What happens when Realtor Regan McHenry thinks it’s murder but no one else does?
The Death Contingency introduces Regan McHenry, a Santa Cruz Realtor, whose work puts her in the midst of mystery, mayhem and even murder. The amateur crime solver uses tools and techniques she’s learned during her career and skills she’s honed as a keen observer of human nature to solve mysteries ─ just not always soon enough to stay out of trouble.
She’s aided in her sleuthing by her husband, Tom Kiley, a computer programmer turned real estate broker, and by her friend Dave Everett, a cop reassigned as a police public relations ombudsman after losing an eye in the line of duty.
In The Death Contingency, a seller disappears before signing a grant deed. He turns up dead, and his nephew, a realtor Regan has known for years, becomes a person of interest in his death. She’s convinced the authorities’ focus is all wrong and sets out to prove it.
Then there’s a second death in the neighborhood. When it’s ruled accidental, Regan again finds herself at odds with the police. She thinks its murder and even thinks she knows who the murderer is ─ but she has to unravel past secrets before anyone will take her seriously. And, the problem is, she doesn’t want to be right.
Patricia A. Rockwell
Amateur Sleuth Is a Real Estate Agent
Here’s a cozy mystery with a new twist–the amateur sleuth is a real estate agent. So is the author. It seems like a great occupation for a detective as real estate agents certainly run into a wide variety of interesting clients, interact with people in tense situations (buying a house), and are privy to all sorts of private (particularly financial) information about said, clients. In this case, agent Regan McHenry is confronted with a seller who is late for the closing. The seller is an elderly gentleman and Regan is concerned as to his whereabouts. Is he just on a brief vacation? Or could there be something more sinister afoot? She begins to investigate. Along the way, we the reader discover much about the world of houses–and I’m sure author Jarvis has included many real estate anecdotes that are at least based on fact if not totally true. The characters are imminently likable and strongly drawn. I was particularly taken with Mrs. Rosemont. The writing is clean and easy to follow. The plot unfolds in a nice puzzle-solving fashion and the reader sees all of Regan’s thought processes–which I like. I definitely intend to read more Regan McHenry/real estate agent mysteries.
Viv Drewa 