A Plain Vanilla Murder

A Plain Vanilla Murder is Susan Wittig Albert's 27th China Bayles Mystery. Each novel features a different herb and this installment of the series features an orchid plant that grows vanilla pods. If you like to bake then you know that the price of vanilla extract and vanilla beans has skyrocketed. The author has chosen a timely subject to write about in this novel.

The summary from the inside cover blurb:

"China and Ruby Wilcox are presenting their annual Not Just Plain Vanilla Workshop, always a huge hit with customers at Thyme & Seasons Herb Shop. But someone involved with the workshop is driven by a deadly motive, and China soon finds herself teaming up with the very pregnant Pecan Springs police chief Sheila Dawson to solve a vanilla-flavored murder. But the lethal roots of this mystery reach back into the dark tropical jungles of Mexico, where the vanilla vine was first cultivated. At stake: a lucrative plant patent, an orchid that is extinct in the wild, and the life of an innocent girl."

This cozy mystery at times felt like a political mystery. The reader learns how vanilla plants are smuggled into the U.S. and sold at horticulture shows throughout the country. The murder victim had been developing a disease resistant vanilla plant. His secrecy over this activity resulted in him making many enemies at his college. Some of the prime suspects in his murder included jealous colleagues, orchid smugglers, and a disgruntled grad student that the victim was working with.

There were a few anomalies in the book. Police Chief Sheila Dawson has been pregnant in more than one installment of the series. In this book she is 8 months pregnant. How long can she be pregnant? Or should the question be what is the time lapse between murders in Pecan Springs that are written about in separate novels? In order to be able to investigate the next crime in the series Dawson has to have given birth and be back on the job. Also, two new secondary characters were introduced who had nothing to do with the plot. Ruby's daughter Amy Wilcox and her partner Kate Rodriguez were introduced and they are having a baby together with the assistance of a brother-in-law and a test tube. That was all that was said about them.

I thought that the investigation into the murder itself was intricately plotted. The pace was fast. There were as many red herrings and twists and turns as you might find in a standard political mystery but the writing was still done in Ms. Albert's folksy manner.

The author always has recipes at the back of her books. However, in this book the recipes at the back are more basic such as how to make your own vanilla extract, vanilla sugar, vanilla salt, vanilla paste, vanilla powder, vanilla syrup, vanilla butter, vanilla whipped cream, and vanilla vinegar. I am a baker so I had to write down these recipes for my own use. Recipes for dishes that the characters made in the novel are interspersed throughout the novel.

A Plain Vanilla Murder was truly a salute to vanilla. 5 out of 5 stars!