Laura Childs

Laura Childs is the pen name of Gerry Schmitt, an American author of cozy mysteries best known for the long-running Tea Shop Mysteries, set in a Charleston, South Carolina tea shop run by amateur sleuth Theodosia Browning. Beginning with Death by Darjeeling in 2001, the series pairs murder plots with detailed tea culture and Southern setting -- each title plays on a tea variety, and many editions include real recipes for the food and drink described on the page.

Before writing as Laura Childs, Schmitt spent years in advertising and marketing, running her own firm -- a background that shows in the polish and consistent branding across her cozy mystery lines. Alongside the Tea Shop books she also writes two other cozy series under the same pen name: the Scrapbooking Mysteries, set in New Orleans, and the Cackleberry Club Mysteries, centered on a small-town Kansas cafe -- all sharing the same hallmark mix of craft-hobby detail, comfort-read tone, and small-community sleuthing.

A new reader should start with Death by Darjeeling, which sets up Theodosia's shop, her circle of regulars, and the tea-pairing format that runs through the whole series. There is no film or TV adaptation; the books' popularity comes from their steady, hobby-driven cozy mystery formula and Childs's prolific output of roughly one Tea Shop novel a year.