New Smyrna Beach Is About To Be Hit By An Unnatural Disaster. The DAFFODILS Are Back! Penny Sue, Ruthie and Leigh-the DAFFODILS* (*Divorced And Finally Free Of Deceitful, Insensitive, Licentious Scum)-are Southern belles with attitudes and a knack for getting into trouble. Whenever these three middle-aged sorority sisters get together chaos is sure to descend on the quaint seaside town of New Smyrna Beach. And it's no different for the Founder's Day celebration where the featured event is a debate on which Florida city was discovered first-New Smyrna or St. Augustine. The New Smyrna advocate is Penny Sue's cousin Kevin, a renowned historian, and the opponent is his former lover, Abby, an award-winning Central Florida expert. With real estate/tourism money at stake and bets flying, you have the frenzy of a horse race and the ingredients for murder. How could a debate turn into a brawl? How does one of the scholars end up dead in the library stacks? Make no mistake, these fine Southern ladies are not the cause of all the trouble, bedlam just seems to follow them. But this debate is no game and the DAFFODILS must find the murderer before someone else is pushing up daisies. DAFFODILS* turns to TULIPS* (*Totally, Utterly Living In Perpetual Satire) When this certain group of Southern women gets together, there always seems to be a murder--and as unfunny as murder sounds, author Mary Clay will have you rolling in the floor laughing--between trips to your liquor cabinet--as her mostly zany but likable characters go about living, drinking and solving the "crime," in which they all are directly or indirectly involved. In her most recent novel, "Murder in the Stacks," Clay spins her tale in New Smyrna Beach. Florida, where a controversy continues with history and archaeology experts over the timing of colonial establishments in St. Augustine and New Smyrna in the 1700s. A much anticipated debate on the subject at the New Smyrna library one night turns into an argument, then a melee. The meeting AND the library are evacuated and shut down. Word soon gets out that two people are found dead in the library. That's when Clay's characters--primary are friends and former college chums Penny Sue, Ruthie and Leigh, who are now of a "certain age"--get to work: first, to determine the causes of death; then to unravel a complex set of seemingly unrelated facts that involve everything from past romances to home security systems, the New Jersey mafia, a women's investment club, book returns at the library and good old-fashioned detective work. "Murder in the Stacks" is a fun summer read and will provide a good mental workout in crime solving. Grab yourself a copy--and a cocktail. -- Karen Gallagher, Books Editor, Daytona Beach News-Journal, April 20, 2011 The DAFFODILS® now have their own blog to keep you up to date on their "between-the-books" goings-on. The blog is displayed on Mary Clay's Amazon page and is also available by email through Mary Clay's web site. An economist by training, and a novelist by choice, Linda Tuck-Jenkins, a.k.a Mary Clay, returned to her childhood love--writing--in her mid-40s. Her first book, Starpeople: The Sirian Redemption was First Runner-Up for Best New Age Fiction of 2001 and a Finalist for the 2002 IPPY Prize for Visionary Fiction. Convinced the ocean would enhance her creativity, Tuck-Jenkins twisted her husband's arm into moving to New Smyrna Beach, which is the setting for the wildly successful DAFFODILS* Mystery Series. (*Divorced And Finally Free of Deceitful, Insensitive, Licentious Scum) Called "Witty and hilarious" by Midwest Book Review, and "A fun read" by Southern Halifax Magazine, The Turtle Mound Murder-first book in the series-is already in its fifth printing. According to Harriet Klausner, Amazon's #1 Reviewer, Bike Week Blues (second book is the series), "...is one of the funniest capers this reviewer has had the privilege of reading." The third book in the trilogy has been hailed as "a triumph." The beginning of a new trilogy, Murder in the Stacks, was released in 2010.  TV/Movie rights for the series are optioned. Used Book in Good Condition