Spanish Dagger (China Bayles Mystery) [Paperback]

Susan Wittig Albert (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover (April 3, 2007)
• ASIN: B000P5ZS70
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)

More About the Author

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!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A recommended read from the Texas Hill Country, October 14, 2007

By 

Linda Bulger (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spanish Dagger (China Bayles Mystery) (Hardcover)

The China Bayles series is alive and well, to the delight of this fan. Susan Wittig Albert always offers the reader a beautifully crafted story along with a wealth of information about plants. The little world of Pecan Springs is a home away from home.

Ms. Albert sets herself a challenge, which she acknowledges in the Note to the Reader at the beginning of SPANISH DAGGER, by interweaving and overlapping the stories in the series. This challenge is compounded by the first person narrative, but nothing could be more effective than the way in which China Bayles fills the reader in on the backstory. This is often a weak area in a series, but beautifully done in SPANISH DAGGER, as in all the China Bayles mysteries. A first-time reader will be effortlessly acquainted with the main characters and the continuing plots.

China's investigative pursuits are woven into the story quite plausibly, another challenge with amateur sleuths. While it's true that the reader has to suspend incredulity at so many murder victims falling at China's feet, Ms. Albert somehow makes it easy. The everyday doings of Pecan Springs form a backdrop to the complex and sometimes hidden relationships that reach from the shop owner next door (Ruby Wilcox) outward to the police chief (Sheila Dawson) and beyond to big-city police and agency corruption. The social issues threaded into the story are clearly there to further the story -- from drug running to a parent's dementia to gossiping townspeople. All part of the package in Pecan Springs!

China Bayles and the other main characters are well-rounded and continue to evolve, with the secondary players also springing to life. Characterization is one of the strong suits of this series. It's hard to go wrong with a few pets, too, and the Rotti Rambo is a worthy companion to the squirrel-chasing basset hound Howard Cosell, and the seventeen-pound Khat on whose clock "it's always five minutes past time to eat."

Anyone familiar with Susan Wittig Albert's work knows that she treats her craft and the reader with great respect. I recommend SPANISH DAGGER as another example of a great read from this versatile author.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written mystery, April 29, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: Spanish Dagger (China Bayles Mystery) (Hardcover)

China Bayles is busy running her herb shop and catering business and has arranged for a paper-making class run by Carole who has been recommended by her friend, Ruby. Ruby is having a hard time because she has been stood up by her ex-boyfriend and is trying to deal with her mother who seems to be suffering from dementia. When Carole and China begin to gather supplies for the paper-making class, they make a grim discovery and find a dead body. China carries on her own investigation to find the killer, much to the chagrin of her friend Sheila, who is the Police Chief of Pecan Springs. Another sub-plot deals with China's half-brother who is trying to find the cause of their father's death and the fact that China's husband has decided to take the case as part of his PI business, despite China's objections. This plot is only touched on and is apparently going to be addressed in a later book. This is a well-written mystery and, as is true of the other books in this series, it contains information on interesting herbs and their uses, as well as recipes.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent China Bayles mystery, April 5, 2007

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spanish Dagger (China Bayles Mystery) (Hardcover)

Between running her shop Thymes and Seasons, Thyme Cottage, and her partnering with Ruby Wilcox for Thyme for Tea and Party Thyme, China Bayles has no thyme make that time for herself. She is there for her friend Ruby who just broke up with her lover Collin, owner of an environmental friendly store. She doesn't tell Ruby that he's an undercover cop who got busted when he told a two level dealer that he was about to be busted. She is also adjusting to the fact that she has a half-brother, Miles Danforth who believes his and China's father was murdered in what was supposed to be an accidental car crash.

China's husband, now a private investigator, takes the case and heads out of town to do some investigating. When she finally gets a moment to breathe, she and a friend go to railroad tracks to pick yucca leaves but find the knifed body of Collin. Ruby is in Fredericksburg trying to get her senile mother into an assisted loving facility and asks China to investigate. With key in hand China goes into Collin's store where she gets the numbers of Lucita who called Collin on unexplained business. When China goes to the nursery where Lucita works, she finds Lucita's dead body with her throat cut. Something rotten is going on in Pecan Springs, Texas and China vows to stop it with the help of a drug sniffing rottweiler.

Susan Wittig Albert has written another excellent China Bayles mystery that is filled danger, action and intrigue. The mysterious stranger who is in town is either the cause or the one who intends to stop it. However he has never dealt with the heroine or Smart Cookie aka the Chief of Police. Readers will enjoy learning about China's past family life and hope that the answer about her father will be found in the next book in this delightful series.

Harriet Klausner