An herbalist investigates the disappearance of the most valuable book at the Hemlock House Library, a haunted mountainside manor that houses a collection of rare gardening books in the latest addition to the series following A Plain Vanilla Murder.
Herbalist China Bayles investigates the disappearance of the most valuable book at the Hemlock House Library, a haunted mountainside manor in North Carolina that houses a collection of rare gardening books.
From Susan Wittig Albert, the New York Times bestselling author of A Plain Vanilla Murder, comes a tightly crafted novel that juxtaposes the disappearance of a rare, remarkably illustrated 18th-century herbal with the true and all-too-human story of its gifted creator, Elizabeth Blackwell. Herbalist China Bayles&; latest adventure takes her to the mountains of North Carolina, where her friend Dorothea Harper serves as the director and curator of the Hemlock House Library, a priceless collection of rare gardening books housed in a haunted mountainside mansion that once belonged to Sunny Carswell, a reclusive heiress. But the most valuable book&;A Curious Herbal, created by Elizabeth Blackwell in the 1730s&;is missing and Dorothea is under suspicion. China&;s search for the thief takes on a new urgency when she discovers Miss Carswell&;s bookseller, the victim of an attempted murder. Is his shooting connected with the theft? And there are other urgent questions: What is the Hemlock Guild? Who owns Socrates.com? Did Sunny Carswell really kill herself, or does her ghost have a different story to tell? And what is the real truth behind the many tantalizing mysteries of A Curious Herbal?Hemlock is a compelling mix of mystery and herb lore, past secrets and present sins, and characters who are as real as your friends and neighbors&;in an absorbing novel that only Susan Wittig Albert could create.
From Susan Wittig Albert, the New York Times bestselling author of A Plain Vanilla Murder, comes a tightly crafted novel that juxtaposes the disappearance of a rare, remarkably illustrated 18th-century herbal with the true and all-too-human story of its gifted creator, Elizabeth Blackwell. &;Herbalist China Bayles&; latest adventure takes her to the mountains of North Carolina, where her friend Dorothea Harper serves as the director and curator of the Hemlock House Library, a priceless collection of rare gardening books housed in a haunted mountainside mansion that once belonged to Sunny Carswell, a reclusive heiress. But the most valuable book&;A Curious Herbal, created by Elizabeth Blackwell in the 1730s&;is missing and Dorothea is under suspicion. China&;s search for the thief takes on a new urgency when she discovers Miss Carswell&;s bookseller, the victim of an attempted murder. Is his shooting connected with the theft? And there are other urgent questions: What is the Hemlock Guild? Who owns Socrates.com? Did Sunny Carswell really kill herself, or does her ghost have a different story to tell? And what is the real truth behind the many tantalizing mysteries of A Curious Herbal? Hemlock is a compelling mix of mystery and herb lore, past secrets and present sins, and characters who are as real as your friends and neighbors&;in an absorbing novel that only Susan Wittig Albert could create.