Queen Anne's Lace
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A present-day ghost leads China Bayles to a secret from Pecan Springs’s past in this haunting mystery from New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert.
While helping Ruby Wilcox clean up the loft above their shops, China comes upon a box of antique handcrafted lace and old photographs. Following the discovery, she hears a woman humming an old Scottish ballad and smells the delicate scent of lavender.…
Soon, strange happenings start to occur in Thyme and Seasons. When a customer sees a mysterious woman picking flowers nearby and then suddenly disappearing, China must finally admit what Ruby has always known—their building is haunted. But by whom?
As China investigates, the tragic story of a woman in one of the old photographs unfolds. China delves into the century-old mystery and realizes that solving it could have unimaginable repercussions in the here and now.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Albert's fascinating 26th mystery featuring Pecan Springs, Tex., herbalist China Bayles (after 2017's The Last Chance Olive Ranch) elegantly weaves the third-person account of lace maker Annie Duncan, set in the late 1880s, with China's first-person narrative in the present day. When China decides to clear out a storage room above her shop, Thyme and Seasons, she discovers a box of old photographs that were taken when the building was still in the hands of its original owners. Her desire to find out more about the people in the photos leads into the story of Annie Duncan, whose life utterly changes after her husband, Douglas, is killed in a train accident and she goes into early labor and gives birth to a stillborn boy. In the present, China's 14-year-old daughter's prize rooster is stolen at a local fair. Albert chiefly focuses on motherhood in this gentle outing, while schooling the reader on herbal remedies, such as those used as contraceptives at a time when the only alternative was abstinence. Albert's long-running series shows no sign of flagging.
