Nightshade
Susan Wittig Albert
Reviewed by Lea Wait
Susan Wittig Albert is one of those increasingly rare authors who can not only keep one series alive and well (NIGHTSHADE is Albert’s seventeenth book starring Texas herbalist and former criminal attorney China Bayles) but juggle three. (Albert also writes a series featuring children’s author/illustrator Beatrix Potter and, with her husband Bill, is the author of the Robin Paige Edwardian mysteries.) In NIGHTSHADE she demonstrates just how she manages to keep her readers interested – and herself challenged.
THYME OF DEATH, the first of the series (1992) began with China, and her decision to leave big city life and a career in the law to open an herb shop in a small town, but as the series continued, Albert not only gave China a challenging back story and current personal issues, but also brought to life the citizens of Pecan Springs, Texas, giving them their own, often eccentric, personalities, histories, relationships, and – when appropriate – mysteries to solve. With hardly a nod to the problems which often result from setting a long mystery series in a small town (the feared “Cabot Cove Syndrome,” in which eventually all the sleuth’s friends and acquaintances must be killed off, or every stranger in town is clearly either dangerous or in danger,) Albert managed to keep China close to home in most of her books.
But in NIGHTSHADE she breaks away from her own successful mystery formula in three ways.
First, NIGHTSHADE is the third in a trilogy within the China Bayles series dealing with the circumstances surrounding the death of China’s father. Albert is aware of her casual readers, however, and it is not necessary to have read her two previous books (BLEEDING HEARTS and SPANISH DAGGER) to be pulled into NIGHTSHADE and appreciate its nuances. In NIGHTSHADE the material revealed in the earlier two books is quickly reviewed and any new readers brought up to date. Albert’s fans will appreciate knowing a few additional nuances, but the nuances are not integral to this volume. The trilogy format is unusual – but it works.
Second, NIGHTSHADE takes a step not only outside small town Pecan Springs to Austin and Houston and their prestigious suburbs, but also to the law firms and shady politics that have been part of Texas’ past. By pushing the criminal element from the personal to the political, Albert also increases the stakes for her characters.
Third, and perhaps most interesting from the perspective of another writer, for the first time in this series, Albert leaves China Bayles’ first person point of view for part of the book and moves to that of her husband, McQuaid. The transition is challenging, since China is a personal and immediate narrator, sometimes addressing the reader directly. (“I don’t know about you, but I find watering to be a quiet, soothing activity almost as calming as pulling weeds.”)
Albert wants to give us McQuaid’s point of view, but she is more successful at telling us what he is doing and saying than what he is thinking. His sections are in the present tense, which is often awkward to read: “McQuaid is thinking. Ex-husbands sometimes come back and cause trouble. ‘Do you know the man’s name?’ If McQuaid is to have his own point of view in future books in the series, then his voice needs to be developed further, and we need to hear it directly – not just watch him thinking. China’s voice and personality have had seventeen books to develop. McQuaid has potential, but it isn’t achieved in NIGHTSHADE.
Despite this minor failing, NIGHTSHADE is an excellent example of what avenues a long-lived series can take to keep both their author and their fans engaged. In spite of the distractions of dirty politicians and murders in both the past and present, Albert does not forget to keep her fans updated about critical issues such as Ruby’s love life, the health of Howard Cosell, McQuaid’s aging and opinionated basset, and the care and feeding of teenage step-son Brian’s lizards, snakes and spiders. Pecan Springs is alive and well, and by the end of NIGHTSHADE at least one new issue has been left dangling, perhaps to re-appear in the next book in the series.
Susan Wittig Albert’s fans will be sure to buy her next China Bayles book to find out how it all turns out.
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About the Reviewer:
Maine author Lea Wait writes adult mysteries, including SHADOWS AT THE FAIR, a finalist for a "best first mystery" Agatha Award. Others in that series
are SHADOWS ON THE COAST OF MAINE, SHADOWS ON THE IVY, and SHADOWS AT THE
SPRING SHOW.
She also writes historical novels for ages 7 and up (STOPPING TO HOME, SEAWARD BORN, WINTERING WELL and FINEST KIND) which have been honored by Student Choice Award lists in thirteen states.
Wait did her undergraduate work at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, and her graduate work at New York University. While she was raising the four Asian daughters she adopted as a single parent she worked as a corporate manager. For more information, see www.leawait.com.
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Order FINEST KIND from
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