Nix’s heart is on permanent lockdown after her mom walked out on her, but she needs a date to her cousin’s engagement party. Anything to put an end to the relentless single-shaming. Can she find someone—preferably smokin’—willing to spend Thanksgiving weekend with her meddling family in a tiny seaside town in the middle of nowhere?
Brock got burned falling for the wrong girl. But his potential promotion to captain hinges on him having a date for the annual firefighters’ gala. Can he convince the entire community that his short fuse is a thing of the past, that he’s ready for a serious new role as a fire hall leader?
They’ve agreed: falling in love is not an option. And soon, they’re fooling everyone. Even themselves.When Brock utterly charms Nix’s hard-to-impress aunt over a cozy breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup, and sparks fly at the fire department dance, the alarm bells start to ring…
NOT ACTUALLY YOURS by Sophie L. Henderson is a contemporary romance with explosive sexual chemistry that returns the reader to Fire House 8 in Van City and this time it is elder Holt brother, Brock’s turn to fall, but it won’t be easy with the ever-evasive Nix. Each book in this connected series features one of three brothers and there is some overlapping of characters, but they are still easily read as standalone romances.
Elementary teacher Nix refuses to involve her heart in any relationship after being deserted by her mother as a small child. When her aunt, who helped raise her, tells her she needs to attend her cousin’s weekend long engagement party, she tells her she has a boyfriend to bring otherwise her aunt threatens to set her up. Now she must ask a favor of the man she is trying to be friends with since he is the brother of her best friend’s boyfriend. But after having had a hot sexual encounter with him three months ago and then ghosting him, she knows it is a big ask.
Firefighter Brock has had terrible luck in the romance department. He would like more than friendship with the hot Nix who he cannot seem to forget, even though she ghosted him. When she needs a date for an engagement party it coincides with his need for a date for an annual firefighters’ gala. They can fake this without involving their hearts, can’t they?
I enjoyed the first Van City book, Play with Fire, but I enjoyed this romance even more. Both Nix and Brock have emotional difficulties from their childhoods to deal with as they are trying to form a healthy relationship between them. Usually, I dislike romances with plots based on non-communication, but Ms. Henderson does a wonderful job of portraying both Nix and Brock as they get things wrong from fear or misunderstanding, have short intervals of running, but also how they decide it is better to talk and they have friends and family who also help. They both delve into their emotions honestly and have character growth throughout the story. This is a contemporary romance with several steamy and explicit sex scenes that I feel fit well with the characters’ personalities.
I highly recommend this steamy contemporary romance that pulled me right in and left me with a smile on my face and a satisfied romantic heart.
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About the Author
Author Sophie L. Henderson writes heartfelt small-town romance for readers who love slow-burn butterflies, blush-worthy heat, and characters you’ll fall for just as hard as they fall for each other. Her debut PLAY WITH FIRE is out now. NOT ACTUALLY YOURS is coming in May.
Originally from a tiny village in England, Sophie spent seventeen years wrangling jazz hands as a drama teacher before finally listening to the voice in her head (the one telling her to write, not the one asking for another snack). She now lives in Vancouver with her husband, where she’s embraced views of snowcapped mountains, has caught feelings for hockey, and talks to hummingbirds like they’re her best friends.
Childhood sweethearts Rhett and Lucinda seem to have the perfect marriage, the child they always wanted, and even the white picket fence. But fifteen years ago, the couple came very close to losing everything. When outsider Jennifer Moore arrived in their tight-knit Kentucky town, a brief but explosive affair between the newcomer and the soon-to-be-married Rhett stirred up a violent storm of betrayal that ended with a dead body and a mystery riddled with corruption and deception.
Now, new evidence has surfaced—including an eyewitness who places Rhett at the scene of the brutal crime. Soon the carefully constructed life Rhett and Lucinda built starts to crumble—and the truth waiting beneath the surface could destroy them both.
In a town steeped in deadly Southern charm, secrets don’t fade—they fester.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Where The Truth Lies by Katherine Greene, the pen name of bestselling authors A. Meredith Walters and Claire C. Riley, is a domestic suspense story. The small-town setting enhances the secrets, affairs, and deception made by each character, along with the alternating timelines and multiple POVs.
High school sweethearts Rhett Clark and Lucinda Herbaugh seem to have nothing in common. She is from a very powerful and rich family while he is being raised by a single mom who works very hard at her job. Yet, they appear to love each other and to be the picture-perfect couple with the perfect marriage.
But fifteen years ago, the couple came very close to losing everything, when outsider Jennifer Moore arrived in their tight-knit Kentucky town and had a brief but explosive affair with soon-to-be-married Rhett. Fast-forward to the present where new evidence has surfaced, including an eyewitness who places Rhett at the scene of the brutal murder of Jennifer.
Now the betrayal once again comes to the surface, and the mystery of Jenn’s death is riddled with corruption and deception. Everything Rhett and Lucinda strove for is crumbling as the “truth” begins to come out. Abuse plays a role in the story whether emotional, physical, or both. Lucinda’s father made sure everyone in the family and town sided with him. Jenn’s brother believes women should be dominated and intimidated, influencing Rhett in a bad way. With Jenn’s death at the center of the story each of the other character’s will have to answer to their own demons.
