Jazzi Zanders first appeared in The Body in the Attic and one of the best ways to learn about a person is by asking questions, so let’s get to know Jazzi.

What is your name?
Hi, I’m Jazzi Zanders.

How old are you?
I’m twenty-eight years old.

What is your profession?
And I’m a house flipper. I work with my cousin, Jerod, and my husband, Ansel.

Do you have a significant other?
Ansel and I had worked with each other for a long time, but when we first met, I was engaged. Chad and I had a great relationship until I moved in with him, and then he got too controlling. By the time I broke up with him and moved out, Ansel was living with a nurse, Emily. She was even more controlling than Chad. Eventually, Ansel and I were single at the same time. We’d always been interested in each other. The timing was just never right. Eventually, when we were both free, we decided to make it official as a couple, and soon after that, we were married.

What is his name and profession?
Ansel’s full name is Ansel Herstad, and he has a sister and two brothers. He grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, so he’s used to long hours and hard work. When he moved to River Bluffs, he went into business as a contractor until he joined our team.

Any children?
We don’t have any children. I’d like to enjoy being a couple before we take that plunge, but my cousin, Jerod, has two kids and he’ll soon have a baby.

Do you have any siblings?
My sister, Olivia, and I get together every Thursday night for girls’ night out. We’re almost opposites but enjoy each other. I love to wear a toolbelt and work on houses. She’s a girly-girl who’s a partner in my mom’s hair salon. Olivia always wears trendy clothes, perfect makeup, and funky hairstyles. I try to look presentable when I go out with her, but she usually thinks I should try harder.

Do your parents live near you?
My mom and dad live on the southwest side of River Bluffs, and we see them every Sunday. For a long time now, I’ve invited everyone in the family to my place for Sunday dinners so that we can keep in touch and catch up on each other’s latest news. Mom and Olivia don’t like to cook, but I really enjoy it. I learned from my grandma. Grandma comes every Sunday, too, but she’s beginning to get confused sometimes now. When she’s especially stressed, she thinks I’m her late sister, Sarah.

Who is your best friend?
I still see a few of my friends from high school, and Ansel and I meet them to eat out once in a while on Friday nights. But I grew fond of my upstairs neighbor when I rented a first-floor apartment in West Central. Reuben lived on the second floor, and I lived on the first. He’s an interior designer, and when I bought a house we were flipping, he couldn’t wait to see it and offer us advice. We’ve sworn to keep in touch, even though we don’t see each other that often anymore.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
Ansel came to me with a pug, George. I’ve never seen a man spoil a dog as much as he does that one. When Ansel had to return to Wisconsin for a while to help his family, he took George with him. I’d always enjoyed living alone until Ansel moved in with me. But when he left, even though I knew it was temporary, our house felt too big, too empty, so I adopted two small kittens. Marmalade is a sweetheart. Inky is so naughty that if I didn’t love him so much, he might become an outside cat. But that will never happen. . .and he knows it.

What town do you live in?
We live on the far north side of River Bluffs. My family lives south and southwest. River Bluffs has grown enough that what used to be a quick ride from one end of town to the other has become much longer with a lot more traffic. The town still thinks of itself as warm and friendly, though. And for the most part, it is.

Type of dwelling and do you own or rent?
When Jerod, Ansel, and I were working on Cal Juniper’s house to flip, I fell in love with it. It’s big with a lot of space but looks like a large stone cottage. The windows have deep casements, and it has an “eyebrow” roof over the bay window. It reminds me of English cottages like the ones in old Disney movies or an Agatha Christie novel. We knocked out a wall between the kitchen and dining room to create a huge space for entertaining. I loved it so much, I bought it.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
I love our kitchen/eating area/sitting area. It can hold over twenty people easily, and at the rate our family’s growing with Jerod and Franny having another child, Ansel’s brother staying with us, and Olivia’s Thane and additional friends, we need all of the room we can get. It’s funny how when I first bought the house, I thought it was big enough for everything, and now I’m thinking we’ll need to add another table to fit everyone around it. But I love to cook, and Ansel enjoys helping me. We try new recipes all the time. Cooking relaxes me. So, yes, the kitchen has to be my favorite room of the house.

Favorite meal and dessert?
I have eclectic taste when it comes to food. Mostly, I like variety. I don’t like to eat the same meal over and over again. I have Oriental recipes, Italian, meat and potatoes, and soups. But when I want something special, I always choose scallops. My favorite is breaded, but I’m awfully happy with them sautéed, too. And for dessert? I’d choose chocolate pavlova with sliced strawberries and piles of whipped cream.

