The Body From The Past
Jazzi, her cousin Jerod, and her husband Ansel are preparing to renovate a charming house that reminds her of an English manor. Before purchasing it, they had inspected the house for structural issues, but now when they do a more thorough walk-through, they discover a teenage girl’s bedroom that clearly hasn’t been touched in years. Dust covers the pink canopy bed, clothes still hang in the closet, and a hope chest remains full of journals and memorabilia. They’ve stumbled on a shrine to a dead girl.
They learn Jessica was killed in the middle of her high school graduation party. The murderer was never identified, but the brother-in-law of Jazzi’s friend, who went to school with Jessica, was suspected and never lived it down. He implores Jazzi to review the cold case and finally prove him innocent. Now it’s up to the house-flipper to nail a killer who will do anything to close the door on the past.
Series: A Jazzi Zanders Mystery – Book #5
Author: Judi Lynn
Genre: Cozy Mystery/Renovation
Publisher: Lyrical Underground
Page Count: 204
Rating: 
In The Body From The Past, what’s not to love about renovating a home with your best friend, spouse, with a murder thrown in as the cherry on top? Jazzi and company are at it once more. Finding a beautiful house to renovate that they can afford isn’t always easy, but when this house comes on the market, they can’t resist. It’s big, grand, and will be stunning when they are finished. It’s a house-flippers dream. Except they weren’t expecting the house to hold secrets and a mystery they must solve before completing the project.
Home renovating is one of the favorite subjects in the cozy genre today. Readers love the descriptions of the old houses and the transformations that the main characters perform. Jazzi can’t keep herself from investigating an old murder, and even if she could, she wouldn’t. Being a house flipper out to make a profit doesn’t make her cold and heartless when it comes to helping friends, family, and strangers. Jazzi is easy to like, with a cast behind her that keeps readers wide-eyed and intrigued. Jazzi sets out to find the killer of a young girl who dreamed of a life away from this house and a future that only held promise.
There are plenty of suspects for readers to sink their teeth into, a few twists and turns that will keep readers guessing, and a whole lot of entertainment. Finding the killer isn’t all that difficult, but finding the evidence may be. Jazzi has her hands full with renovating the house, but she still has time to find the killer of a young girl who never got the chance to make her dreams come true. The writing is wonderfully descriptive, the mystery cloaked in possibilities, and a resolution that keeps readers happy. The Body From The Past is easy to read, fast-paced cozy that will leave house-flippers and DIY folks with a need to read every word.
Other home renovations cozy series readers may enjoy are Kate Carlisle’s long-running “A Fixer-Upper Mystery” or Diane Kelly’s latest “A House-Flipper Mystery”.
About the Author:
Judi Lynn writes as Judy Post, writing romances and mysteries. She loves to cook and owns more cookbooks than any mortal woman could ever use. That’s why so much food sneaks into the stories she writes. Judi and her husband live in Indiana with a chihuahua, a bossy gray cat, and a noisy parakeet. They have two grown daughters and two grown grandsons they are pretty proud of.
Represent By: Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC.
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