I didn't know about the CCC Camps during the Great Depression. I really enjoyed this book ( )

This last book in the series is structured like the first one, at least in terms of the mystery. The victim was even kinda similar - Rona Jean just wasn't blonde like Bunny Scott was. She's found dead, and its up to the new sheriff to investigate and catch her killer. A lot of the townsfolk suspect that the killer might be one of the Yankees from the CCC camp that's been just up just outside of Darling. Practically every man in town is a suspect, including the young sheriff himself, who was seen canoodling with the victim a couple of months before she was found dead.

The secondary mystery starts with a Mata Hari sending newspaperman Charlie Dickens mysterious messages about Something Big going down at the CCC camp. Not murder big, but fraud big - the spy claims to have evidence of a huge scam that's being run at the camp, but she doesn't want to come forward herself, considering how she got the information she's passing along. Mata Hari is pretty darn clever, about the way she figured out what was going on and in the way she concealed her identity - it's only revealed when she and Charlie are in a rickety old schoolhouse exchanging information and a hurricane blows up from the Gulf and smashes the building to bits. He rescues her, and convinces her to accompany him to see the sheriff about lay out what she knows.

The only downside of this book - and, indeed, the reason why it's a rather deflated end to the series - is that the Dahlias are, at best, secondary characters. Yes, Ophelia is snooping around the camp, and Mata Hari turns out to be one of the Dahlias (as Charlie suspects, as their conversations go on - although it wasn't the Dahlia he thought it was!), but otherwise, the Dahlias barely even feature. This is a story told by Charlie and Buddy Norris, the sheriff. Both are series-long characters (Buddy starts off as the brash young deputy sheriff), but its still a letdown, because Liz Lacy and Verna Tidwell play exactly no part in any of this.

And even when they're mentioned, their storylines are abruptly dropped until the final chapter. Liz is suddenly a budding writer, and she's sent a manuscript off to New York. Maybe 1/3 of the way through the book, she's waiting on pins and needles to find out if it's good enough to publish...and then we don't see her again until the final chapter.

Verna has even less of a role - she's hosting a dinner for her new boyfriend, Alvin Duffy from the previous book, and the CCC commander Lt. Campbell. She asks Liz to come along and charm Campbell so he'll throw more business Darling's way, and then invites the Sheriff to join them - but the dinner is postponed because of the sudden storm, and as far as I can tell, it never actually happens. WTF?? Talk about a plot line that goes nowhere...

The other Dahlias are mentioned in passing. Rona Jean is found in Myra May's car, but only because of the convenience of its location (just outside the door of the telephone exchange). Myra May and Violet, and Fannie Champaign Dickens are caught up in some of Rona Jean's scheming, also are red herrings. Beulah is mentioned in passing, as is Bessie Bloodworth, and that's about it as far as the 13-member-strong garden club goes.

The main mystery is fairly easy to solve, as the clues are laid out with painstaking clarity, but the secondary mystery, of the fraud going on at the CCC camp, does have a bit of a surprise/twist ending.

The other downside of the book is that its left so open-ended. There is no resolution to the UST between Liz and Mr. Moseley (which is what I wanted more of!). It took me way too long to figure out what Fannie Champaign's secret was, mostly because it was explained in a very mundane way in the previous book - a famous French designer buys her hats and sells them on under her own name, sending Fannie the money each hat goes for. That's how she's able to support herself with a seemingly niche business in small-town Alabama.

As a whole, this was a charming little series, very easy and fun to read - cozy mysteries that are definitely on the cotton candy side, as opposed to the dark side. ( )

Exciting murder that keeps you guessing in small town Darling. A real page turner. Latest in the Darling Dahla serious. Fantastic! ( )

