Donor 73101: A PIP Inc. Mystery
Cozy Mystery
5th in Series
Setting – California
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Good Read Mysteries (August 15, 2024)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 243 pages

Synopsis

Aiden O’Rourke needed cash to help pay for college so he made money by selling his sperm. He was young, attractive, smart…and popular. Now many years later, his offspring are coming forward—eleven of them and counting—and connecting on a website they created called Donor73101.com.

Pat Pirard, Santa Cruz County Law Librarian turned PI, is approached by next door neighbors Tina and Robin who want to start a family. Because Tina was conceived via sperm donation, they want to be 100% certain that their baby and Tina won’t have the same father.

It doesn’t take Pat long to determine that Aiden O’Rourke was Tina’s sperm donor. It also doesn’t take her long to discovers that one by one, his offspring are being murdered. By whom and why? Well, that’s a mystery.

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Guest Post

Clairee in Steel Magnolias: “The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize”.

I love that line, but I don’t want to say it. I’m auditioning for Cabrillo College’s summer play—they’re doing an adaptation of Steel Magnolias—and I want to get the part of Truvy, Dollie Parton’s role, not Claire. I’ve been practicing my southern accent so you can image how willing I was to help my best friend Pat Pirard try to figure out who was killing sperm donor Aiden O’Rourke’s offspring. To help her, I needed to play a visiting cousin. I made myself a Texas resident so I could practice my y’alls and my southern drawl, which I do pretty well if I say so myself.

I should probably back up a bit and introduce myself, shouldn’t I? I’m Syda Gonzales, artist extraordinaire, or at least I will be once I figure out where my true artistic abilities are. I’ve tried a number of creative endeavors. I paint—oils mostly—but I have a tad bit of difficulty with perspective and I refuse to paint abstracts. I thought Pat and I could be glass artists when I enrolled us in a glass making class in “The Glass House,” but all that happened was we witnessed a murder. I gave writing noir fiction a try in “The Funeral Murder,” but while I came up with remarkable opening lines which Pat called “interesting,” I couldn’t settle on a good name for my protagonist. I became a jewelry maker during “The Corpse’s Secret Life” but it’s harder than it looks. Those darn little beads kept getting away from me and rolling under things. Time to move on.

I even volunteered to be a wedding planner. What a disaster. Forget the Bridezilla thing. During “Dearly Beloved Departed” I discovered there’s nothing like a groom shooting to make one reconsider wanting to be a wedding planner.

Pat and I have put on disguises and “acted” before to get information from suspects or trap killers. Many times. But not like this time. In our earlier adventures, my acting has always been in in and out quickly scenarios. Once I wore a blonde wig and had fake big boobs while Pat became an old lady. I’ve became a reporter or a survey taker. (We won’t go into the time I made my husband Greg join me pretending to be aging hippies to spy on Pat because my antics almost ended our friendship and put a real strain on Pat’s engagement.)

But in “Donor 73101” I had to keep playing my role for days and all while sharing a yacht with a murderer—or murderers because there may have been more than one—without dropping my character. If I could do it under those circumstances, staying in character for a play should be easy. I think I’ll bring that up during my audition. I think I’ve found my calling. Look for my name on marquees soon y’all.

Excerpt

Although it was only a few minutes past 6:30pm, it was dark, not unexpected in Santa Cruz in early January. The Uber driver popped his hatchback and offered to help them with luggage. Tim declined, moving the four suitcases―one for him and three for Pat―on to the sidewalk.

Pat started to pick one up. “Leave it,” Tim instructed. “We can come back outside for those in a minute, but before we bring in suitcases, I want to carry my bride across the threshold.”

Pat giggled. “I’m a modern woman. No carrying needed.”

“That may be, but I’m feeling old-fashioned at the moment.” He smiled at her, put one arm around her back just above her waist, and attempted to scoop her into his arms.

She slipped away from him, laughing as she did. “I bet you can’t catch me before I get inside on my own, my old-fashioned caveman,” she flirted, heading for the front door.

“I can be a caveman if that’s how you want to be carried, but you’re being carried,” he said, his tone full of playful mischief. He gave chase and tossed her over his shoulder when he caught her.

Pat squealed, but was laughing too hard to resist, which is how she came to greet her tail-wagging Dalmatian, Dot, who jumped against Tim’s backside in an attempt to get her head up high enough for the backward slung Pat to scratch her ears; her cat, Wimsey, who abandoned his rule about avoiding Tim and rubbed against his legs, and Tina and Robin, their pet-sitting next-door neighbors, butt-first, draped over Tim’s shoulder.

About the Author

Nancy Lynn Jarvis wore many hats before she started writing cozy mysteries. After earning a BA in behavioral science from San Jose State University, she worked in the advertising department of the San Jose Mercury News, as a librarian, as the business manager for Shakespeare/Santa Cruz, and as a realtor.

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; five PIP Inc. 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 short story anthologies, “Santa Cruz Weird,” and “Santa Cruz Ghost Stories.”

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