Ivy Baric writes cozy mysteries about fraud, resilience, and the stubborn belief that small-town communities are harder to con than scammers think.
The Agate Reach Mystery Series grew out of personal experience. Ivy has seen what fraud does to families, not the dramatic, headline-grabbing kind, but the slow, quiet kind that takes your savings, your trust, and your sense of how the world works. The kind where the legal system shrugs and moves on, and you’re left wondering how you didn’t see it.
The books are her answer to that feeling. In Agate Reach, the scammers get caught. The victims get vindicated. And a 54-year-old widow with a sharp eye and a tuxedo cat gets to do what the system couldn’t.
Ivy lives in Oregon with her husband, two cats, two dogs, and a deep appreciation for fog, coffee, and a well-organized filing system.
How the Books Get Made
The Agate Reach mysteries are a collaboration between a human team and AI. I develop the characters, the emotional arcs, and the voice. My husband handles the strategy and the spreadsheets (every marriage needs one person who likes spreadsheets). And we work with an AI writing partner to produce the prose, drafting chapters that we then revise, reshape, and argue over until they sound like the book we want to read.
I’m telling you this because the series is about deception, and it would be pretty hypocritical to be cagey about how the sausage gets made. The stories come from real experience. The characters are people I care about. The AI is a tool, a powerful one, and the humans are the ones who decide what the tool builds.
If you have questions about the process, I’m happy to talk about it. That’s kind of the whole point. If you’re curious, you can also read more here.
The Scam-Awareness Mission
Every book in the Agate Reach series features an afterword with real information about the type of fraud depicted, red flags to watch for, resources for victims, and practical steps for protecting yourself and the people you love.
These aren’t abstract crimes. Romance scams, contractor fraud, predatory investment schemes, they happen to real people, in real towns, every day. The fiction is the setting. The scams are real.
If you or someone you know has been affected by fraud, the afterword in each book includes reporting resources and support organizations.