Cleo Jones and her best friend Jonette approached green on the 5th hole of the Hogen’s Glen Golf Course. Cleo’s chipped a bit too hard sending her ball over the green. Over on the other side of the green Cleo discovered her ball right between the legs of a body lying at the 6th Tee. The man was clearly dead as he had a neat hole in his forehead and a large pool of blood under it. This is not a good thing to happen in the middle of a nice relaxing game of golf during the Hogen’s Glen Ladies Golf tournament.
The man turns out to be one of the vice presidents of the local bank, and the best friend of Cleo’s ex-husband. Her friend Jonette had been dating the guy and had recently been in a huge argument during which she yelled that she would “kill him”. Naturally this made her a prime suspect. But Cleo tried to explain to the police that she had been yelling that to this guy since they were back in grade school. Her friend was not a murderer. Eventually Jonette was released but then other friends of Cleo were becoming suspects in the murder. Cleo couldn’t stand for any to be under suspicion of murder so she determined to investigate and find out who the real killer was and get him put away so that her friends did not get convicted of something they did not do.
Ms. Toussaint gives us a wonderful and very down to earth heroine who is full of self doubt and troubles in her past that make her doubt herself and her worth as a person. Yet she is a loyal friend and is really pretty bright. She is able to put the pieces together as she comes upon the clues until finally the killer arranges a meeting out at the maintenance shed on the golf course where the killer attempts to kill Cleopatra and get her meddling to come to an end.
The conclusion to this homey and warm mystery is exciting and brings it all together in a way that makes sense. One cannot help but like Cleopatra and her sidekick the big St. Bernard dog. I know there will be more adventures with Cleo and I can’t wait. This one, “In for a Penny” is a fine tale that is interesting from beginning to end. I give it a 7 of 10 on the Weaver meter.
