Savannah Sleuth: First Book in the Vigilantes for Justice Series

Title:  Savannah Sleuth Series:  Vigilantes for Justice Author:  Alan Chaput Genre:  Cozy Mystery Length: 271 pages (paperback) Sensitive Content:  A couple sultry scenes Rating:  4 out of 5

Savannah Sleuth is told from mostly the viewpoint of Patricia (Patsy to a few) Falcon.  We are introduced to Patricia, and her three closest girlfriends Judy, Meredith and Alisa, as they are assisting a women who is caught in a bad marriage leave her home.

Just a few days later, Patricia’s mother Henrietta dies unexpectedly.  Her doctor, who happens to be Judy’s husband, says that she was in perfect health.  All is assumed natural until Isabel, her mother’s lawyer, determines that her mother died penniless and the money just recently disappeared.  The plot grows thicker as Meredith, a local bank executive, finds the money went to Hong Kong and then disappeared in Hilton Head Island when it came back to the US.  To top things off, Henrietta’s account has gone missing!

Patricia asks her husband Trey and the Cotton Coalition, a secret society keeping Savannah safe for generations, to look into what happened.  She and her four girlfriends decide that they should also investigate.  Top it off with a priest acting on behalf of the Vatican trying to determine what happened!  Who did it?  Was it the Russian mob who wanted some of Henrietta’s real estate?  The accountant Sonny who is missing?  The noisy newspaper reporter who popped back up?

People start getting shot, others dying.  Trey orders in-home protection for Patricia and eventually moves them to Paris where…spoiler.

Savannah Sleuth is a well written cozy mystery.  I enjoyed that they author brought to life some of the small details of Southern charm (cold pitchers of sweet ice team) as well as the smells; azaleas, honeysuckles and lavender to name just a few.  Patricia was well rounded with her concerns being that of any daughter, wife and mother. 

While the book was an easy read, finished it in about 5 hours, I was able to figure out “who done it” about a quarter of the way through and the majority of the “how it was done” three quarters of the way through.  I do look forward to reading the next book in the series as there were a few items from building the characters that I’d like to see how that information is incorporated into the ongoing story.