Twisted Tea Christmas: Tea Shop Mystery #23

With several Christmas-themed teas booked for the month, Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston, S.C., is looking forward to a busy December, in Childs’s uneven 23rd Tea Shop mystery (after Haunted Hibiscus). The season gets off to an inauspicious start, however, when Theodosia discovers 85-year-old Drucilla Heyward dead at the society woman’s own charity fundraiser, her diamond rings stripped off her fingers and a priceless Renoir painting missing. Miss Drucilla’s personal assistant asks Theodosia for help figuring out whodunit, so between Christmas catering jobs, Theodosia and her ever-patient tea sommelier, Drayton Conneley, question witnesses and snoop for clues, do a little light breaking and entering, dodge a few bullets, and dig up an extra body the police seem to have missed. Theodosia’s appealing tea shop, the warm ambiance of Charleston at Christmastime, and the fabulous recipes Child includes at the end help compensate for the unconvincing plot and Theodosia’s annoying conviction that she’s a better investigator than the police. Cozy lovers will be hungry for more. Agent: Sam Pinkus, Keystone Literary. (Oct.)