Susan Wittig Albert's
China Bayles Mysteries

Thyme of Death
not available as e-Book, but it IS available as audiobook...

Pecan Springs. Small town East-Central Texas. China Bayles has resigned her career-ladder position with a top Houston law firm to get away from the fast-track of Urban Life.

A pleasant surprise to her is that Detective Mike McQuaid has also "retired" from the Houston P.D. to pursue his masters while teaching Criminal Justice at Central Texas State University located, quite conveniently for China and Mike, in Pecan Springs.

China's mildly successful herb shop, Thyme & Seasons, and her friend Ruby's new age shop, The Crystal Cave, provide an entertaining and educational background for life until a good friend, terminally ill Jo, dies of an apparent suicide.

Ruby knowsthat Jo would never give up the fight in such a sissy way immediately, but it takes burgulary and attempted murder to sway China that there is a murder to solve for the reluctant sleuth and her over-eager sidekick (Ruby wants to be either V.I. Warshowski or Kinsey Milhone. This is the first perfect opportunity for the two to team up and solve a mystery!

Witches' Bane

not available as e-Book, but it IS available as audiobook...

Did Ruby really kill someone during a Halloween prank? China has to answer this question and find out who really did if Ruby didn't. Meanwhile her relationship with McQuaid really heats up.

Hangman's Root

Hangman's Root, another common name for catmint, is known for making cats drunk, and loosening the conscience of humans. When a professor is found murdered in his office while PETA protests his actions outside the building the only suspect is his neighbor and fellow professor Dottie Riddle. China and Ruby are "hired" by China's law school classmate and friend to gather evidence to clear Dottie while her multitude of cats are cared for by the reluctant sleuth and her over-eager sidekick.

Meanwhile, the head of the PETA group is actually Ruby's daughter and the only other "suspect", though China can't tell that to Ruby!

Rosemary Remembered

When China finds her accountant dead in Mike McQuaid's truck she starts on the path to solve yet another murder in Pecan Springs.

Rueful Death

On China and Ruby's "vacation" with Maggie, ex-nun and great cook to St. Theresa's abbey, it becomes obvious that the reluctant sleuth has been lured to the convent on less than honest terms. The nuns want her to solve a mystery for them!

Love Lies Bleeding

China suspects Mike is cheating on him just as she has accepted what's obvious to everyone around her and decides to accept his suit for marriage. When Mike winds up shot it's up to China and the woman Mike may have been having an affair with to solve the mystery.

Chile Death

Finally convincing Mike to stop feeling sorry for himself requires a mystery to solve. Who better to solve the mystery of who killed the less-than-loved womanizing Jerry Jeff Cody by serving him peanuts in his Chile.

Has an absolutely hilarious attitude discussion on the Texan attitude to Chile. Real Chile has no beans!

Well, she finally agreed to the wedding, but with McQuaid acting as sheriff and, of all things, a murder occurs and he doesn't exactly want to go on the honeymoon and leave the case unsolved the wedding might get postponed... permanently.

China and Mike are married and the tea-room is open, but what's the matter with Ruby and who/why killed The Mistletoe man just as the Christmas season approaches and fresh Mistletoe is going to be needed in abundance...

 

Bloodroot

China is summoned by her mother to the family's old plantation, where her ailing Aunt Tullie is in trouble. See, Aunt Tullie was the last to see an old childhood playmate of China's, who claimed to have a deed to the plantation and now is missing. She had motive, means, and opportunity. And unless China can figure out what's going on, her ailing aunt may go to jail.

Haunted by a recurring dream from her childhood, and assisted by the ghost of a suicidal ancestress, China uncovers dark secrets in her family's past, from slavery and ill-treatment of Native Americans to hereditary diseases, illegitimate pregnancies, and murder.

Indigo Dying

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.

An Unthymely Death

Ten puzzling cases in the world of China Bayles. This delightful collection features loads of wonderful herbal tidbits on everything from rosemary to feverfew to catnip; recipes for such to-die-for dishes as a Deadly Chocolate Valentine, Ruby's Applesauce Mint Bread, China's Five-Spice Chicken and Veggie Stir-Fry, and McQuaid's Tex Mex-and a host of creative ideas for garden and home. It's a one-of-a-kind collection featuring a one-of-a-kind sleuth --who's worth spending some "quality thyme" with!

A Dilly of a Death

As Pecan Springs gets ready for its annual Pickle-Fest, China and the other members of the Pretty Pickle Planners panic when Phoebe Morgan the Pickle Queen disappears right before the big event. There are plenty of suspects, false scents and surprises as China scrambles to keep Pickle-Fest alive-and solve a murder or two. The interplay of the author's core characters, including China's husband Mike McQuaid and her best friend Ruby Wilcox, keep the plot perking along. McQuaid, a former cop, is focused on becoming a PI, while Ruby's daughter, Amy, seems bent on making the same mistake Ruby made as a young woman-becoming a single mother.

