“The author of the popular China Bayles mysteries brings a small Southern town to life and vividly captures an era and culture—the Depression, segregation, class differences, the role of women in the South—with authentic period details. Her book fairly sizzles with the strength of the women of Darling.”
—Library Journal Starred Review
Rumors are sprouting in Depression-era Darling, Alabama. The town’s newest visitors, Nona Jean Jamison and Miss Lake, may be the Naughty and Nice Sisters from the Ziegfeld Frolics, who specialize in dancing (gasp!) nearly naked.
And on their heels comes a mysterious man from Cicero, Illinois, home base for the notorious gangster, Al Capone. Can Nona Jean Jamison have anything to do with the infamous criminal behind the bloody Valentine’s Day Massacre?
Other mysteries confront the Dahlias. Bessie Bloodworth was once engaged to Miss Hamer’s younger brother, who jilted Bessie and disappeared. Why? What happened to him? Why didn’t he ever get in touch with Bessie or with his sister? And what is Lizzy going to do about her mother, whose house is about to be repossessed by that evil banker, Mr. George E. Pickett Johnson? And how will Myra May Mosswell cope with the loss if her friend and partner Violet Sims decides to stay in Memphis and take care of her dead sister’s baby? And how can anybody practice for the annual Talent Show if bullets start whizzing through the air?
You can’t blame the Darling folk for fearing that big-city crime has invaded their dear little town. And that not even the indomitable Dahlias can stop it!
Read Chapter 1 – The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies
Praise for The Darling Dahlias
“The author of the popular China Bayles mysteries brings a small Southern town to life and vividly captures an era and culture—the Depression, segregation, class differences, the role of women in the South—with authentic period details. Her book fairly sizzles with the strength of the women of Darling.”
—Library Journal Starred Review
“Colorful characters and evocative period details will keep cozy fans absorbed.”—Publishers Weekly
“As always in any of Susan Wittig Albert’s series, the reader feels transplanted in time and place as the meticulous interwoven tidbits bring the 1930s to life.”—The Mystery Gazette
“This sweet book captures the true tone of a small town.”
—Times-Picayune, New Orleans
“Excellent timely regional Depression Era mystery that brings to life the atmosphere of a period in which people are concerned over the economy that has left no chicken in almost any pot.”
—Follow The Clue
