Peggy Darty, When Bobby Sang the Blues

When Bobby Sang the Blues

Peggy Darty

WaterBrook, Feb 2007, $13.99

ISBN: 1400073308

To the joy of her niece mystery writer Christy Castleman and the chagrin off her pious strait-laced sister and Minster brother-in-law, Bobbie Bodine comes to Summer Breeze for the first time in three or four years. Bobbie is a free spirit who enjoys turning someone's trash into another person's treasure. As such she has opened up a shop in town to do so.

Unbeknownst to Bobbie is that her former spouse Eddie and his girlfriend Roseann Cole are following her and now her niece because he believes she stole $10,000 from him and he needs it back to pay off a dangerous IOU in which his body is collateral. Unbeknownst to Eddie is that enforcer Tony Paneda is stalking Bobbie too because he expects Eddie to show up shortly. Everything comes to a head when someone murders Eddie with Bobbie as the prime suspect. The local Red Hatters who have adopted her and her niece begin to investigate because none of them trust the police to look past Aunt Bobbie.

Bobbie's attitude that you can be deeply religious but also enjoy life to the fullest refreshes the inspirational amateur sleuth sub-genre as like her niece and much of the townsfolk her lust for life is infectious. The whodunit investigation starts toward the middle of the strong storyline as initially the audience meets the key players and how they relate to one another. Peggy Darty provides a delightful charmer as Christy and the Red Hatters (mindful of Fern Michaels' Sisterhood) try to prove that Aunt Bobbie did not kill her late mate.

Harriet Klausner