Dead Man's Bones

In this gently narrated cozy, a skeleton in a cave allows China to think about archaeology, forensics, love affairs, immigration, and secrets from the past. Meanwhile, two elderly and reclusive sisters, one imperious and the other frail, the last of their family, donate a building, the funds for its renovation, and property for a community theater, with the stipulation that a play written about their father must be the first production. These events turn out to be intimately connected to the body in the cave, and it makes for an enjoyable journey as China makes the necessary connections one by one

However, much like Shaker history itself, the case appears simpler at first than it is. There is tension behind the serene exterior. And 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.

• now the series is called "The Pecan Springs Mysteries" and features Sheila Dawson and China Bayles...

At the same time, as a nurse employed by a local hospice, Kelly has discovered instances of suspicious practices. Even more disturbing, she suspects that a patient was murdered. Kelly s knowledge could be dangerous, and she wants to get guidance from China on what to do.

But on her way to China s house, Kelly is forced off the road and critically injured, putting her in a medically induced coma. Now it s up to China to determine who wanted her out of the picture. Was it her soon-to-be ex? His new lover who happens to be the sister of China s friend Ruby? Or someone connected with the corruption at the hospice?

China owes it to her friend to uncover the truth but she may be putting her own life at risk...

Max Mantel, the killer McQuaid put away years ago, has busted out of the Huntsville prison and appears to be headed for Pecan Springs. McQuaid knows there s only one way to stop the vengeful convict set a trap with himself as bait.

China wants to stay by her husband s side and keep him from harm. But McQuaid insists that she get out of town and go to the Last Chance Olive Ranch, where she s agreed to teach a workshop on herbs.

When China and her best friend arrive at the ranch, she learns the owner, Maddie Haskell, has her own troubles. She inherited the ranch and olive oil business from the late matriarch, Eliza Butler, but Eliza s nephew is contesting the will.

While China throws herself into helping Maddie, McQuaid s plan backfires when Mantel executes a countermove he never saw coming. Now McQuaid s life is not the only one at stake and this time may really be his last chance...

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 what Ruby has always known — their building is haunted. But by whom?

As China investigates, the tragic story of a woman in one of the old photographs unfolds. China delves into the century-old mystery and realizes that solving it could have unimaginable repercussions in the here and now.

China and Ruby Wilcox are presenting their annual ''Not Just Plain Vanilla Workshop,'' always a huge hit with customers at Thyme & Seasons Herb Shop. But someone involved with the workshop is driven by a deadly motive, and China soon finds herself teaming up with the very pregnant Pecan Springs police chief Sheila Dawson to solve a vanilla-flavored murder.

Sheila, happy to get out from behind the chief's desk, is investigating the death of a botany professor, a prominent researcher specializing in vanilla orchids. China is trying to help a longtime friend: the dead professor's ex-wife and a prime suspect in his murder.

However, there's no shortage of other suspects: a betrayed lover, a disgruntled graduate student, jealous colleagues, and a gang of orchid smugglers. But the lethal roots of this mystery reach back into the dark tropical jungles of Mexico, where the vanilla vine was first cultivated. At stake: a lucrative plant patent, an orchid that is extinct in the wild, and the life of an innocent little girl.

Herbalist China Bayles’ latest adventure takes her to the mountains of North Carolina, where her friend Dorothea Harper serves as the director and curator of the Hemlock House Library, a priceless collection of rare gardening books housed in a haunted mountainside mansion that once belonged to Sunny Carswell, a reclusive heiress. But the most valuable book—A Curious Herbal, created by Elizabeth Blackwell in the 1730s — is missing and Dorothea is under suspicion.

Sheila, happy to get out from behind the chief's desk, is investigating the death of a botany professor, a prominent researcher specializing in vanilla orchids. China is trying to help a longtime friend: the dead professor's ex-wife and a prime suspect in his murder.

However, there's no shortage of other suspects: a betrayed lover, a disgruntled graduate student, jealous colleagues, and a gang of orchid smugglers. But the lethal roots of this mystery reach back into the dark tropical jungles of Mexico, where the vanilla vine was first cultivated. At stake: a lucrative plant patent, an orchid that is extinct in the wild, and the life of an innocent little girl.

Olivia Andrews is locally famous for her blog and podcast, “Forget Me Not: A Crime Victim’s Storyboard,” which is dedicated to telling the stories of victims of crime. Now, she has a stunning story to tell about a decades-old murder mystery involving a prominent citizen of Pecan Springs—someone who isn’t the man everybody thinks he is. But she is killed by a hit-and-run driver while she’s out jogging early one morning. Was it an accident—or something else? Her sister wants to know.

And Olivia’s friend China Bayles also wants to know, urgently. Who is the prominent citizen Olivia was about to expose? How did he manage to get away with murder twenty years ago? Did he kill Olivia to keep her from revealing his secret? What is local lawyer Charlie Lipman trying to hide? And when there’s another murder . . . well, it has to be a part of the same story, doesn’t it? And so does the scrapbook a cousin has compiled to honor the memory of one of the victims and make sure she won’t be forgotten. It might hold the answer—except that the one person whose face China wants to see has been scissored out of every photo.