WITCHES' BANE

 Tiny Pecan Springs, Texas, to which lawyer China Bayles retreated from the fast track--opening an herb-and-spice shop next to best friend Ruby's New Age emporium--is suddenly astir with cross burnings, ritual sacrifices, and sightings (and denunciations) of witches. Can murder be far behind? Wealthy, secretive Sybil Rand, who grew poisonous plants in her award- winning garden, is found with her throat slashed--and a Tarot deck and a voodoo doll nearby. Ruby's current lover, Andrew, who had hush-hush dealings with Sybil, may have done it--but then what about Sybil's philandering hubby C.W., his inamorata Jerri, the hustle-a-minute aerobics instructor, or her plain-Jane sister Rita, who's secretly in love with her boss--C.W., natch. There'll be another death, much snooping, and a confrontation in which the killer confesses all while a tape recorder is running.... An improvement over China's debut, Thyme of Death (1992), with a painfully real interlude between China and her newly dried-out mom. But ever so trendy--much dysfunctional family psychobabble-- and even mystery novices will spot the villain early on.