he series is definitely "cozy" but I found myself taking this volume much more seriously than usual. It may be because it was about teachers (in this case a football coach) taking advantage of girls in their mid teens. Here in Canada very few public high schools have football teams and there isn't the intense feeling about the game that there appears to be south of our border. What is most disturbing is the lack of belief on the part of the school, the first girl's priest ("It is your sinful imagination creating wicked stories about a good man.")and later the police. I can believe all that because a very public and highly esteemed man with a lovely wife is going to be safe from casual accusations. The amazing thing is that China's involvement makes real sense. The principal received an anonymous phone call and didn't want to ignore it, but didn't want to confront the coach, either, without some real evidence. China is an attorney, a current member of the Texas bar, and is therefore bound by legal protocols, would recognize evidence if she saw it, and know how to interview the people involved. China interviews the mother of the girl who was named in the phone call, but can't interview the girl because she committed suicide. It gets very complicated as China's step-son is apparently concerned about a friend's problem, McQuaid is away investigating software thefts, the quilt group has their best quilt stolen, and her deceased father's secretary has now died, leaving an interesting set of letters for the secretary's son to deal with and, oh, yes, Cass is seeing a man whom both McQuaid and the police chief feel they know from somewhere else. All the time poor China is trying to run her herb shop, the catering firm and the tea shop. The complexities mostly straighten out, with very sad conclusions. I was very pleased with the stance China took about the school situation, although I kept thinking that she didn't have any real evidence about things until the end, she just believed what she was told. As long as she wasn't saying anything about anything I suppose she had to work from one assumption or another. What pleased me most was the fact that the principal was prepared to look into the allegations seriously as long as she could do it without alerting anyone to what was being investigated - hence the request of China. Very good and there's a lemon coffee cake I might just make.

This is my token Valentine book, complete with branches of bleeding heart on the cover. Taking it to meetup. If no one chooses it it will be on the shelf by the front door.