Frank Carlson Library

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

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Herbalist China Bayles must solve a mother of a murder in this mystery from New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert.
In search of respite, China takes off to St. Theresa's Monastery with her friend Maggie, a former nun. The goal is a brief, tranquil retreat—but there's a conflict at the convent. The mother superior has recently died, and a battle over the future of St. Theresa's suggests that her sudden demise...

China Bayles is fit to spit when her husband's troubled ex-wife, Sally, shows up at her herb shop, claiming to be broke with nowhere else to turn. When she invites Sally to stay, China starts receiving menacing calls from an "ex" of Sally's, who seems to have a connection to the murder of her parents nearly a decade ago.

In Texas, lawyer and herbalist China Bayles opens a probe into the death of a former Texas Ranger, believed to have been involved in drug smuggling. The probe puts China's life in danger.

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...

In Texas, a biologist who experimented on animals is found hanged in his office and suspicion focuses on Dottie Riddle, an animal rights activists. At that China Bayles, her friend, a woman who gave up law to run a herb shop, realizes she has to return to her old trade.

Herbalist ex-lawyer China Bayles investigates the murder of a teller at the Pecan Springs bank and follows the clues to a haunted bed and breakfast.

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: misplaced items, a ringing bell, and the appearance of lavender sprigs in odd places. When a customer sees a mysterious woman picking flowers...

"Along with her friend Maggie, a former nun, China is looking forward to a relaxing retreat at a Texas convent. But her quest for a replenished spirit soon takes second place to a more earthbound pursuit: catching a killer. It seems that the mother superior has recently died - and although at first it was considered an accident, China quickly senses conflict in the convent...and suspects that the undercurrents of tension have already taken a deadly...