The Two-Faced Triplex by Nancy Lynn Jarvis

I'm thrilled to have Nancy Lynn Jarvis, friend, and author of The Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries here today to discuss her latest release The Two-Faced Triplex. This is the 7th book in the series, and Nancy says it's the last.

In her guest post, Cherokee Wisdom, she'll tell you why. . .

CHEROKEE WISDOM

Readers often ask how much of what I write is based on my life and experiences. I tell them all the real estate stories in the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series are true―they happened to me or to the Realtors I know―but the murders and everything else is not. It’s not really that simple, though, and that made writing “The Two-Faced Triplex” incredibly difficult.

When I began my first book, “The Death Contingency,” the protagonists were Nancy―me―and Craig, my husband. But Nancy and Craig wouldn’t do what I wanted them to do―they just weren’t good at following directions―so I quickly made them Regan and Tom, hoping that would improve our working relationship.

Their personalities evolved with their names until they weren’t Nancy and Craig at all…except for one thing: Tom still had Craig’s incredibly blue eyes. Regan mentions them often, and they were a major clue to solving the murders, in “Buying Murder.”

Craig’s role in my mystery writing evolved, too. He became my beta reader and eventually a darned good content editor. We would spend hours whipping the books into shape before sending them to my editor. The pre-editor part was tricky, but we made up for that when we went to work designing the book covers. That was the fun part.

Craig died of Multiple Myeloma a year-and-a-half ago. I had the plot for “The Two-Faced Triplex” in mind before he died, but for a while, after his death, I couldn’t concentrate enough to do anything useful, let alone write. Once I did start on the book, it was incredibly difficult to imagine Tom because, when I did, I saw Craig’s blue eyes. As the book progressed, rather than writing faster, which is my normal pattern, I slowed down.

I didn’t want to end “The Two-Faced Triplex” because it would be the last in the series I have so enjoyed writing. Once finished, “The Two-Faced Triplex” would mark the end of a major part of my life and the end of Craig’s and my collaboration.

Last year I did Ancestry© and discovered the rumored Cherokee bride in my ancestral line was real. Perhaps that’s why I have always been so taken with this Cherokee parable, so taken with it, that I made it the last thing Tom said.

“It’s an old bit of Cherokee wisdom,” Tom answered. “According to Cherokee lore, a grandfather explained to his grandson that there are two wolves struggling inside each of us. One wolf is vengefulness, anger, resentment, self-pity, and fear. The other wolf is compassion, faithfulness, hope, truth, and love. When his grandson asked, ‘Grandfather, which wolf wins?’ his grandfather replied, ‘The one you feed.’

Before Craig died, he made me promise that I would have a good life. Finishing “The Two-Faced Triplex” was hard, but it was a part of keeping my promise and part of feeding the right wolf.

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The Two-Faced Triplex

Regan signs on to play consoler-and-chief after the body of Martha Varner, one of her favorite clients, is found and the woman’s distraught daughter begs Regan to stop escrow from closing on a purchase her mother was about to make. Martha Varner’s death, at first ruled suicide, is quickly ruled homicide. The dead woman’s best friend thinks she knows who Martha’s killer is. The police have a different suspect. And Regan? Well, she has her own ideas about who killed Martha Varner. She just can’t imagine how complicated playing amateur sleuth will make her life and how dangerous her investigation will prove to be for her husband, Tom. The Two-Faced Triplex is the seventh book in the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series and probably the last of Regan and Tom's adventures. Dave, Santa Cruz Police Department Ombudsman and Regan's best friend, makes a return appearance and Harry, Regan and Tom's rescue cat is pressed into service as a decoy. As usual, action takes place in Santa Cruz County, but clues lead Regan to Carmel as she tries to find out what Martha was doing in the days leading up to her murder.

            Buy the Two-Faced Triplex thru Amazon

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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. This is the seventh book in the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mysteries series but she has taken breaks to write a stand-alone book called “Mags and the AARP Gang” about a group of octogenarian bank robbers, and to edit “Cozy Food: 128 Cozy Mystery Writers Share Their Favorite Recipes.” She planned to start a new series, “Geezers with Tools” but book seven in the Regan McHenry Real Estate Mystery series kept calling her, so Geezers was put on hold temporarily. She’s also editing an anthology of short stories from Santa Cruz authors with the title and theme “Santa Cruz Weird.”

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Thank you for sharing your courage with us, Nancy.

Writers, how much of you is in your stories?