China Bayles left her legal career and came to Pecan Springs to get away from the hypercompetitive world of justice and the law. But her herb shop isn’t always the refuge she hopes–especially when the past comes calling.
Olivia Andrews is locally famous for her blog and podcast, “Forget Me Not: A Crime Victim’s Storyboard,” which is dedicated to telling the stories of victims of crime. Now, Olivia has a stunning story to tell about a decades-old murder mystery involving a prominent citizen of Pecan Springs—someone who isn’t the man everybody thinks he is. But she is killed by a hit-and-run driver while she’s out jogging early one morning. Was it an accident—or something else? Her sister wants to know.
And Olivia’s friend China also wants to know, urgently. Who is the prominent citizen Olivia was about to expose? How did he manage to get away with murder twenty years ago? Did he kill Olivia to keep her from revealing his secret? What is local lawyer Charlie Lipman trying to hide? And when there’s another murder . . . well, it has to be a part of the same story, doesn’t it? And so does the scrapbook a cousin has compiled to honor the memory of one of the victims and make sure she won’t be forgotten. It might hold the answer—except that the one person whose face China wants to see has been scissored out of every photo.
Forget Me Never asks the compelling questions Who remembers? What do we choose to remember? Why do we forget? Like other novels in the China Bayles series, Susan Wittig Albert’s book is an engaging mix of mystery, murder, and herb lore, past sins and present secrets, and characters who are as real as your friends and neighbors..
Praise for The China Bayles Herbal Mysteries
“Another truly riveting read for dedicated mystery buffs by a true master of the genre.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Susan Wittig Albert’s spectacular mystery series has it all: engaging and intelligent characters, a solid mystery, and the kind of setting that makes you want to climb inside the pages of her books.”
—Fresh Fiction
“[Albert] consistently turns out some of the best-plotted mysteries on the market.”
—Houston Chronicle
“Engrossing…China continues to appeal with her herbal information and savvy sleuthing.”
—Booklist (starred review of Bloodroot)
“[China Bayles is] such a joy… An instant friend.”
—Carolyn Hart, New York Times bestselling author
“One of the best-written and [most] well-plotted mysteries I’ve read in a long time.”
Los Angeles Times
“Albert’s dialogue and characterizations put her in a class with lady sleuths V. I. Warshawski and Stephanie Plum.”
—Publishers Weekly
Recipes, references, research, resources–coming soon!