Author Mary Saums will sign Thistle and Twigg, the first book in her new mystery series, Saturday, May 19, from 2-4 p.m., at Page & Palette, 32 S. Section St. in Fairhope.

Thistle and Twigg is set at the edge of Bankhead National Forest in northwest Alabama. Jane Thistle is a widow who has just settled down in Tullulah, after a long and happy life with her husband, a career military officer whose job took them all over the world.

Her new best friend is Phoebe Twigg, also a widow, who has lived in Tullulah all her life. Phoebe is about as different as could be from the worldly and refined Jane Thistle, but her colorful personality and warm, welcoming Southern nature make them quite a team.

The two women, despite their differences in outlook and personality, become close friends.

When they find a dead body in the woods, and Jane’s neighbor, Cal Prewitt, is arrested for murder, they turn detective to exonerate him.

Phoebe’s kitchen is firebombed, and Jane is subjected to eerie happenings in her house. They persevere, despite the threats and prove that two crafty widows are more than a match for bad guys.

Publisher’s Weekly notes, “Saums ably weaves humor, suspense, and a dash of the supernatural in this winning twist on the Southern cozy.”

Saums was born and raised in Decatur, Ala. After college, she worked as a recording engineer in Muscle Shoals on gold and platinum albums by Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Jimmy Buffet, Glenn Frey and others.

Her poetry has won a Tennessee Writers Alliance Award. She is the author of several short stories and three previous novels, Midnight Hour, The Valley of Jewels, and When the Last Magnolia Weep.

Saums lives in Nashville, Tenn.

For more information, call Page & Palette at 928-5295, or visit online at www.pageandpalette.com.