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THE JASMINE MOON MURDER is the fifth book in Laura Childs' Indigo Tea Shop series. It features Theodosia Browning, a former marketing and PR high-flyer who opted out of the corporate lifestyle to set up the shop in historic Charleston. Theodosia and her staff from the shop -- Drayton the master tea blender and Hayley the cook -- are catering an unusual fund raising pageant, a ghost crawl at the historic Jasmine Cemetery, where actors are portraying the ghosts of famous former citizens of Charleston. Theodosia is delighted that this gives her a chance to meet up again with her boyfriend Jory's uncle, Dr Jasper Davis whose medical research company Cardiotech are sponsoring the event. It soon becomes clear, however, that there are tensions in the company which is pressing for the release of a new product that Jasper has been developing, and which it seems he feels needs further testing. Before the end of the evening Jasper is dead, and Theodosia suspects murder. She has a successful track record of crime solving, and hence it's no surprise when Jory asks her to investigate his uncle's death, nor that the police ask her not to interfere. Naturally Theodosia puts Jory's wishes first and decides a little discreet enquiry won't hurt, but it doesn't go unnoticed and she becomes a target herself. Tea lovers will no doubt enjoy all the details of the various blends that are referred to throughout the book, and bakers will probably gain inspiration from some of Hayley's ideas too. There are recipes at the end of the book for some of these. But if you're not so inclined, you may feel as I did -- that there was far too much of it. Too often the characters switched immediately from talking murder to talking shop and the dramatic tension was lost. I also found it annoying how often the police told Theodosia to sit tight, and she immediately headed out the door to meet a suspect, or to lock her door and she immediately answered it to another. Yet somehow the police kept their calm, and shared information. Amateur sleuths always have a propensity to do this of course, but it did often feel like stupidity here, especially towards the end of the book. That said, the plot was enjoyable enough, although I felt the ending was unnecessarily complicated by an admittedly ingenious point that the author obviously wanted to share with us. The characters were well formed and consistent, if somewhat obsessive. If you love tea or already enjoy this series no doubt you'll enjoy this latest episode, but I'm afraid it didn't really do the trick for me.
Reviewed by Bridget Bolton, May 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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