Meet Kate Jasper, Marin County, California’s own organically grown amateur sleuth. (“She’s smart, funny, vulnerable, and unpretentious,” says Marilyn Wallace, editor of the Sisters in Crime series.) In this first Kate Jasper mystery, Kate visits her chiropractor for a simple spinal adjustment, but instead finds a dead man on one of the tables . . . dead of a broken neck. And it seems everyone in the chiropractor’s office knew the victim, Scott Younger, in one way or another, except for Kate herself. Maggie, Kate’s friend and chiropractor, has known Scott for years, as has her staff. Her receptionist, Renee, even dated him. Devi knew Scott from college. Guru‑follower Valerie accuses Scott of being a drug pusher! And Wayne, Scott's now unnecessary bodyguard, a shy, homely man who almost makes Kate forget her husband has left her, knew him the best of all. But Kate can't forget murder, especially since Wayne is the main suspect. And there is the pesky matter of Kate's fingerprints on the metal bar that broke Scott Younger's neck. Kate Jasper’s in for a spine‑tingling, bone‑chilling adventure.
Jaqueline “Jaki” Girdner is a lifelong reader from a family of readers and writers. While working her way through world literature, children’s literature, science fiction, and other genres, she earned a degree in psychology, practiced tai chi, and eventually became a lawyer. While in law school, she read her way through Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and John Dickson Carr. For a short time, she worked for a criminal law firm, then set up shop on her own as a family law attorney and eventually started a greeting card company called Jest Cards, which didn’t make her much money but finally led her to create Kate Jasper, who owned a gag gift company called Jest Gifts and practiced tai chi. Kate Jasper stumbled over dead bodies, and Jaki sold her first mystery novel. And then eleven more. She has also written, as Claire Daniels, about Cally Lazar, a recovering attorney who does “cane‑fu” and has an energetic healing practice.