Favorite hobby?
Cooking is definitely my top hobby. I have cooking magazines sent to our house, and I’ve bought so many cookbooks, Ansel had to build a bookcase to hold them all. But I love to tend my flower beds, too, especially perennials. I’m not a great gardener, not especially well-informed, but I enjoy it. And last but not least, I love to read. The shelves that don’t hold cookbooks hold novels. I save my favorites and pass the rest to my friends

Favorite color?
I love the color red. Our front and back doors are red, and I think they make our cottage look friendly and welcoming. I like red as a splash of color in our rooms, too. My sister and Thane’s ranch house is a deep red with white trim, and I think it suits it.

Favorite author?
I can’t pick one favorite author. I have favorites, but I like a variety of kinds of books. I get bored if I read too much of one genre back to back. Elizabeth George is one of the authors I admire the most. She writes literary mysteries, and her writing style fascinates me as much as her characters and plotting. When I need action and adventure, I buy Ilona Andrews’s urban fantasy and lose myself in one battle after another. For romance, I turn to Julia Donner’s Regencies with their humor and heat. And for historical mysteries, I buy Anna Lee Huber’s Lady Darby series. I’m a huge fan of Mae Clair’s Hode’s Hill series for paranormal mysteries. My Kindle is full of Jenna Bennett and Lynn Cahoon, and when I need a quirky humor fix, I turn to C.S. Boyack. And all that said, one prized shelf of books belongs to Agatha Christie, and when I want to immerse myself in language and magic, I try Alice Hoffman. Sigh. Enough said. I have too many favorites.

Favorite sports team?
Ansel only watches sports on Sundays, and most of the time, I read while he follows a game. I don’t know one team from another. So if I had to choose my favorite sports team, I’d choose whatever Little League team Jerod’s kids are on.

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
I’d rather not solve mysteries. I’d rather never find a dead body, but I must be a magnet for them. I’d be hopeless trying to figure out what happened without our friend, Detective Gaff. True, he didn’t start out as a friend. But when Jerod and I found my aunt’s long dead body in a trunk in Cal Juniper’s attic, Gaff was kind enough to let me tag along when he talked to my mom and family members. Having me there when he questioned them made them feel better. And Gaff swears it helped him, too, that they talked more and remembered more when they talked to me. We made a pretty good team, so he still lets me tag along when he interviews people for information. He does his best, though, to keep me away from anyone he thinks is dangerous. I’ve gotten close to the man. All of us consider him a friend by now.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
On most days, Ansel and I get up, get ready, and drive to whatever house we’re flipping at the moment. We meet Jerod there and work our way down the list we’ve made for renovations. We finish up around five and then drive home. If we’re lucky, and no one calls, we shower and change into our pajamas, then we start supper together. We keep things simple during the week. After supper, we watch a little TV, or sometimes I read, and then we call it an early night. It’s a dull routine, but it’s comforting to us.

The Body in the Apartment is the fourth book in the “Jazzi Zanders” cozy mystery series, released March 17, 2020.

The charming homes of River Bluffs, Indiana, make perfect projects for house-flipper Jazzi Zanders. Less charming is her hothead brother-in-law, who’s a bit of a fixer-upper himself. But could he also be a murderer?

Jazzi married her gorgeous contractor Ansel—not his family. But somehow she keeps living with them. So she’s delighted to help Ansel’s brother Radley move out of their home and into his own place, in the same building as his work supervisor, Donovan. But when Donovan is shot and his apartment ransacked following an argument with Ansel and Radley’s older brother Bain, their sibling becomes a suspect—especially after his missing gun turns up as the murder weapon.

Told not to leave town by Detective Gaff, big brother moves in with . . . Jazzi and Ansel. Now Jazzi needs to prove Bain’s no killer, not only to keep him out of jail—but to get him out of their house. What was the killer looking for in Donovan’s apartment? And what will happen to the next person who gets in the way?

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About the author
Judi Lynn lives in Indiana with her husband, a bossy gray cat, a noisy Chihuahua, and a parakeet. She loves to cook and owns more cookbooks than any mortal woman would ever need. That’s why so much food sneaks into her stories. She also loves her flower beds, but is a haphazard gardener, at best. She writes cozy mysteries for Lyrical Press and paranormal mysteries on Amazon.

To learn more about Judi, visit her website at writingmusings.com. Connect with her online on Facebook, on Twitter, and on BookBub

All comments are welcomed.