A new historical fiction novel from a Missouri author explores the mystery of a catastrophic event that damaged the West Plains community nearly a century ago.
"The Flower Sisters" by St. Louis-based author Michelle Collins Anderson, was released April 23. The 368-page novel is Anderson's first and pays homage to her hometown of West Plains, where she spent the first 17 years of her life.
Published by Kensington Publishing Corp. based in New York, "The Flower Sisters" follows the story of Daisy Flowers, a 15-year-old girl who is to spend the summer of 1978 with her grandmother Rose in the rural town of Possum Flats, Missouri. Rather than working at her grandmother's funeral home, Flowers lands an internship at the daily newspaper "The Picayune." Digging through the newspaper's archives, Flowers begins to learn about a tragic event that happened in Possum Flats 50 years earlier. This event is based on the Bond Dance Hall Explosion that occurred in West Plains on April 13, 1928.
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As she learns more about the explosion, Flowers begins to recognize the names of several individuals who were killed in the incident, including her grandmother's twin Violet. But as Flowers begins to ask questions, of both the community and her grandmother, she is faced with resistance. No one is interested in talking.
With the help of her paperboy friend Joe, Flowers begins to uncover some answers.
"What she finds out is that there are a lot of people in Possum Flats who aren't exactly who or what they appear to be," Anderson told the News-Leader.
A novel 13 years in the works
Despite growing up in West Plains, Anderson said she was unfamiliar with the Bond Dance Hall Explosion until adulthood. In 2011, she received a book from her father called "The West Plains Dance Hall Explosion." Authored by West Plains native Lin Waterhouse, the 160-page nonfiction is considered the first full account of the explosion and its lasting impact on the community.
"I read this book with just total amazement that I could have grown up in a town of that size (West Plains' population was about 12,500 in 2022) and never heard of that event," Anderson said.
Perhaps what caught Anderson's attention the most was that the cause for the explosion had never been identified.
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"The history of the blast was never solved and for a writer, that is just asking to be written," she said.
Around this time, Anderson was completing her master's degree in fiction at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina. During an "off" semester, she began to work on the novel, but it wasn't for several more years, well after she graduated in 2013, that she began to dedicate time to writing. By 2021, she began looking for agents who were interested in helping sell the story.
Pulling inspiration from real life people, experiences
Anderson said she decided to write a historical fiction novel because she was not interested in being responsible for conveying real life details of the event. Rather, she pulled inspiration from those affected by the explosion and her own upbringing in West Plains.
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"One of my good friends from high school ... she lost her great-grandmother in the blast, so she shared that with me. The more we got to talking, I realized that her great-grandmother was a funeral home director in West Plains," Anderson said. "I had read the nonfiction account of the people who'd died and ran across that woman with that profession and I knew I had to incorporate it."
In the book, Anderson's friend's great-grandmother is reflected in the character of Rose, Daisy's grandmother. She is the director of Flowers Funeral Home, which Daisy has no interest in working at during her summer break.
While Daisy isn't a direct translation of Anderson, the author does tie in some of her own life experiences to the character's story, specifically her experiences at The Picayune.
In high school, Anderson interned at the West Plains Daily Quill, West Plains' newspaper, for a summer.
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"I had her doing a lot of the things that I learned how to do, for example, the very first thing you learn is how you write an obituary," Anderson said. "And she is also given a camera and she goes out to take all sorts of pictures, just like I did of prize animals at the county fair and strange vegetables that people found in their gardens. I always got the call to do those things as well."
Ultimately, Anderson said her hope is that "The Flower Sisters" keeps the memory of the Bond Dance Hall Explosion alive and introduces the event to the "wider world."
What was the Bond Dance Hall Explosion?
Branded into West Plains' history, much of the Bond Dance Hall Explosion remains a mystery. On the evening of April 13, 1928, the Bond Dance Hall, located in downtown West Plains, was set ablaze when an explosion erupted from the Wiser Motor Co. garage that was located just below. A total of 39 people died in the explosion, although 20 of them were unidentifiable.
The dance hall was a popular venue in West Plains. It was considered a "central hub for social gatherings, offering a space for dance, music and joyous camaraderie of the town's younger population," according to the West Plains Daily Quill .
The explosion that occurred on April 13, 1928, was anything but expected. In addition to the dance hall and garage, two other nearby brick buildings were destroyed in the explosion.
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At the time, nearly everyone in West Plains was affected by the explosion, whether it was because they lost a relative or close friend or knew someone who did.
Perhaps what is most upsetting about the explosion though is that its cause remains a mystery. According to the West Plains Daily Quill , initial speculations centered around the garage's contents, including old vehicles and gasoline. Despite investigations, a definitive cause has never been determined.
Where can you purchase 'The Flower Sisters'?
Anderson is visiting Springfield twice this month to read from "The Flower Sisters" and sign books:
- 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 16, at Barnes & Noble.
- 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at BookMarx.
If you're unable to attend one of these events and are interested in purchasing a copy of "The Flower Sisters," the novel can be purchased online:
Greta Cross is the trending topics reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretacrossphoto. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com .
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Historical fiction novel 'The Flower Sisters' explores West Plains dance hall explosion
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