I missed last week’s post since I was still reading Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu by Lois Gresh. This is one weird book, and I like weird. Still not sure how I feel about it.

Hemlock, by Susan Wittig Albert, is the newest in a long series of China Bayles Herbal mysteries. In it, China journeys to North Carolina to hunt for a rare and valuable herbal called the Curious Herbal by Elizabeth Blackwell. The information about hemlock, the poisonous herb, not the tree, and the book were historically accurate and fascinating. The mystery was a little disappointing but the rest of the book made up for it.

Murder at the Abbey, by Frances Evesham, is part of a series, although this was my first. A human bone was found in a river near a historical abbey. Is is the bone from the abbey graveyard? Or something worse. Libby, and her new husband, are on the case. A charming cozy.