Customer Reviews

Spanish Dagger (China Bayles Mystery)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

As an avid China Bayles fan, I look forward to each volume. I admire the way Albert has allowed her heroine to grow, yet remain independent and adventurous. Marriage hasn't slowed China down, even with a teenage stepson as part of the package, nor has the store's success.

Albert's characters and setting are so vivid it's easy to forget that she's also a gifted suspense writer. Here the plot seems to twist and turn: we're not sure who the "good guys" are till the very end.

We also have some good subplots. Ruby remains out of the action for most of the tale, while she cares for her aging mother. McQuaid goes off to help China's half-brother shake the family tree.

A good read. I'm anxious to learn more about China's colorful family - hopefully coming up next volume.

China Bayles is back. This time she is sponsoring a paper-making workshop behind her herb shop. However, while she is gathering wild yucca or Spanish dagger with the workshop teacher, she comes across a body--once again. Susan, a friend of mine, has written her sixteenth China Bayles mystery, all with herb titles and a plethora of information about the featured herb slipped in between page-turning mysteries. I have learned to schedule time to read my once-a-year treat because once I begin, sleep, meals, grandchildren, and other pleasures are neglected.

Spanish Dagger is no exception. Subplots abound, in some instances wrapped up from previous books; in others begun, such as China's complex relationship with her father. Not so much as to annoy the reader, however, because you could pick up any one of the books in the series and be fully satisfied with a complete story. This time, the mother of China's friend and business partner, Ruby, shows signs of Alzheimer's, and Ruby must work with that very serious issue through the book. Ruby's current love plays a major part as well.

China's involvement in the most recent murder begins when she volunteers to feed and water the murder victim's Rottweiler. She just happens to look around the place and discovers a note hidden in one of the potted yuccas. Naturally, she hands the note to her friend Smart Cookie, the police chief, but not before she has read it. The plot thickens!

Albert's writing is gripping, intelligent, and often humorous--not cute and coy humorous as some mysteries are. Her main characters are true-to-life and believable. She has written another entertaining mystery with the occasional pause for deep thought.

by Judith Helburn
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviews.org
reviewing books by, for, and about women

If you like comfortable, home spun mysteries (No, that's not a contradiction in terms), Susan Wittig Albert is the author for you. She laces her China Bayles series with little known facts about plants and herbs as well as recipes. One has such a warm feeling when reading this book that it's easy to forget China has stumbled across a very dead body and a killer is on the loose.

Ms. Albert's fans will remember China leads a busy life - she has an herb shop, a catering business and oversees a weekend paper-making class. What do you need to make paper? Yucca, of course, and it's among those plants that she finds the body.

While this would stun most, China has been around. As she says, "I was a criminal attorney in Houston before I moved to Pecan Springs, single, on the scary cliff of forty and desperately soulweary......" Now that she's married to a retired private investigator and has so many irons in the fire her body is the part of her that's weary.

As Albert's readers know, China will find out who dun it and why. Subplots include her half-brother wanting to revisit the circumstances of their father's death, and best pal Ruby dealing with a difficult, albeit ill, mother.

Descriptions of local vistas and small town goings-on add to the Southwestern flavor of "Spanish Dagger" (which, I've learned, is a folk name for a rather large yucca plant. Actually, I've learned quite a bit more about said plant, but that's Ms. Albert for you!)

Enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

I truly love this series of Ms. Albert's about China Bayles, and I love all the wonderful people in it like Ruby and Smart Cookie. I began this series about seven years ago, and read all the back releases, so now I avidly await the launching of a new China Bayles book. This one did not disappoint. There's still murder and mayhem in Pecan Springs, and I'm grateful for that. I always love the recipes and the herb trivia that Ms. Albert sprinkles throughout her books as well. This book deals with the unsavoury subject of drug trafficking. China finds herself mixed up with some pretty scary dudes. Guys that will stop at nothing to protect their drug empires. Also, there is a wonderful new character in this book. A Rottweiler named Rambo. I too have a Rottweiler, and was wonderfully surprised to find one in this book. It looks like he'll be around in the future too, so another reason to wait not-so-patiently for the next China Bayles book. Keep them coming!

China Bayles' herb shop, Thyme & Seasons is doing well but not well enough to pay all the bills if her husband Mike's PI business doesn't get some customers. But in the vein of being careful what you wish for, Mike's next case is for China's newly found half-brother, Mike Danforth. Danforth believes that China's father was murdered and wants McQuaid to open this cold case. This, as you might guess, upsets China's mother.

And speaking of mothers, Ruby's mother is causing quite a stir in her seniors community and Ruby needs to have her moved to a new apartment where she can get the intensive care she needs now that she's showing signs of dementia. With all this going on, China has little time to spend with Carole Gayle who has arrived to give a papermaking workshop and needs help gathering samples. It's while they're out gathering Spanish dagger that they find a body and now time may be running out ... the killer needs to be found before the town gets torn apart by a jurisdictional dispute between local police and Texas DEA agents.

When you pick up a China Bayles mystery, you know several things: the book will be filled with interesting herbal information; the characters you've come to care about will be involved in some sort of mischief or mayhem; there will be a mystery to solve; there will be some delicious recipes to try out; and Pecan Springs will still be a smallish town filled with characters that can support even more books to come.

The mystery hinges on some very interesting bits of Texas legal history. I think I enjoy these books as much for their information about Texas history and culture as I do for the herbal lore and the characters.

If you like cozy mysteries where the violence is off stage but you still have characters you can care about and learn from -- give these books a try. You don't need to start with the first one. Albert manages to give you enough back-story to pick up on what's happening to the characters and how they inter-relate. But, I'm sure once you read one you'll want to start at the beginning.

I really enjoyed the book SPANISH DAGGER. Susan always has well-developed characters and interesting plots. She also includes very interesting facts about herbs and plants. I've lived in areas with yuccas all my life and knew very little about them.

This story was quite fascinating with the plot and subplots. The ending was a surprise. I loved the dog. I enjoy the variety in the China Bayles stories. They are never dull and they are always different. I look forward to the next one.

China Bayles is back with another murder mystery on her hands. As she is helping her friend Carole gather yucca leaves for a papermaking workshop, she discovers the body of Ruby's ex-boyfriend, Colin. Ruby, in the meantime, is out of town dealing with her elderly mother as she tries to get her into a nursing home.

As if all that was not enough, China's newly found half-brother wants to find out what really happened when their father drove off a bridge to his death sixteen years before. While China wants nothing to do with this situation, her retired cop husband, now a PI, decides to investigate.

Author Susan Wittig Albert deftly weaves the several storylines together for a solid tale of misguided love and betrayal. How she comes to find out who killed Colin and why is, of course, at the root of Spanish Dagger. While I have read this series from the beginning, I am just now catching up with the latter books. It seems each book was written with more depth and deeper characteriation than earlier books.

Every time I open another China Bayles mystery, I feel like I am returning to old stomping grounds and catching up on what has been going on in my absence. As usual, China and her family and friends keep things interesting in Pecan Springs, Texas.

If you love a good mystery but haven't yet read any of the China Bayles series, you can jump in anywhere. Each book stands alone while you can also go back to the beginning and get the deeper background of her family and relationships. Either way, you will be rewarded with another great mystery.

Spanish Dagger (China Bayles Mystery)