A Dark and Stormy Tea

Childs’s 24th “Tea Shop” mystery (following Twisted Christmas Tea) doesn’t disappoint. Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop, observes a startling scene when she takes a shortcut home one foggy night. She thinks she has witnessed a murder and the deceased is the daughter of her friend Lois, who runs the local antiquarian bookstore. Could Lois’s daughter be the latest victim of a killer being dubbed Fogheel Jack? When her friend asks Theo to find her daughter’s killer, she can’t say no. There are many men who fit the profile: her new neighbor who writes true crime novels; the victim’s boyfriend; a nosy tabloid journalist; and a real estate developer and his private security guard. With the help of her tea sommelier, Drayton, and her boyfriend, Detective Pete Reilly, she begins to eliminate suspects one at a time, sometimes by less than legal means. The police receive a tip that appears to solve the case, but can Theodosia and her friends finally let down their guard?