A Plain Vanilla Murder

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Being called plain vanilla, might be a negative term, but real vanilla harvested in the lush tropical forests of the Americas is a crop highly prized. In Susan Wittig Albert's A PlainVanilla Murder, there is nothing ordinary about vanilla. (A Plain Vanilla Murder will be published by Persevero Press on June 4.)

China Bayles and her business partner Ruby Wilcox are presenting their very popular workshop entitled "Not Just Plain Vanilla." They describe how the plant is grown, how it is harvested and cured and why it is so valuable today. The vanilla orchid, yes vanilla starts its life as a orchid, twines itself around a tree and when the yellow orchid-like flower is pollinated, a ripe vanilla pod is created.

When a botany professor is found dead in his greenhouse on the campus, the campus police call in Pecan Springs Chief Sheila Dawson to investigate. At first glance, it seems like a suicide, but after careful investigation, it turns into a murder made to look like a suicide.

Dr. Carl Fairlee was not much loved by his colleagues at the university. He used grant money to build himself a rooftop greenhouse without the university's permission, her divorced his wife and forced her to sell their house and their collection of orchids to divide in the settlement and he was a known womanizer, so there were plenty of suspects. As the very pregnant Chief Dawson investigates, she learns Dr. Fairlee registered a lucrative vanilla patent and left out his graduate assistant who was closely involved. Logan Gardner becomes a suspect.

Fairlee's ex-wife Maggie, a mercurial greenhouse owner, makes herself the prime suspect, but China knows Maggie's moods and doesn't think she would kill him. But when it is discovered that Maggie broke into the greenhouse and stole a rare orchid, Chief Dawson refocuses her efforts on those closest to Fairlee.

An excellent mystery tightly woven with the lethal history of vanilla grown in the jungles of Mexico. You will not look at plain vanilla in the same way again.