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

Synopsis

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.

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Character Guest Post

My mistress, Pat Pirard, may think she’s the big deal in PIP Inc. Mysteries, but it’s not true. If you want the inside scoop, talk to me, her cat, Lord Peter Wimsey, or possibly her Dalmatian, my best friend, Dot.

I won’t go into how life went from being purrfect to completely upended in detail, I’ll just hit the high points and then tell you why Dot and I are the really important characters in the series.  To start with, Pat got fired. I think the polite word is downsized, but fired is what she said it felt like. She had just spent all of her money on a shiny yellow car when that happened. Don’t ask me why she wanted a car, they’re miserable devices, but she liked it. Dot disagrees with me because she likes to go for car rides, especially when Pat makes her car into a convertible and Dot can sniff the air better and let her ears flap in the breeze when she goes for a ride.

The next thing that happened is Pat got overly friendly with a big footed man. Dot loves him because he scratches her ears. I do not like him because he stepped on my tail. He said it was an accident and he’s been trying to make it up to me, and I must admit I don’t dislike him as much anymore, but I still won’t sleep on a bed or sofa with him.

Next, Pat, Dot, and I had to move out of our house―the one with the purrfect sunbeam―because someone tried to blow us up in it. The neighbors got upset and all signed a petition that they gave to our landlord asking him to make us move. Such unfairness.

Mr. Bigfoot invited us to move into his house. It has a big yard and he put in a dog door so Dot was happy, but I was confined to the house for a month because humans have this notion that dogs stay with their people, but cats run back to their old homes because they’re territorial. That’s so ridiculous. If I went back to our old house it would only have been because I was in search of my sunbeam.

I was hardly settled when my mistress and Mr. Bigfoot got engaged. Dot told be getting married is a permanent thing and that I should learn to love Mr. Bigfoot, stop calling him that, and call him Tim because he’s going to be part of our family from here on.  I’ll try, but there better be a fair amount of people tuna in it for me.

Tim isn’t helping repair our relationship either. Eecently Tim did two unspeakable things. First he brought home a tree for the living room that I was expected not to climb, and then when his four-year-old niece showed up before the big wedding and tried to carry me around like a doll, he thought it was funny. Do I have to tell you how four-year-olds carry cats? It’s not good for a cat’s comfort or dignity.

No doubt you’re wondering when I’m going to get to telling you why Dot and I are the real stars of PIP Inc. Mysteries, aren’t you? I’ll do it now. I’ll start with Dot’s role and save the best―my important roles―for last.

Pat used Dot as a co-conspirator to get to interview a murder suspect in The Glass House. In The Corpse’s Secret Life, Pat should have paid more attention to Dot’s instincts about a character because Dot was right. And Dot helped me save our mistresses life in The Funeral Murder. Yes, yes, Dot was wounded and had to wear one of those annoying plastic Elizabethan collars for her efforts, but I, mini tiger that I am, fought the villain tooth and claw to save Pat.

I’m also the one who solved the murder in Dearly Beloved Departed, not that I get any credit for it. In fact, I got severely scolded when I attacked―I mean was attacked by―that living room tree after Pat and Tim hung all those shiny things on it. If it hadn’t been for me giving her a huge clue, Pat would never have realized who the killer was.

So now you understand why Private Investigator Pat. aka PIP, Inc. Mysteries should really be called the Lord Peter Wimsey with Help From Dot Mysteries, but I guess LPWWHFD Mysteries doesn’t have the same ring to it as PIP Inc., does it?

About the Author

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.

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