A Plain Vanilla Murder

By: Susan Wittig Albert

Narrated by: Julia Gibson

Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

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. 

Sheila, happy to get out from behind the chief's desk, is investigating the death of a botany professor, a prominent researcher specializing in vanilla orchids. China is trying to help a longtime friend: the dead professor's ex-wife and a prime suspect in his murder. However, there's no shortage of other suspects: a betrayed lover, a disgruntled graduate student, jealous colleagues, and a gang of orchid smugglers. 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 is a lucrative plant patent, an orchid that is extinct in the wild, and the life of an innocent little girl.

©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Enjoyed story but

I enjoyed the story but almost sent the book back because of the narration. Wanted many of the characters to disappear from the story so I didn’t have to listen to “them”.

Blah Blah Blah

I’ve started and restarted this book. I can’t get into it. I get laying a background to the story. I like how you learn about botany and herbs or whatever with this series of books. Yet, I was so bored with this book. I LOVED “witches bane” I’ve read and reread that book so I was going to try to read the whole series but this book just turned me off completely to the series. I’ll just stick to the one book of this series I like. Highly disappointed and I really didn’t like the narration either.

Interesting but not much mystery

As with other China Baylee books there is a “herbal” element to the plot. In this case the reader gets an education related to the growing and marketing of vanilla and orchids. What is missing though in this book is much of a mystery and the solution process. Also I like cozies as you get to visit with friends who are part of the continue life of the series. Not much of that here either. So I found this book not very satisfying.