PEACH TEA SMASH

A tea shop owner’s reputation as an amateur sleuth is put to the test.

Theodosia Browning, who owns the Indigo Tea shop in historic Charleston, spends most of her time creating innovative tea-themed parties for the shop and her catering business. While she and Drayton Conneley, her well-connected and well-off tea sommelier, are at the Pendleton Grist Mill for the Mad Hatter Masquerade, a fundraiser for the opera society, they stumble upon a horrifying scene. A badly injured man is hanging from a still-working part of the mill, and when they attempt to free him, he falls—but that may not be what killed him. Banker Harlan Sadler appears to have been hit in the head with a croquet mallet. Responding to a call for help are Theodosia’s significant other, Det. Pete Riley, and his boss, Det. Burt Tidwell, who’s much smarter than he seems. Both have had enough experience with Theodosia’s interference to deplore it even as they recognize that she has a special knack for solving murders. Theodosia’s fashionista friend Delaine Dish insists that she investigate to help Cricket, Harlan’s widow, who was the chairperson of the Mad Hatter Masquerade. Harlan, who was chief executive of a bank and a partner in a real estate company, could have had many enemies with no connection to Cricket’s numerous charity-related events. As she tracks down possible motives, Theodosia never imagines that her search will lead to an illegal dog-racing ring and worse. But the resulting dangers don’t deter her and a reluctant Drayton in their search.

High society mixes with murder in beautiful Charleston, with the added fillip of recipes and tea party suggestions.