Mourning Gloria by Susan Witting Albert (a China Bayles mystery, #19). 301 p.China is a former lawyer turned entrepreneur; she runs several businesses with her friends, but at the core is her herbal shop in a small town in the Texas hill country. (Herb lore is always included in the books, and sometimes recipes are too.) China's particularly good at investigation and interviewing people, skills she picked up as an attorney. She's deeply invested in her community, so she digs around any time she thinks something bad is happening. In this particular case, she stops to report a trailer fire outside of town, realizes that someone's alive inside the trailer, and is unable to get the person out before the trailer explodes and the woman inside dies. She helps an eager young reporter who's investigating the fire...and then the reporter disappears, so it's all up to China.
Like all long-running series where the main character isn't a cop or a detective, it's a bit hard to swallow that China gets involved with so many murders. (Interestingly enough, China's husband is a retired-cop-turned-private-investigator, but China doesn't become involved in his cases; she's drawn into mysteries because she's nosy.) If you can overlook that problem, this is a well-done series. with strong, well-drawn interpersonal relationships.
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