The Darling Dahlias and the Silver Dollar Bush

July 28, 2014
Set in 1933, Albert’s quietly paced fifth Darling Dahlias cozy (after 2013’s The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star) works better as a portrait of a Depression-era Southern town than as a mystery. When the town’s only bank temporarily closes, a few of the leading citizens of Darling, Ala., devise a plan to print scrip that will keep the local economy going. Some of the ladies of the Darling Dahlias garden club are appalled, but Verna Tidwell sees merit in the scheme and in the new bank vice-president, Alvin Duffy. Meanwhile, Liz Lacy and Fannie Champaign are distracted by romantic problems. Moonshine and a single-minded revenue agent add to Darling’s woes, and a shooting and the disappearance of a satchel of scrip raise alarms. Solving these crimes falls to others, but the Dahlias might have a way to save the town. The authentic historic setting makes up for the lack of tension.

September 1, 2014

The Great Depression is hitting the small town of Darling, AL. Desperate to avoid financial disaster, several upstanding citizens print their own money to help float the community. But when the scrip disappears, they are left wondering: Who made the unauthorized withdrawal? In the fifth series entry (after The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star), the ladies' garden club investigates.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2014
Times are tough in Depression-era Darling, Alabama. Only the two outsidersthe revenuer out to shut down Mickey LeDoux's still near Dead Cow Creek, and Alvin Duffy, the new bank president brought in by the big New Orleans bank that took over the Darling bankseem to have any money. With the bank closed for an audit, Verna Tidwell, treasurer of both the county and the Darling Dahlias, the garden club, doesn't know how she'll make the county payroll. Duffy hatches a scheme to print scrip for Darling residents to use until the bank reopens. But after Charlie Dickens, the newspaper editor, prints the scrip, the satchel he puts it in goes missing. Worse, Elizabeth Lacy's longtime beau, Grady Alexander, is marrying someone elsequickly. The Dahlias band together, as they do, trading small favors, bending the rules, and calling on longtime relationships to bring harmony back to their beloved town. With this fifth in the series, Albert again weaves several threads into a story that is both well-researched historical fiction and a suspenseful mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)