Authors: Susan Wittig Albert
Widow's Tears
WIDOW'S TEARS
China Bayles Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert
| THYME OF DEATH | A DILLY OF A DEATH |
| WITCHES' BANE | DEAD MAN'S BONES |
| HANGMAN'S ROOT | BLEEDING HEARTS |
| ROSEMARY REMEMBERED | SPANISH DAGGER |
| RUEFUL DEATH | NIGHTSHADE |
| LOVE LIES BLEEDING | WORMWOOD |
| CHILE DEATH | HOLLY BLUES |
| LAVENDER LIES | MOURNING GLORIA |
| MISTLETOE MAN | CAT'S CLAW |
| BLOODROOT | WIDOW'S TEARS |
| INDIGO DYING |
AN UNTHYMELY DEATH
CHINA BAYLES' BOOK OF DAYS
Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert
THE TALE OF HILL TOP FARM
THE TALE OF HOLLY HOW
THE TALE OF CUCKOO BROW WOOD
THE TALE OF HAWTHORN HOUSE
THE TALE OF BRIAR BANK
THE TALE OF APPLEBECK ORCHARD
THE TALE OF OAT CAKE CRAG
THE TALE OF CASTLE COTTAGE
Darling Dahlias Mysteries by Susan Wittig Albert
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CUCUMBER TREE
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE NAKED LADIES
THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE CONFEDERATE ROSE
With her husband, Bill Albert, writing as Robin Paige
| DEATH AT BISHOP'S KEEP | DEATH AT EPSOM DOWNS |
| DEATH AT GALLOWS GREEN | DEATH AT DARTMOOR |
| DEATH AT DAISY'S FOLLY | DEATH AT GLAMIS CASTLE |
| DEATH AT DEVIL'S BRIDGE | DEATH IN HYDE PARK |
| DEATH AT ROTTINGDEAN | DEATH AT BLENHEIM PALACE |
| DEATH AT WHITECHAPEL | DEATH ON THE LIZARD |
Nonfiction books by Susan Wittig Albert
WRITING FROM LIFE
WORK OF HER OWN
S
USAN
W
ITTIG
A
LBERT
WIDOW'S TEARS
BERKLEY PRIME CRIME, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
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This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
WIDOW'S TEARS
Copyright © 2013 by Susan Wittig Albert.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or
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Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publising Group.
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®
PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Berkley Prime Crime hardcover paperback ISBN: 978-1-101-62220-9
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FIRST EDITION:
April 2013
Cover illustration copyright © by Joe Burleson;
Background
© by Hemera/Thinkstock.
Cover design by Judith Murello.
Interior text design by Tiffany Estreicher.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The
publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision.
The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reaction to the recipes contained in this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product
of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for
author or third-party websites or their content.
| ALWAYS LEARNING | PEARSON |
For my friends in the Herb Society of America,
who have named me their
honorary president for 2012â2014.
China and I thank you.
The Symbolic Meanings of the Plants in
Widow's Tears
Flo-rig'-ra-phy (flâo-rig'-ra-fâe), n. [L.
flos, floris,
flower + -graphy.] The language or symbolism of flowering plants, as expressed in historical literature.
Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language
People often ask me the question “What exactly
is
an herb?”
I've never liked questions that have to be answered “exactly,” because I appreciate a little ambiguity and mystery in my lifeâit makes things much more interesting. That's why I like the Herb Society of America's definition of an herb: “a plant for use and delight.” It's an impossibly broad definition, yes. But it's a definition that invites us to explore the widest possible uses of plants to provide taste, scent, medicine, fiber, dye, tools, artifacts, and symbols, from the distant beginnings of human culture to the present time.
Almost all societies have assigned symbolic meanings to plants. In China, for example, bamboo (which provides medicine, food, building materials, paper, and textiles) represents longevity, strength, and grace. In Hindu cultures, jasmine (used as a medicine, a flavoring, and a fragrance) symbolizes love, while once upon a time in the British Isles, green willow symbolized untrue or immature love.
Throughout human history, these symbolic meanings have been elaborated in art, poetry, and literature. During the early Victorian period, for
instance, wealthy and leisured ladies and gentlemen frequently exchanged floral gifts in which a fanciful “language of flowers” was encoded. As Kathleen Gips puts it in her introduction to
Flora's Dictionary: The Victorian Language of Herbs and Flowers
, “people expressed flowery thoughts by exchanging bouquets composed of carefully chosen plant words.”
The definitions of these encoded “plant words” or floral symbolsâcollectively, a
florigraphy
âwere published in Europe and America in an enduring and highly popular literary tradition made up of dozens of elaborate manuals that appeared in multiple editions. At their best, these were attractive, leather-bound volumes with gilt-edged pages and engraved illuminations, occasionally hand-colored. At the end of this book, you'll find some suggestions for further reading that will lead you deeper into the study of florigraphy and its many historical transformations. It's a subject that many garden and literary study groups might find interesting.
Of course, while herbs and plants are an important thematic and plot element in the books in the series (it's amazing how many mysteries there are in the lives of plants!), you're probably even more interested in the characters. China Bayles, of course, has always been front and center, with her herb shop, her lawyerly logic, and her tendency to be drawn intoâ¦well, murder. And, of course, Ruby Wilcox has never been far behind, playing the role of an intuitive Dr. Watson to China's logical Sherlock.
But now it's Ruby's turn to play Sherlock.
Widow's Tears
is her storyâand it's about time, don't you think? We've already learned about her shop, her family (the daughter she gave up for adoption and who reappeared in
Hangman's Root
; the mom who has Alzheimer's), and her everyday life. We know about her bout with breast cancer (in
Mistletoe Man
) and her adventures with the Ouija board (
Rosemary Remembered
and
Bleeding Hearts
). In
Widow's Tears
, Ruby shows us just how good she is at looking deeply into mysteries that are hidden from everyone elseâeven from China. To
help while Ruby is doing this, Dawn Zudel of Columbia, Tennessee, (the winner of Story Circle's character raffle) has volunteered to tend her shop. Thanks, Dawn!
Widow's Tears
is also the story of the Great Galveston Hurricane, which forms the historical backdrop against which Ruby's story unfolds. The hurricaneâto this day, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the United Statesâstruck Galveston Island on September 8, 1900. It killed some eight to twelve thousand people (nobody really knows how many), wiped out whole families, and changed the destiny of the city of Galveston, which at the time rivaled Houston for the position of the most important city in Texas, indeed, on the entire Gulf Coast. I have created a fictional character, Rachel Blackwood, through whom to tell the story of the hurricane. But Rachel's story is based on the real stories of hurricane survivors recorded in many documents of the period. I've listed my sources in the resource section at the end of this book.