Susan Wittig Albert books

Anthologies

China Bayles Reading Order

China Bayles Collections Reading Order

Crystal Cave Reading Order

Non-Fiction

Standalone Novels

The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter Reading Order

The Darling Dahlias Reading Order

Victorian Mysteries Reading Order

Susan Wittig Albert left a career in academia to write fiction full time. She holds a Ph.D. in English from UC Berkeley and previously served as a university administrator and English professor at UT Austin. Her first novel, Thyme of Death, was published in 1992 and earned nominations for both the Agatha and Anthony awards for Best First Mystery. That book launched the China Bayles series, which has grown to 29 novels about an ex-Houston lawyer who trades the courtroom for an herb shop in small-town Texas.

Beyond the China Bayles books, Albert has written in several other series. The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter are gentle mysteries set in England’s Lake District, featuring the real-life children’s author as an amateur detective alongside talking animal characters. The Darling Dahlias follow a garden club of women who solve mysteries in a small Alabama town during the Great Depression. Under the pen name Robin Paige (shared with her late husband Bill Albert), she also wrote twelve Victorian-era mysteries starring American writer Kathryn Ardleigh and her husband Sir Charles Sheridan.

Albert has also published historical novels about real women whose stories were overshadowed or forgotten. A Wilder Rose explores the complicated partnership between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Wilder Lane. Loving Eleanor tells the story of journalist Lorena Hickok and her relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt. The General’s Women follows Kay Summersby and Mamie Eisenhower during World War II, and Someone Always Nearby recreates the bond between Georgia O’Keeffe and her companion Maria Chabot. Her nonfiction work focuses on women’s memoir writing and personal storytelling.