Flat White

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.

March 1, 2020

Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier, Drayton Conneley, are guests at a hunting party at the Creekmore Plantation. Gunshots are firing fast as firecrackers around them when Theodosia is alarmed by a sound that is suspiciously closer than it should be. She finds plantation owner Reginald Doyle lying gravely injured in a neighbor's lavender field. Doyle succumbs to his injuries, leaving behind his wife, Meredith. She begs Theodosia and Drayton to stay the night and help solve the murder. Both agree only to awaken in the wee hours of the morning to the smell of smoke--the plantation house is burning around them. Theodosia doesn't think the events are coincidental, so she agrees to investigate, only to end up with numerous suspects and secrets. VERDICT Newcomers should find this a great entry point to Child's established series (after Broken Bone China) and enjoy the charming Charleston, SC, setting, while longtime fans will relish the return of the sassy characters they love. [See Prepub Alert, 8/19/19.]--Bill Anderson, Scott Cty. P.L., Scottsburg, IN

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2020
A knockoff of a British bird hunt is deadly for the Anglophile who hosts it. Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in the low country of South Carolina, and her friend Drayton Conneley, a tea expert, are participating in a game-bird hunt at Creekmore Plantation. Drayton, no hunter, is a friend of wealthy host Reginald Doyle, who served with him on the board of the Charleston Heritage Society. Doyle's shot dead at the hunt, the weapon not a badly aimed shotgun but a pistol. Doyle's wife, Meredith, knowing of Theodosia's reputation as a sleuth (Broken Bone China, 2019, etc.), begs her to help, asking that she and Drayton stay overnight. So they're still on hand when the house goes up in flames in what seems likely to be another staged accident. The sums of money involved guarantee plenty of suspects. Doyle had been thinking of giving the plantation to the Heritage Society, but his most recent will leaves it to his hot-tempered stepson, Alex, who's constantly arguing with Fawn, his recent bride. Doyle was also at odds with two of his neighbors, including the Lavender Lady, whose fragrant farm borders Creekmore. Although things seem to be going well enough at the pharmaceutical company where Doyle was CEO, Theodosia learns that Guy Thorne, Doyle's partner in a restaurant, has financial problems. When Alex's sailboat is found drifting in the harbor, Fawn, who went out for a walk and never returned, is feared drowned. Aside from Meredith's need for constant hand-holding, Theodosia, Drayton, and Haley, their fabulous chef, are busy with the usual activities plus a plethora of exotic-themed tea parties. The police and especially Theodosia's detective boyfriend urge her to let them do their jobs, but she can't break her promise to Meredith. Genteel Southern charm and murderous mayhem mix in a mystery that keeps you guessing.

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February 1, 2020
What begins as an elegant English-style shooting party on a sunny autumn day in South Carolina's low country ends with the host mortally shot in the chest, his mansion in flames, and most of the guests, plus some neighbors, plausible suspects. Among the guests of Reginald and Meredith Doyle are Theodosia Browning, owner of Charleston's Indigo Tea Shop, and her tea sommelier, Drayton Conneley. The now-widowed Meredith asks Theo for help in finding the killer, leaning on Theo in the following days, even as Theo is trying to run her business and stay out of the investigation, as urged by her boyfriend, Charleston police detective Pete Riley. The lusciously described themed tea parties at the shop provide the backdrop for her inquiries, as Theo seeks to learn who among the other guests, neighboring estate owners, and business partners had motive to kill. Childs includes recipes from the tearoom, as well as tips for successful tea parties, expanding the appeal to lovers of tea and Southern culture.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2021
Maggy Thorsen and her acerbic business partner, Sarah Kingston, own Uncommon Grounds, a coffeehouse in Brookhills, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. A temporary employee, germophobe Christy Wrigley, gushes to Maggy about her boyfriend, Barry Margraves, whom Christy met on an online dating site. Barry gave her an expensive diamond tennis bracelet and is coming to town to meet her, she thinks to propose. However, Barry shows up at Uncommon Grounds seemingly angry at Christy, then is accidentally mowed down by an errant, unattended snowplow, its driver in the bathroom suffering from gastric distress. Or was someone driving the plow, intentionally killing Barry? Events occur that make Christy a suspect, even though she was with Maggy during the incident. Is Christy in cahoots with someone? While Maggy's fianc�, Sheriff Jake Pavlik, shares limited information with her, Maggy keeps some facts to herself, allowing her to catch the killer. Numerous plot twists, nicely delineated characters, dry humor, and details of running a coffeehouse define this cozy. Suggest to those who enjoy Laura Childs' Tea Shop mysteries.

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March 1, 2021
An internet romance goes horribly wrong. You might think that the name of their coffee shop, Uncommon Grounds, was some kind of cruel joke rather than just a tired pun, since co-owners Maggie Thorsen and Sarah Kingston seem to have no shared concerns and spend all day every day sniping at one another. Having Christy Wrigley, the neat-freak piano teacher from across the street, fill in for their barista, Amy, who's vacationing in Europe, does nothing to lower the emotional temperature. In fact, Christy could have proved a lightning rod for the bickering partners' wrath, since she's been dating Sarah's step-cousin Ronny Eisvogel, currently in prison for trying to murder Maggie. But the two of them focus instead on Christy's obsession with scrubbing the condiment cart and her annoying yellow rubber gloves. Things don't get any better when, midscrub, Christy reveals she's dumped Ronny for globe-trotting Barry Margraves. Since she met her new beloved on a dating site, he's showered her with gifts, including a diamond tennis bracelet from Tiffany's. Christy expects Barry to come see her any day now, engagement solitaire in hand, for their first in-person meeting. But his arrival is a huge letdown. First, Barry is squashed like a bug by a snowplow thoughtlessly left running outside the shop while its driver used the restroom. Second, Barry turns out to be married. When she comes to town to claim Barry's flattened body, Helena Margraves bumps the conflict up yet another notch, claiming that Christy not only stole her man, but raided their joint bank account. The ingenious solution to the puzzle almost gets lost in the ensuing catfight For those who value conflict for its own sake.

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