The Darling Dahlias and The Naked Ladies

By Susan Wittig Albert

Hardcover, 288 pages, $25.95

There’s something to be said about reading a book that makes me want to wrap my arms around it and say “Aaah.” The Darling Dahlia series does this for me. The covers are beautiful, the characters are delightful, and the writing is as crisp as biting into a fall apple.

So, don’t let the title fool you -- as it did me. Naked Ladies are actually a variety of lily that just appear.

“And even though nothing very big or exciting even happens in Darling, there were always lots of little things going on, surprising crises that poked up unexpectedly out of the serene surface of the day like … well, like those lilies, those Naked Ladies shooting suddenly up out of the grass when you had absolutely no idea there were there and dazzling you with their astonishing blooms.”

This series, set in Alabama in during The Depression, will sweep you back in time when things were oh-so-much simpler.

“We keep our faces to the sun so we can’t see the shadows, which is why we plant sunflowers and marigolds and cosmos in amongst the collards and sweet potatoes and okra in our gardens.”

And because beauty was important. “Vegetables could provide a feast for the table but flowers were a feast for the soul.”

The Darling Dahlias, a gardening club, don’t miss much when it involves the comings and goings of folk in Darling, and when two new female faces arrive on Camellia Street — the one with the Naked Ladies in front — and move into Miss Harmer’s place, well, tongues begin wagging.

It turns out the pair are a Vaudeville Act, but they are keeping their identities hidden... almost as if they are running for the law.

And, since not all that much exciting happens in Darling, the newcomers’ arrival is the talk of the town. And it brings with it an unsavory character. Frankie Diamond looked for all the world like one of Mr. Hoover’s special agents.

You’ll adore the Dalhias — especially if you live in the country — because these folks might remind you of your neighbors.

Besides, don’t you sometimes feel like “a wispy gray cloud on an otherwise sunshiny day?”

There’s Verna, “who always said that if she stubbed her toe on a rock, she was compelled to look under it, to see what was hiding there.”

There’s Lizzy, who finally got up the gumption to buy her own house and move out from under the prying eyes of her mother, but who may wind up right back where she started from… except this time, with her mother under her roof.

“Lizzy was always awakened at sunrise by the lusty crowing of Mrs. Freeman’s rooster, who lived in a backyard coop two doors down and celebrated the morning with an extravagant delight.”

Or Leona Ruth, who was “constitutionally unable to keep a secret.”

Or, it might give you the idea to head outside and gaze at the sky in delight.

“But tonight there was a moon, nearly full, hanging like a huge silver coin in the eastern sky, turning the silent street into a moving tapestry of lights and shadows. There wasn’t a sound except for the distant sputtering of an automobile and the sharp yap-yap-yapping of a small dog, somewhere a little closer.”

“The Darling Dahlias and The Cucumber Tree,” the first in this new delightful series by national bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert, was my number one favorite book of the year last year. This one is just as good. Cue up the third, please. And quickly.

Lisa Allmendinger is a regional reporter for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. In addition, each Wednesday she reviews a cozy mystery in her column called “Cozy Corner.”