Of Gardens and Mysteries

Audrey Stallsmith ' 83

"I found it a perpetual necessity to read ‘just one more chapter.’" (Waterwheel) "Like a roller coaster, this one takes you steadily to the top, then drops you over the edge!" (The Literary Times) "Audrey Stallsmith knocks the wind out of the reader from the first pages and barely lets you get a breath in for the rest of the book." (The Literary Times)

These review quotes, referring to the three books in Audrey Stallsmith’s Thyme Will Tell series, make a reader want to "start a fire, turn the lights low and curl up" with these books, as an Amazon.com reviewer put it. Published by Waterbrook Press, the Thyme Will Tell books incorporate two of Audrey’s hobbies--gardening and mysteries.

With titles that are derived from the Victorian Language of Flowers, the mysteries focus on Regan Culver, the owner of an herb farm called Thyme Will Tell. In the first in the series, Rosemary For Remembrance, Regan’s father has been poisoned, the evidence against Regan is overwhelming, and her only hope is to find the killer herself. The second book, Marigolds For Mourning, follows the mystery surrounding the sudden collapse of a high school football star. And in Roses For Regret, Regan struggles to find out why an heirloom rose society is plagued by accidents and even death.

As a high school student, living on a small dairy farm near Hadley, Pennsylvania, Audrey Stallsmith wanted to attend a small Christian college in a rural setting that offered a creative writing major. Houghton College qualified on all counts. So Audrey made her way to western New York to pursue a writing major. After graduating from Houghton in 1983, Audrey looked for a job that would allow her time to write. She returned to Hadley and found that working as a home health aide gave her the time she needed. Today, Audrey continues to "work nights and write days."

Audrey’s love of gardening prompted her to take advantage of Pennsylvania’s Master Gardener program, which is offered by the agricultural extension offices. In return for a series of training classes, a Master Gardener agrees to contribute a certain number of volunteer hours to the community. Audrey calls herself a "lapsed" Master Gardener because she was not able to keep up the volunteer work after a couple of years. "But it was fun while it lasted!"

Audrey’s a fan of "plants with a past." On her website, www.thymewilltell.com, she writes, "the older varieties link us to prior generations who were also in tune with the earth, its Creator, and the changing seasons. We are heirs to literally centuries of herbal information."

Thomas Nelson publishing house bought Audrey’s first book, The Body They May Kill, publishing it in 1995. In it, Audrey tells the tale of the events that occur when Rev. Enoch Foster falls dead on Easter morning after drinking from the communion cup. After reading the book several times, an Amazon.com reviewer wrote, "So far it's been the only . . . book which delights me even when I remember exactly what is going to happen next."

Audrey is currently working on two new series. One is set during America’s Prohibition period. The other is set in modern England. She writes articles on plant history and folklore for the internet site, Suite 101, and is a field editor for Birds and Blooms magazine. She has had articles and short stories published in Moody Magazine, Christian Reader, The Lookout, Standard, BackHome, Thema, Backwoods Home, and Pennsylvania Farmer.

Audrey serves as both registrar and a board member at the annual St. David's Christian Writers' Conference in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. St. David's has conferred a number of honors on her, including the Hall of Fame award (for placing first in the short fiction category three out of five years), the Lois Henderson award (for "a body of quality work"), and the Alma K. Weber award (for "most promising newcomer").