The English Breakfast Murder (A Tea Shop Mystery) [Paperback]

Laura Childs (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Tea Shop Mystery | Publication Date: August 5, 2003

It is a truly exhilarating experience for Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning-helping Charleston's Sea Turtle Protection League shepherd hundreds of tiny green loggerheads safely into the sea. But just as she's about to celebrate all her hard work, she spots a dead body bobbing in the waves. Now it's up to Theo to get to the bottom of the murder before the culprit's greed stirs him to kill again.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A delightful series. -- Mystery Reader

Just the right blend of cozy fun and clever plotting. -- Susan Wittig Albert

Murder suits Laura Childs to a Tea. -- St. Paul Pioneer Press

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (August 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 042519129X
• ISBN-13: 978-0425191293
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laura Childs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbook Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. In her previous life she was CEO/Creative Director of her own marketing firm and authored several screenplays. She is married to a professor of Chinese art history, loves to travel, rides horses, enjoys fund raising for various non-profits, and has two Chinese Shar-Pei dogs.

Laura specializes in cozy mysteries that have the pace of a thriller (a thrillzy!) Her three series are:

The Tea Shop Mysteries - set in the historic district of Charleston and featuring Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop. Theodosia is a savvy entrepreneur, and pet mom to service dog Earl Grey. She's also an intelligent, focused amateur sleuth who doesn't rely on coincidences or inept police work to solve crimes. This charming series is highly atmospheric and rife with the history and mystery that is Charleston.

The Scrapbooking Mysteries - a slightly edgier series that take place in New Orleans. The main character, Carmela, owns Memory Mine scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter and is forever getting into trouble with her friend, Ava, who owns the Juju Voodoo shop. New Orleans' spooky above-ground cemeteries, jazz clubs, bayous, and Mardi Gras madness make their presence known here!

The Cackleberry Club Mysteries - set in Kindred, a fictional town in the Midwest. In a rehabbed Spur station, Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, three semi-desperate, forty-plus women have launched the Cackleberry Club. Eggs are the morning specialty here and this cozy cafe even offers a book nook and yarn shop. Business is good but murder could lead to the cafe's undoing! This series offers recipes, knitting, cake decorating, and a dash of spirituality.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

123 of 132 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Sip, January 16, 2004

By 

Sissalou "sissalou" (SAINT CLAIR, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The English Breakfast Murder (A Tea Shop Mystery) (Paperback)

I've read four of Laura Childs' books in the Tea Shop series: Death by Darjeeling, Gunpowder Green, Shades of Earl Grey, and The English Breakfast Murder. I purchased the first one in her scrapbook series, but haven't read it yet. So far, Ms. Childs skills as an author are growing decidedly better with each book.

If you are new to the Tea Shop mysteries, Ms. Childs books are refreshing, entertaining mysteries in light of how horrific real-life has become over the past decade.

I prefer mysteries with more substance and greater character development, but I gladly read Ms. Childs' books because I can expect them to be clean, wholesome, and entertaining. To date, Ms. Childs' books are not gruesome or down-right wicked. Again, this is a welcome relief from the majority of mysteries being sold today.

The main character is a young woman who balances her business success and yet makes time for a real life besides. I am not a tea-drinker, but I love to read about the tea shop and wish it were a real place. I'd travel all the way to Charleston just to visit her shop if it were real.

I heartily recommend you try Laura Childs' books.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fourth Tea Shop Mystery, January 4, 2006

By 

Karen Potts (Lake Jackson, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The English Breakfast Murder (A Tea Shop Mystery) (Paperback)

Theodosia Browning decides to help out with the turtle-hatching project on a Charleston beach. She spots something in the water and when she investigates she discovers to her horror that it's a dead body. The body is that of Harper Fisk, a local art dealer who had a hobby of looking for treasure in some of the many ships which had been sunk in Charleston harbor.
He was also friends with a group of men known as The English Breakfast Club. When Theodosia begins checking, she finds that many of the members of the group have motives for murdering Fisk. Reading this series is like visiting old friends such as Theo's employees, Drayton and Haley, and Delaine, the overly-dramatic owner of a neighboring shop. As usual, this book contains lots of background about Charleston and about the tea which Theo dispenses in her shop. It's a pleasing combination and makes for an enjoyable read.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am beginning to love tea!, November 28, 2005

By 

Tonya Speelman "Hoarder of books" (Goldendale WA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The English Breakfast Murder (A Tea Shop Mystery) (Paperback)

I love these books. They are wholesome, entertaining and I love all the tea and food talk. The recipes are to die for and I can't stop picking up copy after copy of these books.

Once again our heroine gets caught up in a murder, and tries to solve it. Who is it and did they want something that Mr Fisk was on to, or what was their motive? All kinds of other things happen to throw you off, but could you guess it without reading the ending? I couldn't!

Way to go Ms Childs and please don't quit!