"And there were loads of tourists, too. Folks who'd been drawn to the romance and genteel beauty of Charleston and journeyed from all points of the globe. They explored the 250-year-old historic district, trod narrow cobblestone walkways, marveled at the Italianate, Georgian, and Victorian mansions that lined the Battery, gasped at the beauty of the Atlantic Ocean rushing in to meet the Ashley and Cooper rivers, and succumbed to the charms of Charleston's bountiful gardens that seemed to flourish anywhere and everywhere. And for some intriguing reason, a lot of these tourists ended up at the Indigo Tea Shop."
-from the novel
One of the later additions to the prolific Tea Shop Mystery series by this author, Oolong Dead is only the second I have read. It was an easy read and quite entertaining; I'll rate it a 3.5. Both were chosen because of an upcoming trip to Charleston, S.C., the setting of the novels in this series. The author admits the Indigo Tea Shop is fictionalized so it will be interesting to see how many other places mentioned in the novel really exist. I do know that our Road Scholar program in Charleston includes Gullah culture, sweet grass basket weaving, visits to several ante-bellum mansions and a tea plantation, all of which figure into the story.
The main character, Theodosia Browning, once again discovers a dead body early in the novel, this time while riding in a horse race. (In The English Breakfast Murder, Childs has Theo finding a body while participating in a turtle watch on the beach which makes me wonder if this is the pattern of all the mysteries in the series. A little hard to believe one person would come across multiple dead bodies in their lifetime!)
The corpse turns out to be Abby Davis, a journalist and sister of an ex-boyfriend, as well as Theo's adversary. Always the amateur sleuth, Theo sets out to catch the perpetrator. Suspects are numerous since the victim was tough and abrasive. There are clues that involve an extra-marital affair, workplace revenge, a jewelry theft and a secret society with a little black magic thrown in. One pretty exciting part was when Theo and her prima donna friend, Delaine, explore a dilapidated mansion and become trapped in scary circumstances.
During the course of her investigation, Theo falls in love with a "dream house" that is for sale. I may have to read another tea mystery to find out if she buys it.
No comments:
Post a Comment