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Just in from the low country
Nov. 21st, 2006 05:46 amI don't remember if I've mentioned that for the past week and a half or so, I've been plowing through the Indigo Tea Shop Mystery series. If I haven't, as it was one of the numerous entries lost when my computer decided to go to sleep before I did, here's the basic premise. Theodosia [mmm.hmm] runs the aforemntioned tea shop in downtown Charleston. Or, if you'd like to repeat yourself until your brains leak out your ears, much of the books take place in the historic district.
Theo is pretty much your standard mystery with a chaser of recipe at the end mystery heroine. She's smart, reasonably pretty, everything she touches turns to gold [see previous two attributes], and has a nasty habit of stumbling over dead bodies. In fact, I think thus far she has actually touched each corpse, whereas most of your mystery gals just begin to snoop around and occasionally have the shock of their lives when it comes time to spice things up a smidge.
Please note that I only read a half dozen or so mystery series, so I'm not sure if this last statement is true for anything but my little corner of the world.
Anyway, since it's a tea shop mystery, you also get a ton of information about tea. NFI clue if it's actually accurate or not. I started reading this series simply because I was bored out of my skull and because it took place in Charleston. As of now, I think I would still read the series even if it was in a completely fictional city/town/whatever, as the series is a bit like candy. Not your favorite kind of candy, where you crave more immediately after it's over and the wait kills you, but one you happily devour when offered to you.
However, if it were set elsewhere, then I wouldn't have my brain leaking out of my ears every other page. I'd be annoyed at the constant use of first and last names for everyone but the employees of the Indigo Tea Shop, but I'd deal. I wouldn't necessarily have to scream every time the author decides to have Theo, born and raised in the Low Country [which pretty much just means anything in the surrounding area, k?], wax poetically about people heading out to the "low-country."
At first I thought it was simply she was unfamiliar with the territory and that as the series progressed this little attempt to show off the quaintness of the area would lose its charm. I then realized I was reading the newest release at the time.
So then I began to wonder if maybe it was just something I was unfamiliar with, despite twenty five years in the area. Y'know, maybe it's something older people say and since I no longer live in the land of the elderly, maybe I just didn't recall this little factoid. I did what any sane person would do, and asked someone who lived here longer than I, and also had access previously to an even older generation.
No, Mom's brain goes splodey too. It's entirely possible that it's something people do say, but please consider that the parental units lived out in the areas the books keep harping on as the low-country. We lived in a neighborhood where the residents had lived there for ages, thus they'd lived HERE for ages. Drawls and all, y'all. They loved to discuss their homes out in swampier but somehow richer areas, but still no mention of the little LC.
I could still buy this, if she'd just frickin' accept that the historic district is part of the low country. Or is that Low Country? Dunno. Of course, it seems she has decided that the l-c is simply to be used to refer to anything with more green than concrete. o_O
That aside, I snicker each and everytime Theo jogs to the Battery in the middle of the night. I do. To be as crass as possible, that shit'll get you killed. However, I can let this one go as Mumsy has decided that certain liberties must be taken with the area, and if Theo lives in a cleaner, safer Charleston, more power to her.
But in my head, she will always be about two seconds away from being shot, run down, or otherwise killed in ways that aren't connected to the mystery of the day.
The upside, other than the candy, is that after three or four of the books, I'm actually reconsidering my stance on tea. Not sweet tea, which is still an abomination as far as I'm concerned, but other tea. Of course, this could simply be the result of my cold having altered my brain. Also, so it won't seem like I'm just being incredibly nit picky [even if she does use the l-c thing TWENTY times a chapter], she has managed to create a little world where I would be ever so happy to go and visit the tea shop of doom. I say of doom because anytime a new character is introduced, odds are good they either die or did something of the illegal persuasion. But this is par for the mystery course.
So I'm making my holiday gift giving list. This also includes those whose birthdays fall in the holiday times [aloha, T] and alas, gifts will most likely be delievered on some schedule that makes no sense. Just consider it me spreading out the joy. Or something. [For the third or fourth time, this is another chance to hit me upside the head with hints of DOOM.]
( You don't care what they're getting... )
See how I try and think all this stuff through? I do the same when perusing wish lists. Thing is, right now I have enough money to buy a gift, but since my father is currently unemployed [yes.] I don't want to spend it.
It's raining. And cold. I'd say awesome, only... I'm cold. So not so much with the awesome. Chilly is good. Cold is not.
Oh, the other news. My cousin is preggers. How do I know this, considering I never talk to my cousins? She sent us a baby shower invitation. Actually, mumsy thinks it's quite possible she's had the kid, given the kind of invite we were sent. I'm still not sure if they just haven't jumped the gun and found out the sex [boy] and thus named him [not a variation of Brandon, yay] so people will buy them all sorts of personalized crap. I don't mind birth announcements, though I'd give anything to see pictures of her pregnant, but sending us an invite when we live pretty far away and never see you? Is pretty much begging for gifts. Uncool. For those keeping score at home, that leaves two of my uncle's kids [both boys] who may or may not have knocked anyone up, one of my aunt's daughters, and me, for those who have yet to procreate on Dad's side of the family. As to Mumsy's, one of my cousins is rumoured to have spawned and no clue on the other.
