A Neighborly Killing: A Regan McHenry Real Estate Mystery Brings Readers to Santa Cruz, California!

So our neighbor was shot," Regan sounded triumphant.
Dave scrunched the features of his face into a tight scowl. "Probably not. Tests are still being done, but based on the preliminary findings from the gunshot residue found on your neighbor's hands, it looks like he fired both the rifle near his body and the handgun that killed him, which he still clutched in his col dead fingers, by the way..."
"And. not that I'd expect an amateur sleuth-meddler like you to know it, all gunpowder has a signature to it. A weapon used to blast out his brains would have left a lot of gunshot residue--residue that, if it was from another weapon, would have a different signature, but they only found one kind of gunshot residue on him.
"So you're saying another person as present but they didn't shoot him? How can that be? It doesn't make any sense that Paul would go rushing through the woods at night firing a rifle as he went only to catch up to someone, argue with them and then kill himself.
"So now in addition to your many othr talents, you're an expert on how your neighbor behaved in his final minutes? Are you a psychic now, too? Have you figured out what he was thinking as he pulled the trigger?,,,

~~~

A Neighborly Killing:

A Regan McHenry Real Estate Mystery

By Nancy Lynn Jarvis

You may remember meeting the author when we enjoyed Mags and the AARP Gang...do check my review out if you missed this one! Her Regan McHenry Mystery series has been going on for quite some time, but this is the first book for me...Will it match Mags?!!!

It wasn't as if Regan McHenry had purposely tried to get involved with the death of her neighbor, even if she and her husband had managed to get concerned with helping to solve local police investigations in the past. But this time, the dead man had been their neighbor and, more importantly, they had heard all that occurred that night!

They definitely heard their neighbor yelling and chasing somebody and shooting at them and they definitely heard an argument! Then they had found him dead, right outside their bedroom door! So they immediately told their friend and police officer what they'd heard... Of course, Dave had thanked them for their information and immediately told them that he'd take it from there...but because they were friends, he always enjoyed a little kidding with Regan about her actions to get involved with his cases...

But the verdict of the death came back suicide!

Neither Regan nor her husband, Tom, were willing to accept that their neighbor had taken his own life...So, of course, they started asking questions on their own as amateur sleuths are prone to do... 

This wonderful video tour created by a SC Realtor stands in place for Kiley and Associates, the company owned by Tom and Regan...

I don't understand how he could
have been forced to take his own
life if he still had bullets in his
handgun and therefore, the means
to fight to save himself. And if he
somehow was forced to commit
suicide, to my way of thinking,
that makes his death murder."
Regan nodded slowly, "What
are we going to do?"
"We heard the last moments of
our neighbor's life, in a bizarre
way shared them with him.
Granted we didn't know him
well, but that's such an intimate
connection. I don't think I can
let it go." Regan squirmed as
she spoke...
"That's why I'm not suggesting
what logic says I should. We
can't pretend the coroner's
report is the end of this for us.
I don't know what good we can
do, sweetheart, but we need to
ask some questions and see
what happens. We were both
there when our neighbor died,
so however we work on this,
we're going to do it together."
~~~

Regan knew exactly where to start her investigation. Her neighbor's property had been up for sale for quite some time and one of her associates had once handled it. She was shocked, however, to find that they had had an affair, until the woman had learned that he was just using her to keep actions moving on the sale...even though he really didn't have the desire to sell his house... He was using it as a ploy to keep his divorce from moving ahead since it required the sale of the property before it could be finalised!

.But that was just one of the issues that Regan and Tom began to hear about as they started asking the right questions to the right people...

Very early on another neighbor starts making appearances as plans began to finally proceed with the sale. A neighbor who was very involved with preserving the environment and in particular the woods surrounding all of their property... and goes back and forth between fighting and wanting help from Regan...

Regan had gone to meet with the wife of the deceased and they had taken an instant liking to each other, with Regan even agreeing to handle the sale, which wound up to be much, more more!

I must say that Regan, once she has become connected to somebody takes a hold of that friendship for dear life, since, as things moved on, it was the wife who began to be the choice for a murder...if it had been one. LOL

Yes, it becomes confusing, but if you follow the activities, you won't get lost and you'll probably begin to make your own decisions, like I did, as to who did what to whom...

