Amazon.com: Hangman's Root: A China Bayles Mystery (China Bayles Mysteries) (9780783812465): Susan Wittig Albert: Books

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1995 | Series: China Bayles Mysteries

When an animal researcher is found hanged, China Bayles discovers that her friend the Cat Lady is not the only one who wanted him dead, becomes involved in animal rights issues, and deals with a romantic ultimatum from Mike McQuaid. Tour.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } When an animal researcher is found hanged, China Bayles discovers that her friend the Cat Lady is not the only one who wanted him dead, becomes involved in animal rights issues, and deals with a romantic ultimatum from Mike McQuaid. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Welcome back in her third appearance (following Thyme of Death and Witches' Bane) is China Bayles, the prickly and independent former lawyer who swerved out of the Houston fast lane to open an herb shop in Pecan Springs, Tex. Miles Harwick, an unpopular biology professor whose mild appearance belies a vindictive nature, is found drugged and hanged in his office even as animal rights activists are in the quad protesting his research and the new lab he wanted to build. When China's friend, the cat-loving and plain-talking Dottie Riddle, Harwick's neighbor and colleague opposed to his plans, becomes the main suspect, the herb-shop proprietor reluctantly realizes that her lawyer's instincts can't be left behind as easily as big-city life and activates the old-girl network to come to Dottie's defense. Despite a slow start and little herbal lore, the plot unfolds briskly and with sly humor as China and friends, some of the savviest women to inhabit mysteries since Harriet Vane, investigate crimes and motives.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

It looks like a duel to the death between cat-rescuing fanatic Dottie Riddle and her Central Texas State College colleague Miles Harwick, whose latest grant finances the wholesale slaughter of guinea pigs who've endured a long ``weightless'' suspension. Fortified by an animal-rights contingent (including Amy Roth, an unprepossessing young lady who's just full of surprises), Dottie pickets Miles's lab; Miles imprisons one of Dottie's beloved felines and sends her threatening letters; Dottie forges a death threat to herself; but it's Miles who's found dead in his office, strung up like--well, like a guinea pig. Dottie's friend China Bayles, retired from the Houston rat race to an herbal shop in Pecan Springs (Witches' Bane, 1993, etc.), dusts off her law degree to help clear Dottie and soon learns, with the help of a blackmail letter obligingly left behind in the college's computer files, that Miles was hiding much bigger secrets than cruelty to animals: He'd been involved in child molesting and a complex financial scam- -though none of this stuff, rather improbably, is the real reason for his death. In fact, the circumstances of the murder, from motive to method, defy belief. The good news is that, having largely written herself through the pipe-dream Pecan Springs herbalist cozies and dysfunctional family babble that marked her first two mysteries, Albert goes in for more serious plotting and a more generous distribution of suspicion here. Who knows what's next? (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Susan Wittig Albert Page

My husband Bill and I live on 31 acres in the Hill Country of Central Texas, and have longhorn cows, chickens, and geese, as well as the wild things that roam the meadows and woods. Our best buddies are our two dogs (Mr. Toro and Miss Molly Maquire) and our cat, Shadow. I garden for food (passionately) and am concerned about issues of global warming and energy depletion. You can find out more about all this in my memoirs: Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place; and An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days.

I've been writing professionally for over 25 years, after a stint in higher education as a professor and administrator. When I first started writing full time, I worked in the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series--yep, you got it: I am both Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon! (How cool is that?) In the years I was writing young adult novels, with Bill or by myself, I wrote over sixty books. In addition, Bill and I wrote a series of Victorian/Edwardian mysteries together, as Robin Paige.

I am currently writing two mystery series: the China Bayles herbal mysteries and The Darling Dahlias, about a Southern garden club in the 1930s. You might also enjoy my eight-book series, the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. Another in-the-works project: a book about Rose Wilder Lane and her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Writing is not only my work, but my passion, and I am unspeakably grateful for the opportunity to follow my bliss.

I am an active member (and the founder) of the Story Circle Network, an international nonprofit organization that supports women who want to write about their lives. We offer the May Sarton Women's Memoir Award, publishing opportunities, workshops, online classes and writing circles, an editorial service, and lots of opportunities to connect with other women. I am the Coordinating Editor of SCN's book review website (the largest/oldest women's book review site on the Internet) at storycirclebookreviews.org. Check us out!