Pecan Springs Thyme and Seasons - a Texas Herbal

When China's good friend, Jo Gilbert, apparently commits suicide, China is more than puzzled. Jo had been suffering from a terminal disease, but wasn't the type to take her own life. And, to a lawyer like China, some revealing letters that Jo leaves behind shout blackmail and murder, not suicide.

China is shocked when Halloween hijinks take a gruesome turn in Pecan Springs, ending in a brutal murder. And China is even more shocked when her friend Ruby, a New Age expert in tarot and astrology, becomes the prime suspect after a minister accuses her of witchcraft.

When an animal researcher is found hanged, China Bayles discovers that her friend the Cat Lady is not the only one who wanted him dead, becomes involved in animal rights issues, and deals with a romantic ultimatum from Mike McQuaid.

When her accountant, Rosemary, is killed, ex-lawyer and herb-shop proprietor China Bayles finds a host of suspects that includes an abusive ex-husband and several former clients. Reprint.

Exhausted by the Christmas season and her new roommates, love interest Mike McQuaid and his 12-year-old son, China takes off for a retreat at St. Theresa's Monastery in Texas's remote and wild Yucca River country with friend Maggie Garrett, a former nun. In spite of its tranquil appearance, the religious order is in a state of turmoil. St. Theresa's has merged with another order which wants to use the retreat's bequest to open a high-powered retreat center. The two sides are hopelessly deadlocked when the Reverend Mother, the tie-breaking vote, dies mysteriously. China agrees to look into the death.

McQuaid is on sabbatical writing a history of the Texas Rangers. China decides at last to accept McQuaid's next proposal of marriage, but he reveals himself to be less than honest and trustworthy. China steps up to solve a case of retired Texas Ranger shot dead with his wife's gun.

Ex-lawyer turned herbalist and amateur sleuth China Bayles attends a chili cook-off where a womanizing judge dies of an allergic reaction to peanuts. And since everyone knows peanuts don't belong in a bowl of Texas chili, China knows something suspicious is afoot...

China Bayles is a week away from marrying her beloved fiancé, the interim police chief of Pecan Springs. However, the murder of Edgar Coleman puts a damper on her plans, so China decides to help her husband-to-be solve the crime. Edgar, who was known for his shady deals and philandering ways, had many enemies, so China and her friend Ruby decide to investigate, and what they turn up adds more suspects to the list and more possibilities that China will miss her honeymoon.

China Bayles worked hard to make her Texas herb shop, Thyme and Seasons, a success. Now business is booming at her charming new tea room, Thyme for Tea--but China is too distracted to revel in her latest entrepreneurial triumph. When she's not trying to spend more time with her new husband and stepson, she's worrying about her best friend, Ruby, who just hasn't been herself lately. To further complicate matters, China has to round up a supply of mistletoe, the season's most popular herb. It seems an easy enough task--until her chief supplier turns up dead...

A frantic phone call from her mother brings China back to her family's Mississippi plantation--a place she'd forsaken long ago. But the late-spring air is thick with fear--and from the moment of her arrival, China knows that something has gone desperately wrong at Jordan's Crossing. An ancient property deed has surfaced--and the man who uncovered it has mysteriously vanished. And as the fates and fortunes of two very different families collide in frightening, unpredictable ways, China must face disturbing new questions about her family's past--and her own future...

China Bayles heads to the tiny town of Indigo, Texas, to teach a Colors to Dye For workshop. But she quickly discovers that Indigo is a town with more than its share of dark secrets-secrets that someone thinks are worth killing to keep. Ruby reveals extraordinary depths of insight.

Short Story Collection

China Bayles is in a pickle. The daughter of her best friend, Ruby, has turned up on her doorstep, pregnant and in need of a place to live. And her otherwise sensible husband has announced that he's bored with teaching and ready for a career change." "Say "hello" to P.I. Mike McQuaid and Associates. There aren't actually any "associates" - unless you count Ruby and China, of course. But the title does have a nice, official ring to it. His first client is Phoebe the Pickle Queen, owner of the biggest little pickle business in Texas. According to Phoebe, her plant manager is embezzling, and she wants McQuaid to follow the money." Meanwhile, Pecan Springs is hosting the annual Picklefest - and this year, China and Ruby are on the planning committee, along with Phoebe. But just days before the festival starts, the Pickle Queen disappears. Some say she sold her business and split; others think the answer may lie with her missing boyfriend. It's up to McQuaid and China to search for the Pickle Queen - and for clues in a case that promises to leave a very sour taste.

When China's teenage son finds some skeletal remains during a local cave dig--remains that show a not-so-accidental death--it's a disturbing development. But China doesn't let it distract her from the opening of the new community theater donated by the elderly Obermann sisters. Unfortunately, the haughty, bullying Jane Obermann--and her frail, frightened younger sister--made the donation with a condition: that the first production be a play written by Jane about their aristocratic family history.

The premiere party ends with a bang when a ne'er-do-well local handyman is shot dead by Jane while breaking into the Obermann estate. It seems like a clear-cut case of self-defense. But China senses something else going on behind the scenes. Now, the key to catching a killer might be the mysterious bones in the cave--a clue from the past that could help China solve a mystery in the present...

China is asked to investigate charges of impropriety surrounding a student's suicide and the local hero -- a football coach.

While harvesting yucca plants to make paper, China Bayles finds a body-cause of death: unknown. It seems that the simple lives of many residents of Pecan Springs hide complex and dangerous pasts. And now, while also unraveling secrets that hit close to home, China must set the record straight- and find a killer.

China's half-brother hires Mike McQuaid, now a PI, to investigate their father's death sixteen years ago. Told from both China's and McQuaid's point of view, this two-pronged investigation brings to a close the mysteries of the previous two books.

In a multi-layered tale set on the site of a defunct Shaker village, China investigates murder and embezzlement.

McQuaid's ex-wife has psychiatric problems, but when she turns up claiming to be homeless, jobless and broke China takes her in. Soon McQuaid and China are each off on an investigation as the ex-wife goes missing and the body count rises.

China comes upon a burning trailer and tries unsuccessfully to save the woman inside. Soon China is searching for answers on the local campus.

Smart Cookie, police chief Sheila Dawson, newly married, takes the limelight as she works in the field on a Pecan Springs investigation. It's blackmail, theft and murder in a small town with China and Ruby helping as always.

Ruby is called upon to help a friend who inherited a haunted house. She must confront the gifts that she has suppressed for years. With China in the final scenes, the three women must make peace with the ghost.

A compendium of herbal lore.