Bloodroot by Susan Wittig Albert (2001, Hardcover)

Susan Wittig Albert's, China Bayles series, has always been set in the lovely Hill Country of Texas. This book goes to the Mississippi Delta to her family's plantation, Jordan's Crossing. The book is about five generations of China's relatives and the tangled web of deceit & stifling secrets that have kept her away for so long. China is on her own in this book....no husband, son or best friend to help her out. She receives a frantic call from her mother, that her great-aunt Tillie, the family matriarch, is gravely ill. Along with all this, an ancient property deed has surfaced and the man who uncovered it has mysteriously disappeared and her mother, Leatha, is afraid that aunt Tillie is involved. China's investigation of the murder finds some long-hidden family secrets and before she is finished, she discovers forbidden love affairs, illegitimate children, suicide, murder, and betrayal by family members.

This story is a suspenseful tale of how one woman is searching to bring peace to her heart by uprooting all that has been kept silent over the years.