Mystery China

A man is found dead after a house fire. Detective Fiona Moore suspects foul play. It's not the charred remains of Tony Phelan that really trouble Dublin law enforcement, or the traces of accelerant, so much as the bullet hole in his chest. When a weapon is recovered at the back of the still-smoldering house, it will be the first clue that the death is connected to China.

Ex-lawyer and herb-shop proprietor China Bayles is investigating the mystery of a retired Texas Ranger shot dead with his wife’s gun...while also trying to sort out some mysteries about her own relationship after she overhears a suspicious phone conversation.

In search of respite, China takes off to St. Theresa's Monastery with her friend Maggie, a former nun. The goal is a brief, tranquil retreat—but there's a conflict at the convent. The Mother Superior has recently died, and a battle over the future of St. Theresa's suggests that her sudden demise might not have been accidental. Now, China's quest for a replenished spirit takes second place to a more earthbound pursuit: catching a killer.

Asian American private investigator Lydia Chin knows New York City's Chinatown, its people, and its ways as no outsider ever could. It's a city within a city, a rich melange of smells, sounds, dark shops, and close-knit families - a world all its own. And in all of Chinatown, there is no one like Lydia, who has a nose for trouble, a disapproving Chinese mother, and a partner named Bill Smith who's been living above a bar for 16 years. Hired to find some precious stolen porcelain, Lydia follows a trail of clues from highbrow art dealers into a world of Chinese gangs.

Susan Wittig Albert has won critical acclaim anda devoted following for her China Bayles mysteries featuring beloved herb shop and tearoom owner China. In Wormwood, the death of a woman in a pool - where a Shaker woman drowned in 1912 - sets the stage for a perplexing whodunit.

The high-school principal asks China to secretly investigate the popular football coach who led the Panthers to six state championships. Soon after China confirms the coach's predilection for teenage girls, one of his victims turns up dead and suspicion falls upon the lecherous coach.

Author Susan Wittig Albert turns up the suspense in her 18th China Bayles mystery. Just as the holiday season begins, so does the drama, when China's husband’s ex-wife, Sally, appears, begging for help and a place to stay. ’Tis the season of giving, so China opens her home to Sally. But when troubling phone calls start, China knows she’ll need to dig up the truth before Christmas turns deadly.

When CIA officer Craig Norton glimpses an unexplainable object in the sky over Mongolia, he can’t quite believe it. Frankly, he isn’t sure Langley will either. Despite his misgivings, Craig reports the sighting in a cable to headquarters detailing the incident. Fast-forward fifteen years. Craig is still reeling from the report that tanked his career and his personal life. That fleeting moment on the Mongolian steppe made him a pariah at the Agency, and he still hasn’t recovered. At this point, he doubts he ever will.

A prodigious Chinese swimmer kills himself on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. Days later, a champion weightlifter suffers a fatal heart attack prior to competition. Detective Li Yan senses a conspiracy surrounding the fatalities and finds a female athlete willing to talk. But she will trust only one person: Li's fiancée, Margaret Campbell. When Campbell's contact herself vanishes, the gun is fired on a race against time. And Li must now outrun - and outwit - an enemy bent on pushing him beyond endurance.

Rejoin Ray Pacheco and Tyee Chino in their latest adventure unraveling a maze of misdeeds involving wealth, power, political corruption, and Navajo warriors. Farmington, New Mexico, located in the Four Corners area where four states meet, is about to experience a level of crime and mayhem never seen before. The local sheriff has abandoned his post and taken old military equipment, including a tank, off to Colorado to prepare for the beginning of the end. Left behind is the body of his wife, who was having an affair with the richest man in town.

Ray Pacheco has retired from being the sheriff of Dona Ana County, New Mexico. His new job is fishing. But, not for long. First a stray show dog raises questions concerning the whereabouts of its owner. Then a body was found close to Ray's rural cabin. Maybe once a cop always a cop - Ray joins forces with two unusual partners; an Apache fishing guide, Tyee Chino, prone to drunkenness and a bait shop owner, Big Jack, prone to laziness - to unravel the mysteries.

Murder and greed visit the high country.... Tired of spending his days fishing, Ray Pacheco takes on his second assignment with his partner Tyee Chino when the state Attorney General asks them to find out just what the hell is going on in Ruidoso, New Mexico. With the town's sheriff in the hospital with a mysterious illness, acting sheriff Martin Marino is running rough-shod over everyone around him.

An American investigating his mentor's murder finds himself ensnared in a web of lies and treachery in China, where even tomorrow's weather is a state secret. From a nightmarish interrogation to assassination by cobra, A Death in China takes readers on a trip with no rest stops through a world of claustrophobic mistrust and terrifying danger.

China Bohannon, 1890s bookkeeper turned sleuth, is branching out…. Although still working with her uncle's detective agency, Doyle & Howe Investigations, she's almost given up on becoming a partner and is turning to providing security services, something her uncle, Montgomery Howe, and his partner, Gratton Doyle, aren't interested in.

Troth Montgomery spends most of her time disguised as a man, going by the name of Jin Kang. While working as a translator and a spy, she encounters viscount and adventurer Kyle Renbourne, and realizes that her life is about to take a significant turn. Relieved to discover the true identity of the lovely Troth, Kyle feels passion ignite and is driven to possess her. Together, they start on a dangerous quest, but fate steps in and separates the two lovers. Though haunted by despair, passion and danger, Troth becomes the woman she was destined to be.

Commanding a combined US-South Korea force, the newly promoted US Navy hero Dan Lenson wonders if his embattled group can possibly keep sea lanes open in the Central Pacific as he tries to turn the tide and buy time for the Allies to regroup. But when his own flagship comes under ferocious attack, he must leave it to assume command elsewhere - without knowing when he'll be able to return. In the meantime, SEAL operator Teddy Oberg, escaping from a hellish POW camp, heads west through desolate mountains toward what he hopes will be freedom.

For more than 20 years, Susan Wittig Albert has been delivering "some of the best-plotted mysteries on the market" ( Houston Chronicle). In Bittersweet, China is hoping to spend a peaceful Thanksgiving in Pecan Springs. But the holiday turns treacherous after a deadly accident. And when a local vet is shot, China and game warden Mack Chambers suspect a connection to fawns stolen from a nearby ranch.

Walter J. Lummis is a freelance newsman, an American expatriate, who has spent his life covering the news in Asia. Now in his later years he has develop information about a plot involving China and North Korea, with Russia and Iran cooperating. A plot to destroy the US’s democracy from within, eliminate its’ influence in world affairs, and alter the world order by creating a single nation, comprised of all the nations of the world ruled by China.

As the Christmas decorating season approaches, Thyme & Seasons proprietor China Bayles feels overwhelmed. While she tries to balance her new roles of wife and step-mom with the demands of her thriving herbal shop, her business partner and best friend, Ruby, mysteriously disappears. Soon China's cantankerous mistletoe supplier Carl turns up dead. With Ruby missing and friends suspected of murder, China must investigate before tragedy strikes again.

This 19th mystery in the China Bales series is a cozy herbal treat from national best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert. While Pecan Springs bustles back to life in the warmth of spring, one woman’s life is tragically brought to an end. Assigned to cover the story, an intern from the local paper gets too deeply involved. When she disappears, China is determined to find her—before the young journalist becomes headlines herself.