But I wouldn't have planned on Regan becoming the next target! Whew!

One side fun issue was the placement of a large furniture structure on the deceased's property which he then used to hide activities that local officials had denied him being able to do...Yes, the man was somebody that had many thinking about how to get rid of him...

But then things really started happening and being uncovered, including a possible extortionist who promised to heal people through prayer...for a price...and the FBI became involved. This mystery while it becomes somewhat complex is not one that keeps you guessing. Readers are aware of what is happening and can consider the case at the time each action takes place. As with most cozies, the enjoyment comes from the characters who get involved with the investigation, seeing how each possibly affects the outcome and pitting your skills against the law officers and maybe even the amateur sleuth if you think she is way off the mark! But what if Paul, the deceased, helps too?!?

This book is the sixth in the series but is certainly free-standing and if you haven't read Jarvis, like I hadn't for this series, you might want to start with her latest! There is enough real estate matters and routines to keep readers involved with property transactions without being overly invasive into the mystery...The book is engaging, provides some light humor. many great characters that adds depth and complexity to the story--yes, even the guy with green hair, a ghost, and the possessed cat(!)--and the story is strong throughout keeping you involved from the first to the last page... One that must be highly recommended!


GABixlerReviews




Nancy Lynn Jarvis was a Santa Cruz, California, Realtor for twenty-five years but was having so much fun writing that she let her license lapse in May of 2013.

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 of Shakespeare/Santa Cruz. Nancy's work history reflects her philosophy: people should try something radically different every few years. Writing is her newest adventure. 

She put Regan, Tom , and Dave from the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries Series on hiatus to write Mags and the AARP Gang, a comedy/adventure about a group of octogenarian bank robbers and squeezed in editing "Cozy Food," a compilation cookbook in which 128 cozy mystery writers contributed recipes from their books and their lives, but she missed her characters, so they came back to solve more murders in "The Murder House" and recently released "A Neighborly Killing."

What she will work on next is unclear. She has ideas for a seventh Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries, a complete departure book of historical fiction, and for a new cozy series called Geezers With Tools about two old guys who encounter murder while working as handymen and pursuing widows.

She'd love to hear from you about what you might like to read.

Nancy Lynn Jarvis Writes Humorous Book - Mags and the AARP Gang - With Betty White as Mags... Fun Stuff!

“Mags. What kind of name is that to be calling our girl, George? It sounds like she’s a larval stage of some unpleasant biting insect. If you must give her a pet name, what’s wrong with calling her something more conventional like Maggie or Meg?”
 “You’re looking at Mags the wrong way, Henrietta. Think of Mags as the name of a girl whose life will be full of freedom and possibilities. It would be perfectly acceptable for a girl named Mags to have skinned knees and learn to kick a ball as well as any boy does. She can become a scientist or live her life as an explorer who studies Egyptian pyramids. Why, one day Mags might go to the Valley of The Kings and discover a tomb that’s grander than King Tut’s.”
...Possibly it was having three older brothers around during my formative years that made me the way I am, still a tomboy at the age of eighty-three, but more probably it was because my second husband, Jack Benson, saw me as the Mags of my father’s imaginings. With my hand in his, and my name forever Mags Benson, I became a true adventurer and a world wanderer.

I do have female friends who count as more than mere acquaintances, but they are few in number and all are past sixty, a requirement for me to feel close to them. Women younger than that trouble me. They aren’t old enough to have been aware of what it was like just a few decades ago when women weren’t allowed to control their bodies or their purse-strings. Their lack of years isn’t their fault, but they should read some history so they understand. A quick little look at recent history and they’d never have stood for some talk-show natterer who thinks his opinion is as weighty as he is, saying stupid things about how he’d never vote for Hillary Clinton for President because he couldn’t stand to see her age in office. They’d boycott his show, and they’d be right to do it. Of course, it’s possible I prefer the company of men because they generally seem less well suited to learning patience and acceptance than women are. You don’t hear “long suffering” ascribed like a badge of honor to men like you do to women. I think that’s because men don’t bear children: they’ve never had their bodies taken over by a being growing inside them and been acculturated to think of it as a normal part of life, a blessing as it were. And since I’m what in the old days was

called barren, maybe that’s why I’ve never learned patience and acceptance, either. 

