Peach Tea Smash by Laura Childs
About Peach Tea Smash
Peach Tea Smash (A Tea Shop Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
28th A Tea Shop Mystery
Setting - South Carolina
Hardcover : 320 pages
Murder at an Alice in Wonderland–themed event threatens to send Theodosia Browning through the looking glass in the latest entry in this New York Times bestselling series.
During the Mad Hatter Masquerade, a fundraiser hosted by the Friends of the Opera on the grounds of the old Pendleton Grist Mill, Harlan Sadler, husband of Cricket Sadler, the chairwoman, is killed. He’s been hit in the head with a croquet mallet, and his body hung on the chains and paddles of the grist mill. Nobody can figure out why since Harlan was much beloved by everyone. It’s only after Cricket and Delaine beg Theodosia to investigate that she realizes the killer might have mistaken Harlan for his crazy son, Duke. After all, Duke is a slum landlord and recently injured a woman in a boating accident.
INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES AND TEA TIME TIPS!
About Laura Childs
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 fundraising for various non-profits, and has two Chinese Shar-Pei dogs.
Laura specializes in cozy mysteries that have the pace of a thriller (a thrillzy!) Her three series are:
The 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 takes 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.
Author Links
My Thoughts
Peach Tea Smash by Laura Childs
is twenty-eighth A Tea Shop Mystery. This series is what got me hooked on cozy mysteries (I was browsing a
bookstore when I came upon Death by Darjeeling). Peach Tea Smash is easy to read. I enjoyed catching up with Theodosia,
Drayton, Hayley, Earl Gray, Detective Tidwell, and the rest of the gang. The tea shop is hopping, and Theo has several
tea events planned that will require the help of Miss Dimple and Hayley’s sweet
cousin. At the Mad Hatter Masquerade, Drayton
and Theodosia find the coordinator’s husband dead. Theo and her sidekick, Drayton soon find themselves
looking into the case. There are
multiple suspects including the victim’s stepson. Unlike the earlier novels in A Tea Shop Mysteries, the whodunit is on the lighter side.
I felt there needed to be breadcrumbs along the way leading to the
guilty party instead of a light bulb moment.
I thought the setting for the Mad Hatter
Masquerade was unique and provided a great setting for the murder. There are robberies happening around town as
well. I was left with a couple of
unanswered questions at the end of the book. The author captures Charleston
with her vivid descriptions of the buildings and streets. There are tea tips and ideas for themed teas
at the end of the book along with recipes.
Peach Tea Smash left me feeling as happy as a clam at high tide.
 |
| Tea Infused Chocolate Bars |
Excerpt
"Looks like we took a
wrong turn," Theodosia said, then stopped dead in her tracks to gaze at
the hulking pieces of machinery that stood in the center of the room. There
were interconnecting wheels and some kind of old motor attached to pulleys,
chains, and leather paddles. Overhead was a honeycomb of low wooden beams and a
ragged hole in the ancient roof that let in a small spill of moonlight. A faint
rustle of wings filled the air as birds flitted from beam to beam.
"Amazing," Drayton said as he walked a
few steps closer to the apparatus. "This old grist mill is really
something."
"It's also a little scary," Theodosia
said. In the semidarkness the wood beams and stone walls seemed to press in on
them as well as tamp down the sounds of outside revelry. In fact, she could
barely hear any music at all.
But Drayton remained fascinated. "Early
grist mills were water-run, powered by sluiceways. But this particular mill was
automated in the late eighteenth century. You see that large wheel?"
Theodosia nodded. From her perspective it looked
like something from a torture chamber.
"Throw the bevel gears and that wheel
drives the whole shebang. See, there's the giant mill stone where grain was
ground then carried up by those leather paddles."
Theodosia walked a little closer and peered at
the central workings of the old grist mill. "This is some place. And I'm
amazed at how well-versed you are about its operation."
"Because it's interesting, a piece of
Charleston's history. And you know how much I like history."
"Oh, I do," Theodosia said. Drayton
was known to go on for hours about Charleston's old churches, mansions, single
houses, plantations, hidden lanes, and narrow cobblestone alleys.
"But imagine how noisy and inhospitable
this place must have been a century ago when grain was milled here practically
day and night," Drayton said.
"It's not that hospitable now." The
mill was dark, and Theodosia felt as if shadows were flitting all around them.
Maybe it was the flicker of torches from outside? Or just her imagination?
"All that chaff filling the air, making it
difficult to see and breathe," Drayton continued. "And the noise and
clatter of clanking machinery."
As if to punctuate Drayton's words, a low hum
rose up from the nearby machinery. Then a leather belt started to vibrate.
Drayton took a cautious step back. "What
just happened here?"
"Maybe someone threw a switch?"
Theodosia said. She'd caught a faint scrape of footsteps behind her. "For
a demonstration of some kind?" But when she turned and looked back over
her shoulder, she didn't see a soul. "Huh, this is weird."
