Wormwood

March 9, 2009
Murders past and present with a Shaker link intersect in alarming ways in Albert's engaging 17th China Bayles puzzler (after 2008's Nightshade
). Recent painful events help prompt China, who runs an herb shop and tearoom in Pecan Springs, Tex., to visit her herbalist friend Martha Edmond at Kentucky's Mount Zion Shaker Village, whose board president, Rachel Hart, wants to turn the quaint Shaker museum center into an upscale spa, contrary to the spirit of the original believers. Martha asks China to investigate recent disturbing events, including vandalism, the suicide of a thieving gift shop manager and, according to financial director Allie Chatham, Rachel's embezzlement of funds. When Allie's later found dead in Zion's pool, where a Shaker woman drowned in 1912, Martha and China suspect murder. Shaker-inspired recipes, excerpts from a fictional Shaker journal, insights into the Shaker religion and plenty of herbal lore enhance another winner from this dependable veteran. Author tour.

May 1, 2009
This seventeenth mystery in Alberts series finds herbalist China Bayles leaving her comfort zone in Texas and traveling with her friend Martha on a two-week vacation to a restored Shaker village in Mount Zion, Kentucky. Martha will be giving a series of herbal workshops and wants Chinas assistance both in the presentations and in solving the mystery of why Marthas Aunt Charity abruptly left the Shaker fold back in 1912. China is intrigued with the chance to learn more about Shaker history and especially their tradition of gathering medicinal herbs. It turns out, inevitably, that besides Aunt Charitys mystery, there is a present-day problem to solve. A series of unexplained tensions and acts of sabotage at the seemingly idyllic village suddenly escalate to a shocking death. Alberts love of historic research comes shining through in this novel, which offers a fascinating portrait of the Shaker way of life. As usual, the authors knowledge of herbs enlivens the text, as do the recipes that are scattered throughout.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)