Crafts and Life

Notorious for failed relationships.

As summer surrounds her Wisteria Tearoom in the beauty of a lush rose garden, death overshadows the tearoom a second time. Maria Garcia—a venerable member of the Santa Fe Rose Guild—breathes her last in the tearoom's front parlor, throwing Ellen into a morass of doubt and conjecture. Was it murder, or merely misfortune? Or—as Tony suggests—was it a crime of racial hatred? The more Ellen learns about the inner politics of the Rose Guild, the more she suspects foul play.

It is Summer and the Wisteria Tearoom is starting to get busy as the season advances (and more people find out about it), a relative of Julio (the chef) has started as a waitress and one day she seems overly nervous, when Ellen asks her what is wrong she admits that her Grandmother is coming to the tearoom the next day and Rosa wants everything to be just right.  When the frail matriarch arrives she is settled with a view of the roses that Ellen has planted, as Maria is a keen member of the Santa Fe Rose Guild, everything seems to be going well when Rosa suddenly rushes out, her Grandmother has been taken ill, by the time Ellen gets to her Maria is dead.

At first glance it seems as though she had a stroke or some such, but then the autopsy result comes back and it all looks a little more sinister.  Now Ellen is juggling the tearoom, diminished staffing (due to the funeral etc), her growing fondness for Tony (the Police Officer), worry about her office manager, the fact that teens seem to be trespassing, oh and her resident ghost!

This is a wonderful continuation of the book I read a while back as a book club month read, I have thought about reading this and the rest of the series but for some reason I never got around to it and now I am wondering why, this is a wonderful story with a well rounded cast and the author doesn't shy away from topics that could be tricky – a five star read!