Description:

**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… **Includes Southern-Style Depression-Era Recipes!** ** ### From Booklist Veteran series author Albert, known also as half of the Robin Paige writing team, shows her superb research techniques by bringing readers into Depression-era Alabama. The Darling Dahlias garden club is in charge of the Watermelon Festival, including coordinating Lily Dares stunt flying show. The diner loses a cook and gains the mysterious Raylene, whose secrets provide the biggest shocks in the book. Liz and Verna try to help recurring character Mildred by staying at her house with Lily, who was having an affair with Mildred’s husband and may have shaken down the husband for money. There is no murder in this story, but no one will miss it among the fascinating details of life in the Depression and intrigues among both series regulars and visitors to the town. Remedies and recipes of the time add interest as readers will see how people make do with less, Depression-style. --Amy Alessio ### Review **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 *