China Bayles is in a pickle. The daughter of her best friend, Ruby, has turned up on her doorstep, pregnant and in need of a place to live. And her otherwise sensible husband has announced that he's bored with teaching and ready for a career change. Say hello to P.I. Mike McQuaid and Associates. There aren't actually any associates - unless you count Ruby and China, of course. But the title does have a nice, official ring to it. His first client is Phoebe the Pickle Queen, owner of the biggest little pickle business in Texas. According to Phoebe, her plant manager is embezzling, and she wants ... View More...
This Thanksgiving, be grateful for the "savvy sleuthing"* of New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles--who teams up with an old friend to solve a case of theft and murder in a South Texas ranching community... For Thanksgiving, China is planning to visit her mother, Leatha, and her mother's husband, Sam. She's also looking forward to catching up with a friend, game warden Mackenzie "Mack" Chambers. But Leatha calls with bad news: Sam has had a heart attack. While Sam recuperates, Leatha does have a helper--Sue Ellen Krause. But Sue Ellen--who's leaving her husband... View More...
This Thanksgiving, be grateful for the "savvy sleuthing"* of New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles--who teams up with an old friend to solve a case of theft and murder in a South Texas ranching community... For Thanksgiving, China is planning to visit her mother, Leatha, and her mother's husband, Sam. She's also looking forward to catching up with a friend, game warden Mackenzie "Mack" Chambers. But Leatha calls with bad news: Sam has had a heart attack. While Sam recuperates, Leatha does have a helper--Sue Ellen Krause. But Sue Ellen--who's leaving her husband... View More...
When local football coach and hero Tim Duffy is accused of improper behavior, lawyer-turned-herbalist China Bayles investigates, following a trail of obsession and murder that may lead to her own doorstep. View More...
Lawyer-turned-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... A frantic phone call from her mother brings China back to her family's Mississippi plantation--a place she'd forsaken long ago. But the late-spring air is thick with fear--and from the moment of her arrival, China knows that something has gone desperately wrong at Jordan's Crossing. An ancient property deed has surfaced--and the man who uncovered it has mysteriously vanished. And as the fates and fortunes of two very di... View More...
She planted the seeds of mystery stardom with her first book, Thyme of Death. She continued growing with such highly-praised follow-ups as Witches' Bane and Love Lies Bleeding. Now Susan Wittig Albert's career blooms with a flourish -- with the brand-new offering Chile Death. View More...
Susan Wittig Albert's exciting mysteries have been praised as "unique" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) and "fascinating" (Booklist). Now, a dead man's bones are uncovered--and Texas ex-lawyer and herbalist China Bayles must dig into a pair of murders separated by time but connected by motive... When China's teenage son finds some skeletal remains during a local cave dig--remains that show a not-so-accidental death--it's a disturbing development. But China doesn't let it distract her from the opening of the new community theater donated by the elderly Obermann sisters. Unfortunately, the haughty, ... View More...
In this thrilling mystery in the New York Times bestselling series, herbalist and ex-lawyer China Bayles finds herself on the trail of a nearly fifteen-year-old cold case... When China and Ruby's friend Karen Prior is mugged in a mall parking lot and dies a few days later, China begins to suspect that her friend's death was not a random assault. Karen was a filmmaker supervising a student documentary about the almost fifteen-year-old murder of a woman named Christine Morris and the acquittal of the man accused of the crime. Is it possible that the same person who killed Christine Morris targ... View More...
Ex-lawyer turned herbalist China Bayles must solve a hair-raising murder in this mystery from New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert. When a prominent animal researcher is found hanged in the midst of angry protests against his experiments, suspicion falls on biology professor Dottie Riddle. Known as the Cat Lady of Pecan Springs, Dottie's sympathy for strays--and the victim's distaste for them--gives the police reason to think she may be capable of murder. But China doesn't think so. She hires a lawyer for Dottie and starts looking around for clues. But she soon discovers that ... View More...
China Bayles isn't happy when a Texas wind blows her husband's ex-wife, and the mother of China's stepson, into her herb shop. Sally is known to have a split personality and fall into constant trouble with the law, but she claims she has nowhere else to turn. Now its up to China to weed out whatever it is Sally's running from before the truth catches up to them all. View More...
China Bayles heads to the tiny town of Indigo, Texas, to teach a Colors to Dye For workshop. But she quickly discovers that Indigo is a town with more than its share of dark secrets-secrets that someone thinks are worth killing to keep. View More...
Texas herbalist China Bayles must put her upcoming nuptials on the back burner when a murder investigation entangles her friends and neighbors. View More...
The newest in the nationally bestselling series--a fast-paced and absorbing tale (Midwest Book Review). Ex-lawyer and herb-shop proprietor China Bayles is investigating the mystery of retired Texas Ranger shot dead with his wife's gun...and at the same time trying to sort out some mysteries about her own relationship after she overhears a suspicious phone conversation... View More...
Herbalist China Bayles searches for a killer, struggles to support a troubled friend, and desperately tries to reconcile the demands of her new business with the desires of her heart. Warm witty . . . an appealing series that just keeps getting better.--Booklist. View More...
Herbalist China Bayles searches for a killer, struggles to support a troubled friend, and desperately tries to reconcile the demands of her new business with the desires of her heart. Warm witty . . . an appealing series that just keeps getting better.--Booklist. View More...
China's herb shop and catering business may be thriving, but she's still reeling from her father's death, and not even remotely interested in her half-brother Miles's investigation into that event. China's husband, on the other hand, has no such qualms. And when fate forces her to get involved as well, China realizes it's time to bring the past to light-or else it will haunt her the rest of her life. But China and McQuaid discover that Miles may have been keeping as many secrets as he seemed determined to uncover. How deep do the layers of secrecy go? And who has a stake in concealing the trut... View More...
China's herb shop and catering business may be thriving, but she's still reeling from her father's death, and not even remotely interested in her half-brother Miles's investigation into that event. China's husband, on the other hand, has no such qualms. And when fate forces her to get involved as well, China realizes it's time to bring the past to light-or else it will haunt her the rest of her life. But China and McQuaid discover that Miles may have been keeping as many secrets as he seemed determined to uncover. How deep do the layers of secrecy go? And who has a stake in concealing the trut... View More...
New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert takes China Bayles on a trip down memory lane, where one fresh murder and several cold cases force her to face her dark past... China's herb shop and catering business may be thriving, but she's still reeling from her father's death--and isn't remotely interested in her half-brother Miles's investigation of it. Although, when fate forces her to get involved, China realizes it's time to bring the past to light--or else it will haunt her the rest of her life. But China and McQuaid discover that Miles may have been keeping as many secrets as ... View More...
A present-day ghost leads China Bayles to a secret from Pecan Springs's past in this haunting mystery from New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert. While helping Ruby Wilcox clean up the loft above their shops, China comes upon a box of antique handcrafted lace and old photographs. Following the discovery, she hears a woman humming an old Scottish ballad and smells the delicate scent of lavender.... Soon, strange happenings start to occur in Thyme and Seasons. When a customer sees a mysterious woman picking flowers nearby and then suddenly disappearing, China must finally admit w... View More...
Something about the murder of an accountant just doesn't add up in this China Bayles mystery from New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert. China's herb shop in Pecan Springs wasn't a big business, but it kept her busy. So she brought her taxes to Rosemary Robbins, an accountant who reminded China a bit of her former self--preoccupied, distracted, maybe a bit overstressed. Still, Rosemary always seemed pleasant, and China wished she could get to know her better. Now, though, the chance is gone. Driving out to Rosemary's house on an errand, China discovers her accountant has been m... View More...
