Lavender Blue Murder (A Tea Shop Mystery)

Product Description

Tea-Maven Theodosia Browning brews up trouble in the latest Tea Shop Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs.

Tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley are guests at a bird hunt styled in the precise manner of an English shooting party. Which means elevenses (sloe gin fizzes), gun loaders, the drawing of pegs, fine looking bird dogs, and shooting costumes of tweed, herringbone, and suede.

But as gunshots explode like a riff of Black Cat firecrackers, another shot sounds too close for comfort to Theodosia and Drayton. Intrigued but worried, Theodosia wanders into the neighbor’s lavender field where she discovers their host, Reginald Doyle, bleeding to death.

His wife, Meredith, is beside herself with grief and begs Theodosia and Drayton to stay the night. But Theodosia awakens at 2:00A.M. to find smoke in her room and the house on fire. As the fire department screams in and the investigating sheriff returns, Meredith again pleads with Theodosia for help.

As Theodosia investigates, fingers are pointed, secrets are uncovered, Reginald’s daughter-in-law goes missing presumed drowned, and Meredith is determined to find answers via a séance. All the while Theodosia worries if she’s made a mistake in inviting a prime suspect to her upscale Lavender Lady Tea.

INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES AND TEA TIME TIPS!

About the Author

Laura Childs is the
New York Times bestselling author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbooking Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. In her previous life she was CEO of her own marketing firm, authored several screenplays, and produced a reality TV show.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1

Summer no longer held sway in the low country of South Carolina. Golds and russets had replaced vivid greens, while a cerulean blue sky offered the promise of cooler weather.

Then, suddenly . . . BANG! BANG! And another BANG! BANG! A series of gunshots exploded like a riff of Black Cat firecrackers, the retorts echoing off sweeping vistas of yarrow and pine forests.

“Got one!” a woman’s voice called out, triumphant.

“You seriously got one?” a male voice responded, surprise mixed with admiration.

Theodosia Browning lowered her shotgun and nodded. This wasn’t her first shooting party. She’d hunted game birds before, especially quail and grouse. Spending childhood summers at nearby Cane Ridge Plantation, she’d also once shot a wild turkey, along with a few varmints that had overstepped their bounds and tried to make a tasty meal out of her aunt Libby’s exotic French Crvecoeur chickens.

“Well done,” Drayton said. “Obviously, you have a much keener eye and steadier aim than I do. I haven’t managed to hit a single thing.”

“It helps if you actually pick up the gun,” Theodosia said. An amused smile danced across her face.

“Well.” Drayton fingered his bow tie nervously. “I’m not sure I really want to do that.”

It was a fine Sunday afternoon, and tea shop owner Theodosia and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley were tromping through the vast fields of Creekmore Plantation at the kind invitation of Drayton’s good friend, Reginald Doyle. Doyle had previously served on the board of Charleston’s Heritage Society with Drayton and was CEO of Celantis Pharmaceuticals as well as part owner of Trollope’s Restaurant.

Doyle and his wife, Meredith, were also rabid Anglophiles. Thus, this entire day had been styled in the precise manner of a traditional English shooting party. Which meant elevenses (in this case glasses of bourbon and gin fizzes), gun loaders, five fine-looking bird dogs, and shooting costumes of tweed, herringbone, and suede. All teams had drawn “pegs” to determine which area they’d be hunting in.

“You very much look the part today,” Theodosia said to Drayton. “As if you just stepped out of an episode of Downton Abbey.”

“I feel like I just did,” he said.

Drayton was sixty-something with a kind