Thyme of Death: A China Bayles Mystery

Rating:
Summary: Mystery and Herbs go hand and hand
Review: The China Bayles Mystery Series centers around a small town in Texas and a successful female attorney, China Bayles. China has grown weary of her big city fights and takes refuge in Pecan Springs. But, her life is far from simple as she had hoped when she purchased the Thyme and Seasons herb shop. Between the perils of small town life and the remnants of her past, Ms. Bayles is kept steadily at work sorting out her life and helping the chief of Pecan Springs sort out his. This thoroughly enjoyable series is full of herbal references and more than a few mysteries. There are eight books so far. Lavender Lies is Susan Wittig Albert's most recent contribution to the series. 

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: This book and the rest of the China Bayles mysteries were very good. I'm not sure what the New Mexico reader was looking for, but I happened to find my kind of reading in this series. I hope Ms. Albert keeps up the good work & I can't wait to read her next one. I've read them all to date.

Rating:
Summary: Easy read ...
Review: This is a nice and easy book to pick up when you want something quick to read. The characters quickly came to life and held my interest from beginning to end. I found the ending to be fairly transparent, but the book was enjoyable just the same.

Rating:
Summary: Left me cold
Review: This mystery has some good things going for it: the setting is intrinsically interesting and beautifully depicted, the author clearly knows and loves herbs and uses her lore to enhance the plot, the characters are vividly drawn, and the writing is better than average.
However, all the way through I had the uncomfortable feeling that the book was written to a formula that ran something like this: (1) Spunky female heroine with feminist credentials (former lawyer) but who's just a country girl at heart, (2) Good-looking younger lover, (3) Unique setting not duplicated in another mystery series, (4) Female bonding leads her into a mystery, (5) Policeman friend (here combined with 2) tries to dissuade her from being involved in it, but (6) She solves it anyway, with (7) Usual quantity of red herrings and plot twists and (8) Profound doubts about at least one of her female friends (cf. 4). I read a couple more of the series (out of a sense of "perhaps I was unfair to the first one"), and they all seemed to follow the same recipe -- although the latest one evidently combines 2 with 4 and 8. (The fact that I can't remember the titles is telling.)
I was left with the unpleasant sensation that the author had coolly calculated what type of book would be most appealing to a "typical fan" (literate woman who's addicted to mystery novels and wants a series main character she can identify with, but whose life is just exotic enough to fuel her fantasies) and was cranking them out to spec. Any enjoyment I derived from the story or the setting was vitiated by the feeling that my buttons were being pushed all the way through. I'd read another novel in the series only if I were stuck in an airport for 4 hours and the only other available books were biographies of football players and Rush Limbaugh's latest.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Thyme
Review: This was my first China Bayles mystery and I'll probably read another. The characters are well developed and so is the plot. Personally, I can relate to the small town life and with a brother and sister who are both attorneys I can relate to China.
I did think that it was a bit too drawn out in places and caught myself skipping over bits here and there. I also feel like there were a couple of weak connections in the story and China needs to deal with some baggage from her past. If you are terribly conservitive you probably will have a problem with a couple of the character developments.
However, some of the things I like best about the China character is that she has a background that actually lends itself to solving crimes unlike so many main characters who stumble across the solution while taking their kids to soccer or by unwittingly picking a murder site for a vacation. All of the main characters are likeable and I love all of the cooking and health info about herbs.
Overall, I think that just about every one will enjoy the characters, setting, and plot. I'll be passing it on to friends to read.