Oolong Dead by Laura Childs (2009, Hardcover)

Ms. Child's is high up on my list of author's I am addicted to, and this new book does not fail!
The heroine is Theodosia Browning, owner of a marvelous Charleston Tea Shop. The story begins with Theo competing in the Charleston Point-to-Point Race. At one of the jumps her horse spooks and rears back as Theo rolls off to avoid being crushed. As she slowly gets up she sees what scared the horse,....next to the jumping gate is the body of Abby Davis, TV personality, investigative reporter and also the sister of her ex- boyfriend, Jory. The last time she saw Abby was in a public place where the woman tried to bait her into a fight. Her break-up with Jory never did set well with his sister! Once again Detective Burt Tidwell is part of the story as he tries to solve the murder and doesn't discourage Theo in investigating on her own. Jory arrives back in town from New York, and he and Abby's husband, Drew, plead with Theo to find the killer. Her employees, Haley and Drayton know she will get involved since she was the one who found the body, but they don't realize how deep her investigation will go. Jory says Abby was very happily married, but Theo begs to differ when clues lead to a possible affair that may have or may not have gotten her killed. Abby was not well liked at Trident Media, where she worked. She climbed her way to the top by using people to the point of making some lose their jobs. I love when Theo and her best friend, Delaine Dish get involved together in little side trips that turn into something out of a Nancy Drew book, and this is no exception, when they head off toward the swamps and into a very old, dilapitated plantation home that was humored to be the home of a 100 year old missing bride. No surprise,......She and Delaine find the skeleton by accident hidden away in a secret part of the house in a trunk. In the meantime, her present boyfriend, Parker Scully, gets wind that Jory is back in town and that Theo has been seen with him, but even with Theo explaining to Parker the reasons why,the guy is not buying it and it looks like trouble in paradise. The climax of the story is the masked ball given by the Opera Society. The killer is not a phanthom and may surprise many.
Ms. Childs' write's about the history of Charleston in each story and the more you read her books, the more you learn. The Indigo Tea Shop is unique and I do wish there really was a place like it. Haley's food will make your mouth water. The recipes are in the back of the book. Drayton is the tea master and between them all they make tea times magical. The on-going characters are colorfully drawn as well as the city itself. The author does a grand slam job with both her tea shop mysteries and her scrapbooking mystery series set in the French Quarter. I look forward to both books eagarly!

I love this book as another one in the Tea Shop series. Once again Laura Childs has brought Theodosia and her friends alive, and helped us see historic Charlston.