There are two main storylines here: Miss Rogers and her mysterious embroidered pillow, and Verna Tidwell being accused of stealing $15,000 from the county treasury. The obvious mystery is Miss Rogers and her connection to the Confederate Rose, a Civil War-era spy. It's practically given away in the dedication of the book, so I don't feel bad about spoiling it here. Even knowing what was coming, though, it was a pleasant read - and learning about the Confederate Rose was pretty cool, too. Nobody suspected a woman spy, sending her encrypted messages through other women. Pretty ingenious, and a celebration of female ingenuity, much as the present-day series celebrates the cleverness of the Darling Dahlias. I'm a big fan of this series for those reasons: its the ladies solving the mysteries, and relying on their own smarts and their own connections to do it.

There is a pattern emerging through these books - aside from the main characters of Liz Lacy and Verna Tidwell (along with strong secondary characters Myra May Mosswell and Ophelia Snow), the subplots focus on other Dahlias. Bessie Bloodworth got this treatment in "Naked Ladies," and Miss Dorothy Rogers gets the spotlight in this book. It's very gentle and subtle, and it just feels like we're getting to know the other club members one at a time. I'm curious to see who's spotlighted in the remaining 3 books =)

The other mystery, surrounding Verna being sucked into an embezzlement probe, is not-so-obvious (at least not to me). Earle Scroggins, the probate clerk, is appointed county treasurer when the original man dies suddenly. Everybody knows that Verna Tidwell actually runs his super-tight ship, so she takes on twice the responsibility when he inherits the office. It's obvious from the start that someone's trying to frame her, but who? And why? Verna is a straight shooter with a good eye for a person's character, who can keep her mouth shut when need be but who is also as honest as the day is long. She's a tough cookie, and it would take a lot to bring her down. When she is told that she's being furloughed in favor of her flighty coworker at the probate office, she is outraged - and scared. She turns to her best friend, Lizzy Lacy, and the two of them decide to get to the bottom of things.

Lucky for them that Myra May and Violet are also Dahlias, because they play a big role in Verna's investigation - as does Charlie Dickens, the local newspaper editor. He was an investigative reporter before returning to his hometown to take over the paper from his dying father, and he still has a nose for news. Charlie catches Verna in the courthouse after midnight, and she agrees to show him a few of her cards. Charlie has an internal source at the treasury office and has been running editorials questioning some of the decisions being made. Together, they put together all of the pieces of the puzzle and figure out what's going on.

It's a great read, to me, especially because the ladies are the impetus behind the investigation. They have to decide whether they can trust Verna's flighty coworker to help them, when she has plenty of reasons herself for needing the mysteriously vanished money. Verna is a hard-boiled detective fiction nut, and she brings a rather reluctant Lizzy in on her plans, which is rather dangerous, especially when Mr. Moseley, the lawyer Lizzy works for, is out of town on business and can't provide any legal guidance as he had in the previous novels. But the ladies hatch a plan, and pull it off with the help of their fellow Dahlias.

Secondary subplots include Ophelia having to get a job to pay off some crazy expensive furniture (she gets a job at the newspaper, operating the Linotype machine) and local hotel manager Angelina Biggs going crazy from her diet pills.

The only part of the book that I didn't really like was the whole Confederate Day celebration. Ugh, I can't imagine how the black people must've felt during this celebration of all things slavery. Mercifully, it was just a couple of pages which can be easily skipped on the next read-through. I could've done without it at all, but I guess the author had to tie in the whole Confederate Rose storyline, too. ( )

I found this very enjoyable. I felt one of the culprits was very obvious. I had never heard the story of Rose O'Neal Greenhow before. ( )

Light reading. Include among the cozies. ( )

This is the third book in The Darling Dahlias series by Susan Wittig Albert. I love all of Albert's series'. I like that they are all set in different time periods and have such wonderful characters and she is a fantastic story teller.

The Darling Dahlias takes place during the depression in Darling, Alabama, a delightful small community.

The Darling Dahlias Garden Club had inherited a Victorian house from Dahlia Blackstone and they are still busy bringing it back to it's original beauty. The have a nice vegetable garden that provides the members with fresh vegetables, with enough left over to sell at the farmers market on Saturdays. The are also busy, right now, propagating the Confederate Rose, which Miss Rogers is quick to point out, is really a Hibiscus mutabilis, which they plan to plant around the cemetery to honor the Confederate soldiers that buried there.

But really concerns them at this time is that Verna Tidwell, manager of the office of the County probate clerk and treasurer, has been asked to take a leave of absence. The state auditors have done an audit of the counties treasure's accounts and have found that $15,000 is missing. The previous treasurer recently passed away and his death was called from natural causes. But the word also going around is that he had had alcohol and being as he was a teetotaler, this is thought to be suspicious. The ladies of the garden club aren't sure who they can trust, so set off to get to the bottom of the story and save Verna's reputation.

And other reputation that are being, possibly, ruined would be Beulah Trivette. Beulah owns Beulah's Beauty Bower, the premier beauty salon in Darling. It seems that Angelina Biggs, whose husband manages the hotel in town, has been on a terror lately. She thinks her husband is having an affair. She stops in at Beulah for her regular hair appointment. As Beulah is washing her hair, she notices that her hair is coming out in clumps. Angelina runs out of the shop threatening to ruin Beulah and her shop.

There's never a dull moment in Darling. This series is a good way to get an understanding of how people lived in a very different time than we are are currently living.

I'm really looking forward to read the next adventures of Darling Dahlia's. ( )

Wonderful book but the author has too many characters--if you aren't going to develop them all leave them out. Charming story all in all. ( )