Thyme of Death [Hardcover]

Susan Wittig Albert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1992

Eager to open up an herb shop and get closer to the earth, China Bayles leaves behind her career in corporate law and moves to Pecan Springs, Texas, but a close friend's tragic death could end her happy plans.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this promising though conventional debut mystery, Albert (Work of Her Oum) ably invents a central Texas town called Pecan Springs. While the plotting is somewhat mundane, the book's appealing late-summer setting and descriptions of home cooking are nicely evocative. Narrator China Bayels, 42, a former fast-track Houston attorney who now owns a slowlane Pecan Springs herb emporium, erdoys her laid-back lifestyle until the untimely death of her friend Jo Gilbert. Jo, who was battling cancer, is found after she downed a bottle of sleeping pills with vodka, but some in the closeknit community insist that suicide wasn't Jo's style. China and her brassy, New-Agey pal Ruby snoop around and learn that Jo once had an affair with another woman, a prominent childrens'-TV personality. Did the famous lover fear that gossip might ruin her career? Suspicion in Jo's death-and two subsequent slayings-shifts among members of the insular community before the plausible yet slightly disappointing finale. Motives are determined and a guilty party pegged, but there's a sense that all is not resolved; the narrative loses sight of China's romance with an excop and puts the herb business on the back burner. Presumably these aspects of China's life will be detailed as the projected series progresses, but their obvious neglect here leaves readers with mixed feelings about this story's conclusion.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

China Bayles, former rat-race lawyer, escapes to small-town Texas to operate an herb shop and enjoy the simple life. Murder interrupts her simple life, however, when a good friend and local protest organizer dies suddenly. Revelatory letters, a crazy-eyed dollmaker, a nationally known TV personality, her ex-cop lover, and a shifty developer complicate matters as China begins her amateurish investigation. Like her pursuit of the murderer, this provides pleasant escape from routine. The first of a series.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (September 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684195224
• ISBN-13: 978-0684195223
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #980,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My husband Bill and I live on 31 acres in the Hill Country of Central Texas, and have longhorn cows, sheep, geese, as well as the wild things that roam the meadows and woods. Our best buddies are our three dogs (Zach, Lady, and Toro) and our cat, Shadow. I'm a passionate gardener and am concerned about issues of global warming and energy depletion. You can find out more about the way I live in my new memoir, Together, Alone: A Memoir of Marriage and Place.

I've been writing professionally for nearly 25 years, after a stint in higher education as a faculty member 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.

Now, I write three mystery series: the China Bayles herbal mysteries, the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, and a new series (starting in July, 2010) called The Darling Dahlias, about a Southern garden club in the 1930s. Writing is not only my work, but my passion. Truly a right livelihood, and I'm grateful to have found it. I am also a member (and the founder) of the Story Circle Network, a nonprofit organization that supports women who want to write about their lives.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Texas China worth collecting, February 27, 2001

By 

dikybabe "admeyer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thyme of Death (China Bayles 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

I first met Susan Wittig Albert at a Houston women writers workshop about the time she started her China Bayles series. She was also writing the Robin Paige Victorian mysteries with hubby Bill. I bought all the books she had out at the time and carried them home aflush with the joy of personally autographed copies.

Then, finally, this winter I began to enjoy China Bayles, even out of sequence. But this first volume in the set, Thyme of Death, certainly is one to make a reader want to read the rest of the books. China, named after her grandmother, is a strong woman, an ex-Houston-tough attorney in retreat to a quieter life as herb store owner. Her fictional location in Pecan Springs is wonderfully familiar to any Hill Country Texan. Albert worked as Dean of Women at South West Texas State University in San Marcos and knows the country intimately.

Fictional China just can't get away from the crime scenes that she thought she left behind in Houston, however. And before long she is enlisted in solving a crime with her outrageous New Age fellow shop owner and friend Ruby in tow. China's herb shop ownership lends itself to rich teachings about herbs, and a clever tie in to the crime in each novel. Dealing with the small town John law and the county mountie sheriff requires extra savvy from Ms. Bayles. She is plenty capable of handling crime, customers, and hot, spicy, chile-flavored dishes which she comfortably washes down with Texas brew in the local country western juke joint.

If you like smart females who are in charge of their own lives, you will like China Bayles. Even when she unwillingly softens to the courtship of an ex-Houston cop turn criminology professor, she remains fiercely independent and of the '90's, headed for the 21st century.

To read one of Albert's China Bayles' mysteries is to set yourself up to read another and another and another.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mystery and Herbs go hand and hand, January 11, 2000

By 

V.J. Billings - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thyme of Death (China Bayles 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

The China Bayles Mystery Series centers around a small town in Texas and a successful female attorney, China Bayles. China has grown weary of her big city fights and takes refuge in Pecan Springs. But, her life is far from simple as she had hoped when she purchased the Thyme and Seasons herb shop. Between the perils of small town life and the remnants of her past, Ms. Bayles is kept steadily at work sorting out her life and helping the chief of Pecan Springs sort out his. This thoroughly enjoyable series is full of herbal references and more than a few mysteries. There are eight books so far. Lavender Lies is Susan Wittig Albert's most recent contribution to the series. 

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, well-written mystery!, June 6, 2001

By 

Marion "[e-mail]" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Thyme of Death (China Bayles 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have to disagree with the fella's review down below me who said that genre novels do not deserve five stars! Hogwash! Shoot, I only review books that deserve five stars. If it's not a good book, why read OR review it? Which leads me to declare my life's motto: So Many Books, So Little Time!

This first book in the China Bayles series is excellent. I read "Lavender Lies" first and thought I might be disappointed in the first book of the series, but I was proven wrong! We're introduced to all of China's cohorts in Pecan Springs, Texas and get the dirt on everyone. Ms. Albert immediately draws us into solving the murder of China's friend (who has terminal breast cancer) who appears to have comitted suicide. It's a wild plot with suspects galore, but I was totally surprised when the murderer was finally brought to justice by China and Ruby. Good, fast-paced read. I highly recommend it to mystery lovers.