China Bayles Books in Order

Former Houston lawyer China Bayles trades the courtroom for an herb shop in Pecan Springs, then finds her fresh start shattered when a friend’s apparent suicide looks like murder. Blackmail letters, old greed, and small-town secrets pull her straight back into investigation.

A Halloween killing gives a self-righteous preacher the excuse he wants to target Ruby Wilcox and her New Age shop. China steps in to protect her friend and uncover the real killer before panic and rumor do more damage.

Animal-rights fights, academic politics, and murder make an ugly brew when China gets drawn into a campus case. Behind the public arguments, somebody is hiding something worth killing for.

When an accountant is murdered, China quickly sees that the numbers do not add up. Following the financial trail leads her into a case built on lies, pressure, and carefully hidden motives.

A death in Pecan Springs forces China to face hard truths about guilt, forgiveness, and the limits of what one person can fix. It is a mystery with real emotional weight beneath the clues.

China follows a case where greed, ambition, and desire run deep, and even the people who should be trustworthy begin to look dangerous. Love and loyalty prove shakier than she wants to believe.

A blazing chile cookoff seems like perfect small-town fun, until murder turns up on the menu. China digs through rivalry, ego, and overheated tempers to find out who crossed the line.

Just as China and McQuaid are preparing to marry, the murder of a widely disliked real estate shark throws Pecan Springs into chaos. Wedding nerves, bad weather, and a dangerous case arrive all at once.

Christmas in Pecan Springs turns uneasy when China is pulled into a holiday mystery and forced to imagine what life would look like without Ruby close by. The season is merry, but not especially safe.

A family mystery sends China into the bloody roots of her own Southern past. What she uncovers is not just history, but a legacy of violence and secrecy that still has power in the present.

When historic Indigo is threatened, China and Ruby join forces to protect the landmark and uncover the secrets that could destroy it. Their partnership is the heart of this blue-tinged mystery.

What starts as a quirky, pickle-flavored puzzle soon turns serious for China. Beneath the jokes and local color is a genuine mystery with sharp edges and plenty of motive.

Bones found in a cave point toward an old secret that may help China solve a very current danger. Past and present lock together in a case where every clue feels unsettled.

The wrong kind of love leaves a trail of fear, ruined lives, and murder. China follows the emotional wreckage into a case where obsession has sharper roots than anyone wants to admit.

While gathering yucca for a papermaking workshop, China finds the body of Ruby’s former lover. With Ruby away and trouble spreading from a nursery to a drug investigation, the case turns dangerous fast.

Still shaken by her father’s death, China wants no part of her half-brother’s digging into the past. Then a fresh corpse and a tangle of family secrets force her and McQuaid to keep going.

A visit to a Kentucky Shaker village with her friend Martha Edmond pulls China into a deadly crime and a bitter history of loss. The setting is quiet, but the story is anything but.

McQuaid’s troubled ex-wife Sally shows up in Pecan Springs just before Christmas, bringing fear, secrets, and the promise of legal trouble with her. China must sort out Sally’s past before it damages everyone around her.

China comes upon a burning trailer and realizes the blaze is arson homicide. When young reporter Jessica Nelson gets too close to the story and disappears, China races to find her before the case claims another victim.

Police chief Sheila Dawson refuses to accept that a local computer expert killed himself, and China backs her up. A stalker, a burglary, and ugly secrets in Pecan Springs make this one of Sheila’s toughest cases.

A haunted house built from hurricane grief draws Ruby and China into trouble when a friend inherits it and wants to turn it into an inn. Meanwhile, a bank robbery and murder bring very real danger to the door.

When filmmaker Karen Prior dies after an apparent mugging, China suspects it connects to the cold case Karen was researching. Reopening the old murder leads China toward Mexican art, buried motive, and fresh risk.

Thanksgiving plans at her mother’s birding retreat go sideways when a woman dies on a deserted road and a local veterinarian is shot. China and game warden Mack Chambers uncover theft, animal trafficking, and murder.

China’s tenant, a nurse caught in a vicious divorce, discovers suspicious practices at a hospice and may know about a murder. When she is run off the road and left in a coma, China starts asking dangerous questions.

An escaped convict from McQuaid’s past sends China away to an olive ranch workshop for safety, but trouble is waiting there too. An inheritance fight and McQuaid’s risky trap turn into a race against revenge.

Strange happenings at Thyme & Seasons suggest Ruby may be right about one thing at last: the place is haunted. China follows a ghostly trail of flowers and old memories into a long-buried secret from Pecan Springs’s past.

A customer workshop on vanilla turns deadly when a botany professor specializing in vanilla orchids is murdered. China and police chief Sheila Dawson sort through jealous colleagues, smugglers, patents, and a frightened little girl.

China heads to North Carolina when a rare gardening book vanishes from a haunted private library and her friend falls under suspicion. A missing *Curious Herbal*, an attempted murder, and an old heiress’s secrets complicate everything.

A local podcaster investigating an old murder dies in an apparent hit-and-run just before she can expose a prominent man’s secret. China follows missing memories, a scrapbook, and photographs with one face cut out.