The Christmas season finds herbalist/detective China Bayles trying hard to keep up with the busiest retail season of the year. It is nearly impossible to keep the shop supplied with mistletoe. China's chief supplier has always been a pair of sisters who operate an herbal farm in rural Texas. A strange and prickly new supplier shows up on China's radar, and he seems to be the answer to her supply problems, at least until he turns up dead. The mistletoe sisters are acting awfully suspicious, and China's best friend and partner Ruby is acting entirely out of sorts too. China ends up doing what she likes best- solving a mystery and selling herbs.
I absolutely love the discussion of herbs and the herbal industry that permeates these books. I also liked the festive, holiday atmosphere of this particular book. What I've never been able to come around to in this series is the relationship between China and McQuaid. It's not that I don't like McQuaid's character, it's more that I get bored with books about commitment-phobia, and that's a huge part of China and McQuaid's relationship. Still, I enjoyed this book. It's a good book for a lazy weekend afternoon.
Susan Wittig Albert,
Mistletoe Man (Berkley, 2001) ISBN: 0425182010
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