The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star

Description

National bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert returns to the small town of Darling, Alabama, in the 1930s-where the ladies of the Darling Dahlias 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 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 be involved with the husband of one of Darling's local ladies? 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... INCLUDES SOUTHERN-STYLE DEPRESSION-ERA RECIPES!

Susan Wittig Albert grew up on a farm in Illinois and earned her Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. A former professor of English and a university administrator and vice president, she is the author of the China Bayles Mysteries, the Darling Dahlias Mysteries, and the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. Some of her recent titles include Widow's Tears, Cat's Claw, The Darling Dahlias and the Confederate Rose, and The Tale of Castle Cottage. She and her husband, Bill, coauthor a series of Victorian-Edwardian mysteries under the name Robin Paige, which includes such titles as Death at Glamis Castle and Death at Whitechapel.

Praise for The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star: "The prolific Albert excels at the period piece, with a gracious plenitude of Southern color and Depression-era detail, and again offers an uplifting meditation on how friends, neighbors, and strangers combined to help each other during America's darkest economic days." -Richmond Times-Dispatch "Charming...[A] winning cozy." -Publishers Weekly