Queen Anne’s Lace

Albert’s fascinating 26th mystery featuring Pecan Springs, Tex., herbalist China Bayles (after 2017’s The Last Chance Olive Ranch) elegantly weaves the third-person account of lace maker Annie Duncan, set in the late 1880s, with China’s first-person narrative in the present day. When China decides to clear out a storage room above her shop, Thyme and Seasons, she discovers a box of old photographs that were taken when the building was still in the hands of its original owners. Her desire to find out more about the people in the photos leads into the story of Annie Duncan, whose life utterly changes after her husband, Douglas, is killed in a train accident and she goes into early labor and gives birth to a stillborn boy. In the present, China’s 14-year-old daughter’s prize rooster is stolen at a local fair. Albert chiefly focuses on motherhood in this gentle outing, while schooling the reader on herbal remedies, such as those used as contraceptives at a time when the only alternative was abstinence. Albert’s long-running series shows no sign of flagging. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Rostan Literary Agency. (Apr.)