Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series follows ex-lawyer and amateur sleuth China, who also happens to be an herbalist. The series has followed China through now twenty novels of murder mystery interwoven with excerpts from herbal books, recipes, and facts thrown into the mix. I love herbs, and so I love these books which keep me turning pages like a mad woman. You will tear through them in no time. I am in the middle of a six day work week myself, and finished the book by day four.
This book is a bit different from the others I have read in this series. In what is probably the beginning of a new pattern, Susan also writes from the perspective of Police Chief Shiela Dawson, known to China as “Tough Cookie.” I really enjoy Shiela’s character, and I think her by-the-book approach is a needed balance to China’s habits of investigation the old fashion way– by eavesdropping, trespassing, and generally getting her nose into other people’s business. Not that I don’t love her for it! Shiela gets a look that China has no access to in the police department, and other cases which may be related (hint hint), while China has the pulse of community gossip and the tack of a sharp ex-lawyer willing to take a few risks.
This book was an easy and delicious read. I enjoyed the new perspective of Shiela and the way it was alternated with China. I loved the theme of Cat’s Claw, and the occasional deep moments of both Shiela and China when it came to the thoughts on working a job where you have to get used to death and being outnumbered by men, the relationship between man and the wild, as well as an awareness through China’s eyes of how humans affect their environment with the growth of real estate into the Texas Hill Country.
Mmmm, yummy can’t wait for the next. In the meantime, I’ll be rereading the other nineteen in the series.
on Amazon