That’s probably why I’m sitting here staring at the Great Seal of the State of California displayed on the courtroom wall behind the judge’s bench, wishing the jury would come back, rather than counting my blessings that they haven’t...

~~~

Mags and the AARP Gang

By Nancy Lynn Jarvis

The knock on my door came just as I flipped a grilled cheese sandwich and it caused me to glance at the clock. 12: 05. Harvey is never late or early and he always knocks politely before calling out the same greeting as he lets himself in, “It’s me, Mags. What’s for lunch?” 
We have our rituals, Harvey and I, the same ones we’ve shared for the past six years, just shy by five weeks, the length of weeks it took us to become best friends after I married Jimmy Hooper and moved into my third husband’s coach as the caregiver he needed but couldn’t afford. Every day Harvey brings me his newspaper and I make his lunch. We share the newspaper to save money. He’s finished reading it and done the crossword puzzle in ink by noon, but he’s careful about refolding the paper so it’s neat and seems untouched. I’m not a great cook. Lunch is usually a grilled cheese or tuna sandwich, a piece of fruit, and strong coffee; but the kind of friendship we have and our lunchtime companionship makes what we’re eating unimportant. “Today you get grilled cheese and a tangerine.”
 “My favorite.”
 “Have you noticed you always say what I’ve made is your favorite?” 
“Must be your special touch,” he grinned.
 Harvey had a mischievous smile that could fill up my whole little home with sunshine and possibilities, even in dreary February, and he flashed it regularly and proudly because, as he liked to remind everyone who lived in the park, all the teeth in his smile were home grown, not store bought. “There’s another story about this place in the paper today. I’ll shut up and let you read it as soon as you hand me my sandwich. Page eight below the fold. That location means most people don’t consider what’s going on here a big deal.” 
I traded Harvey his plate for the paper and sat down opposite him. The article was short and placed in the worst spot on the page, at the bottom left, one column in, where it could be easily missed by readers who weren’t worried about losing their homes like the twenty-two of us in Dawn Redwood Mobile Home Estates were. I read quickly. The story didn’t add much to what we already knew. Foreclosure on the park looked inevitable unless the mortgage payments were brought current and interest and penalties paid — something the owner couldn’t do, now that he had been laid off for more than fifteen months — and something the residents here couldn’t do even if we all chipped in every penny we could scrape together and then some.
The story briefly touched on the fact that the park had been established in 1953 and was the last mobile home park remaining within the city limits. The report didn’t include anything about how Raymond Persh, the owner since his mother died and left Dawn Redwood Mobile Home Estates to him, promised her he wouldn’t raise the rent or sell the park until the last of the residents who were over seventy-five at the time of her death, either moved away or passed. Except for Raymond and Betty, that was all of us. The reporter must have considered that bit of information uninteresting. I would have used it, though, if I were writing the story, because it would have added a great human interest angle.

~~~

I loved this book. You could think it was because of my age, and maybe that is true. As Mags says, most people aren't old enough to remember the time when women weren't "allowed to control their bodies or their purse-strings..." For me, I'm constantly amazed that what was accomplished in the last century seems to have been totally put aside and women are once again beginning to fight for basic rights...Oh, you may not realize it if you didn't know our history...at least that's how Mags feels and I certainly agree.

Mags doesn't have too many female friends but I think we would get along very well...I was never the type that was sugar and spice and everything nice. Mags, too, with her father's help, early in her life became independent and adventurous. When she met the perfect man, they began those adventures together! But now he was gone, though her heart was still with him. 

Mags was 83 and fortunate to live in a small group of mobile homes where all the residents were elderly. She had become good friends with a few of the residents. One was her neighbor who brought over his paper to save her money while she fixed him lunch every day. And that day, the newspaper confirmed that they might be losing their homes!

Dawn Redwood Estates was in financial trouble! What could be done?!!!

