Darling Dahlias

Nominated for both the Agatha and Anthony awards, national best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert introduces a garden club of lady sleuths in Depression-era Alabama. The Darling Dahlias have just inherited a new clubhouse and garden, complete with two beautiful cucumber trees. But before long, these genteel ladies must unravel the mystery about what's buried beneath one of these trees and the enigma of the dead body that soon turns up.

As Darling's town librarian is fond of saying: "Naked Ladies is not a respectable name for a plant." A lily by any other name would certainly smell as sweet-and look just as beautiful as the Naked Ladies decorating Miss Hamer's lawn. It seems Miss Hamer's house may also be home to naked ladies of a different sort. Rumors sprout that the elderly recluse's visiting niece and her friend are actually the Naughty and Nice Sisters from the Ziegfield Frolic, known for dancing nearly naked. When a well-dressed man from Chicago arrives, asking about the mysterious ladies, the Dahlias begin to suspect it may be more than modesty that's causing both women to lie low. Someone is covering up something sinister.

Best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert offers this third charming mystery set in the Depression-era town of Darling, Alabama. In the wake of the upcoming Confederate Day celebration, the Dahlias set out to solve a rash of mysterious occurrences. They' re ready to tackle the secret code embroidered on a family heirloom and suss out why one local resident is acting quite strange -- yet nothing prepares them for one of their own being accused of stealing county funds.

National bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert returns to the small town of Darling, Alabama, in the 1930s-- where the Darling Dahlias, the colorful ladies of a garden club, are anything but shrinking violets when it comes to rooting out criminals The Texas Star herself-- Miss Lily Dare, the " fastest woman in the world"-- is bringing her Dare Devils Flying Circus to Darling. Unfortunately, she’s also bringing a whole lot of trouble. As the Dahlias prepare for the annual Watermelon Festival-- where they will present the famous female aviatrix with her own Texas Star hibiscus-- rumors are flying. Dahlias president Liz Lacy learns from newspaperman Charlie Dickens that Miss Dare has been threatened and her plane sabotaged. Apparently the bold and beautiful barnstormer has made plenty of enemies. And is it possible she may even be involved with the husband of one of Darling’s local ladies? And speaking of wings, the new cook at Myra May’s Darling Diner can fry a chicken and whip up a sweet potato meringue pie like nobody’s business. But why is she keeping her past such a mystery? As the Texas Star barnstorms into town, Liz and Verna Tidwell offer to help bring down a saboteur who may be propelled by revenge. Before it' s all over, there will be plenty of black eyes and dark secrets revealed

National bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert takes readers back in time to small-town Darling, Alabama, in the 1930s-where the Darling Savings and Trust has just closed and the women of the Darling Dahlias' garden club are betting their bottom dollar there's going to be trouble . It's the spring of 1933 and times are tough all over. The only businessman not struggling is moonshiner Mickey LeDoux, though he still has to steer clear of federal agents. But banks are closing all over the country, and the small town of Darling is no exception. Folks are suddenly caught short on cash and everyone is in a panic. Desperate to avoid disaster, several town leaders-including Alvin Duffy, the bank's new vice president-hatch a plan to print Darling Dollars on newspaperman Charlie Dickens' printing press. The "funny money" can serve as temporary currency so the town can function. But when the first printing of the scrip disappears, the Darling Dahlias set out to discover who made an unauthorized withdrawal. Meanwhile County Treasurer Verna Tidwell questions whether she can trust Alvin Duffy-and the feelings he stirs up inside her. And Liz Lacy learns her longtime beau may be forced into a shotgun wedding. Seems other troubles don't just go away when there's a crisis. There'll be no pennies from heaven, but if anyone can balance things out, folks can bank on the Darling Dahlias.

Bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert transports readers to the summer of 1934, when a sensational murder shakes up the small Southern town of Darling, Alabama-and pulls in the ladies of the Darling Dahlias' garden club, who never let the grass grow under their feet when there's a mystery to solve . The eleven o'clock lady has always been one of garden club president Liz Lacy's favorite spring wildflowers. The plant is so named because the white blossoms don't open until the sun shines directly on them and wakes them up. But another Eleven O'Clock Lady is never going to wake up again. Rona Jean Hancock-a telephone switchboard operator who earned her nickname because her shift ended at eleven, when her nightlife was just beginning-has been found strangled with her own silk stocking in a very unladylike position. Gossip sprouts like weeds in a small town, and Rona Jean's somewhat wild reputation is the topic of much speculation regarding who might have killed her. As the Darling Dahlias begin to sort through Rona Jean's private affairs, it appears there may be a connection to some skullduggery at the local Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Working at the camp, garden club vice president Ophelia Snow digs around to expose the truth . before a killer pulls up stakes and gets away with murder.

It looks like the music has ended for Darling's favorite barbershop quartet, the Lucky Four Clovers, just days before the Dixie Regional Barbershop Competition. Another unlucky break comes when there's a serious foul-up in Darling's telephone system-and not a penny for repairs. And while liquor is legal again, moonshine isn't. Sheriff Buddy Norris needs a little luck when he goes into Briar Swamp to confront Cypress County's most notorious bootlegger-and what he finds upends his sense of justice. In the seventh book of this popular series, Susan Wittig Albert once again tells a charming story filled with richly human characters who face the Great Depression with courage and grace. She reminds us that friends offer the best of themselves to each other, that community is what holds us together, and that luck is what you make of it.

Mildred Kilgore and Earlynne Biddle are planning to open a bakery on the square-if they can come up with the right recipes. Charlie Dickens faces two of the biggest puzzles of his career as an investigative reporter, and one of them involves his wife. Cute little Cupcake's talent as a singer and dancer makes her a tempting target for an unscrupulous exploiter. Lizzy must enlist the Dahlias to protect her while she herself is confronted by a romantic puzzle. And Sheriff Norris is forced to reopen a puzzling mystery that the town thought was solved. Once again, New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert takes us to a place where real people have courage, respect their neighbors, and dream of doing their best, even when they're not sure what that is. She reminds us that Christmas is a celebration of friendship, community, and what's right with the world. There's nothing puzzling about that. Reading group questions, recipes, and Depression-era background are available at DarlingDahlias.com.

Spring, 1935 finds the little Alabama town of Darling excited about their new local radio station, WDAR. But there are problems brewing at the newspaper, where a trio of new hires causes headaches for editor Charlie Dickens. That's not the worst of it, though, as the Dahlias discover when the newest resident at Bessie Bloodworth's Magnolia Manor is found dead. She had overindulged in a large and very rich chocolate cake-but was something else baked into that cake? If so, one of the Dahlias is likely to find herself at the top of Sheriff Buddy Norris' suspect list. That would give Darling something to gossip about! And there's plenty more to keep the tongues wagging. Will the ladies at the new bakery ever learn to bake bread? What's happening in Liz Lacy's love life? Will her new book be a success? And can Voodoo Lil's special brand of magic keep Violet Sims from taking Cupcake off to Hollywood to become a Shirley Temple look-alike? But amid all these mysteries, one thing's for certain: the Darling Dahlias just keep growing.

It's Labor Day weekend, 1935, and members of the Darling Dahlias - the garden club in little Darling, Alabama - are trying to keep their cool at the end of a sizzling summer. This isn't easy, though, since there's a firebug on the loose in Darling. He - or she! - strikes without apparent rhyme or reason, and things have gotten to the point where nobody feels safe. What's more, a dangerous hurricane is poised to hurl itself in Darling's direction, while a hurricane of a different sort is making a whirlwind campaign stop: the much-loved much-hated senator from Louisiana, Huey P. Long, whom President Roosevelt calls the "most dangerous man in America." Add Ophelia Snow's secret heartthrob, Liz Lacy's Yankee lover, and the Magnolia Ladies’ Garden of red-hot pokers, fire-red salvia, and hot pink cosmos, and you have a volatile mix that might just burst into flames at any moment.