About the Author

Susan Wittig Albert grew up on a farm in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. A former professor of English and a university administrator and vice president, she is the author of the China Bayles Mysteries, the Darling Dahlias Mysteries, and the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. Some of her recent titles include Widow’s Tears, Cat’s Claw, The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose, and The Tale of Castle Cottage. She and her husband, Bill, coauthor a series of Victorian-Edwardian mysteries under the name Robin Paige, which includes such titles as Death at Glamis Castle and Death at Whitechapel.

Reviews

Albert's charming fourth Beatrix Potter mystery (after 2006's The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood) finds our heroine unexpectedly in possession of a foundling child, Baby Flora. The reader knows the mysteriously twinkly Mrs. Overthewall stole Flora from her teenage mother, Emily, a maid at the gloomy and possibly haunted Hawthorn House, and left her on the Potter doorstep, but Beatrix-not having read the prologue-suspects the child of having gypsy origins. Capt. Miles Woodcock and his sister, Dimity, gladly give Flora a new home, leaving Beatrix to solve the mystery of her old one. Other thoughts of families and youngsters abound: Jemima Puddleduck broods over a nest of long overdue eggs; Reynard the Fox struggles with his unnatural fondness for Jemima; and the village gossips bring all their matchmaking powers to bear on Beatrix and the highly eligible Captain Woodcock. The whimsical blend of romance, mystery and nostalgia will keep cozy fans happily entertained. (Sept.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

Sundry fairy folk may be the culprits who left a baby on Beatrix Potter's doorstep in the third of the "Cottage Tales" series. "China Bayles" series author Albert lives in Texas. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.