Jazzi Zanders along with her husband Ansel and cousin Jerod are starting on their next flipping project - manor type home in nearby Merlot. During demolition, they have come across a locked room. After breaking in, they find a time capsule, the room has not been open since the 70's when the teenage occupant was murdered at her high school graduation party and it was never solved.

Jazzi finds a hope chest with years of personal journals of the victim, but none of the family want anything to do with the contents. Jazzi can't seem to let Jessica's hopes die without justice and so she sets out to find out who end this young life.

What a great mystery! There were so many variants because of the time lapse since the murder but somehow this reader was completely sucked in.

I really love Jazzi and Ansel and their family dynamics. What a wonderful contrast to the mystery. Looking forward to the next one! ( )

In "The Body from the Past," renovations on a house turn up a locked room that has not been changed in years. Artifacts from that room resurrect a past mystery in which a young woman fell off a balcony; her room is the one that has remained locked and untouched. Home renovators Jazzi and friends become involved in trying to solve this cold case.

I liked the theme of home renovation of "fixer uppers" which seems so popular for TV shows. This was a unique take on a cozy mystery. This book is part of a series, and I had not read the other books in the series. I felt as if I was walking into the middle of a movie, and was bombarded with too many characters to keep track of. It was an entertaining cozy mystery, although it could use some clarification about the characters at the beginning.

I received this novel from the publisher and from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own. ( )

The Body From The Past is the fifth book in the Jazzi Zanders Mystery series written by Judi Lynn.

Jazzi, Ansel, and Jerrod are starting on their latest fixer-upper. This home is located in the small town of Merlot small community, and it reminds Jazzi of a country home one would find in an English novel.

On their first day on the job, they will be checking why one of the bedrooms is locked. Once they get the room unlocked, they can see that it had belonged to a teenaged girl. Jazzi contacts the previous owner and asks why it is locked, and she learns from her that it was that way when she bought the house and didn’t need the room, so she left it as is.

With cold weather coming, they would start the project by putting on a new roof. Just as Jazzi’s getting ready to start, the next-door neighbor approaches and asks about the project. Jazzi learns from the neighbor that the owner’s daughter was killed during her high school graduation party. She tells Jazzi that the girl's boyfriend was a suspect of her murder, but the police could never get enough evidence to charge him with murder, and the murder was never solved. Shortly after that, the family locked the bedroom. The family then sold the house and moved to the East Coast.

Before Jazzi left for the day, she decided to look through the bedroom and found a chest that contained pictures and diaries of the girl. She decided to take them home and see if she could learn more about the girl. Shortly after reading some of the journals, Jazzi meets with her girlfriend, and they end up discussing the home Jazzi is renovating. It turns out that her brother-in-law is the young man that was considered the prime suspect at the time. She says he still has nightmares about the event and asks Jazzi if she could investigate. Jazzi is hesitant about looking into this “cold case,” as she has told Ansel that she won’t get involved with sleuthing anymore, besides it is outside her friendly detective’s jurisdiction. She learned from the diaries that her father constantly belittled the girl, and her brother could do no wrong in their father’s eyes. Jazzi convinces Ansel that they should look into the murder so that her friend’s brother-in-law can get closure.

The book is another well-written and plotted story from Judi Lynn. The book’s characters are well-developed and very believable. There were enough twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end.

There are recipes also included in the book.

I am anxiously awaiting the next book in this exciting series. ( )

amateur-sleuth, cold-case, family-dynamics, friendship, murder-investigation, Indiana, small-town, small-business*****

Jazzi, her husband, and others work together to flip houses in a small town in Indiana. Earlier efforts have come with a skeleton or two, but none in this house. A young woman did die after being pushed and falling off the roof but the case went cold. Until now. Lots of good characters and some nasty ones, but all are lively and well portrayed. Good story with twists, red herrings, and real surprises. I've read a couple of earlier ones but the author easily inserts info about past investigations that make this one an easy stand alone. Loved it!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Kensington Books via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )