WHEN ZEFFIE GOT A CLUE : A COZY MYSTERY
PEGGY DARTY
ISBN# 978-1-4000-7333-7/1-4000-7333-2
March 2008
WaterBrook Press, A division of Random House Inc.
12265 Oracle Blvd, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
Trade Paperback
$13.99
341 pages
Fiction-Mystery & Detective-Women Sleuths
Rating: 3 Cups

Christy Castleman has recently opened a trash-to-treasure shop, I Saw It First, with her Aunt Bobbie. She feels she is doing well in her life, she has her work and her family and she also has the love of her life, Dan. As a mystery writer, she enjoys figuring out clues, so when Zeffie Adams enters her shop one afternoon, she is surprised to find a clue to a murder that happened eight years earlier.

Zeffie Adams is an eight year old girl who lives with her ailing grandmother. She goes to I Saw It First to sell a jewelry box her mother had given her before she died. Now she must sell it to help her grandmother with medical bills. Zeffie has no clue that by bringing the box to Christy, she has provided a clue to a murder.

Christy is surprised when she pulls the lining of the jewelry box away to find an appraisal slip belonging to the woman who had owned the box. It had been stolen after Kirby Strickland had been murdered in his home. Christy believes that God has given her this chance to solve his murder and with the help of Zeffie, her boyfriend Dan and her close friend Jack, she knows they will catch the murderer.

Ms. Darty brings us a mystery filled with many questions. I truly thought I had figured out who was the murderer, but I was wrong. Her cast of characters are unique and fun and believe God gives them second chances. I found the story of Zeffie heartbreaking but heartwarming as well. For a mystery, this is one that should be given a chance.

Liadan
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books