One in a popular series of mystery novels featuring herb shop owner China Bayles finds Bayles consulting a psychic for answers when she discovers a murdered woman in a pick-up truck who bears a disturbing resemblance to herself. By the author of Thyme of Death. China Bayles, featured in three other herb-titled mysteries, discovers a dead woman?who resembles herself?in a pick-up truck. China interrupts her herb-shop business to investigate the woman's past and uncovers a small host of likely suspects. The best of small-town Texas. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. China Bayles has plenty going on in her life. She's just moved in with her lover, Mike McQuaid, and his son, Brian; her herb shop is going great guns; and she's busily planning the annual herb growers' convention. But then Rosemary Robbins, a local accountant, is found shot to death, and China is the one who discovers the body. McQuaid insists that Rosemary was killed because she resembled China and that the killer was vicious ex-con Jake Jacoby, who wanted to get back at McQuaid for sending him to prison years earlier. But Rosemary had an abusive ex-husband with a hot temper, and the local cops figure he was the killer. Then local hotel owner Jeff Clark, who was secretly engaged to Rosemary, takes off for Mexico, and it begins to look as if he's the murderer. McQuaid goes after Jeff, but as soon as McQuaid leaves town, the case heats up. China's got her hands full baby-sitting Brian, but with the help of her Ouija board and some hard-hitting detective work, she nails the killer. Readers will enjoy Albert's wonderfully original characters and her amusing descriptions of life in a small Texas town as much as the intriguing plot. Emily Melton Susan Wittig Albert grew up on a farm in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. A former professor of English and a university administrator and vice president, she is the author of the China Bayles Mysteries, the Darling Dahlias Mysteries, and the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. Some of her recent titles include Widow’s Tears , Cat’s Claw , The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose , and The Tale of Castle Cottage . She and her husband, Bill, coauthor a series of Victorian-Edwardian mysteries under the name Robin Paige, which includes such titles as Death at Glamis Castle and Death at Whitechapel .