The Dahlias are members of a garden club in Darling, Alabama. It’s the 1930s, the stock market crash is still reverberating across America, and there are dark days and hard times ahead for everybody.
But the Dahlias are doing their best to face the future with optimism while they make do with what they have, enjoy their friends, and brighten their little town with flowers. Join them as they get to the root of a few mysteries.
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 . . .
Spring, 1935 finds the little Alabama town of Darling excited about their new local radio station, WDAR—and about what happened at the Magnolia Manor. And if that’s not enough to keep the tongues wagging, there’s more. Will the ladies at the new bakery ever learn to bake bread? What’s happening in Liz Lacy’s love life? 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?
It’s Christmas, 1934, and Darling, Alabama, is unwrapping a package of Christmas puzzles. Will the new bakery survive? Will Charlie Dickens learn his wife’s secret? Will the sheriff find out what’s brewing at the prison farm? But Darling folk have courage, respect for their neighbors, and dream of doing their best. There’s nothing puzzling about that!
When the Lucky Four Clovers run into a string of bad luck, it looks like the music may have ended for Darling’s favorite barbershop quartet. And while liquor is legal again, moonshine isn’t, And as Sheriff Buddy Norris discovers when he confront Cypress County’s most notorious bootlegger, it helps to have a little luck in your pocket.
The Eleven O’Clock Lady ain’t no lady—at least, that’s what Sheriff Buddy Norris and the Darling Dahlias suspect. When she’s found strangled with her own silk stocking, the roots of the murder seem to twist around everything else in Darling, threatening the uneasy relationship between the town and the new CCC camp.
Moonshine and money. Two big problems are vexing Darling, Alabama, while troubles of the heart plague Verna Tidwell and Liz Lacy. Seems like 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.
The Texas Star herself—Miss Lily Dare, famous aviatrix and 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 Miss Dare with her own Texas Star hibiscus—rumors are…well, flying.
The Dahlias (the premiere garden club of little Darling, Alabama) are at it again, trying to solve a whole bouquet of mysteries. Verna’s in a terrible jam over money missing from the county treasury, Beulah must find out why Angelina Biggs’ hair is falling out, and Bessie is trying to solve the puzzle of Miss Rogers’ real identity. Just who is the Confederate Rose?
The Darling hometown ladies (Liz, Verna, Bessie, and Myra Mae) meet Miss Lorelei LaMotte, the famous Ziegfeld Frolics dancer–in disguise. She is followed by a mysterious member of the notorious Al Capone’s gang. It looks like big-city crime is about to invade little Darling—and not even the indomitable Dahlias can stop it!
The 1930s are tough, but the ladies of the Dahlias Garden Club of Darling, Alabama, are determined to keep their chins up, their families fed, and their town beautiful. But before long, they find themselves searching for a buried treasure, an escaped prisoner, a stolen car, and clues to the mysterious death of Bunny Scott.
