Susan Wittig Albert

As the country struggles through the Great Depression, the Darling Dahlias of Darling, Alabama, are determined to keep their chins up. Their garden club has a clubhouse, a garden, a flag, a weekly column in The Darling Dispatch, and members from across the social spectrum. But when a treasure trove of sterling silver is found buried under the town's famous Cucumber Tree, two of the Dahlias claim it - which leads to some very unladylike behavior.

"The Pecan Springs Enterprise Trilogy: Deadlines, Fault Lines, Firelines. If you're a fan of China Bayles, Ruby Wilcox, and Pecan Springs, Texas, you'll love Susan Wittig Albert's three new novellas, together in a single edition! Prime crime on deadline. DEADLINES: When Pecan Springs Enterprise crime reporter Jessica Nelson gets an anonymous tip about a year-old death that might be murder, she's already facing too many deadlines, so the story is low...

While helping Ruby Wilcox clean up the loft above their shops, China comes upon a box of antique handcrafted lace and old photographs. Following the discovery, she hears a woman humming an old Scottish ballad and smells the delicate scent of lavender.... Soon, strange happenings start to occur in Thyme and Seasons: misplaced items, a ringing bell, and the appearance of lavender sprigs in odd places. When a customer mentions seeing a mysterious woman...

"China Bayles fears for her husband's life as an escaped convict targets him ... Max Mantel, the killer McQuaid put away years ago, has busted out of Huntsville Prison and appears to be headed for Pecan Springs. McQuaid knows there's only one way to stop the vengeful convict--set a trap with himself as bait. China wants to stay by her husband's side and keep him from harm. But McQuaid insists that she get out of town and go to the Last Chance Olive...

It's Labor Day weekend, 1935, and members of the Darling Dahlias--the garden club in little Darling, Alabama--are trying to keep their cool at the end of a sizzling summer. This isn't easy, though, since there's a firebug on the loose in Darling. He--or she!--strikes without apparent rhyme or reason, and things have gotten to the point where nobody feels safe. What's more, a dangerous hurricane is poised to hurl itself in Darling's direction, while...

"From Susan Wittig Albert, the New York Times bestselling author of A Plain Vanilla Murder, comes a tightly crafted novel that juxtaposes the disappearance of a rare, remarkably illustrated 18th-century herbal with the true and all-too-human story of its gifted creator, Elizabeth Blackwell. Herbalist China Bayles' latest adventure takes her to the mountains of North Carolina, where her friend Dorothea Harper serves as the director and curator of the...

While her friend Ruby - who has the gift of extrasensory perception - investigates a supposedly haunted bed and breakfast, China Bayles walks into a storm of trouble in nearby Pecan Springs. Thirty minutes before she is to make her nightly deposit, the bank is robbed and a teller is killed. And before she can discover the identity of the killer, China is drawn into the mystery of the haunted house - and some real danger.

Set during the chaotic years of World War II, tells the story of the conflicted relationship between General Dwight Eisenhower and Kay Summersby, his Irish driver/aide, and the impact of that relationship on Mamie Eisenhower and her life in Washington during the war. During World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower's wife Mamie knew the gossip: Ike was involved with another woman; his letters home were only tepidly reassuring. The relationship between...

Rumors are sprouting in Depression-era Darling, Alabama. The town's newest visitors, Nona Jean Jamison and Miss Lake, may be the Naughty and Nice Sisters from the Ziegfeld Frolic, who specialize in dancing nearly naked. The Dahlias suspect more than modesty when Nona denies her association.

When Beatrix Potter returns to her new hometown of Sawrey after some time away, she finds the village threatened by a mysterious outsider who plans to destroy the pristine shoreline of Lake Windermere by constructing a number of villas.