The Barnes & Noble Review
This collection gathers together a charming bouquet of cozy mysteries featuring Susan Wittig Albert's popular protagonist China Bayles, a former criminal defense lawyer who turned her back on big-city success to run an herb shop and tearoom in the small Texas town of Pecan Springs. Six of the stories in this volume originally appeared on Country Living Gardner magazine's web site. For Unthymely Death, she has rewritten those stories, provided four new ones written especially for this collection, and added even more of the incidental yet enriching material that fans of this series have come to love: recipes, herbal hints, plant lore, and more. When you take the time for An Unthymely Death, you'll join China Bayles in solving crimes, large and small, as you learn more about the quaint community of Pecan Springs, Texas -- from the exquisite plantings at the charming local cemetery described in "Death of a Rose Rustler" to the mustard competition at the County Fair, which sets the scene for "Mustard Madness." From murder to missing cats to the mysteries of the human heart, An Unthymely Death offers as many diversions and delights as a garden maze. Sue Stone