From my back list: The Darling Dahlias and the Poinsettia Puzzle

#TheDarlingDahliasAndThePoinsettiaPuzzle #NetGalley

Susan Wittig Albert is one of my favorite traditional mystery authors. I have read and enjoyed every title in her China Bayles series. The first of these was published in 1995 and Wittig Albert still treats readers to new books about her. I highly recommend them.

The Darling Dahlias books are set in the past, unlike the contemporary China Bayles stories. The DDs are a garden club group in the 1930’s south. The Poinsettia novel was the 8th in the series. These can definitely be read out of order in my opinion.

This time the amateur sleuth (busybodies?) are in the Christmas season. Below is the publisher’s description of the novel.

Description

It’s Christmas, 1934, and the citizens of Darling, Alabama, are unwrapping a big package of Christmas puzzles. 

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 and follow a string of clues that lead to a deadly situation at the nearby prison farm.

Once again, NYT best-selling 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.

As can be seen, there is a lot going on here. This is a fun read and I think that readers will enjoy spending time with these characters.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Persevero Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

This title was published in 2018