Chile Death: A China Bayles Mystery | Susan Wittig Albert

Chile Death: A China Bayles Mystery | Susan Wittig Albert | Best in the series, so far

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Chile Death: A Chi...

	Chile Death: A China Bayles Mystery Susan Wittig Albert Berkley, 1999 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

She planted the seeds of mystery stardom with her first book, Thyme of Death. She continued growing with such highly-praised follow-ups as Witches' Bane and Love Lies Bleeding. Now Susan Wittig Albert's career blooms with a flourish--with the brand-new offering Chile Death.

An annual chili cookoff, a womanizing judge, and a crisis in China's personal life add up to a novel that will delight fans of this fast-rising author, a nominee for both the Anthony and Agatha Awards--and attract a whole new audience to this "appealing series that just keeps getting better." (Booklist)

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Good Book

I Love this series. They are easy to read with good characters and an interesting but never too violent mystery.

Best in the series, so far

China Bayles feels she is in limbo when her plans for a tea room adjoining her herb shop and her marriage to Mike McQuaid are put on hold. The reason for this is Mike's ongoing rehabilitation as the result of a shooting which occurred during one of his recent investigations. Added to this, China's mother has come to help out and their relationship has always been tenuous at best. China is temporarily distracted from her problems when the whole town begins preparing for its annual chili cook-off. McQuaid is also pulled from his depresssion when the cook-off sponsors persuade him to return to his annual role as a judge in the contest. All seems to be going well when one of the other judges dies after tasting several of the chili recipes which have been submitted. China and McQuaid begin to help the police by tracking down who could have tampered with the chili and who had a motive for killing the judge. The judge was considered quite a ladies' man and was in the middle of a nasty divorce, so suspects abound. Albert takes the reader on a round of plausible red herrings before the killer is finally revealed. This book develops the characters of China, McQuaid, and China's friend Ruby to a new level and really shows Albert's skill as a writer. The many interesting facts about chili peppers sprinkled throughout the book also add to the readers' enjoyment.

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Best yet

This is the seventh mystery in the China Bayles, Herbalist, series. China,
who was once a high-powered criminal defense attorney in Houston and now
owns a small herb shop in Pecan Springs, Texas, as finally decided to marry
McQuaid, the man she's lived with for some time. But, several months ago he
was shot in the back and is still trying to regain the use of his lower
body. Because he doesn't want to be a burden to China, he refuses to go
home where she will have to take care of him, and instead is convalescing at
one of the local nursing homes. His depression has had her more worried
than his physical handicap, and when some local men talk him into being one
of the judges at the annual chili cook-off, she is delighted to see him
starting to get back into something that resembles a normal life. But then
one of the other judges, Jerry Jeff Cody, dies of an allergic reaction -- to
a peanut. Everyone in Texas knows that peanuts don't belong in chili, and
China and McQuaid knows that something suspicious is going on. Rumors are
flying about Jerry Jeff's womanizing and hotly disputed divorce, and the
list of possible suspects seems to have no end. It isn't just the chile
peppers that are heating things up in Pecan Springs, and it will be a race
to the end with a very good chance that China's entire future will go up in
smoke before she solves this one.

This series just keeps getting better and better. This one was the best
yet. It has excellent characterization, superb dialogue, a complicated
mystery, and just the right amount of suspense with a surprise at the end.
I didn't see it coming! LOL I'll give it a 5.

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A mystery in every bite...

Albert's books are great fun to read. I enjoy them so much...she is a more than adequate writer, fairly good at drawing her characters in words, and the plots make good sense (well as far as mysteries go...why do the protagonists insist on going into bad situation by themselves?)

I knew from the minute that it became obvious there was going to be a 'tasting' that someone was going to get poisoned. It's probably one of the oldest forms of murders there is. Yet, poisoning is not exactly what happened. The murderer took into account the victim's own allergies and used that against him. The victim was one of these annoying insurance guys who use their looks to sell their insurance, as well as use scare tactics to sell to older people. He had plenty of enemies, and China and McQuaid have to sort through an overabundance of information to find the most pertinent info.

As usual Albert puts in a bit of history, a lot of recipes, and some information on the sad disease that is Alzheimer's.
A good summer read...

Karen Sadler

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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