Martin Luther College

"Herbalist China Bayles' latest adventure takes her to the mountains of North Carolina, where her friend Dorothea Harper serves as the director and curator of the Hemlock House Library, a priceless collection of rare gardening books housed in a haunted mountainside mansion that once belonged to Sunny Carswell, a reclusive heiress. But the most valuable book-A Curious Herbal, created by Elizabeth Blackwell in the 1730s-is missing and Dorothea is under...

The annual chili cook-off sounds like a nice respite from the stress, so China Bayles gladly accoumpanies her wheelchair-bound sweetheart to the event. But tragedy strikes when cook-off judge Jerry Jeff Cody dies of a severe allergic reactionto a peanut. Everyone knows that peanuts don't belong in a bowl of Texas chili...and China knows something suspicious is afoot. China Bayles (Rueful Death, LJ 10/1/96) contends with the paralysis of her new husband,...

Herbalist ex-lawyer China Bales investigates the murder of a teller at the Pecan Springs bank and follows the clues to a haunted bed and breakfast.

National best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert's poetic beauty and West Texas flavor permeate her China Bayles mysteries. The high school principal asks China to secretly investigate the popular football coach who led the Panthers to six state championships. Soon after China confirms the coach's predilection for teenage girls, one of his victims turns up dead and suspicion falls upon the lecherous coach.

"While helping Ruby Wilcox clean up the loft above their shops, China comes upon a box of antique handcrafted lace and old photographs. Following the discovery, she hears a woman humming an old Scottish ballad and smells the delicate scent of lavender... Soon, strange happenings start to occur in Thyme and Seasons: misplaced items, a ringing bell, and the appearance of lavender sprigs in odd places. When a customer sees a mysterious woman picking...

The exploits of ex-lawyer and herbalist China Bayles continue. In Lavender Lies, the eighth volume (and second audio) in the series, China must put her upcoming nuptials on the back burner when a murder investigation entangles her friends and neighbors.Good riddance, is the response of every Pecan Spring resident to the murder of Edgar Coleman, a local real estate shark. With the small-town gossip mill running full tilt, it doesn't take long for China...

Between the herb shop, the catering business, and a weekend paper-making class, China Bayles has her work cut out for her. And now China's half-brother is opening up old wounds, trying to investigate their father's supposedly accidental death, and her husband is taking on the case-meaning she's just bound to get involved.

Popular author Susan Wittig Albert and her China Bayles Herbal Mysteries have been hailed for their intelligent plots and quirky characters. China is a member of the Pecan Springs, Texas Picklefest planning committee. When the Pickle Queen disappears just days before the festival, China and her husband P.I. Mike McQuaid relish searching for the clues in this dilly of a case. This exciting whodunit is packed with plenty of pickle jokes, folklore, and...

"In the newest China Bayles Mystery in the New York Times bestselling series, China comes to the aid of a nurse who ends up in the hospital... It's mid-April in Pecan Springs, and China is renting her guest cottage to Kelly Kaufman, who needs a temporary place to live as she contends with a very acrimonious divorce from her husband, Rich. One nasty point of dispute is her part ownership of the Comanche Creek Brewing Company, which she is refusing...

China's herb shop and catering business may be thriving, but she's still reeling from her father's death, and not even remotely interested in her half-brother Miles's investigation into that event. China's husband, on the other hand, has no such qualms. And when fate forces her to get involved as well, China realizes it's time to bring the past to light-or else it will haunt her the rest of her life. But China and McQuaid discover that Miles may have...