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    A Plain Vanilla Murder
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    A Plain Vanilla Murder
    Unavailable
    A Plain Vanilla Murder
    Audiobook10 hours

    A Plain Vanilla Murder

    Written by Susan Wittig Albert

    Narrated by Julia Gibson

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    China and Ruby Wilcox are presenting their annual ''Not Just Plain Vanilla Workshop", always a huge hit with customers at Thyme & Seasons Herb Shop. But someone involved with the workshop is driven by a deadly motive, and China soon finds herself teaming up with the very pregnant Pecan Springs police chief Sheila Dawson to solve a vanilla-flavored murder.

    Sheila, happy to get out from behind the chief's desk, is investigating the death of a botany professor, a prominent researcher specializing in vanilla orchids. China is trying to help a longtime friend: the dead professor's ex-wife and a prime suspect in his murder. However, there's no shortage of other suspects: a betrayed lover, a disgruntled graduate student, jealous colleagues, and a gang of orchid smugglers. But the lethal roots of this mystery reach back into the dark tropical jungles of Mexico, where the vanilla vine was first cultivated. At stake is a lucrative plant patent, an orchid that is extinct in the wild, and the life of an innocent little girl.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateJun 3, 2019
    ISBN9781974965939
    Unavailable
    A Plain Vanilla Murder
    Author

    Susan Wittig Albert

    Susan Wittig Albert is the New York Times bestselling author of over one hundred books. Her work includes four mystery series: China Bayles, the Darling Dahlias, the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter, and the Robin Paige Victorian Mysteries. She has also published three award-winning historical novels as well as YA fiction, memoirs, and nonfiction. She and her husband live in Texas Hill Country, where she writes, gardens, and raises an assortment of barnyard creatures.

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    Reviews for A Plain Vanilla Murder

    4/5

    34 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Very interesting China Bayles series books. She obviously does her research!!! A real page turner.
    • 3/5
      Another entertaining entry in this long running series featuring business owner/herbalist/retired lawyer & general busybody China Bayless. This entry is light on the mystery plot, the author fingers the prime suspect halfway through the book. The informative content (vanilla, herbs, contraband, nonspousal parenting, chickens, etc.) boosts the enjoyment quotient. The rotating cast of secondary characters are always interesting. But the author would have done well to eliminate ninety percent of the comments in the "pregnant woman peeing" category. Unusually tone-deaf to repeatedly make this unnecessary exception.
    • 4/5
      This is the 27th book in the long-running China Bayles series and, even though I've read thousands of mysteries, incredibly, it was my very first China Bayles book. For me, this meant that I had a lot of catching up to do, in terms of the characters. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this one.Even though I have very little interest in vanilla and orchids, the author explained these very well and, in fact, made them interesting. All while crafting an intriguing plot.After reading this 27th China Bayles book, I've now picked up the first couple books in the series, to see how it all started. Definitely a series I would recommend.(I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.)
    • 4/5
      "A Plain Vanilla Murder" is a whodunit murder mystery set in present day Texas.The body of botany Professor Carl Fairlee is found in his Central Texas State University greenhouse, apparently a suicide victim. However, a sharp-eyed university police officer sees evidence that the gunshot wound is inconsistent with suicide. An autopsy confirms her suspicions and the death is deemed to be a murder. This finding begins a police investigation that soon reveals the professor was a bad person with plenty of enemies. Several of them have strong motives to want him out of the picture. Sorting out the potential killers makes for a good story.Storytelling duty is shared between two narrators: China Bayles is a former Houston attorney, now a shop-owner and caterer, in Pecan Springs Texas (midway between San Antonio and Austin) and Sheila Dawson the Pecan Springs Police Department. In addition to the murder mystery, there's an educational theme about vanilla and orchids that works well with the main story. This is the 28th book in the China Bayles series but it can stand alone without too much difficulty. It's the first of the series that I have read and based on my experience with it, I'll be trying some of the others.It's a good easy read, provided you can keep track of all the characters and don't get lost amongst the vanilla and orchid trivia. My thanks to Persevero Press which provided my review copy of this eBook via Netgalley. The comments about it are my own.
    • 5/5
      Vanilla is the theme here. A college professor is found dead. After murder is determined, there are plenty of suspects revolving around his importing, sales and propagation of orchids. I didn’t guess the ending, but it’s along the lines of an eye for an eye.
    • 5/5
      A botany professor and six of his students are on a field trip in Mexico but only five of the students come back; one is the victim of a murderous attack by vanilla thieves. Yes, vanilla thieves. Fast forward a few years and that professor, Carl Fairlee, is dead in what appears to be a suicide. Or is it? Of course, it is not or we wouldn’t have much of a story. Our heroine, herb-shop owner China Bayles, gets involved in the investigation of the murder when a friend, the ex-wife of the victim, comes under suspicion by the police. China briefly slips back into her long-abandoned role of lawyer to help her friend. As it turns out, however, there are plenty of people who didn’t care for Carl Fairlee, including most of his colleagues in the botany department. He was a thoroughly despicable man who may have been involved in the illegal orchid trade. A Plain Vanilla Murder is the 27th book in the China Bayles Series … and I’ve read all of them. I don’t know how Ms. Albert does it. The books are the best: great writing and characters, pleasantly complex plots … plus there’s always something extra. In this book, it’s the fascinating tidbits about vanilla that the author weaves throughout. China’s friend Ruby is pretty much AWOL from this book, something that Ruby’s fans will not be happy about. But I like the way the author has secondary characters vary in importance from book to book. This time Ruby may be absent, but she may be the star of the next book.
    • 4/5
      Who knew vanilla came from an orchid threatened by habitat destruction, murder and international smuggling? The trail leads from a vanilla plant in the Mexican jungle, through university competitive research to murder. One of her better books in this series.
    • 4/5
      I love the China Bayles series. I've been reading it since the series began. I always learn lots of wonderful herb lore, wonderful recipes using herbs, and I've really leaned to know China, Ruby and their whole entourage in Pecan Springs Texas. Eery book has a tricky mystery and this one is no different. Ms. Albert has also gone the extra mile with lots of information about the most popular spice in the world - vanilla. China is a former big city defence lawyer who gave up the corporate life and moved to a small Texas hill country town called Pecan Springs. She has always loved plants, so she buys a century old stone building and opens her own herb store called Thyme and Seasons. People are always asking for China's legal help though, and although she has kept her license current, she has not stepped back into a courtroom. In the book one of the professors at the local college is found dead in his greenhouse - an apparent suicide. As her friend Sheila Dawson who is the police chief of Pecan Springs, investigates further it turns out to be a homicide and there appears to be a plethora of possible suspects. China puts on her legal-eagle face and helps the heavily pregnant Sheila solve the case. Thanks Susan for many wonderful years of China Bayles mysteries. I look forward to the next one.