The Nature of Things

Widow's Tears by Susan Wittig Albert My rating: 3 of 5 stars "Hide from the wind, run from the water," is a mantra that is well-known to Gulf Coast residents. It is something that we hear every hurricane season when there is a storm stirring in the Gulf and headed our way. The wind can create chaos and damage, but the water will kill you. And water pushed by the wind is more deadly still. Unfortunately for the residents of Galveston, Texas, on September 8, 1900, when the killer hurricane smashed into their island, there was no place left to hide, no place to run, because the island had already been effectively cut off from the rest of the world. Through that long, horror-filled night, all the residents of Galveston could do was to try to stay alive and wait for the storm to pass. We'll never know for sure how many of them didn't make it. Estimates of casualties range from 8,000 to 12,000. Thousands were washed out to sea and never seen again; many, many more were...

Holly Blues by Susan Wittig Albert My rating: 4 of 5 stars I've been reading Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles series for several years, and, of course, since I'm an OCD reader, I read the books in the order that they were published. But in looking at a list of the books in the series recently, I realized that I had somehow managed to skip one. Horrors! Naturally, I had to circle back and pick it up immediately. That's how I came to be reading Holly Blues , the eighteenth in a series that will soon number twenty-four. Visiting with China is like being with an old friend, not only because she is well-known to me but also because the setting of the stories is quite familiar. China was once a high-powered lawyer in Houston, but several years ago, she gave that life up to move to the little Hill Country town of Pecan Springs near Austin. All of this is home territory for one who has lived here for thirty years. In Pecan Springs, China reinvented herself as an herbalist an...

Occasionally, it is good to be able to read a book that is totally undemanding, one that doesn't require the brain to exert itself overmuch but can let it figuratively relax and enjoy the ride. That's what books like those in Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles herbal mystery series are like for me.  Cat's Claw  is the twentieth in that series and I confess that I have read and enjoyed them all. They speak to several of my interests - gardening, native Texas plants, herbs and herbal lore - and they are set in the beautiful Texas Hill Country, among my favorite spots in the state. Picking up one of her books is a bit like putting on my favorite robe and slippers and sinking into my favorite chair. It's all about comfort. That being said, the last few books in this series have grown a bit stale, stodgy and predictable, and the character of China Bayles seems a lot less fresh and interesting to me than she was ten or fifteen volumes ago. Maybe Albert was feeling that wa...

The herbalist and amateur investigator China Bayles has a knack for getting herself involved in sticky situations. In Mourning Gloria , she happens upon a house fire just in time to hear a woman trapped inside screaming for help. China calls 9-1-1 and tries to get in to save the woman but the heat drives her back. The investigation of the event by fire marshalls and police reveal that it was no accident and that the woman had been shot and tied up before being left to die in the flames. Who in the peaceful town of Pecan Springs would possibly be guilty of such a gruesome act? One who tries to piece the story together and find the solution to that question is a young woman intern-reporter at the local newspaper. Jessica Nelson tracks down leads and clues to the story, but then she suddenly disappears. Did she find the murderer and will she meet the same fate as the first victim? Her friend, China Bayles, is on the case and sets out to track her down, find out what has happened and save ...