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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780425171479
ISBN number: 0425171477
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: October 01, 1999
Publishing house: Berkley
Sale Popularity Level: 70255
Studio: Berkley
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
She planted the seeds of mystery stardom with her very first book, Thyme of Death. She continued growing with such highly-praised follow-ups as Witches' Bane and Love Lies Bleeding. Now Susan Wittig Albert's career blooms with a flourish--with the brand-new offering Chile Death.
An annual chili cookoff, a womanizing judge, and a crisis in China's personal life add up to a novel that will delight fans of this fast-rising author, a nominee for both the Anthony and Agatha Awards--and attract a whole new audience to this 'appealing series that just keeps getting better.' (Booklist)
Amazon.com Review:
Chile is the pepper; chili (or sometimes chilli) is the spicy stew made with it. That's the very first of many lessons about food, love, and death in Susan Wittig Albert's latest mystery about China Bayles, the Texas Hill Country lawyer turned herbalist and crime solver. Although Albert lives in the Texas Hill Country herself, she swears that China's hometown, Pecan Springs (which must have a higher per capita death rate than anyplace outside of Jessica Fletcher's Maine village), is fictional. So we have to believe that nobody really killed one of the judges of the annual Cedar Choppers Chili Cook-off by adding peanuts to his tasting sample and causing a deadly allergic reaction.
But China and her lover, ex-cop Mike McQuaid, believe it--especially after the dead chili judge, Jerry Jeff Cody, turns out to have a swampful of dirty secrets. So Albert begins a clever dance, keeping Bayles and the bedridden McQuaid (shot while working for the Texas Rangers) in just enough danger to maintain an atmosphere of suspense while also slipping in enough chile lore to outfit a chain of Taco Bells. The format may be familiar, but Albert is one of the best in the business at making it look newly hatched. Other Bayles books include Love Lies Bleeding, Thyme of Death, and Rueful Death. --Dick Adler
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
This is the seventh mystery in the China Bayles, Herbalist, series. China,
who was once a high-powered criminal defense attorney in Houston and now
owns a small herb shop in Pecan Springs, Texas, as finally decided to marry
McQuaid, the man she's lived with for some time. But, several months ago he
was shot in the back and is still trying to regain the use of his lower
body. Because he doesn't want to be a burden to China, he refuses to go
home where she will have to take care of him, and instead is convalescing at
one of the local nursing homes. His depression has had her more worried
than his physical handicap, and when some local men talk him into being one
of the judges at the annual chili cook-off, she is delighted to see him
starting to get back into something that resembles a normal life. But then
one of the other judges, Jerry Jeff Cody, dies of an allergic reaction -- to
a peanut. Everyone in Texas knows that peanuts don't belong in chili, and
China and McQuaid knows that something suspicious is going on. Rumors are
flying about Jerry Jeff's womanizing and hotly disputed divorce, and the
list of possible suspects seems to have no end. It isn't just the chile
peppers that are heating things up in Pecan Springs, and it will be a race
to the end with a very good chance that China's entire future will go up in
smoke before she solves this one.
This series just keeps getting better and better. This one was the best
yet. It has excellent characterization, superb dialogue, a complicated
mystery, and just the right amount of suspense with a surprise at the end.
I didn't see it coming! LOL I'll give it a 5.
Rated by buyers 
-
Chile Death is a book NOT about someone dying due to a chile pepper, but about someone eating peanut ridden chili and dying due to an allergic reaction to peanuts, so the title is quite misleading.
During the very first 100 pages of the story, the book explores the ins and outs of the various character personalities and their interaction with one another. The author touches slightly on the individuals that are somehow connected to the murder. However the author seems to hapazardly use characters as if they are bullets in a machine gun.
Take page 16 for example. I counted a total of 7 characters: Lila, Mike, Hark, Jerry Jeff Cody, Wanda Rathbottom, Grady Stice, Arlene. If you add page 17, that adds another two, to a grand total of NINE characters introduced or mentioned in just two pages. My brain has a hard time consuming so many all at once.
The story meanders on until page 100 or so, when the actual murder occurs. Then the author in my opinion leads you down two or three obvious dead ends, in a hope to induce suspense into the reader. Didn't happen for me. There are also times, when the author provided unnecessary dialogue as if she had to fill a quota of words. For example take page 166.
"I just got off the phone with Bubba..." I won't repeat it here, but the whole long paragraph is an exact rehash of her conversation with Bubba a paragraph before being retold to her boyfriend Mike. Why would you do this? You could easily use this technique: "I told Mike what Bubba said."
Finally the ending comes off quickly and quite incredibly. You have a hard time swallowing the events as actually happening. Either China Bayles is incredibly lucky, or the author had to wrap things up quickly.
For a light read the book is entertaining. But mostly it is a disappointment.
Rated by buyers -
China Bayles feels she is in limbo when her plans for a tea room adjoining her herb shop and her marriage to Mike McQuaid are put on hold. The reason for this is Mike's ongoing rehabilitation as the result of a shooting which occurred during one of his recent investigations. Added to this, China's mother has come to help out and their relationship has always been tenuous at best. China is temporarily distracted from her problems when the whole town begins preparing for its annual chili cook-off. McQuaid is also pulled from his depresssion when the cook-off sponsors persuade him to return to his annual role as a judge in the contest. All seems to be going well when one of the other judges dies after tasting several of the chili recipes which have been submitted. China and McQuaid begin to help the police by tracking down who could have tampered with the chili and who had a motive for killing the judge. The judge was considered quite a ladies' man and was in the middle of a nasty divorce, so suspects abound. Albert takes the reader on a round of plausible blue herrings before the killer is finally revealed. This book develops the characters of China, McQuaid, and China's friend Ruby to a new level and really shows Albert's skill as a writer. The many interesting facts about chili peppers sprinkled throughout the book also add to the readers' enjoyment.
Rated by buyers -
Albert's books are great fun to read. I enjoy them so much...she is a more than adequate writer, fairly good at drawing her characters in words, and the plots make good sense (well as far as mysteries go...why do the protagonists insist on going into bad situation by themselves?)
I knew from the minute that it became obvious there was going to be a 'tasting' that someone was going to get poisoned. It's probably one of the oldest forms of murders there is. Yet, poisoning is not exactly what happened. The murderer took into account the victim's own allergies and used that against him. The victim was one of these annoying insurance guys who use their looks to sell their insurance, as well as use scare tactics to sell to older people. He had plenty of enemies, and China and McQuaid have to sort through an overabundance of information to find the most pertinent info.
As usual Albert puts in a bit of history, a lot of recipes, and some information on the sad disease that is Alzheimer's.
A good summer read...
Karen Sadler
Rated by buyers -
I Love this series. They are easy to read with good characters and an interesting but never too violent mystery.
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