The Darling Dahlias

Cozy mysteries have a long and storied history with settings all over the world and in many different decades. Susan Wittig Albert's The Darling Dahlias and the Eleven O'Clock Lady transports the reader back to 1934. Times were hard in Darling, Alabama, and gardens were not just used to grow pretty flowers. Families subsisted on the vegetables they could produce and sell or trade.

Club president Liz Lacy has always loved the Eleven O'Clocks, a white blossom that opens when the sun shines directly on then, hence the Eleven O'Clock name. But someone in town has that same nickname. Rona Jean Hancock, a telephone switchboard operator, (if your think the NSA intrudes on your privacy, switchboard operators would put them to shame with what they know) earned her nickname because she finished her shift at eleven o'clock in the evening.

Rona Jean is also known for her somewhat wild reputation and when she is found dead in a compromising position, it is up to the Dahlias to discover who her murder is. Meanwhile the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) has set up a work camp on the outskirts of town and there are many strange men employed at the camp. Did one of them find Rona Jean too tempting?

The CCC was a real organization and it is credited with helping struggling people, especially World War I veterans, find meaningful work during the Depression. Throughout the nine-year life of the program nearly three million men worked in 2,600 CCC work camps in every state and territory. The workers planted three billion trees, constructed more than 800 parks nationwide, built dams and fought forest fires. The CCC was responsible for more than half the total public and private reforestation that has been achieved in the nation's entire history.

Oh and the mystery was interesting, too. The first book in the series is The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree