Bleeding Hearts

Finished August 5

Bleeding Hearts by Susan Wittig Albert

This is the fourteenth book in the China Bayles mystery series set in Pecan Springs, Texas. China runs and herbal shop and café with a friend and they've recently added a new partner and expanded into catering. The book includes herbal information and lore and recipes. 

Here China is approached by the local high school principal to discreetly look into the past of the high school football coach. The principal recently received an anonymous call that the coach has been involved with female high school students before. Her legal advisor downplayed it, but she's worried enough to want it looked into. China's mom lives near the town the coach worked in previously and goes to visit the mother of the girl he was supposedly involved with. She discovers that the accusations were dismissed by the school, police, and church there, and the mother was frustrated with the situation, but had let it go until recently, when her daughter, now in college, was found dead in a hotel room.

The death was deemed a suicide, but as China looks into things further, she has more and more questions and concerns. 

On the home front, her partner McQuaid has taken a case in New Mexico, where his ex lives, her stepson Brian has something with a friend that he's worried about, and China's mom has been contacted by her late husband's late secretary's son about some letters he found in his mother's belongings. She's asked China to deal with it and let her know if there is anything she needs to know.

There is a unique cultural part of this novel about the way US football is treated. High school coaches are paid very well, often higher than any other school employee, not always required to teach any classes, and treated as heroes and celebrities when the teams are doing well. This gives a coach a layer of untouchability when rumours arise, and this is definitely in play here.

We also see a lot of China's professional life, with her business partners who are also friends. She's concerned about things in their lives, and about the employees they share. There is a real sense of the community nature of a small town, the politics and social structure, and the activities that have people's lives overlap in unexpected ways.