THE FLOWER SISTERS is set in a small Missouri town in 1978 (though it starts in 1928 and flashes back) and is based on a tragedy that actually happened in Anderson's hometown which to this day remains unsolved. In the novel, 15-year-old Daisy Flowers is left off with her grandmother for the summer of 1978, and the young girl struggles to find anything to like about her situation until she finds a gig at the local newspaper. While doing some research in the paper's archives, she follows a story back to 1928 when a dance hall explosion killed dozens of young people in the town – including her grandmother's sister, Violet. As Daisy digs to uncover the truth of what happened, she brings to life the old ghosts that haunt her grandmother and the town, especially a local preacher who found his calling the night of the explosion, forcing a reckoning that everyone has managed to avoid all these years.

Michelle Collins Anderson grew up on a farm in the Missouri Ozarks — a place and a way of life that has shaped her writing. A graduate of the University of Missouri with a MFA from Warren Wilson College, she previously worked in advertising and public relations, taught elementary school creative writing, and
was an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri and Stephens College. A mother of three, she lives with her husband in St. Louis, Missouri.