The owner of the Estates had guaranteed that their costs for living there would be kept as low as possible and his son had agreed... So had the previous mayor who turned his head away on any problems that may have arisen.

But a new mayor saw the potential of the site and immediately started an investigation to enumerate safety violations and other issues that needed to be fixed. Raymond had to take out a loan to do everything, because none of the residents could afford to pay for their share and, besides, his father had promised...

“I’ve got a plan, all right. 

We’re going to rob a bank.”

 “Sure we are,” disappointment 

clung to my words. 

“I hoped you’d have a plan by

 now — a serious plan — 

and not be joking around.”

 “I’m not joking.” Dirty Harry

 disappeared and ordinary

 Harvey with his disarming

 grin reappeared. 

“Robbing a bank is my plan;

 I am serious about it.” 

~~~

.

That day Raymond had called a meeting of the residents. 

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this meeting,” I said, frowning as I sat back down across from Harvey. “You jump to bad conclusions easily.”
 “But the newspaper story … suppose what Raymond wants to tell us is bad news?”
 “It probably is,” Harvey shrugged. “And if it is, we’re just going to have to work his news around until we can make it come out to our liking.”


Raymond brought them up to date. They were going to be given more time--so they could find other places to live! Their worst fears were right...They would all 
lose their homes!

We ordinary people who played by the rules got crushed by those who didn’t play fair. Now it seems like the same thing is happening right here at home. I’m not going to watch again and feel angry and old because I couldn’t stop them; I’m sick of watching. This time I am going to do something about it. Putting the kibosh on the Mayor’s plans may get me in trouble, but it’s going to make me feel better. “I’m going to rob the bank — by myself if I have to — but I could sure use the help of my best friend. Are you with me?”

~~~

Everybody was depressed as they worried how they were going to find some place to move, at the cost they were now paying... Until Harvey had an idea. And after he had thought about the details, he talked to Mags...

He wanted to rob the town's bank! So after convincing Mags, they proceeded... But the stress must have become too much for him and Harvey had died...

But before he'd died, he'd made one major mistake....He'd ask a woman who was already in the stages of Alzheimer to drive the get-away car...

Mags was not only upset by losing one of her best friends, she knew she'd never have the money to find some place else to live. She decided to go ahead with the robbery, with her leading the plan. Besides if she got caught, she would do what Harvey had said he would...Give himself up to the law. Mags figured she'd at least have the jail to live in...

Sooooo, get ready to see what happens when a small group of octogenarians plan and executive the AARP Gang Heist! Think something like the Keystone Kops scenes....slowed down due to the gang's ages...  Right?

Actually, there turns out to be much more drama in getting the money needed to save their homes! A few twists and turns and you have everybody moving faster than they knew they could. And the final ending was ingenious, due to Mags, of course. While I'm not sharing much about the other gang members, let me just say that their relationship was based upon love, friendship and loyalty and makes the ending all the more sweeter! Mags deserves a series! You just got to check this one out! 

The author has done a fantastic job in creating the variety of elderly characters within a small community. The Gang members were perfect...so was the setting... The appointed lawyer was also a special character who I would be happy to have as my own! Kudos to Nancy Jarvis! All in all a wonderfully delightful read!

GABixlerReviews

Nancy Lynn Jarvis was a Santa Cruz, California, Realtor for twenty-five years but was having so much fun writing that she let her license lapse in May of 2013.
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 of Shakespeare/Santa Cruz. Nancy's work history reflects her philosophy: people should try something radically different every few years. Writing is her newest adventure. 
She put Regan, Tom , and Dave from the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries Series on hiatus to write Mags and the AARP Gang, a comedy/adventure about a group of octogenarian would-be bank robbers, but she missed her characters, so they're back to solve another murder in recently released "The Murder House."
Nancy squeezed in editing "Cozy Food," a compilation cookbook in which 128 cozy mystery writers contributed recipes from their books and their lives. What she will work on next is unclear. She has ideas for a sixth Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries book, a complete departure book of historical fiction, and an idea for a new cozy series called Geezers With Tools about two old guys who encounter murder while working as handymen and pursuing widows.