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Book Review
Reviewed: 27 March 2025

Taken to the Cleaners

by: Dolores Johnson

Mandy Dyer - Book 1

  • Rating: full starfull starfull starstar outlinestar outline (3/5)

Out Damn Spot...and capture the murderer

This is the first in the Mandy Dyer series first published in 1997 and being republished. This is the first cozy mystery series I’ve read that is set in a dry cleaners. It makes sense how much dry cleaners can deduce about their customers and how many people they come in contact with. This is super helpful when it comes to protagonists gleaming information before law enforcement.

I like the secondary characters, especially Betty. I admire how Mandy acknowledges Betty as a person. 

While I did figure out the culprit, not sure about why. Loved how Betty told Mandy she’s a little slow on the uptake - I agreed. Despite that, I didn’t mind continuing to read. It was a nice easy read. I am want to know what happens with Mandy, Mac, Nat, Betsy, and Det. Foster.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #BrillianceAudio #OpenRoadMedia for the opportunity to share my thoughts on the story. 

Happy Reading!

Release Date: 15-April-2025
Cozy Mystery, Audiobook, Female Sleuth, NetGalley

Plot Summary

First published January 1, 1997

In this cozy mystery, the new proprietor of a dry cleaners takes on a load of trouble when a bag of bloody clothes sends her on the trail of a killer.

When Mandy Dyer inherits her uncle’s dry cleaners, she knows she’ll be dealing in some pretty grimy business. But when a homeless woman brings in a bloody suit, suddenly Mandy has a foul mess on her hands. Did the suit belong to a murderer—or his victim? Now Mandy is sharing clues with a hunky homicide detective—and trying to discover a little dirt on the killer herself. With one man dead and a potential witness missing, returning this suit to its rightful owner isn’t going to be easy—until Mandy figures out how to make the killer come clean.