Book Review: Death By Darjeeling

Author: Laura Childs
Title: Death By Darjeeling
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: May 1, 2001
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: When a man is poisoned by tea, Theo is the prime suspect. Now she has to prove her innocence and track down the real killer-before someone else takes their last sip. Just the right blend of cozy fun and clever plotting.

Review: Death By Darjeeling is the first book in the Tea Shop Mysteries series by Laura Childs. I read one of the later books first and kind of liked it. I wanted to go back and read the first book to see how I really felt about the characters in this cozy series.

I've decided that I like them but I'm not sure if cozy really applies to this series, because even though this is a tea shop and there's a cute dog, called Earl Grey, the vibe of this series isn't very cozy.

The characters, with the exception of Haley are more than a bit snooty. But then again, Theodosia does run a tea shop so what can you expect.

Here are some of the things I like about this series:

1. The descriptions of the teas. I really learned quite a bit about tea reading this book, you know the kind of tea that isn't in little bags with strings attached.

2. It is hard to resist a dog named Earl Grey

3. There's no relationship craziness going on.

4. The descriptions of Charleston, South Carolina are beautiful. It really makes you feel like you are there.

It can be easy to nitpick cozy series, because like romance novels they have a formula. The secret to a good cozy is to have just enough quirky characters to justify a civilian diving into a crime scene and solving the case. With this series, you can believe it. Theo is a pretty smart lady, and since murders seem to follow her, why not solve them?

Laura does a good job at keeping you guessing about the killer too. I like that. I hate knowing who the killer is halfway into the story!

I only wish there were some humor in these books. I'll probably work my way through all of them, because I'm fascinated with the Indigo Tea Room, but I'll take my time doing it.

Rating:  4 flowers