This book promo is through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.
What Lucy Heard book tour includes an author interview and giveaway. Learn some cool facts about the writer, leave a comment of support, share, and subscribe to Sarandipity’s.
Book Details
What Lucy Heard: A PIP Inc. Mystery
Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Setting – Santa Cruz, California
Publisher : Good Read Mysteries
Publication date : August 11, 2025
Paperback
Print length : 247 pages
ISBN-13 : 979-8990936614
Digital
ASIN : B0FLYRXYSD
Pat Pirard, Santa Cruz Law Librarian newly turned private investigator, is asked to help with jury
selection. She has one condition before she agrees: she must meet the suspect and believe he’s
innocent. The accused’s story about how his fingerprints got on the murder weapon and why he
was at the murder scene seems so outlandish that he convinces contrarian Pat he must be telling
the truth. But as she listens to testimony during the trial she fears she’s been duped and is helping
a killer get away with murder. Pat’s life turns into a race to solve the crime before the jury
reaches a verdict.
About Nancy Lynn Jarvis
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; six 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.” She also has an ebook on Amazon, which she keeps adding to
as she writes more short stories.
Author Links
Purchase Link
Interview questions:
What is your favorite part of this book and why?
I wish you hadn’t asked me to choose because there are several parts I really enjoyed writing. If forced, though, I’d say the part where Pat gets her friends Syda and Greg and her husband Tim (who is a sheriff’s lieutenant and should probably know better) to use airhorns to mimic the decibel level of gunshots.
If you could spend time with a character from your book whom would it be? And what would you do during that day?
I’d like to spend time with my friend, the real Pat in my PIP Inc. Mysteries series. She’s a good friend who has moved to another state. I use the books to force her to come visit regularly and to collaborate on what I’m writing. As for what we’d do, well, I can tell you it would be something considerably less daring than what I would normally do.
For example, when she was here one time, I suspected my next door neighbor had set up a pot farm on his property. The real Pat suggested we scale his fence and search for his growing and packing room. I talked her down and used my imagined sense of what was going on in a book instead of having an actual confrontation. It’s good we didn’t follow her lead because it turned out that I was right about what he was doing and he had armed guards watching over his “farm.”
What books/authors have most inspired you?
I grew up secretly reading Agatha Christie at my grandmother’s house. Nana was an avid Christie reader but my mother thought I should be reading more age-appropriate girly mysteries like Nancy Drew so we had to let me read Christie on the down-low. From reading her mysteries I had the expectation that a careful reader should be able to figure out who the killer was and what their motive was with no surprise reveals that came about by a private bit of information only the detective knew.
Right before I started writing, I had just finished reading every Chee and Leaphorn book Tony Hillerman wrote and modeled my first series, Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries, after him using the world of real estate for my Navajo Nation and Santa Cruz as my Big Reservation.
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
I’m a very visual writer and I need to see my characters before I write them so, in that sense, they always start out as people I know. The only thing is, as real people, they will never do what I want them to do so I have to rename them in order to turn them into killers and the characters I want them to be. Once they have been renamed, they are only directed by me, though, but free to contribute to my stories.
What made you want to become a writer?
Boredom. I was an active realtor when I started writing. The real estate market had tanked after the
great crash and I decided to take a break from what I knew would be a cruel time in the business. Within three weeks I was bored out of my mind so, just as a game, I decided to see if I could write a book. I had a great opening scene in mind and a strong if somewhat unconventional ending in my head and absolutely no idea how to connect the two, but I thought with my love of solving puzzles, it would be entertaining to try to come up with a middle. And it was. Two series, two stand-alones, a cookbook, two edited short story anthologies, and a growing collection of short stories later, I love doing this.
Giveaway
Prize – 2 – Digital Copy of What Lucy Heard: A PIP Inc. Mystery by Nancy Lynn Jarvis
TOUR PARTICIPANTS
October 22 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT–
October 23 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
October 24 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
October 25 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
October 26 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
October 27 – Sarandipity’s – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
October 28 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
October 28 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
October 29 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
October 30 – Wine Cellar Library – CHARACTER GUEST POST
October 30 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
October 31 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – AUTHOR GUEST POST
November 1 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
November 2 – Cassidy’s Bookshelves – SPOTLIGHT
November 3 – Infinite House of Books – SPOTLIGHT
November 4 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
