Publication Date: March 3, 2026
A charming, edgy mystery about a young woman who unexpectedly inherits the best little motel in Texas – replete with a feisty set of golden working girls, a poisoned priest, and a sleepy hometown thrown into chaos.
After a childhood spent combing the dive bars of Sarsaparilla Falls to collect her fun-loving momma, Cordelia West now enjoys a simple, respectable life in Dallas. Then one phone call from the hometown she’s spent years trying to forget throws it into chaos.
Cordelia’s great-aunt Penelope has passed away, naming Cordelia the sole heir to the Chickadee Motel. She has no memory of a great-aunt and no interest in hospitality, but the will stipulates that the motel can’t be sold until its residents leave or pass away – so she reluctantly heads back down to Sarsaparilla Falls to figure out who’s living in the Chickadee, and how to get them out.
But upon her arrival, Cordelia discovers the Chickadee isn’t a motel—it’s a brothel, housing three women in their sixties known as the Chicks. For decades, Daisy, Arline, and Belinda Sue have entertained the men of Sarsaparilla Falls (with their wives’ blessings)—including the upright Pastor Reed-Smythe, who thunders against the town’s favorite sins when he’s not indulging. Cordelia doesn’t want to be a hotel manager or a madam, but she can’t just sell the only home the Chicks have known—especially not after the pastor is found poisoned in Daisy’s bed.
With the Chicks—and the town—on the verge of a breakdown, Cordelia steps up to mop up the mess. For a small town, there are plenty of suspects: could it be the obsessed nurse with access to arsenic? Developers eager to gobble up the land? The righteously angry town librarian? Things are heating up in Sarsaparilla Falls, and with the Pastor’s obnoxiously attractive son Archer—Cordelia’s childhood nemesis—investigating the Chicks and getting close, straightlaced Cordelia may just have to get a little dirty to make a killer come clean.
The last thing Cordelia West wants is to go back to her hometown of Sarsaparilla Falls, but inheriting the Chickadee Motel warrants a visit.
And what a visit it is! Author Lyla Lane delivers a side-splitting comedy packed with a mystery and romance in The Best Little Motel in Texas.
Cordelia is as proper as her name, preferring order over chaos. Perhaps that is why she’s rather taken aback at being referred to as the new “madam.” And then she meets the three senior residents, who provide a community service of sorts, giving her a fresh perspective.
If that shock isn’t enough to send her packing to Dallas, then the appearance of her childhood nemesis, Archer Reed-Smythe, will be. He’s done a lot of growing up and certainly makes Cordelia’s heart race.
To add some drama to the mix, the Chickadees become involved in an investigation when the local pastor is found dead. Cordelia spearheads an effort to find the real culprit, only to stumble on a sinister plan.
Things turn topsy-turvy, especially when Cordelia’s renegade mama comes to town. Poor Cordelia gets swept up in a maelstrom of emotion as she battles her attraction to Archer with her desire to protect the Chickadees.
I came for the interesting plot, but stayed for the fascinating characters who stole my heart. What a beautiful story!
The Best Little Motel in Texas delivers senior sleuths in spandex and a motel owner trying to maintain bit of respectability…until the next mystery.
Lyla Lane is a pen name for Sonia Hartl, author of the romcoms Rent to Be and Heartbreak for Hire, which has been optioned for television, as well as the YA novels Not Your #Lovestory, Have a Little Faith in Me, and The Lost Girls, also optioned for television. She lives in Grand Rapids with her husband and two daughters.
