Brenda H. (booksinvt) -
The Body in the Gravel is the third installment in the A Jazzi Zanders Mystery series set in River Bluffs, Indiana and featuring the house flipping trio of Jazzi, her fiance Ansel and her cousin Jerod. Their latest project is a massive three story home requiring a lot of work and the first project is to fix the foundation and driveway before snow flies.
Calling on their regular gravel & cement contractor, Darby to perform the work they are surprised when he gets into an argument with the furnace repairman, Thane - who is also dating Jazzi's sister. When Darby fails to show up the next day with the rest of the materials for the driveway they call his office only to find out that he hadn't shown up for work. Another driver for the company arrives with a truckload of dirt and as he begins dumping the load out tumbles the body of Darby.
Fingers quickly point to Thane as a prime suspect. It seems as though Thane had been best friends with Darby's son Walker, but many years ago Walker and his mother Rose disappeared in the middle of the night and were never seen again. Rumors swirled around town that Darby had killed the two and buried them in his yard, but no proof was ever found. In an effort to clear Thane's name Jazzi sets out with Detective Gaff to dig up the real killer.
While I like this series overall, there are a few things that I don't enjoy. It's extremely far fetched that Detective Gaff calls Jazzi for advice, that he comes to her home and job site to pick her up and brings her along to question suspects. Also, I'm not sure why every chapter needs to end with the suggestion that Jazzi and Ansel are heading upstairs to have sex. I'm not a prude but when the chapters are only a few pages long it seems as though you are reading the same closing paragraph over and over.
With the mystery wrapping up with the wedding of Jazzi and Ansel, we got a little more insight into Ansel's family and it will be interesting to see how Ansel's brother will fit into their household in future installments.
Calling on their regular gravel & cement contractor, Darby to perform the work they are surprised when he gets into an argument with the furnace repairman, Thane - who is also dating Jazzi's sister. When Darby fails to show up the next day with the rest of the materials for the driveway they call his office only to find out that he hadn't shown up for work. Another driver for the company arrives with a truckload of dirt and as he begins dumping the load out tumbles the body of Darby.
Fingers quickly point to Thane as a prime suspect. It seems as though Thane had been best friends with Darby's son Walker, but many years ago Walker and his mother Rose disappeared in the middle of the night and were never seen again. Rumors swirled around town that Darby had killed the two and buried them in his yard, but no proof was ever found. In an effort to clear Thane's name Jazzi sets out with Detective Gaff to dig up the real killer.
While I like this series overall, there are a few things that I don't enjoy. It's extremely far fetched that Detective Gaff calls Jazzi for advice, that he comes to her home and job site to pick her up and brings her along to question suspects. Also, I'm not sure why every chapter needs to end with the suggestion that Jazzi and Ansel are heading upstairs to have sex. I'm not a prude but when the chapters are only a few pages long it seems as though you are reading the same closing paragraph over and over.
With the mystery wrapping up with the wedding of Jazzi and Ansel, we got a little more insight into Ansel's family and it will be interesting to see how Ansel's brother will fit into their household in future installments.
