I’ll be doing my best today to pre-load several days worth of posts but,
if you notice sometime in the next few days that there’s nothing new
here, you’ll know that I’m a victim of the dreaded snowpocalypse and
my power is out. In that case, please, rummage around to find some
neat stuff from years past and I’ll be back as soon as I can 😉
Scroll down a bit to find the most recent posts.
Ming Tea Murder
A Tea Shop Mystery #16
Laura Childs
Berkley Prime Crime, March 2015
ISBN: 978-0-425-28164-2
Hardcover
Theodosia Browning and the rest of her crew at the Indigo Tea Shop are back for another go at solving a murder—if she can beat Detective Tidwell to it.
This time around, Theo’s boyfriend, Max, who is public relations honcho at the Gibbes museum, is fired when a wealthy contributor is murdered inside a display Max had advocated. He is a suspect in the murder, which has taken place in the middle of the gala opening of a Chinese teahouse exhibit. When Detective Tidwell’s investigation moves too slowly for Theo, she is compelled to take a hand.
As we’ve come to expect of an Indigo Tea Shop mystery, the murder seems to play second fiddle to the business of running a popular tea shop. Tea, food, and friendship fill more pages than the sleuthing. Still, it is interesting how criminal activity seems to permeate Charleston high society—in fiction, that is.
If I have one complaint, it is that there’s not much chemistry between Theodosia and Max. I often wonder what she sees in him. Also, although Theo and some of the other characters are supposed to be young, vibrant people, they strike me as being at least a generation older than they are. Some seem almost like caricatures. Still, the mystery always intrigues, the tea and food sounds elegant, and it is fun to visit for a few hundred pages with the cream of society.
Reviewed by Carol Crigger, November 2015.
Author of Three Seconds to Thunder.
