Betsy Barlowe owns and operates Tea Haven, a busy tearoom in the tourist mecca of Calypso Shores, Texas, a town infused with a cast of colorful characters who live and work there. Betsy’s absolute best friend, however, is a Quaker parrot named Ringo, who is her constant companion and also her dream interpreter when she can’t remember the important insights her prescient dreams reveal.

But things are changing for Betsy. First of all, Deputy Jameson Tyne arrives in town and he affects her in ways she doesn’t expect. Secondly, on Jameson’s first day on the job, the Calypso Shores Police Force is faced with the horrific murder of a seventeen-year-old basketball star.

Betsy’s cousin, Mike Canning, also a deputy on the force, has been receiving crime tips from Betsy’s psychic dreams for many years. On the down low, of course. Now those dreams have invaded her waking moments and, at present, they mostly concern the vicious murder of the high school student.

As Jameson and Mike start investigating the murder, they discover an unexpected miasma of revenge. But who could hate a teen enough to kill him in such a brutal way? It’s true that the murdered teen is not an honorable person, so the deputies investigate older spurned girlfriends and new ones, rival teammates, parents who might want vengeance, even teachers and school staff that might bear a grudge.

Without clear clues, however, they face daily frustration, the case only moved forward by Betsy’s enigmatic visions.

Hot Tea and Lemon is primarily a murder mystery but it is also the tale of Betsy’s growing understanding and acceptance of her unique gifts—gifts that she realizes can benefit the people of the small coastal town, even if they sometimes put her in danger.

Once the killer is apprehended, Betsy must deal with Jameson’s growing feelings for her. Though she feels the same, can she trust him to accept her quirky psychic abilities and, of course, her very noisy, very messy parrot, Ringo?