By Susan Wittig Albert (Berkley: 2011)

China Bayles, owner of Herb and Seasons shop in Pecan Springs, Texas, happens on a blazing trailer and hears a woman screaming for help. Unable to save the victim, China has her eyebrows

singed off and is haunted by the memory of those cries.
Pecan Springs is a peaceful kind of place where most everyone knows everyone else, but there’s a community college in the town, and all kinds of misfits and evil-intentioned people are drawn to the campus.  Jessica, a student and an intern at the local newspaper, wants to write one really good story so she’ll have a chance at a job at a big newspaper, and she sets out to find the culprit single handedly. When she is kidnapped, it is China who unravels the many threads of the mystery and saves Jessica’s life.
Those who keep up with the China Bayles series will enjoy seeing the life developments in other regular characters including Caitie, Ruby, Blackie and Sweet Cookie.
All of the series are good books, but this one is better than most. It gets the Good Clean Book seal of approval as well.