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.