Customer Reviews

Bloodroot, A China Bayles mystery

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China Bayles is a self made independent woman who turned her back on her mother's Mississippi family because she refused to conform to the old South's vision of how a woman should behave. She lives in Pecan Springs, Texas with her husband and stepson. She proudly owns the Thyme and Sears herb shop and is co-owner of Thyme for Tea teashop. She has no plans to return to the family plantation of Jordan's Crossing until her mother calls her because she needs her help.

When China arrives at the old homestead, she learns that her great-aunt Tullie, a victim of Huntington's Disease, has struck down the plantation manager in a pique of anger. China's mother argues with her daughter that the irate manager walked out of the house enraged, but he has since disappeared. The police want to question Tullie about the spat. As China struggles to balance family loyalty with her legal responsibilities, she unearths secrets that should stay buried in the land that created them.

This is a different China Bayles unlike the one readers have come to know and love. The audience sees her as a true daughter of the south, fully cognizant of the rules, expectations and ties that bind her to a place she no longer can call home but has a hold on her loyalties. There are mysteries aplenty in BLOODROOT, some of them of the otherworldly kind. The author allows us to see, through the fist person narrative, how a Southern woman copes with her environment. This is a wonderful reading experience.

Harriet Klausner

Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series has had its high points, as well as low points where several books in a row seemed to have the same plot, and where the murderer always seemed to be that one character who didn't have any real reason to be in the book *unless* s/he was the culprit. With _Bloodroot_, Albert rises above a few blah-ish books midseries, and proves she is a unique talent in the mystery field.

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. Albert paints an enthralling picture of her setting, showing both its beauty and its decadence. And I love these touches of "magical realism" she uses from time to time. As an added bonus, I had no clue whodunit until very close to the end!

China Bayles has an ambivalent relationship with her mother Leatha. Leatha spent most of China's childhood and adulthood in an alcoholic fog. Leatha is now on the wagon, but with so much baggage the relationship is still difficult. Leatha is staying with her sick Aunt Tullie on the family plantation in Mississippi, and there is something very wrong. The manager, Wylie, has announced to Leatha and Tullie that he has a deed to the land under the plantation's main house, is assaulted by the angry old woman and disappears. Leatha, naturally very worried, begs China to come out and help her solve the problem. Reluctantly, China drives to Mississippi to resolve the problems, but they are deeper and more difficult than she realizes.

This is a much more personal mystery for China. In her other stories, she always seems just a little removed from the action. In this one, she is deeply involved with each and every one of the main characters, and related to most of them. Her family has more secrets than she or Leatha ever realized. The ghosts are a nice touch. They add to the atmosphere of the old house. This is a very enjoyable mystery. China Bayles fans will love it and it will appeal to many others who would not otherwise read one of these mysteries.

Like Murphy's Law, Bloodroot represents a departure from the author's usual place and, to some extent, time. Albert's popular heroine, China Bayles, left her criminal law career to open an herb shop in a small Texas town. Here China leaves her home and her new husband to answer a plea from her mother, Leatha, at the family plantation in Mississippi.

China finds her great-aunt has finally become too ill to run the business. A man has produced a deed claiming ownership to the family property. When he is found dead, China must look in the past for answers, to protect her family and her long-ago friends.

What seemed to be a long-ago dream turns out to hold the key to the interlocking mysteries of family, property and murder. Albert evokes the steamy summers and equally steamy secrets of life in a family that takes its dysfunctional qualities from the post-Civil War southern culture.

The narrative moves swiftly, except for the many details about China's family tree that are needed to understand clues, red herrings and an ultimately satisfying ending. China's detective work, made easier by friendships formed in childhood, solves the crime. However, the family's secrets are unraveled by documents that literally turn up when China needs them most.

The focus on history does take away the uniqueness of China's character, which blossoms in her home setting. At times I thought I was reading about Shankman's heroine, Samantha. And the uniquely southern blend of supernatural, dreams and real life reminded me of McCrumb's folksong series.

Then again, people often lose part of themselves when they return home for a visit. Although Bloodroot offers a pleasant variation in the series, I suspect readers, like China, would like to get back to her herb shop in Texas.

