Review – When Zeffie Got A Clue

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.