Jonnie Jacobs, Piedmont's Woman of Mystery

In a small Oregon town, a teenage girl goes missing  — the second such disappearance within a year. Paradise Falls, the latest mystery by long-time Piedmont resident and much-published author Jonnie Jacobs, explores the impact of the girl's disappearance on her family, her classmates and a police detective.

It's a well-crafted and satisfying mystery. But equally, Paradise Falls is a clear-eyed look at how a blended family  — she has a teenage daughter, he has two teens, a boy and a girl  — functions when one of the children disappears.

Is a stepfather's grief tempered by relief that it wasn't one of his biological children who vanished? Are relationships among the step-siblings more complicated than their parents realize? Can a happy marriage survive when the missing girl's mother begins to suspect her stepson?

Jacobs talked with Piedmont Patch over lattes at (decaf for Jacobs, full-strength for me) about the writing life and her newest book.

"I look at a mystery as a frame to hang my story on," Jacobs said.

"It's usually some little incident that intrigues me. I don't have great thoughts — I would if I could, but it's usually some personal conflict or doubt [that germinates into a book]."

For Paradise Falls, the germ of the story came from volunteer work Jacobs did with teenage girls in foster care. They talked to her about the tensions that arise when unrelated boys and girls of similar ages are living in one household. Those tensions play a large role in the book.

Jacobs is drawn to the mystery genre because, she said, "It's a situation with lots of secrets and questions. And I like definitive answers.

"Life is so open-ended, you don't really know what happened. With a crime, even when there's a conviction, you never really know. There could be half a dozen plausible explanations."

In the same vein, Jacobs said, "You can make a fictional town more real than any actual city. I'd make up a church and readers would say, 'I know that church.'"

The Writing Life

I first interviewed Jacobs some 15 years ago, not long after publication of her first one or two books, Murder Among Neighbors and Murder Among Friends. The fictional town in those books was Walnut Hills (which some readers believe is based on Lafayette) and the central character was Kate Austen, perhaps the first of the "suburban mom" sleuths.

Jacobs was already living in Piedmont at the time and even called on the Piedmont Police Department for help with technical details in her stories. These days, she said, there are more resources for mystery writers — discussion groups for authors and police, panels at writers' conferences — so she no longer has to query the PPD.

The four Kate Austen books were followed by a popular series featuring Bay Area attorney Kali O'Brien (Jacobs is a former practicing attorney) and a stand-alone suspense novel, The Only Suspect.

Paradise Falls, released March 7, is Jacobs' first published book after a seven-year hiatus, but her approach to writing hasn't changed.

"I don't outline, I just don't think that way," she said. "Once in the story, things occur to me that wouldn't if I outlined in the abstract."

In fact, Jacobs does outline — but after her first draft is finished.

"When I'm finished, I go back and outline to make sure I haven't missed anything. That's the frustration of looking at the big story, there's a tremendous amount of rewriting. Sometimes I just have to take something out," she said.

At any given time, Jacobs' most recent book is her least favorite for a while.  

"By the time I'm finished with a book, I'm ready to move on," she said. 

Right now, moving on includes revising early drafts of her 14th book ("a mystery but not investigative"), working on a 15th (too early to talk about) and shepherding her earlier works into Kindle format. Skiing and travel are also on her agenda.

Jacobs and her husband, Rod, have lived in Piedmont for over 25 years. They have two sons, both in their 20s.

Paradise Falls (Five Star/Gale, Cengage Learning, $25.95 hardcover) is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and in local libraries. (It's not, unfortunately, currently stocked by any local independent bookstores.)

For more information about Jacobs and her books, visit her website at jonniejacobs.com/index.html.