Sometimes people panic when an author departs from the setting of an established series. In some cases it does affect the series negatively. This is NOT the case, however, in the latest China Bayles mystery. China is a strong enough character to hold her own when the secondary characters are not present. I found this book to be fascinating. The subplots were interesting and the characters were well-defined and credible. The author presented a family tree at the beginning, so it was not confusing keeping the family members straight. It was good for China to get away from Pecan Springs and interact with her mother more. This book could be read and enjoyed by those who have never read any others in the series. It's an excellent story.

China Bayles doesn't think of Jordan's Crossing, her family's Mississippi plantation, as home but when her mother asks her for help in dealing with her great-aunt she can't stay away. As it turns out, her mother needs a lot of help. Great-Aunt Tullie is in the advanced stages of Huntington's disease and has attacked an employee who later turns up dead. China has to try to find the real killer and also deal with her feelings about her family home and her genetic predisposition to Huntington's disease. I did figure out the mystery fairly quickly but still enjoyed this novel as part of a continuing series. The first in the series is Thyme of Death.

I was initially disappointed that Susan Wittig Albert diverted her wonderful series from the delightful Pecan Springs to the deep south...not that this isn't fascinating to this Australian reader/author but I missed the wonderful Ruby and even the stepson. I didn't miss McQuaid much. I seem to have taken his infedility harder than China.
However, Wittig's examination of China's relationship with her mother, the family disease (both mental and physical) was fascinating. Wittig's descriptions of the south in all its decadent glory were excellent, even if you could spot the plot a mile away.
As usual, she explores local herb lore with charming results, however, I got a little confused with the barrage of dead family members and not sure I like the living family members...I just hope the next book doesn't take place on Leatha's farm...I wouldn't really buy Leatha and China becoming best buds. I'd like to go back to Thyme and Seasons and the Crystal Cave. Bring back Ruby! I am definitely going to try out the cookie recipes!

This is certainly a different book in this series. For one thing there is no Ruby Wilcox, and I for one really missed her, as well as other eccentric citizens of Pecan Springs. It was interesting to look back at China's early life, and the mysitical theme was actually quite well done. This wasn't a mystery though in the true sense of the word. It's more a search for the past in China's mother's family. I still enjoyed the book, but I do want to get back to the main storyline in the next book in the series. We also see China getting softer and more feminine in each book. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I hope she doesn't get too soft since her toughness is part of the appeal of this series.

In the previous books of the China Bayles Series, Susan Albert did a good job of using the lovely Hill Country of Texas as her setting. In this book she evokes the melancholy mood and slower pace of the Mississippi Delta and uses it to create a book about five generations of China's relatives and the tangled web of deceit which some of them wove. Without her usual supporting cast of husband, son, best friend, and other inhabitants of Pecan Springs, China goes to the Mississippi plantation of her ancestors to help her mother Leatha to care for her sickly Aunt Tullie. There has been a death, and Leatha is afraid that the old woman is somehow involved. When China investigates the murder, she finds more than she bargains for and begins uncovering long-hidden secrets of her family. Before she is through she discovers forbidden love affairs, illegitimate children, suicide, murder, and many betrayals by family members. This is a nice change of pace for this series and it shows that Albert can write about a variety of settings with continued high quality in her writing.

Albert is a good writer and I enjoy learning about the deep South and even more learning about herbs and their ancient usage. In this book, China (the protagonist and owner of an herbal shop and tea shop) is required to confront her unsavory past when her mother calls and frantically begs her to come to the family plantation. Apparently, her old maiden aunt took a cane to a man who was trying to get land from her (probably legally his)...but her aunt is also sick with Huntington's disease. Huntington's is a familial, genetic disease that is much rarer then Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. It also tends to occur sooner in life then either of the other two diseases.

So not only does China have to find out whether this man died from being whacked with a cane by an old lady, but she also has to worry about whether her mother and her possibly have Huntington's. Not only does she solve the mystery, but in her family research she finds out the information that helps her to deal with all of this knowledge.

I would hate to see people do genealogy research because they are fearful of some disease. Family research should be done to find out information about what your ancestors did and accomplished. Huntington's disease is an awful disease that we still do not know a lot about...they are working on genetic therapy for it (replacement of genes) but still have a way to go. Everyone has 'problems' in their backgrounds, but it should not be approached in fear on the basis of a mystery. Enjoy the book, but take it with a grain of salt and a big dosage of knowledge.

As usual, the herbology is great and very interesting.

Karen Sadler