An Unthymely Death FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
This collection gathers together a charming bouquet of cozy mysteries featuring Susan Wittig Albert's popular protagonist China Bayles, a former criminal defense lawyer who turned her back on big-city success to run an herb shop and tearoom in the small Texas town of Pecan Springs. Six of the stories in this volume originally appeared on Country Living Gardner magazine's web site. For Unthymely Death, she has rewritten those stories, provided four new ones written especially for this collection, and added even more of the incidental yet enriching material that fans of this series have come to love: recipes, herbal hints, plant lore, and more. When you take the time for An Unthymely Death, you'll join China Bayles in solving crimes, large and small, as you learn more about the quaint community of Pecan Springs, Texas -- from the exquisite plantings at the charming local cemetery described in "Death of a Rose Rustler" to the mustard competition at the County Fair, which sets the scene for "Mustard Madness." From murder to missing cats to the mysteries of the human heart, An Unthymely Death offers as many diversions and delights as a garden maze. Sue Stone
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Now readers can join China Bayles in ten puzzling cases-and get a taste of her world. 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!
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Susan Wittig Albert, creator of China Bayles (Thyme of Death, etc.), offers gardeners a treat in An Unthymely Death: And Other Garden Mysteries. The collection includes 10 tales, four of them previously unpublished (the rest revised from their original on-line appearance), plus sidebars full of herbal lore. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Ever-so-slight tales, six reworked from Country Living Gardener magazine's Web site, featuring pudgy middle-aged sleuth China Bayles, Texas herb-store proprietor, and her chums. Four of the ten stories here focus on mysterious disappearances: of a Siamese cat ("The Khat Who Became a Hero"), of a rare herb-book ("The Rosemary Caper"), of an original will ("The Pennyroyal Plot"), and of a children's book store proprietor ("Bloom Where You're Planted"). Another four feature genteel murders: a lemon-thyme gardener is dispatched in "An Unthymely Death," an antique rosebush desecrater in "Death of a Rose Rustler," the recipient of a tussie mussie nosegay in "A Violet Death," and a brownie muncher in "A Deadly Chocolate Valentine." A real-estate developer is foiled in "Ivy's Wild, Wonderful Weeds," and county-fair competitors reach a truce in "Mustard Madness." The collection is semi-enlivened by 98(!) sidebars on everything from Dorothy L. Sayers's ad campaign for mustard to how to make rose beads, brew herb tea, raise catnip, and bake Applesauce Mint Bread. Minimal sleuthing, poorly tended plots, but the green-thumb crowd will probably be charmed by the gardening tidbits in those lushly planted sidebars.
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