Review by Booklist Review
China Bayles has plenty going on in her life. She's just moved in with her lover, Mike McQuaid, and his son, Brian; her herb shop is going great guns; and she's busily planning the annual herb growers' convention. But then Rosemary Robbins, a local accountant, is found shot to death, and China is the one who discovers the body. McQuaid insists that Rosemary was killed because she resembled China and that the killer was vicious ex-con Jake Jacoby, who wanted to get back at McQuaid for sending him to prison years earlier. But Rosemary had an abusive ex-husband with a hot temper, and the local cops figure he was the killer. Then local hotel owner Jeff Clark, who was secretly engaged to Rosemary, takes off for Mexico, and it begins to look as if he's the murderer. McQuaid goes after Jeff, but as soon as McQuaid leaves town, the case heats up. China's got her hands full baby-sitting Brian, but with the help of her Ouija board and some hard-hitting detective work, she nails the killer. Readers will enjoy Albert's wonderfully original characters and her amusing descriptions of life in a small Texas town as much as the intriguing plot. --Emily Melton
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
It's unsettling to find your doppelgänger murdered. So learns China Bayles in her fourth novel (following Hangman's Root). The Pecan Springs, Tex., herb store owner (and former attorney) goes to retrieve lover Mike McQuaid's truck from CPA Rosemary Robbins, who has borrowed it, only to find, first, that Rosemary looks a lot like her, and, two, that Rosemary won't be filling out any more 1040s. Discussing the murder with various denizens of the small town, she learns that Rosemary was about to divorce her abusive husband and was forming a relationship with hotel co-owner Jeff Clark. Ex-cop McQuaid, meanwhile, is convinced the killer is a paroled convict who, having vowed revenge on McQuaid, mistakenly whacked Rosemary, thinking she was China. But when Jeff, who is off on a fishing vacation, becomes the local police's prime suspect, McQuaid goes to the coast to find him. Dodging threats from the ex-con and relying on the help of her friends, China solves Rosemary's murder and, in the process, forges a connection with McQuaid's Star Trek-enthralled 11-year-old son. Herb lore and China's game approach to everyday problems, as well as extraordinary ones, make this Rosemary memorable, indeed. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
China Bayles, featured in three other herb-titled mysteries, discovers a dead womanwho resembles herselfin a pick-up truck. China interrupts her herb-shop business to investigate the woman's past and uncovers a small host of likely suspects. The best of small-town Texas. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
It isn't bad enough that lawyer-turned-herbalist China Bayles discovers the body of her accountant Rosemary Robbins; she also has to deal with her live-in Mike McQuaid's suspicion that Rosemary was shot by recently freed wife-killer Jake Jacoby--who just might have tried to get at McQuaid, the ex-cop who arrested him, by killing the woman he thought was Bayles. Overprotective McQuaid demands that Bayles stay close to home, but she's got the Texas Herb Marketers Guild conference to tend to, and, besides, the latest evidence--an easily recognizable Smith & Wesson traceable to missing hotel owner Jeff Clark, the client Rosemary planned to marry--points away from Jacoby. So what does McQuaid do? He takes off for Mexico on Clark's trail, of course, leaving his confused lover to watch out for herself as she scrambles to interview local suspects, uncover a blackmail plot, puzzle over cryptic clues parceled out by the New Wave channeler of a spirit calling herself La Que Sabe, and protect McQuaid's uncooperative son from the forces of evil. Naturally, Bayles covers herself with glory, and McQuaid returns from Mexico covered with, well, apologies. The ingredients in Bayles's fourth case (Hangman's Root, 1994, etc.) are familiar enough, but they're combined with an herbalist's taste--and with enough humor and deftness to make this Albert's strongest book yet.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
