Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Dearly Beloved Departed: A PIP Inc. Mystery by Nancy Lynn Jarvis. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Dearly Beloved Departed: A PIP Inc. Mystery
by Nancy Lynn Jarvis
Dearly Beloved Departed: A PIP Inc. Mystery
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Setting – California
Good Read Mysteries, an imprint of Good Read Publishers
Number of Pages: 241
Pat is hired by attorney Jason Forman to “get some dirt” on his daughter’s fiancé. Before she gets very far in her investigation, the young man is murdered. Did his past catch up with him or is what Pat fears, that there’s a serial shooter going after Christmas Eve grooms, the reason he was killed? Pat and her fiancé, Detective Sergeant Tim Lindsey, are planning a Christmas Eve wedding which means, if she’s right, he’s on the shooter’s hit list.
Character Guest Post
Usually I like being right. Today I’m not so sure I want to be.
Hi All, I’m Pat Pirard, former Santa Cruz County Law Librarian, now CEO, sole proprietor, and president of Private Investigator Pat, Inc. That’s a lot of titles for one woman to hold, but I’m a one-woman operation so I wear many hats.
Life was easier when I was a law librarian. I enjoyed interacting with attorneys and finding answers to their legal questions, and I’m still sort of doing that, but now I’m on my own, not sure of where my next case―which means paycheck―will come from. And now, rather than sitting in a comfy office to work, sometimes my work puts me out in the world and in danger. What’s worse, sometimes my new job brings danger to my home and to those I care about like my Dalmatian, Dot, and my cat, Lord Peter Wimsey, Wimsey for short, and to my fiancé.
I’ve only been in business for a few months. I’m only on my fourth case, but I’ve already witnessed a murder, almost been blown up, had to wear a wrist cast because I broke my distal radius bone fighting with a villain, and was nearly killed in my beloved sunburst yellow Mercedes convertible by another villain. Shall we say it hasn’t been a sedate start to my private investigating career?
There is one plus to what I’m doing besides the challenge and enjoyment I get from solving murders. His name is Sheriff Sergeant Tim Lindsey. I would never have met him if I hadn’t been downsized out of my law librarian job and my best friend, Syda Gonzales, hadn’t enrolled me in a glass fabrication class as a birthday present to try to cheer me up and distract me from worrying about whether or not my pets and I were going to be homeless after I spent all my money on that car.
The glass class was where I witnessed a murder and where I met Tim when he interviewed me about what I saw. I thought he was kind of cute when I met him. He had broad shoulders and looked a lot like Eddie Redmayne, but I wasn’t interested in him at first because I had a crush on an attorney I had met when I was the law librarian.
It took Tim being persistent and funny when he asked me out before I agreed to go out with him. Even so, I didn’t fully appreciate him until I watched him testify when my attorney-crush questioned him to fully see his intelligence and polish. Then came kissing him. I’m probably blushing here remembering what that was like because Tim is a first-rate kisser.
It would be fair to say Tim decided about me before I decided about him. When I did, though, I fell completely in love with him, so much so that I was the one who started things rolling with our marriage proposals. I got down on one knee and presented him with a set of drill bits instead of a ring. He joined me on his knees and pulled an engagement ring out of his back pocket and proposed right back, so I guess you could call ours a mutual proposal.
Now were getting married on Christmas Eve. I always thought when―if―I ever married, I’d want a big production because I love clothes and especially shoes, and could wear a spectacular bridal outfit, but that was before I realized the ceremony and pomp isn’t what a wedding is about. A wedding is about making a commitment to the person you can’t imagine not sharing your life with and that all you need for a wedding is the two of you together saying I do―oh, and maybe having your Dalmatian be your ring bearer.
I would have been happy with that, but Syda had other plans. I didn’t realize she would become a Matron of Honorzilla when I asked her to help me with a small, private wedding. Now our wedding will be a big production with about a hundred guests, Tim’s niece as a flower girl, his nephew holding Dot’s leash as the human half of ring-bearer, and on and on.
All that means I can’t grab Tim and run away with him to safety where we can quietly get married. And there’s a big reason to want to do that. In my most recent case, I’ve come to the realization that there’s a killer out there shooting men who are scheduled to be Christmas Eve grooms, and Tim is the last man standing who is getting married on Christmas Eve.
I don’t want to be right about what I think is happening. I don’t want to be a widow before I can be a bride. I just want to marry Tim and live happily ever after.
About Nancy Lynn Jarvis
Nancy Lynn Jarvis left the real estate profession after she started having so much fun writing the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series that she let her license lapse. She’s enjoyed writing about Regan and her husband, Tom, but decided it was time to do a new series.
PIP Inc. introduces protagonist downsized law librarian and not-quite-licensed Private Investigator Pat Pirard. “The Funeral Murder” is the second book in the series.
After earning a BA in behavioral science from San Jose State University, Nancy 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.
Currently, she’s enjoying being a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and Santa Cruz Women of Mystery.
Author Links
Website https://www.nancylynnjarvis.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SantaCruzBooksforyou
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2918242.Nancy_Lynn_Jarvis
Purchase Link – Amazon
Enter the giveaway
Dearly Beloved Departed TOUR PARTICIPANTS
March 1 – I’m Into Books – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 2 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
March 3 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR GUEST POST
March 4 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW
March 4 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 5 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee – SPOTLIGHT
March 5 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
March 6 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
March 7 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
March 8 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 9 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW
March 10 – Baroness Book Trove – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
March 11 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
March 11 – I’m Into Books – AUTHOR GUEST POST
March 12 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – CHARACTER GUEST POST
March 13 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT
March 14 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
Have you signed up to be a Tour Host?
Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today!
Hi Christy,
Between trying to keep her man alive so they can get married and trying to figure out who is shooting Christmas Eve Grooms, Pat’s a bit preoccupied right now so she asked me to say thank you for letting her do a post on your blogsite.
Nancy Lynn Jarvis
You’re welcome! She sure is busy!! Thanks for stopping!