When I started to read this advanced copy of SERVED HIM RIGHT, I had high hopes that Lisa Unger would not again resort to the supernatural to solve the dilemmas she creates. So I'm pleased to tell you that she does not do that in this book.

Paul is a no-good womanizer and rapist. When he is found murdered, the big mystery of SERVED HIM RIGHT is who, of the many possibilities, did it. The police find that he was poisoned so are looking in particular at the group of women in the area who specialize in herbs and creating herbal recipes to both cure and kill.

In addition to Paul's murder, police are also dealing with a couple of other mysteries: a woman's life threatening illness after she attends a brunch hosted by one of the herbalists and another woman's disappearance after she began dating Paul.

In a few instances, Unger gives too much credit to herbal remedies. For example, Iggy (leave it to Unger to name one of her characters Iggy), the woman who got sick after the brunch, is now dying in the hospital. Doctors cannot cure her. But guess who can. Right, an herbalist who adds an herbal recipe to Iggy's IV line. She awakens from her coma and immediately leaves the hospital with her husband. That stretches believability.

SERVED HIM RIGHT stresses throughout the qualities of herbs. But the qualities of women are also stressed. I could have done without the minilecture on women's rights to abortion, but, all in all, Unger makes good points. She also does not depend on the magic of herbs but, rather, the actual science involved in using herbs for both good and ill.