It's like a competition they don't even know about. I wonder if baby's daddy is the guy she made out with at my grandmother's funeral. If so, good for them. If not, well, I just like to mention that while my father was crying, my cousin was sitting in the front row [to symbolize how important their family is], pawing her boyfriend. I never, ever get tired of that.
Theo is pretty much your standard mystery with a chaser of recipe at the end mystery heroine. She's smart, reasonably pretty, everything she touches turns to gold [see previous two attributes], and has a nasty habit of stumbling over dead bodies. In fact, I think thus far she has actually touched each corpse, whereas most of your mystery gals just begin to snoop around and occasionally have the shock of their lives when it comes time to spice things up a smidge.
Please note that I only read a half dozen or so mystery series, so I'm not sure if this last statement is true for anything but my little corner of the world.
Anyway, since it's a tea shop mystery, you also get a ton of information about tea. NFI clue if it's actually accurate or not. I started reading this series simply because I was bored out of my skull and because it took place in Charleston. As of now, I think I would still read the series even if it was in a completely fictional city/town/whatever, as the series is a bit like candy. Not your favorite kind of candy, where you crave more immediately after it's over and the wait kills you, but one you happily devour when offered to you.
However, if it were set elsewhere, then I wouldn't have my brain leaking out of my ears every other page. I'd be annoyed at the constant use of first and last names for everyone but the employees of the Indigo Tea Shop, but I'd deal. I wouldn't necessarily have to scream every time the author decides to have Theo, born and raised in the Low Country [which pretty much just means anything in the surrounding area, k?], wax poetically about people heading out to the "low-country."
At first I thought it was simply she was unfamiliar with the territory and that as the series progressed this little attempt to show off the quaintness of the area would lose its charm. I then realized I was reading the newest release at the time.
So then I began to wonder if maybe it was just something I was unfamiliar with, despite twenty five years in the area. Y'know, maybe it's something older people say and since I no longer live in the land of the elderly, maybe I just didn't recall this little factoid. I did what any sane person would do, and asked someone who lived here longer than I, and also had access previously to an even older generation.
No, Mom's brain goes splodey too. It's entirely possible that it's something people do say, but please consider that the parental units lived out in the areas the books keep harping on as the low-country. We lived in a neighborhood where the residents had lived there for ages, thus they'd lived HERE for ages. Drawls and all, y'all. They loved to discuss their homes out in swampier but somehow richer areas, but still no mention of the little LC.
I could still buy this, if she'd just frickin' accept that the historic district is part of the low country. Or is that Low Country? Dunno. Of course, it seems she has decided that the l-c is simply to be used to refer to anything with more green than concrete. o_O
That aside, I snicker each and everytime Theo jogs to the Battery in the middle of the night. I do. To be as crass as possible, that shit'll get you killed. However, I can let this one go as Mumsy has decided that certain liberties must be taken with the area, and if Theo lives in a cleaner, safer Charleston, more power to her.
But in my head, she will always be about two seconds away from being shot, run down, or otherwise killed in ways that aren't connected to the mystery of the day.
The upside, other than the candy, is that after three or four of the books, I'm actually reconsidering my stance on tea. Not sweet tea, which is still an abomination as far as I'm concerned, but other tea. Of course, this could simply be the result of my cold having altered my brain. Also, so it won't seem like I'm just being incredibly nit picky [even if she does use the l-c thing TWENTY times a chapter], she has managed to create a little world where I would be ever so happy to go and visit the tea shop of doom. I say of doom because anytime a new character is introduced, odds are good they either die or did something of the illegal persuasion. But this is par for the mystery course.
So I'm making my holiday gift giving list. This also includes those whose birthdays fall in the holiday times [aloha, T] and alas, gifts will most likely be delievered on some schedule that makes no sense. Just consider it me spreading out the joy. Or something. [For the third or fourth time, this is another chance to hit me upside the head with hints of DOOM.]
( You don't care what they're getting... )
See how I try and think all this stuff through? I do the same when perusing wish lists. Thing is, right now I have enough money to buy a gift, but since my father is currently unemployed [yes.] I don't want to spend it.
It's raining. And cold. I'd say awesome, only... I'm cold. So not so much with the awesome. Chilly is good. Cold is not.
Oh, the other news. My cousin is preggers. How do I know this, considering I never talk to my cousins? She sent us a baby shower invitation. Actually, mumsy thinks it's quite possible she's had the kid, given the kind of invite we were sent. I'm still not sure if they just haven't jumped the gun and found out the sex [boy] and thus named him [not a variation of Brandon, yay] so people will buy them all sorts of personalized crap. I don't mind birth announcements, though I'd give anything to see pictures of her pregnant, but sending us an invite when we live pretty far away and never see you? Is pretty much begging for gifts. Uncool. For those keeping score at home, that leaves two of my uncle's kids [both boys] who may or may not have knocked anyone up, one of my aunt's daughters, and me, for those who have yet to procreate on Dad's side of the family. As to Mumsy's, one of my cousins is rumoured to have spawned and no clue on the other.
It's like a competition they don't even know about. I wonder if baby's daddy is the guy she made out with at my grandmother's funeral. If so, good for them. If not, well, I just like to mention that while my father was crying, my cousin was sitting in the front row [to symbolize how important their family is], pawing her boyfriend. I never, ever get tired of that.
