Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9780739425961; 9780425184059
Berkley Prime Crime
245 Pages
$19.99; $$7.59; $7.99 Amazon
March 5, 2002
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The Indigo Tea Shop, Charleston's favorite spot of tea, has just come out with its latest flavor: Gunpowder Green. Theodosia Browning cannot wait to hear its praises as it is unveiled at the annual yacht race. But when she hears the crack of an antique gun meant to end the race, a member of Charleston's elite falls dead. Theodosia has a hunch that his demise was no accident -- and will go out of her way to prove it. But if she doesn't act fast, Theo will find herself in hot water with some boiling-mad Charlestonians -- and more than a little gun-chai...
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Theodosia Browning owns the Indigo Tea Shop, and she also caters events. While catering a yacht race picnic, her friend Delaine points out Doe Belvedere, who recently wed Oliver Dixon. While this wouldn't be a big deal, there's the fact that Doe is only 25 and her groom is 66. Delaine states it must be because he's rich, but Theodosia says she probably loves him, too. An attractive man comes up to Theodosia and introduces himself as Giovanni Loard, an antique dealer and relative of Oliver's, and takes the tray holding tea sandwiches from her and offers to help, then offering them to people. Theodosia declares him charming, and watches as he eventually makes his way to Oliver's table. At that point, there appears to be an argument between Oliver and another older man who turns out to be Ford Cantrell. When the race is about to end, it is Oliver who must fire a gun into the air, declaring the winner. But when the gun misfires and Oliver is shot in the head, Theo wonders if it was intentional.
When she's asked by Cantrell's sister Lizbeth - who helped her get through her mother's untimely death when Theo was only eight - she can't refuse. But discovering that a long-standing feud between the Dixons and Cantrells might have something to do with it, she needs to work harder to try and discover who wanted Oliver dead. Was it his young widow? His two sons? Or someone else entirely? With little information coming forth from her friend Detective Tidwell, Theo might be in over her head, but something is brewing under the surface, and she needs to find out what it is...
This is the second book in the series, and I liked it as much as the first. Theo is an interesting woman; she's intelligent and strong, warm and caring, and believes that the truth is important, even if she needs to be the one to find it. She's perfectly content with her shop and her employees, and even her dog, Earl Grey. She's not chasing anything better, and having been in the corporate run, this is what she wants.
But when she's asked to help, she doesn't shy away from what might be sticky situations. Even when she's threatened, she stands her ground, and that makes her even more endearing. What it leads to is looking even deeper and perhaps putting herself in even more danger to get to find a killer. The plot is drawn nicely, and there are plenty of twists along the way, and enough suspects that lead us to think that it might be one when it's actually someone else. It's a delightful mystery that comes to an even more enticing conclusion, with the murderer of course being apprehended and the motive one that will never change over time. Recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Gunpowder-Green-Tea-Shop-Mystery/dp/0425184056/ref
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3343350023
More on Laura Childs's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/laura-childs/
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