Customer Reviews

Death by Darjeeling (A Tea Shop Mystery)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

If you are looking for a new author, meet Ms. Childs. Her book, "Death by Darjeeling" is a refreshing new treat.

I am continually looking for new, interesting story tellers. Ms. Childs is well on her way to becoming a good mystery writer although I did not give the book a full five stars. I held one star back for this first book in the series only because the book has a slightly amateurish feel to it, just like the main character, Ms. Theodosia Browning, who is an amateur sleuth. This book is a good introduction into adult mystery stories for young women--it is very adult without being smutty or dirty. It gets 5 stars for being "clean."

If you love to sit with a tea cup in your hand while reading, this book is definitely for you.

I look forward to reading "Gunpowder Green" another of Ms. Child's books as soon as I can to see if both the Ms. Browning and Ms. Childs' writing has matured.

Short-short synopsis: Theodosia owns a tea shop, caters an event where a guest dies from drinking the tea, and snoops to find the murderer. There are clues, which I missed, and when the person who committed the murder was revealed, I thought Ms. Childs made a very clever choice of the characters.

Things about the book I liked:
I loved the cover design. (5 stars for the cover)
I loved the name of the dog, Earl Grey. (5 stars for the dog!)
I loved the descriptions of Charlestown.
I loved the tea-room, its sights, and its smells. (5 stars here)
I loved the descriptions of various types of teas. I am not an adventurous tea-drinker, but after reading "Death by Darjeeling," I plan to try various flavors now. (10 stars here)

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to Ms. Childs' writing career.

Take a literary sip of "Death by Darjeeling" and see if you agree.

Theodosia Browning is the owner of a teashop in Charleston's historic district. When developer Hughes Barron is found poisoned with a cup of her tea in his hand, she's upset. But when a friend becomes the prime suspect, Theo starts to investigate to find the real killer. The late Mr. Barron was not a scrupulous man, so there is no shortage of suspects. Even his partner had motive. But can she find the killer before he comes after her?

I really enjoyed this book, however, it's obviously a first novel. The writing style is a little wooden in spots, and the first chapter bogs down a little giving backgrounds of the series characters. On the other hand, I was drawn in by the characters and really came to care for them. The plot wasn't quite developed as well as it could have been, but it progressed well, was logical, and there were plenty of good red herrings to keep me guessing. The setting was intriguing; I'd love to visit the area after reading this book. And the tea aspect was just right. I'm not a tea person, but the information was interesting enough without overshadowing the mystery.

Overall, the flaws were minor, and I really did enjoy this book. The author shows a lot of promise, and I look forward to watching her talent develop as the series progresses.

Theodosia Browning, proprietress of the Indigo Tea Shop of Charleston, goes a sleuthing when one of her staff is implicated in the death of sleazy real estate developer, Hughes Barron, at a society function catered by Theodosia. She feels impelled to clear her friend and save her own reputation and business. Delightful characters with wonderful names abound. The ambiance of Charleston is wonderfully captured.

A charming summer read that can be enjoyed by the young and old alike without insulting anyone's sensibilities. I found myself wanting to grab a scone and cuppa. The tea lore and recipe were a intriguing addition. Looking forward to the next book in the series. Highly recommend to ladies of the RED HAT SOCIETY.

Theodosia Browning is the 36-year-old owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston, South Carolina. Having abandoned her high profile, high intensity career as an advertiser, Theo now enjoys the joys and challenges of running her own small business in Charleston's historic district. With her dog, Earl Grey, and her little apartment over her tea shop, Theo cherishes her new life in the slow lane.

Her serenity is marred, however, when the city's most hated man-a developer with an eye toward tarnishing the purity of the historic district-is found dead after drinking some of Theo's specially blended tea. Theo and her employees are all suspect, and to save her good name, not to mention her business, Theo sets out to solve the mystery of his death.

This is a charming book, for mystery lovers and tea drinkers alike. The author takes you inside the world of tea specialists, as well as the small community of business owners that comprise Charleston's historic district. Theo and her friends are comfortably familiar, and the book is a quick, enjoyable read.

Most importantly, Childs lets the mystery drive the story. The details of tea making and the atmosphere of Charleston are supplements to the plot, as they should be. The mystery has some weaknesses, but the characters and setting more than compensate. Read this book when you're in the mood for something light and fun.

