Best Left Buried

By Blanche Day Manos and Barbara Burgess

Darcy Campbell might have expected life in a small Oklahoma town nestled in the beautiful Ozark foothills to be as idyllic as the scenery. That, however, is not what she finds when she returns to her hometown of Levi after the death of her husband.

One autumn morning, Darcy and her mother, Flora Tucker, are enjoying a cup of coffee in their hundred-year old farmhouse when Darcy gets an urgent telephone call. The contractor who is digging the foundation for their new home insists that Darcy drop everything and come to the building site as quickly as she can. He has found a mysterious object deep in a hand-dug well and he needs Darcy's help in retrieving it.

The ancient, crumbling package pulled from the well contains two items that are as shocking as they are inscrutable. In trying to decipher the meaning of these long-buried objects, Darcy and Flora discover a dark secret from their family's past.

A kidnapping, a brush with death, and a stranger's greed add to the mix. The era of World
War I becomes enmeshed with the present day as Darcy and Flora unravel a tangled web of deceit that has ensnared their family.

Volume 3 of the Darcy & Flora cozy mystery series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen-L Publishing
• Release date: Jan 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781942428978

Blanche Day Manos

A descendant of both Cherokee and Irish ancestors, Blanche Day Manos has a love for tradition, history, and the tales that accompany them. A fan of cozy mysteries since childhood, Blanche devours the books of her favorite authors and is always on the lookout for new ones. She has enjoyed success in selling to various periodicals but her first love is mysteries. Her first threesome is the Darcy & Flora Mystery Series: The Cemetery Club, Grave Shift, and Best Left Buried. The first book in the Ned McNeil Mysteries is Moonlight Can Be Murder, and other titles are coming soon in both series. It may seem strange to some that a mild-mannered kindergarten teacher would become an author of cozy mysteries, but it’s actually a good fit. A teacher is a word crafter. So is a writer. A teacher wants the efforts of her labor to have a positive outcome. So does a writer. A teacher prays and hopes that each student has a positive take-away from her work. A writer hopes that for her readers too. A teacher would like each of the children in her classroom to achieve a satisfying life. Although she can’t control that, as a writer she can control the way her books conclude! A native Oklahoman, Blanche has a deep familiarity with the Sooner state, so it’s the logical setting for her books. Her Cherokee heritage and feeling at home in the rural settings of Oklahoma are vividly woven into the background fabric of her books. Welcome to Blanche's world!