The noise increased in pitch, building from a
low hum to a loud, repetitive, clickety-clack-clack as chains and leather belts
began to move. It was as if the machinery, untouched for decades, had suddenly
been sparked to life. Now, with everything thumping and thrumming, Theodosia
could barely hear anything at all.
"I don't think we should be in here,"
Theodosia shouted in Drayton's ear, feeling foolish even as she said it. Of
course, they shouldn't be here. These old mill contraptions were dangerous. As
if they could grab somebody and . . . the phrase grind his bones suddenly
popped into her head. She spun hastily, ready to grab Drayton's sleeve and pull
him away from this strange, shadowy place. But Drayton was rooted to where he
stood, mouth open, seemingly dumbstruck. Then he slowly lifted a hand and
pointed.
"What?" Theodosia shouted. When
Drayton didn't answer, she said, "What?" a second time. Then she
lifted her eyes, blinked hard, and did a kind of double take. Because
something, Lord knows what, was caught in the giant heavy chains that pulled
the leather paddles up toward the ceiling.
"What do you think that is?" Drayton
asked her. "Rags? A bunch of old gunny sacks?"
Theodosia shook her head. "I don't
know."
But the strange thing was, she did know. Because
whatever was caught between those giant paddles had a definite shape to it. Two
arms, a leg . . . maybe a head?
"Help!" Drayton shouted as he suddenly
arrived at the same conclusion. He turned and sprinted for the doorway.
"Help!" he called out. "There's been an accident, we need help
in here!"
His plaintive cries brought a half dozen curious
people.
A man in a white dinner jacket yelled,
"What's wrong?" while behind him Theodosia's friend, Delaine Dish,
screamed, "My Lord, is that a man dangling up there?"
The chains and leather paddles had pulled the
body even higher. Now, the onlookers' screams blended with the noise of the
machines and rose to a fever pitch. Their screams drew even more people who
lifted their collective voices in a dreadful cacophony that seemed to billow
through the ancient grist mill, matching the enormous clouds of dust being spun
out up by clanking machinery.
"Someone's caught in the gears," a man
shouted.
"Somebody do something," a woman in a
bright yellow gown cried.
Even Cricket Sadler ran in and started screaming
for help.
But no one did anything. They simply stood
there, horror-struck, too paralyzed to help or figure out the situation.
Theodosia didn't know what to do, but she knew
she had to do something. She waved a hand in front of her face, trying to see
through the swirl of dust and chaff, then edged over to what Drayton had
pointed out earlier as bevel gears.
Reaching a hand out, Theodosia pushed one of the
wooden levers, hoping to stop the machinery. Nothing. The clanking grew louder
and the screams from the crowd increased in volume. She touched a hand to a
second lever, pushed hard, felt it start to give, want to give. Blowing out a
stream of air, trying not to choke as she cleared the terrible dust from her
nose and mouth, she leaned hard into her task. Pushing with all her might, she
managed to throw the lever hard-left. There was a deep shudder, a terrible
screeching noise, and then the machinery finally, mercifully, ground to a halt.
"Get him down! Help him!" came
countless cries. Now, a dozen hands reached up to try and free the trapped man,
but no one could reach him. Seconds dragged by, then a full minute, before a
ladder was found and lifted up. A young man in a green and yellow caterpillar
costume scrambled nimbly up the ladder and worked feverishly to untangle the
man from the chains. After two minutes of twisting and turning, he was finally
able to free the injured man. Balancing precariously now, he bent forward to
lower the victim into waiting arms. But at the last second, he fumbled and lost
his grip. The victim cartwheeled away from him, plunging fifteen feet down, and
hitting the cobblestone floor like a sack of flour.
Peach Tea Smash is available from
Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Bookshop.org, and
PenquinRandomHouse. You can find the other books in A Tea Shop Mysteries
here. The next
A Tea Shop Mystery is
High Tea and Misdemeanors (Delaine's niece, Bettina is getting married to Jamie) which will be out on March 4, 2025 (I have my copy preordered). You can find Laura Childs' other cozy mysteries
here (I love
A Scrapbooking Mysteries and I am sorry that it has come to an end). Are you ready for a
GIVEAWAY! The author is giving away two (2) hardcover copies of Peach Tea Smash (sorry, but US Only). Click
here to enter or use the Rafflecopter form below. Leave a comment for an extra entry! Good Luck! Thank you for dropping by today. I will be sharing my thoughts on
Joy by Danielle Steel tomorrow. Danielle Steel's novels are one of my guilty pleasures. I hope that you have a sunny day. Do not forget to enter the giveaway! Take care, good luck, and Happy Reading!
Tour Participants
 |
| Lemon scones with lemon curd |
 |
| Genmaicha Green Tea |
 |
| Tea infused chocolates |
*I voluntarily
read an advanced copy of this book. I am not required to leave a
review. The comments and opinions expressed are strictly my own.
*This post
contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using my links, I will receive
a small commission from the sale at no cost to you. Thank you for
supporting The Avid Reader.
Sounds like a great read.
ReplyDelete