Spotlight & Guest Post: THE GLASS HOUSE by Nancy Lynn Jarvis

As part of a virtual book tour organized by Great Escapes, I am happy to have as my guest today, Nancy Lynn Jarvis, as she celebrates the release of The Glass House, the first book in a new cozy mystery series.

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Guest Post, Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Let me make one thing clear, Readers: I’m not private investigator Pat Pirard’s on-the-page-buddy, Syda Gonzales. I’m not married to a deputy sheriff. I’ve never tried to fix anyone up. I don’t say embarrassing things to near-strangers. I’m not an artist, marginal or not. And I would never―never―write an opening line for a book like Syda does that reads: Private detective Rowdy Dick looked down at the body that washed up on shore with crabs clinging to it and chewing the flesh on its face. He turned to his stacked red-haired secretary and said, “Whew, thank God it’s only crabs eating her. If it was lobsters, I don’t know what I’d do, Babe. I could never eat one again.”

But I must admit, I sometimes wish I had the game-for-anything approach to life that Syda has when Pat comes up with some of her investigation tactics and asks for Syda’s help.

Private investigator Pat Pirard is based on a friend of mine also named Pat. Like my protagonist, the real Pat was once Santa Cruz County’s Law Librarian. She’s currently a private investigator, too, just like Pat Pirard, and like her, the real Pat doesn’t plan to become licensed because she sometimes likes to bend the rules when she investigates.

The real Pat is highly intuitive and daring. I overlook a neighbor who recently fenced his acreage and installed a guardhouse at its entry. Vehicles have started coming and going in the dead of night. Pat, who lives in another state, was visiting, and one night in half-an-hour we counted headlights and taillights from twenty-three vehicles.

“What do you think he’s doing?” I asked.

We speculated for a while over a glass of wine, pretty sure we knew the answer to the question. (I’ve even written about him, fictionalized of course, in “A Neighborly Killing,” book six in my Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series.)

“Let’s see what I can find out about him,” Pat said. She clicked away on her iPad like the PI she is, and using her advanced research techniques, discovered his mortgage, which is held by a bank under FBI investigation for money laundering, is over ten-thousand dollars a month. She also turned up a criminal record for him. “Look at this. He spent some time in jail for assault. Seems suspicious, all right. Tomorrow morning, let’s go climb the fence and ask him what he’s up to,” my real Pat suggested.

“Absolutely not! He might be armed and dangerous. Besides, I don’t want him to know that I can see what he’s doing.”

“Don’t worry. I have a concealed carry license and a 357 magnum in my purse,” she informed me.

Like I said, Pat’s daring and her stolen identity will be, too in the PIP Inc. Mysteries I plan to write with Pat’s input, but I think even Syda wouldn’t be up for that kind of caper, although as long as it’s only on paper, you never know.

About the Book

Law Librarian Pat Pirard got an unexpected thirty-fifth birthday present: a pink slip. Now she has nine weeks to reinvent herself before she runs out of money. Her best friend Syda gives her a glass forming class as a birthday present and distraction where Pat again gets a surprise: a murder.

About the Author

Nancy Lynn Jarvis was a Santa Cruz, California, Realtor® for more than twenty years before she fell in love with writing and let her license lapse.

After earning a BA in behavioral science from San Jose State University, she worked in the advertising department of the San Jose Mercury News. A move to Santa Cruz meant a new job as a librarian and later a stint as the business manager for Shakespeare/Santa Cruz at UCSC.

Nancy’s work history reflects her philosophy: people should try something radically different every few years, a philosophy she applies to her writing, as well. She has written seven Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries; a stand-alone novel “Mags and the AARP Gang” about a group of octogenarian bank robbers; edited “Cozy Food: 128 Cozy Mystery Writers Share Their Favorite Recipes” and a short story anthology, “Santa Cruz Weird;” and even done a little insider’s book, “The Truth About Hosting Airbnb” about her first year as a host.

“The Glass House” is the first book in a planned series of PIP Inc. Mysteries. Now she’s trying to figure out when to work on another series she’d love to do called “Geezers with Tools” about two older handymen who will solve mysteries in the course of doing their work, and setting up writer retreats at her house.

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