Texas ex-lawyer and herbalist China Bayles digs into murders past and present, as a dead man's bones are uncovered-and a community gathering is interrupted by murder... China Bayles already has her hands full balancing her job, her family, and her friends' romantic entanglements. Then her teenage son finds some skeletal remains during a local cave dig-remains from a not-so-distant, not-so-accidental death.
China's otherwise sensible husband is bored with teaching and ready for a career change...say hello to Mike McQuaid, P.I. His first client is Phoebe the Pickle Queen, owner of the biggest little pickle business in Texas. She says her plant manager is embezzling, and she wants McQuaid to follow the money. But just days before the annual Picklefest, Phoebe disappears. And now it's up to McQuaid and China to search for her-and for clues in a case that promises to leave a very sour taste.
Almost everybody in town disliked Casey Ford. The people of Indigo, Texas, believed that the greedy landowner had decided to sell out the town, destroying it just as the small community was beginning to thrive. When Ford winds up dead at the wrong end of a shotgun, the suspect list is staggering. Fortunately, herbalist China Bayles has quietly decided to investigate and, with the help of her best friend Ruby, is probing where the town fathers dare not go.
Susan Wittig Albert's bestelling China Bayles mystery series grows in an exciting new direction in Bloodroot. Although she's a plant lover, digging around the roots of her family tree has never been China's favorite pastime. The family plantation in Mississippi may be beautiful, but her memories of childhood summers there still haunt her. China hates her connection to the Old South and its injustices, so she hasn't been back in years. She wouldn't have agreed to go now, except her mother told her that her legal expertise was needed to keep Great Aunt Tullie out of jail. Tullie Coldwell is a difficult old woman at best (and she's seldom at her best).
Murder and Mayhem for China Bayles It's Christmastime in Pecan Springs, Texas, but in Susan Wittig Albert's newest herbal mystery, Mistletoe Man, the holiday isn't bringing much cheer for former lawyer China Bayles or any of her neighbors. Quite a bit is amiss: For starters, Ruby Wilcox, China's best friend and business partner, is suddenly and unusually irritable and secretive.