This was an enjoyable read, though it did have some issues as a novel in the mystery genre. I agree with one of the previous reviewers that the villain "comes out of left field" and that the big reveal may leave you scratching your head. As a sleuth, Theodosia Browning is as amateur as they come. That's fine -- but three-quarters of the way through the plot, she still hasn't seriously considered which of her suspects had opportunity, in addition to motive. That seems like a glaring omission to anyone who reads a lot within this genre.

That being said, I also agree with another previous reviewer that Ms. Childs does a wonderful job of creating a cast of characters -- and the Indigo Tea Shop and Charleston are two of those well-developed characters. You'll learn much about tea and this Southern city. As a person who often enjoys mysteries for the settings and the background as much as for the plot, I appreciated this one.

Ms. Childs did an excellent job positioning Death by Darjeeling firmly within the cozy subgenre. I look forward to reading the following books in the series to see if she can be as good at writing a "mystery" as she is at writing a "cozy."

I love mysteries, lived in Charleston for six years, and am a card carrying member of the Counter-Coffee Tea Revolution, so I was thrilled to discover this book. For about three pages.

I found it boring, badly written, and apparently unedited. (If it were edited, then the editor who allowed the sentence, "Ever the social butterfly and fashion maven, Samantha was fetchingly attired in a flouncy cream-colored silk skirt and pale peach cashmere sweater, generously scooped in front to reveal her matching peach skin and ample endowments," should look for a new vocation.) Ms. Childs is long on description, addicted to adjectives, and frequently includes digressions on tea that rival Melville's on whaling in Moby Dick.

It was useful to learn, however, that I've been oversteeping Darjeeling for years.

I'm a big lover of tea, so I was really looking forward to getting into a mystery series based around a tea shop in a beautiful Southern city. Unfortunately, the tea shop and Charleston are about the best things this author has to offer. The mystery is light (I had the murderer pegged less than halfway through the book), and the characters are dull. The main character, Theodosia, is dull because she's impossibly perfect. She's beautiful, charming, successful, has impeccable taste in everything, and while one or two people don't outright worship her, they seem to always "respect" her or are "intrigued" by her. Even the stray mutt she took in for a pet is charming and spends his weekends as a therapy dog in a nursing home. It's too much. At least give her a rude habit or a bad hair day or something!

So, two stars for the tea and the city, but there's not much else to recommend, unfortunately.

This is just the type of light, cozy mystery I normally love. Unfortunately, I live and work in the area, and the author, apparently, didn't even do a halfway research job, much less know anything about Charleston. The local details are really bad. A local mystery group panned it for the inaccuracies.
Nor was the horticultural information accurate.
Shame. This could have been lots of fun, but there is no way I would read anything else by this author after this sloppy job.

Only after buying four novels in the series and finding them truly awful did I read the Amazon reader reviews. Note to self: read the reviews first.

This book (along with the others) is poorly written, with clumsy plotting and ridden with cliches. Many other reviewers have pointed out its manifold weaknesses.

The author has borrowed stock characters from many popular cozies, notably the main character, a single woman who has left the rat race for a girly business. She lets the business dominate the story, telling me much more about tea than I ever wanted to know, while stuffing her thin, gorgeous characters with rich pastries.

The best character is the dog.

As a mystery fan and avid tea drinker, the title of this book immediately intrigued me. "Death by Darjeeling" by Laura Childs is an easy read that moves along at a quick pace due to short chapters and an atmosphere that draws readers into the story. It also serves as an introduction to Theodosia Browning, a tea shop owner and amateur sleuth from Charleston, South Carolina.

During the annual historic homes garden party, a guest is found dead, a cup of tea clutched in his lifeless hand. His death is especially bad news for Theodosia and her employees at the Indigo Tea Shop, when poison is found in his teacup. Unsatisfied by the investigations of the local police, Theodosia takes her curiosity to the highest levels of snooping, putting herself and those she cares about in danger. As readers follow along with Theodosia's sleuthing, they are treated to tidbits about the history and culture of tea in a world that comes to vivid life through Childs' descriptions.

"Death by Darjeeling" is a pleasant mystery, with the usual twists and turns, but it ends a little too mysteriously - too few clues are given to aid the readers in figuring out the real perpetrator behind the crime; the reader is led off track just as Theodosia was. Yet Childs' story is well-written and her characters come to life in the readers' imagination. One can tell that the author knows her mysteries, and her teas; hopefully the mystery side of the tea shop will progress with each new addition to the series.