The Jasmine Moon Murder

Another lovely journey to the Indigo Tea Shop with murder and mystery on the side. Each time I read one of Childs' books, I long to have a tea shop like hers nearby, complete with a Drayton and Haley. The only real problem I had with this book was that Jory was able to remove his uncle's personal effects from his office. I'm sure the police would have wanted Uncle Jasper's daily journal, MP3 player, and cell phone as part of their investigation. Kind of a major flaw, but one I'm willing to overlook this time.

I enjoy the Tea Shop mysteries. I don't drink tea, I don't understand about half the descriptions of the tea, but the mysteries are fun and I enjoy Theo, Haley and Drayton - the are fun characters.

This time around Theo gets involved in the murder of her current beau's uncle. She must find out if it has something to do with the local theatre, the historical society or the business that Uncle Jasper worked for - which leaves her with a wide cast of potential suspects.

There is a cool scene with a fox hunt (minus the living foxes) and another set in a cemetery that is spooky.

I'm way behind on this series so am working to catch up - and I'll enjoy every minute of it.

I do enjoy these trips to The Indigo Tea Shop with Theodosia, Drayton, Hayley, Deloraine & Earl Grey. The murders are incidental, the tea ever fascinating and the food delicious.

I've enjoyed other books in this series and decided to go back and read some of the ones I missed along the way.

The jasmine moon gets mentioned more at the beginning of the book than it does throughout the book. It would have been nice if they could have weaved the tea etc. in more often during the book to keep up the theme. Apparently the jasmine moon is a yellowish colored moon that resembles the color of jasmine and jasmine is also used in certain teas.

Recipes (a good number of them) are included at the end.

I suspected who the murderer was and even the deflection of blame that occurred.

I have a hard time believing that no one thought to stay at Timothy's house with Theodosia and Earl Grey. (Drayton, Haley, Jory) if they were that show more worried about her safety. show less

Synopsis: Theo and crew are helping to cater the 'Ghost Crawl' when Jory's uncle is murdered. The question of whether he was killed because he was blocking the use of a new device possibly helpful in heart surgery or whether there was another reason is only answered after Theo does some investigating into an earlier death.
Review: Nicely written, this was an interesting book although it uses one of the traditional formulas for plot development.

This series continues to be perfectly pleasant. The characters are predictable, the tea descriptions detailed and interesting, and the feeling of being in Charleston, a nice escape. In fact, this book and this series are wonderful in the escapist literature, cozy mystery, kind of reading. Not a lot of depth or meaning, but fun.

More realistic than some of the others in the series that have stretched the reader's reasoning ability. I always love Drayton and Haley. Theo annoys me sometimes, but not so much in this book as in some others.