Spanish Dagger

Spanish Dagger is the entry where Susan Wittig Albert starts to fully cash in on the long family-mystery thread that began with hints in earlier books about China's father's death. China's half-sister Leatha arrives in Pecan Springs, and the conversation between them ranges across years of resentment and partial information about a man neither of them quite understood.

The murder mystery (a body in a yucca patch, with possible connections to a stranger China encountered weeks earlier) is the chassis. The actual interest is in the sisters' work toward something like a shared understanding. Albert handles the family material with the care she usually reserves for her herbal lore.

Four stars. One of the stronger mid-series entries and a useful setup for Nightshade. Read in order.