Lavender Blue Murder

January 20, 2020
At the outset of bestseller Childs’s agreeable 21st Tea Shop mystery (after 2019’s Broken Bone China), Theodosia Browning, the owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston, S.C., and her tea sommelier, Drayton Conneley, are attending a bird hunt at Creekmore Plantation when their host, pharmaceutical company CEO Reginald Doyle, is found fatally shot in his neighbor’s lavender field. Reginald’s hysterical widow asks Theodosia, who has a reputation as an amateur sleuth, to help with the investigation. Later that evening, the main plantation house burns down, and days later Reginald’s daughter-in-law goes missing and is presumed dead. Theodosia and Drayton proceed to interview all the usual suspects, including the victim’s widow, his business partners, and the plantation caretaker, much to the chagrin of Pete Riley, Theodosia’s police detective boyfriend. An appendix collects the recipes from the Indigo Tea Shop mentioned in the story, including candied edible flowers. Cozy fans will be more than satisfied. Agent: Sam Pinkus, Keystone Literary.