of the barricade involves everyone-and Miss Potter and her friends might have to take matters into their own hands-and paws.

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Customer Reviews

Pleasant series
I ran across the first book of this series by chance and loved it and everyone after. Easy, fun reads. Enjoyable. True, this series does not have the more complex plots of the author's other books but they aren't suppose to. The series has to come to an end soon, another book or two. I will hate to see this wonderful story conclude even though I want it to so I know the finish. I read up on Ms.Potter after starting the books. She appeared to have lived a full life. Like most of us, a normal, wonderful life filled with love and tragedy and love again, and perhaps a little something more. These books are a friendly treat. Don't miss out.

2010-05-01 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Best book in the series so far
An incredibly romantic and satisfying book for fans of this series. Very, very cozy so don't expect any huge action scenes. If you've invested in the lead characters at all, you will enjoy this book. One caveat, if you are new to the series, DO NOT start with this one.

2010-02-26 (Jacksonville, FL) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Tale of Applebeck Orchard (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix
This book along with the others about Beatrix Potter by Susan Wittig Albert has continued to enchant and satisfy my two grandchildren (8 & 10), my daughter who reads to them every night and me, an old, old lady. How I ever picked up the first one is beyond me but I am so glad that I did. I see each book in color, in action and look forward to any others she writes. I appreciate the opportunity of sharing these comments.

2010-01-27 | BetwixtnBetween (Morgan's Point) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 5

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Retired Teacher/Beatrix Potter unit of studies

As someone who has stayed in a rental near Hill Top Cottage, I am so familiar with the settings of Susan Wittig Albert's books about Beatrix, and the tales get better with each one. I enjoy the almost poetic descriptions of the sunrise and other nature descriptions. May she write more, as Beatrix's life involved the National Trust,and it's heritage, as well as her lovely animal stories. I would love to talk to Susan! G.R. Drysdale

2010-01-22 (Hockessin, DE) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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I love this series
I have all the books in this series - and am thoroughly enjoying the unfolding story, especially the love stories told from the animals' points of view. I like a little walk in fantasy land, and that's what these stories are - with a dollop of intrigue and/or mystery to keep them interesting.

2010-01-12 (Fort Wayne, IN USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Tale of Hill Top Farm (The Cottage Tales of Beatrix P)

Product Details

• Prerequisite: New
• ISBN13: 9780425201015
• Notes: BUY WITH Self-assurance, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and help to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Description

The author of Peter Rabbit and other tales, Beatrix Potter is still, after a century, beloved by children and adults worldwide. In this first Cottage Tale, Albert introduces Beatrix, an animal lover and Good Samaritan with a knack for solving mysteries. With help from her entourage of talking animal friends, Beatrix sets out to win over the human hearts of Sawrey, where she's just bought an old farm--and plans to stay.

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Customer Reviews

The Tale of Hill Top Farm
Animals can't talk, but I have never come so close to accepting their human vocal capabilities as in this
charming tale. I am soon to travel to the Lake District and stay in a home once owned by B. Potter and will
look for details of her life there. I willread other books in this series by Susan Albert.

2010-07-24 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Beatrix Potter as an amateur detective
I have always been a Beatrix Potter fan. This was a fun, light read integrating a historical person with some of her book characters. There is a mystery to be solved, but I mostly enjoyed the characters and seeing a glimpse of Beatrix's life. Yes, there are talking animals, but they are not heard by people and it fits with the story well. The author brings the delight of Beatrix's stories into a new set of tales.

2010-02-05 (Tucson, AZ USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Animals Make Good Detectives
I have read about everything Susan Wittig Albert has written and have thoroughly enjoyed each of them. This Tale of Hill Top Farm is especially fun because of the animal gumshoes. Anyone who has animals knows how much they pay attention to the household. Of course they know more about what goes on than the people. Keep up the good work Susan, looking forward to the next one.

2009-12-02 (Texas, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Cozy, leisurely--and rich as a currant scone
Apart from Peter Rabbit and the rest of the menagerie, part of every childhood, I've been fond of Beatrix Potter since viewing The Tale of Beatrix Potter on Masterpiece Theater in the early 1990s; rooting for her as she went from repressed Victorian spinster to successful published author, through her tragic love affair, her bid for independence at Hill Top Farm, and her well-earned happiness in later life.

Susan Wittig Albert has done an amazing thing with her Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. She's incorporated the character of Beatrix Potter into cozy village mysteries with overtones of Miss Marple and Potter's own animal stories. The villages of Near and Far Sawrey are full of similar undercurrents to those of St. Mary Meade and far from being twee, the animals are active participants. Their observations and machinations are integral parts of the story, and provide gentle humor and plot twists as needed. The beauty of the area around Lake Windermere is on every page, and how Beatrix Potter changes and is changed by by Sawrey and its inhabitants is a wonderful weekend read.

Hill Top Farm contains several mysteries; was Miss Tolliver murdered? What happened to the Parish Register, Miss Tolliver's Constable, and the School Roof Fund? Can city mouse Tom Thumb find happiness with Teasel after Hunca-Munca's tragic death? Why did Miss Tolliver leave her cottage to a near stranger? What will happen to the Jennings?

The characters are varied and interesting, not the least is the rather shy and repressed Miss Potter, whose timid forays into independence are chronicled most believably. From Miss Potter's inimitable pets Josey, Mopsy and Mrs. Tiggy Winkle, the animals of Near Sawrey, Crumpet, Max and Felicia Frummety, the humans such as the aptly named Miss Crabbe, the almost-outrageous Miss Barwick, and the solicitor Mr. Heelis. Though we know one of these characters will become of increasing importance, it'll be so much fun to see how Ms. Albert tells the story.

