On my Facebook page yesterday, I mentioned that I had completed my third Darcy/Flora, mother/daughter/sleuth book. Will I write a fourth? I don’t know. I’ve been mulling over another series, but we’ll see. Anyway, what a feeling of sadness descended upon me as I finished re-reading and editing that last page! I tied up the loose ends with a conversation between Grant and Darcy. The mysterious object found in the first chapter has been explained; the reason for its being where it was, the family secret it brought to light, all have been resolved. True to the first two Darcy/Flora books, The Cemetery Club and Grave Shift, in this book, Darcy and Flora find themselves in a heap of trouble. As the story builds to a climax, their lives are very nearly snuffed out like a…well, like a kerosene lantern being blown out with a puff of someone’s breath. (There! That was a clue that there’s a lantern in this third book). And, I believe the ending will satisfy Darcy and Flora followers. The book has a few surprises and these two ladies, Darcy and Flora, have surprised me a bit too at their actions and reactions. Oh, well! All’s well that ends well. Right?
Only thing is, I now feel lonely. The people who live in Levi, Oklahoma, have left me: Pat Harris, Flora’s lifelong friend and Pat’s son Jasper; Jim Clendon, who is Grant’s deputy and not one of Darcy’s favorite people; Burke Hopkins, who lives out of town in a small frame house and has a flock of chickens and two dogs;the lawyer Jackson Conner, very special to Flora; and of course, Sheriff Grant Hendley. These are people co-author Barbara Burgess and I introduced in the first books and kept in this book. The third book has some new people traveling the streets and roads of Levi and Ventris County. There’s Eileen Simmons, and the very elderly Jenkins twins and several others who play a part in the mystery surrounding Darcy Campbell and Flora Tucker.
Levi, Oklahoma, is a place anybody who enjoys a rural setting would like to visit. Levi is tucked between gentle hills. The Ventris River runs near-by, clear and free-flowing. Everything is peaceful on the surface but beneath the surface swirl some pretty dark secrets, and that’s where Darcy and Flora come in. They have taken me with them into Flora’s cozy kitchen with the hundred-year-old dining table and the old yellow coffee pot. I have followed them down Deeertrack Hill and to the Ventris River. I have gone with them into Dilly’s Cafe and walked with Darcy to the lonely and dangerous Spirit Leap. I have shivered with them as they braved snow and sleet in one of Oklahoma’s coldest winters and now it is time to leave them there in Levi. I have a feeling that they have every intention of living a quiet, peaceful life, but I’m not sure either Darcy or Flora will succeed at that. Will I ever know whether they do or not? Only time will tell.
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