The Jasmine Moon Murder
Laura Childs
Berkley, Sept 2004, $19.95, 240 pp.
ISBN 0425198138

Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in the historic downtown district of Charlotte, South Carolina, agrees to cater the "Ghost Crawl" society tour of the Jasmine cemetery sponsored by Charleston's Medical Triad. The host is Dr. Jasper Davis, the uncle of Theodosia's boyfriend Jory. Uncle Jasper and his team developed the Novalaser, a less invasive way of performing angioplasty. All of a sudden Dr. Davis keels over and is dead; Theodosia finds a syringe near the body.

Jory asks his girlfriend to investigate his uncle's death since she has a history of solving homicides. She plunges into the investigation with plenty of enthusiasm and everyone who knows her believes she is on the trail of the killer. When she is out horseback riding, someone tries to shoot her and shortly thereafter somebody throws a rock through her window warning her to stop her inquiries. Theodosia becomes even more determined to find the killer since she doesn't let her fear interfere with keeping her promise to Jory.

The latest Tea Shop Mystery is a delectable and delicious amateur sleuth mystery with mouth-watering recipes that are worth the price of the book. The description of tea and the meals that The Indigo Tea Shop serves will make readers salivate. The heroine outdoes herself in this homicide investigation because she is investigating homicides without empirical evidence. Laura Childs serves up a delightful tea and murder mystery.

Harriet Klausner