These books are not to be read in a hurry, nor by a reader with a short attention span. They are to be savored and enjoyed. While the pace may seem slow to readers of contemporary mysteries, the book is full of the charm of a small English village at the turn of the 20th century, and the interdependence and kindness of those who live there. Ms. Albert is pitch-perfect.

2009-09-28 | jody@vanwert.com (Northwest Ohio) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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The Tale of Hill Top Farm
The Tale of Hill Top Farm is a wonderful book. I've read it twice and will reread it because it is like a delicious casserole on a wintery day __ real comfort food for the mind. I think that Susan Wittig Albert's books should appear on audio tape, or better still, video tape for children because she writes so grammatically and with a wonderful sense of style and vocabulary. Her work would be a great teacher of language skills. She uses her animals for life lessons, especially when she attaches the lessons to those of the inhabitants of the Sawreys. The description of the villages and of the architecture and the foods make me long for life in the early 1900s. In addition to all of the above good things, Albert does a splendid job of blending the facts with fiction of Beatrix Potter's life. Because of this book, I've bought all the rest in the series plus a good number of others about Beatrix Potter and the Lake District.

2009-09-19 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Bloodroot (China Bayles Mystery)

Description

Herbalist China Bayles returns to the Deep South, where her family's legacy of silence is at last broken-and the past finally, unforgettably, speaks the truth.

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Customer Reviews

Thread of Paranormal
Interesting, informative and entertaining. A thriller mystery that brings the knowledge of a herbalist through it. Her knowledge of herbs for medicinal as well as homicidal uses while she searches for her heredity gives it a fascinating twist.
A fast moving mystery taking place in a typical deep south small town with its deception and bigotry. A thread of the paranormal is ever present and adds to the intrigue to the many facets of the story.

2010-07-05 | author "Beneath and Beyond" (AZ) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 3

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Bloodroot
As usual Susan Wittig Albert has written an excellent mystery dealing with her female herbalist this time her own family history.

2009-09-30 | not enough time (Redlands, CA U) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Engrossing, strong installment in the China Bayles series
In Bloodroot (Berkley, 2001) Susan Wittig Albert has written a novel that probes the depths of generational family secrets through a multi-layered story of kinship bonds and lost loves. China Bayles, Albert's venerable protagonist of (currently) seventeen published novels and many short stories, has left the relatively comfortable confines of her herb business in Pecan Springs, Texas to join her mother, Leatha and Aunt Tullie at Jordan's Crossing, the Coldwell family plantation in the Yazoo Valley of Mississippi. What is supposed to be a short trip to help her mother and Aunt Tullie get the plantation affairs in order turns into a labyrinthine exploration of the generations of families who have lived on the plantation, and the mysteries surrounding their legacies.

Albert is not a writer who shies away from tough issues, and though some classify the China Bayles novels as "cozy," Bloodroot is anything but. In addition to a fever-pitch climactic scene, she tackles such subjects as the repercussions of inherited disease; Native American land rights; several varieties of "forbidden love" and other topics. China's investigation of the present-day affairs of the plantation lead her head-on into the buried secrets of her ancestors' past. The body count was three as far as I could tell, and even though only one takes place in the present, they're all very relevant for China as she seeks to set the affairs of the plantation in order.


Although readers accustomed to the series will miss the presence of regulars like McQuaid and Ruby, Bloodroot works very well as a stand-alone novel. Albert is at the top of her writing game here, magically evoking the deeply atmospheric and beautiful environment of rural Mississippi on the page. Her handling of a number of complex story lines has never been better.


This book brought to mind several interesting perspectives on family secrets and the nature of history. We often tend to view the past as quaint, we romanticize it. But our ancestors faced all sorts of difficult relationships, economic hardships, deaths, etc. Sure the time period and cultural context was different, but they were human experiences all the same. China's realization of this, which is never preachy, reveals a tender strain of love that binds and separates her relatives.


Albert's emphasis on love and remembrance shows us, in some way, why we do the things we do. We don't know the extent of what people have faced in their lives that leads them to be the kinds of people they are. Often such events are purposely buried, but never forgotten. They haunt the present in more ways than we might anticipate.

2009-09-29 (Michigan and Arkansas, USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 5

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Something completely different
China is summoned by her mother to the home of her great-aunt Tullie at Jordan's Crossing, the plantation that had been in her mother's family for generations. Her mother's phone call had not been a simple invitation but a demand. There was a mysterious disappearance of a man only hours after Aunt Tullie had whacked him in the head with her cane. The more questions China asks, the more confusing and detailed the story becomes, until she finds herself discovering answers to secrets long buried by her ancestors. Nothing is as it seems in her mother's family, and some questions are never meant to be answered.

My mother always said you shouldn't shake your family tree too much because a monkey might fall out of it. That is a warning that China should have taken to heart in this tale. This book was completely different from others in this series, different setting, different feel to the characters, but I have to say it was one of the best ones I've read so far. I had the whole thing figured out way before China did and there were several times when I wanted to reach out and shake her and tell her to get back to her room and READ, but I still enjoyed this tale. It gets a 4 from me.

2009-08-06 (Johnston City, IL USA) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Families weave a tangled web
I am a fan of the China Bayles series - the down-home touches and the little bits of information about herbs and herbology always give me pleasure. Usually China is busily interfering with the local police, but in this departure from the typical fare, we find China instead returning to her own roots in Mississippi. She comes down to help her mother, and in the process learns some ... unpleasant truths about her family history.

I don't like to give too much away about the book, so I'll just say that I enjoyed this book as I've enjoyed all the China Bayles books. Those who enjoy a good mystery without a lot of tension, blood and gore will find that curling up with a nice cup of tea (herbal, of course!) is the perfect time to read this entry into the tantalizing and always entertaining China Bayles series.

2008-10-24 | Obsessive bibliophile (Athens, GA USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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