Welcome to Darling Alabama in the summer of 1934. It's been a steamy hot summer so far and all the Dahlias are trying to keep cool in the best way they can. Remember, it's 1934, so there is no A/C. Fans and open windows is all they've got. The book opens with a bang when Violet from the Diner stumble across the body of one of her telephone exchange girls in the front seat of her friend Myra May's car. She is in a very uncompromising position with a silk stocking around her neck. Rona Jean Hancock wasn't a "nice" girl. She played fast and loose with a number of men around town and when it's discovered that she had more than her social life to hide, Sheriff Buddy Norris realizes that there is more to this killing than meets the eye. Darling has been doing better since we last visited. A CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) has set up a big camp just outside of town and the young men working in the Corps are making improvements and planting trees all over the County. The CCC was an idea of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was a way to get young, unemployed men out of homes where there was not enough to eat and get them doing Civilian style projects in small towns around the country that needed some help. It brought employment for the locals and most of their supplies and food were bought locally, thus boosting the local economy. It was interesting to read this book because I love the Dahlias, but also because I knew we were going to get a story with Franklin D. Roosevelt and his impressive wife Eleanor. You see Ms. Albert is one of my friends on GoodReads so, as a result, I see what she is reading, and a few months ago there were a lot of books about this power couple and biographies of each of them on her reading now list. I love the way Susan has introduced these two people into this Dahlias book. The CCC movement was won of Roosevelt's better ideas during the Great Depression. Susan has even included an article about the entire history of the CCC movement at the back of the book. It is the way that Susan brings real-life occurrences into her Dahlia books, coupled with the wonderful characters that she has created, that makes this series such a delight for me. ( )

Even if you have never read one of the Darling Dahlias series, you can start by reading THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE ELEVEN O’CLOCK LADY without feeling that you’ll miss anything that came before. It is a stand-alone read that moves quickly, has an interesting plot, and describes life in early summer, 1934 in a small, Alabama city.
When the body of twenty-two-year-old Rona Jean Hancock is found in a car in a local garage, the new sheriff, Buddy Norris, has his first big case to solve. Unlike many more recent novels (and actual cases), the residents are quite open to talking to him about what they know.
A subplot involves some unknown crime being committed in the nearby Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) camp and the attempt by the local newspaper editor to determine the crime as well as find the perpetrator. The editor of the newspaper, the weekly Dispatch, sees these cases as his opportunity to become famous beyond the town’s borders. The paper usually focuses on local stories, e.g., social events, local government news, and local business happenings. The paper , whose motto might be ‘Only the news that’s fit to be read–by your mother’ is popular with the local community, who most likely already knows all the information through the gossip line. But Charlie Dickens, the editor, believes that “Getting the news fast doesn’t guarantee that it’ll be accurate.” Dickens shocks his readers by including a word in the murder story that was not used in a newspaper for the general public.
Susan Wittig Albert includes humor in her writing. About one character she writes, “But Leona Ruth was disagreeable and mean-spirited. She could start a argument all by herself in an empty room....” She describes what Norris finds when he investigates Rona Jean’s room and finds a box of sanitary napkins. Many people today wouldn’t recognize what he is describing but women before the 1970s would. There is also a Recipe for Preserving Children.
One current issue is subtly introduced: A lesbian couple. Albert writes about abortion but doesn’t mention that abortion became illegal because the procedure was dangerous to the life of the woman, not for religious reasons. Once antibiotics and better pre/post natal care became available, there were fewer deaths of women during and shortly after childbirth. She uses the term “unborn baby” though that phrase is much more recent because of a campaign by the anti-abortion movement.
I wondered why a fourteen-going-on-fifteen-year-old girl, described as a bookworm, would be interested in reading Nancy Drew books. They usually appeal to girls somewhat younger. But the series began in 1930 so books about a strong, independent girl would have been novel.
The story contains the rarely heard first verse of “Dixie.” It’s quite a battle cry. It relates that FDR “reforested his family’s depleted land on the Hudson River by planting hundreds of thousands of trees .”
The historical notes at the end depict life after the depression started and a brief but comprehensive history of CCC camps: Why they were established. Who was hired. How the men lived. What they accomplished including benefits for local community as well as the men. Why the program ended.
The book ends with eight recipes and thirteen household tips.
Though there are a couple negatives (There was some unnecessary repetition. It didn’t explain why the Grand Marshall of the Fourth of July Parade was selected only a couple days before the parade.) the book is well-written and fast-paced with more substance than many cozy mysteries offer. ( )