The Glass House: A PIP Inc. Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Good Read Mysteries (July 23, 2019)
Paperback: 271 pages

Synopsis

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.

Review

Watch out, Pat in her funky yellow Mercedes is on the case!

This series has the potential to be a winning series. Pat is downsized from her job at a law library due to lack of funds, but she doesn’t let that stop her. She decides she is going to be a PI when an art instructor dies at one of her classes. As much research that Pat has done over the years and during this book, I’m surprised she doesn’t realize you have to take classes or have so many hours to be an official PI. This could be interesting for her should law enforcement find out she isn’t quite up to that level…but her love interest is a police detective so perhaps he will smooth the way.

The mystery kept me on my toes as I couldn’t figure out who was the killer. There are several key suspects but I couldn’t put my finger on any of them to be the killer or for what reason. There is misdirection and red herrings but it all comes together nicely in the end.

There is even a love interest for Pat with Tim and I chuckled as they avoided her friend Syda and her husband Greg, who happened to be Tim’s police partner for awhile. Syda has a good heart but wanted to fix Pat up with any man she came across. I grinned when Tim and Pat are “introduced” at a dinner near the end and what Tim does to Pat. I’ll leave you hanging, you’ll have to read the book to get your own chuckle from this scene.

We give this 4 paws up

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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