Copyright 2006 - 2007 Susan Sleeman
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When Zeffie Got A Clue Click title to read excerpt or buy from CBD.com By Peggy Darty / Waterbrook Press Reviewed by Susan SleemanFind the time to sit down and leisurely drift with the balmy ocean winds into Summer Breeze, Florida, and join in solving a solid cozy mystery.When Zeffie Got A Clue, don't you just love the title? I did and that's what made me pick up book three of Peggy Darty's Cozy Mystery series, where we find mystery writer Christy Castleman at work along side her somewhat eccentric aunt, Bobbi Bodine in the I Saw It First Junk Shop. As the story opens, eight-year-old Zeffie Adams brings into the shop an old jewelry box she received from her mother. Zeffie is hoping to receive enough money from the sale of the box to help pay for her grandmother's many medical bills. Taken by the young child's vulnerability, Christy generously pays Zeffie for the box and begins work on refurbishing it for resale. When Christy removes the worn lining, she finds an appraisal for jewels belonging to Annabel Strickland, the mother of Kirby Strickland who was shot to death years ago in an unsolved case that was labeled a burglary gone wrong. Believing Kirby's killer stole this box, Christy sets out to locate the person who gave the box to Zeffie's mother with the hope that this trail will eventually lead to the killer. When things get interesting and dangerous, and even when Christy's boyfriend, encourages her to back off for her own safety, Christy, because of her fondness for Kirby who saved her from drowning once, moves forward in search of the killer. The mystery moves along at an even pace, with enough interest to keep you reading until the book leads to a very satisfying conclusion. This entertaining mystery has many elements of a good cozy-a smallish town, people who know one another, some quirky characters, and an amateur sleuth tracking down a killer. Also in cozy style, the mystery unfolds slowly so you have time to savor the characters in the book while appreciating the strong leading character, Christy. Darty displays Christy's fine personal qualities through the relationships with the other characters, most notably with Zeffie when her grandmother passes on and the elderly retired housekeeper now alone and lonely at the nursing home. So pick up When Zeffie Got A Clue and find the time to sit down and leisurely drift with the balmy ocean winds into Summer Breeze, Florida, and join in solving a solid cozy mystery. |
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Peggy Darty is the award-winning author of twenty-seven novels and novellas, including two other mysteries set in Summer Breeze, Florida: When the Sandpiper Calls and When Bobbie Sang the Blues. She has worked in film, researched for CBS, and led writing workshops around the country. Darty and her husband call Alabama home but spend a great deal of time in Colorado, Montana, and on Florida's Emerald Coast. |
Read more about Peggy at: http://www.peggydarty.com
Suspense Books By Peggy
| When Bobbie Sang
the Blues Click title to read excerpt or buy from CBD.com By Peggy Darty / Random House, Inc Christy's Aunt Bobbie loves collecting oddities. But when her ex- husband's body is discovered in her old pickle barrel, Bobbie becomes a suspect. Can Christy find the real killer? 352 pages, softcover. |
| When the Sandpiper
Calls Click title to read excerpt or buy from CBD.com By Peggy Darty / Random House, Inc Christy Castleman has a gift for writing best-selling mysteries. Suddenly she's thrust into the role of a real-life sleuth when she finds an antique bottle containing a desperate plea for help. With the aid of the local Red Hat Society, she tries to determine who wrote the note. Can she discover that person's whereabouts before it's too late? 352 pages, softcover from Waterbrook. |
| When
Zeffie Got a Clue Click title to read excerpt or buy from CBD.com By Peggy Darty / Waterbrook Press It's an ordinary afternoon in Summer Breeze, Florida, when a young, wide- eyed girl steps into I Saw It First, the trash-to-treasure shop Christy Castleman and her Aunt Bobbie have opened. Clutching a jewelry box, Zeffie Adams tells Christy she needs money to pay her grandmother's medical bills, prompting Christy to offer this curious visitor more than the jewelry box is worth-or so she thinks. But complicated questions form when Christy rips out the box's lining and uncovers a clue to a cold case murder mystery from eight years ago. Despite warnings from her family and handsome boyfriend Dan Brockman, Christy decides to do a little detective work of her own. After all, the infamous murder happened close to her grandmother's farm. How risky could it be to take the jewelry box back to the Strickland plantation and ask around about it? |
Christian Suspense
To Die For
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