The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star by Susan Wittig Albert

The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star by Susan Wittig Albert ISBN-13: 9780425260593 Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: September 3, 2013

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
The ladies of the Darling Dahlias garden club are anything but shrinking violets when it comes to rooting out criminals…

The Texas Star herself—Miss Lily Dare, the “fastest woman in the world”—is bringing her Dare Devils Flying Circus to Darling. She’s also bringing a whole lot of trouble. Dahlias president Liz Lacy learns that Miss Dare has been threatened and her plane sabotaged. Apparently the bold and beautiful barnstormer has made plenty of enemies. And is it possible she may be involved with the husband of one of Darling’s local ladies?


My Review:
The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star is a historical mystery set in the summer of 1932 in Alabama. It's the fourth book in the series, but you don't have to read the previous novels to understand this one. This novel did not spoil the whodunits of the previous novels.

The historical details were woven into the story without slowing the pacing. The interesting and enjoyable characters and the historical details brought the story alive in my imagination. The mystery was a clue-based puzzle mystery. It's about sabotage, not murder, which was a refreshing change from most mysteries. Whodunit was pretty easy for me to guess, but the other details of the story kept me reading.

There were no sex scenes. There was occasional use of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable historical mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.