Susan Wittig Albert: Dilly of a Death

Berkley (Hardcover), ISBN 0425193993

A former big-city attorney who now owns a herb and tea shop, China Bayles lives in Pecan Springs, Texas, where the annual Picklefest usually stirs up more than enough excitement for this sleepy little town. Not this year, however.

While the Pretty Pickle Planners draw up checklists and organize volunteers, the corpse of the festival’s chief supporter, Phoebe Morgan (a.k.a. the Pickle Queen), floats in one of her own factory’s underground concrete tanks. If it weren’t for the gullywasher that flooded the town and the factory, who knows how long Phoebe’s murder might have gone unnoticed? Her own secretary claimed Phoebe simply ran off with her latest love interest, a handsome starving artist, and swore the P.Q. would be back in time for the next committee meeting.

Then the young artist turns up shot in the head, parked in his car at a gravel pit with a gun by his side. In the meantime, China’s business partner’s daughter Amy confesses that the artist fathered her unborn child. Amy refuses to believe her lover committed suicide or murder and sets out to help China prove it. Along the way, China and her husband McQuaid, a cop turned professor now working as a P.I., investigate the mystery of the Pickle Queen’s murder and a series of underwear thefts that send the residents of Pecan Springs into an uproar.

A Dilly of a Death features enough amusing characters to keep you smiling and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing. McQuaid’s teenage son wishes for a mate for his tarantula. China’s business partner Ruby plans an 83rd birthday party for her grandmother while firing off advice to her own pregnant daughter, who wants no part of her words of wisdom. The Pickle Queen’s disgruntled but handsome neighbor may or may not be the murderer, but he obviously warrants a closer look.

Susan Wittig Albert, a former English professor who now lives and writes outside Austin, Texas, weaves these characters together to make a mostly believable plot with quiet humor and a red herring or two. China Bayles proves a savvy sleuth, a well-informed herbalist, and a protagonist with attitude. Returning fans, as well as new readers, will enjoy this 12th installment of the popular series.

And even if the mystery doesn’t grab you, the recipes at the end justify the price of the book. Dilled Tomato Soup (a favorite of China’s Thyme for Tea customers), the Dilly of a Dip served to the Pretty Pickle Planners, the Dillied Beer Bread for China’s Reuben sandwiches, plus the fascinating herbal lore at the head of each chapter make A Dilly of a Death a sensible investment. Albert once again has cooked up a dilly of a who-done-it.

Augusta Scattergood

Augusta Scattergood, a librarian and member of SCBWI, reads and reviews books from her home in New Jersey.