Cozy Mystery Review: Lavender Blue Murder | Laura Childs

While I am more of a coffee drinker than a tea drinker, I grew up loving a cup of tea as a treat (I treat coffee more as a necessary component of my day) and I really grew to love the English preparations from my grandmother, though as an adult I’ve learned more about other styles and preparations.

Laura Childs’ Tea Shop Mystery series is new to me, though Lavender Blue Murder is actually the 21^st installment in the series! Like many cozy mystery series, there is a certain charm and familiarity to reading the whole series, though the mysteries always work as standalone books and I didn’t feel like I missed any context jumping in.

In Lavender Blue Murder, tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley find themselves in another mystery when their host Reginald Doyle is found shot in the lavender fields nearby the bird hunt they’re attending.

About the Book | Lavender Blue Murder

Tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley are guests at a bird hunt styled in the precise manner of an English shooting party. Which means elevenses (sloe gin fizzes), gun loaders, the drawing of pegs, fine looking bird dogs, and shooting costumes of tweed, herringbone, and suede.

But as gunshots explode like a riff of Black Cat firecrackers, another shot sounds too close for comfort to Theodosia and Drayton. Intrigued but worried, Theodosia wanders into the neighbor’s lavender field where she discovers their host, Reginald Doyle, bleeding to death.

His wife, Meredith, is beside herself with grief and begs Theodosia and Drayton to stay the night. But Theodosia awakens at 2:00A.M. to find smoke in her room and the house on fire. As the fire department screams in and the investigating sheriff returns, Meredith again pleads with Theodosia for help.

As Theodosia investigates, fingers are pointed, secrets are uncovered, Reginald’s daughter-in-law goes missing presumed drowned, and Meredith is determined to find answers via a séance. All the while Theodosia worries if she’s made a mistake in inviting a prime suspect to her upscale Lavender Lady Tea.

Review | Lavender Blue Murder

Set in Charleston, South Carolina, I loved the old school vibes to this mystery. This book will have you rushing to your nearest tea shop (and sort of wondering why it isn’t Theodosia’s Indigo Tea Shop). The romantic Charleston setting, the English shooting party style event near the lavender fields will have you transported to a modern day Victorian getaway that sounds perfectly lovely (except for the murder and the fire).

Theodosia and her tea sommelier Drayton are invited to attend a wild game shooting party, when a strange shot leads them to discover the body of their host Reginald Doyle in the nearby lavender fields. Given the locked room style setting, everyone in the party is a suspect (and unfortunately they all had a weapon at their disposal).

As if things couldn’t get worse, a fire at the Doyle plantation awakens Theodosia early the next morning. It turns out the nearly 5 million dollar estate would have gone to the Heritage Society rather than Doyle’s widow and son. Now, Theodosia and Drayton stay on to investigate the murder and the fire.

With a lot of secrets to be revealed and suspects to clear, the two still find time to schedule a few themed tea parties. There were so many mysteries cropping up throughout this enire book, and I definitely wasn’t sure who the guilty party might be! Meredith is a grieving widow who wants to find out who killed her husband. But why is she spending so much time with Bill Jacoby, her husband’s business partner? Then there is a difficult neighbor who is up to no good, and the Lavender Lady who owns the neighboring farm. There are plenty of suspects, that’s for sure!

I really enjoyed the relationship between Theodosia and Drayton and found them both to be such lovely characters. As with many cozy mysteries, there were a lot of characters of various prominence to the story, but each had their own purpose in the broader story.

As far as the mystery, all of the suspects are interesting figures and have motives that will make sense to the reader. They are straight forward and not overly convoluted (once the secrets are all dug up). Childs also leaves a nice trail of evidence for readers to follow along with.

A great mystery for the tea lover soul!

Check out my review of the next book in the series, Haunted Hibiscus! It is a perfect read for an autumn evening and gives the perfect Halloween vibes for October.

About the Author | Laura Childs

Laura Childs is a pseudonym for Gerry Schmitt and she is the best-selling author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, the Scrapbook Mysteries, and the Cackleberry Club Mysteries.

Laura Childs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbook Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. In her previous life she was CEO/Creative Director of her own marketing firm and authored several screenplays. She is married to a professor of Chinese art history, loves to travel, rides horses, enjoys fund raising for various non-profits, and has two Chinese Shar-Pei dogs.

Laura Childs specializes in cozy mysteries that have the pace of a thriller, and has three series to check out!

Tea Shop Mysteries

Set in the historic district of Charleston and featuring Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop. Theodosia is a savvy entrepreneur, and pet mom to service dog Earl Grey. She’s also an intelligent, focused amateur sleuth who doesn’t rely on coincidences or inept police work to solve crimes. This charming series is highly atmospheric and rife with the history and mystery that is Charleston.

The Scrapbooking Mysteries

A slightly edgier series that take place in New Orleans. The main character, Carmela, owns Memory Mine scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter and is forever getting into trouble with her friend, Ava, who owns the Juju Voodoo shop. New Orleans’ spooky above-ground cemeteries, jazz clubs, bayous, and Mardi Gras madness make their presence known here!

The Cackleberry Club Mysteries

Set in Kindred, a fictional town in the Midwest. In a rehabbed Spur station, Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, three semi-desperate, forty-plus women have launched the Cackleberry Club. Eggs are the morning specialty here and this cozy cafe even offers a book nook and yarn shop. Business is good but murder could lead to the cafe’s undoing! This series offers recipes, knitting, cake decorating, and a dash of spirituality.