family-dynamics, friendship, Indiana, murder-investigation, small-business, small-town, law-enforcement*****

I found that I had skipped this one, so I went back to get this one as an audio because I had really liked the ones I had read! Each of the books does well as a stand alone, however. Ansel and Jazzi are house flippers who work with her cousin to get the job done but need specialized contractors for some things. Like driveways. The company they chose to deliver the underlayment of gravel is someone they've used before despite his nasty demeanor because the jobs were done right at the best price. When he doesn't show up as promised, they call for someone else in the company to deliver but then the body of the owner falls out with the gravel. Enter their friend the Homicide detective who usually asks Jazzi to come along as a buffer when questioning witnesses outside of the station. Good sleuthing!
Devon Sorvari is the narrator and really adds to the personalities of the many characters. ( )

Jazzi, Ansel, and Jerod are back working on their latest project - a 3 story fixer upper. Their plan is to work on the exterior while they autumn weather is still pleasant and then to attack the inside projects during the colder days coming. So, first a new roof, new siding, and the shutters, window boxes and a new driveway but not before the foundation is repaired. Jazzi calls their regular concrete company afterward to bring gravel for the driveway. When it's late, she calls again and one of the other drivers brings the truck but when he starts to unload the gravel, the body of their regular driver falls out. Since the dead man was the father of a former friend, Jazzi is drawn into the investigation. It doesn't help that Jazzi is in the midst of the final preparations for her wedding to Ansel. and that he is concerned about his estranged family coming for the event.

I love the background of the fixer uppers for the characters and their family dynamics. The mystery was well-woven together with the characters lives.

I had this book after I read the first but had to get the 2nd in the series. So happy that I can read this just about one after the other. Great series! ( )

The Body in the Gravel by Judi Lynn
Book #3: Jazzi Zanders Mystery Series
Source: NetGalley and Lyrical Underground
Rating: 5/5 stars

Can’t a girl get through one house renovation without a dead body showing up? Thankfully, for we readers at least, the answer to that is a resounding “NO!” In fact, not only does yet another dead body get dumped (literally!) into Jazzy’s life, but so does a huge list of potential suspects.

Jazzy, Ansel, and Jerod have taken on a whale of a project. An older three-story home with a lot of potential and enough issues to need a shrink! As always, the trio has a plan in place and that plan involves getting all the exterior work done before moving to the interior. A part of the exterior involves bolstering the foundation and completely reworking the driveway. That means cement, and a lot of it. As always, the flippers call in their go-to guy for cement, Darby, a surly bastard who is not known for his sunny disposition or good attitude. Thanks to his nasty reputation, it really comes as no surprise to anyone when the gravel base for the driveway is being poured and Darby comes out too.

As if it’s simply a foregone conclusion, Detective Gaff ropes Jazzy into the investigation and the hunt for a killer begins. As if looking for a killer weren’t hard enough, Jazzy and Gaff quickly figure out, not only did Darby have no friends, but he did have a great number of enemies. At the top of the list, Jazzy’s sort of brother-in-law, all the men who worked for him, his son and ex-wife who have been missing for two years, and his housekeeper. Narrowing down the list takes a great deal of patience, finding the right questions to ask, and untangling the last days of a man no one liked and was clearly falling apart.

At the same time Jazzy is trying to detangle the life of a right bastard, she’s also trying to put the finishing touches on her upcoming wedding to her Viking, Ansel. The food is planned, the venue is ready to go, the guests have been invited, and the plan is in place. The only thing missing, a wedding dress! As the days roll by, Ansel begins to worry about Jazzy’s commitment to their life together. Though Jazzy assures Ansel she is all in for the long haul, her Viking still worries. What’s more, Ansel also has mixed feelings about the presence of his completely awful family. It’s meant to be a day of happiness and new beginnings and all Ansel can do is fret which, in turn, causes Jazzy to worry more.

The Bottom Line: The Body in the Gravel has so much going on that it easily could have become a hot mess. Instead, the seasoned Lynn juggles multiple plot lines, a multitude of characters, and a fine mystery with an organized and collected plan. Nothing and no one got lost in the mix, all the loose ends are neatly tied up by the end, and there are even a few fun little surprises. The Jazzy Zanders Mystery series seems to be gaining strength and speed with each new book and I am thrilled with this development. I need my characters and their world to evolve and I am certainly getting just that with this series. As much as the characters and the plots, I also enjoy the discussions and descriptions of the work Jazzy, Ansel, and Jerrod are doing and, of course, all the good food Jazzy serves up. In all, I can’t find a flaw with this series and look forward to it having a long and lovely life. ( )

The Body In The Gravel is the third book in the third book in The Jazzi Sanders Mystery series.

Jazzie and her cousin, Jerrod, and her fiance Ansel are busy working on their next fixer-upper hoping to get all the outside work done before cold weather sets in. They are waiting for Darby, their cantankerous concrete and gravel man to deliver a load of gravel for the driveway. When the call Darby’s office to see where he is, Earl, one of his drivers, says he never showed up for work. Earl says that the truck is loaded and he will be right over. As he begins to dump the load the body of Darby fall to the on to the gravel. As Detective Gaff is investigating the scene, Thane, Jazzie’s Heating and A/C contractor arrives and comments “now I will never know what happened to Rose and Walker”. They are Darby wife and son who had disappeared one night around a decade ago and Thane quickly becomes the prime suspect. As the investigation goes on more suspects are added to the list and Gaff asks Jazzi for her help in sifting through the possible suspects. Darby’s three drivers have all had run-ins with their boss, a couple of drinking buddies and even the lady that he had dated also has to be ruled out, also are added to the list.

Also on Jazzi plate is her upcoming wedding to Ansel and her sister and mother are about to kidnap her to take her shopping for a wedding dress.

I really like this series, I would never attempt to do what Jazzi work entails, but I certainly enjoy reading about what it takes to make-over a home. The story is well-written and plotted. It has plenty of red herrings that kept we guessing till the end. There is a wonderful cast of character that I would love to call my friends.

Delicious sounding recipes are also included in the book.

I definitely will be watching for the next book in this enjoyable series. ( )