Other than Jenn, all the other characters are not likeable and very complex. This story has readers only rooting for Jenn to get justice as they turn the pages to find out the truth.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
Abbi Meredith Walters: It is inspired by true events, a cold case, that happened in Virigina involving people in my family. I had this old scrapbook that was my grandmothers. I sent this to Claire, and we decided to write a book based on the information. There are personality traits like the people the characters were modeled after. We did make changes.
EC: How did you both decide to write together?
Claire C. Riley: Abbi and I have been friends for ten plus years. We met on Facebook in a writer’s group. We had both been writing separately for a very long time. During Covid Abbi had a bit of a writer’s block and I suggested we should write a book together. We both really, really liked doing it.
EC: Why the pen name Katherine Green?
CCR: My middle name is Catherine with a “C”, so I changed it to Katherine with a “K” and Abbi was stuck for a surname. She liked green and so did I, so we chose that as the last name.
EC: What was the role of Jenn in the story?
AMW: Claire and I agreed that the victim, Jenn, needed a voice. We wanted the reader to remember she was at the heart of the story and did not want her to get lost in it. She was meant to be the most likeable character in the story.
CCR: After writing about half the book, Abbi realized Jenn needed her own chapters. In the news the victim tends to be lost so we wanted to make her the forefront. We thought it was much more important for her to tell her story, more than anyone else. It helped to build the story around her.
EC: How would you describe Jenn?
Katherine Greene: She started innocent and finished innocent. She is vulnerable, fearful, a teaser, vulnerable, timid, and ran away from her life. Jenn was a prisoner in her family’s home. In some ways she is the other woman but unwillingly because she did not know.
EC: What was the relationship between Jenn and Rhett like?
AMW: He got something for this relationship that was lacking in his life. He was able to control her and felt he was in charge. I do not think he was capable of truly loving her and betrayed her. His entire relationship with her was what she could do to fill his needs.
EC: What about Rhett?
Katherine Greene: He was bullied into submission by this strong-willed family. He enters this dark world and is led astray by the other male character. We wanted to show how he was led down this different path that he meant not to go down. He started off as a lovely person who wants to please all the women in his life. We hope readers like him at first, and then at the end do not like him with the slow descent. At first, he is seen as trustworthy, honest, dependable, quiet, and charming. But then becomes obstinate, lacks common sense, and has rage.
EC: What do you want to say about Lucinda?
CCR: She just wants her parents’ approval and to be loved but must deal with overbearing parents. She has a slow descent into becoming an unlikeable person because of her striving for perfectionism. She is at times out of control, confident, from a privileged family, lonely, manipulator, and strong-willed.
EC: What about Lucinda and Rhett’s relationship?
Katherine Greene: They had secrets. She had old-fashioned values where she wants to get married and have children. He felt trapped in their relationship and felt emasculated by her and her family. She felt betrayed, deceived, and humiliated by him. They were bitter and combative toward each other. She stays with him out of spite because her parents never liked him. He creates a prison for her as much as she does for him. She was trapped by hoping he would love her.
EC: Do you think control plays an important role in the book?
Katherine Greene: The men in this book are all quite toxic in wanting control, while all the women felt they did not have control of their own lives. The continuity is that the characters felt all out of control over their own lives. The main characters each had to deal with overbearing people. Lucinda felt out of control because of her overbearing parents, Rhett felt overbearing by Lucinda, and Jenn ran away from home. No one was in control of their lives or actions. All were led astray by someone else’s actions.
EC: Do you agree that Marty, Jenn’s brother, was a character who did have toxic masculinity?
Katherine Greene: He passed it on to Rhett who latched on to him and had dark thoughts put in his head because he did not start out that way. He is domineering, wants things his way, unethical, intimidating, powerful, sadistic, arrogant, and wants to control the family dynamic. He has this book quote, “Women want to be tamed. They want to be controlled. They want to be put in their place.”
EC: How would you describe Bailey, Lucinda’s sister?
Katherine Greene: She is vulnerable, malleable, and family is most important to her. She has layers. She is also an attention-seeker, angry, possessive, and naïve.
EC: Next book?
Katherine Greene: We are writing two books. One is the sequel to The Lake of Lost Girls. The other book is Here We Lay Our Bones that has four simultaneous storylines, a mystery/thriller. The plot is based around the discovery of some bones.
THANK YOU!!
***
BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE LAST FATAL HOUR by Jan Matthews on this Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour.
Below you will find book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links, and a PICT giveaway. Enjoy!
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Book Description
For Leona Gladney, former woman soldier of the Union Army, life goes on despite the echoes of the battlefield in her heart. Now a suffragist and budding socialite in Brooklyn Heights, she yearns for a literary life and family. But her husband’s business partner embezzles their money and disappears.
The society matrons of Brooklyn Heights turn a gimlet eye on Leona after the suspicious death of a wealthy friend. Leona will do anything to find justice for her friend and clear her own name, but she finds only secrets, seances and murder.
Genre: Historical Mystery Published by: Coffee&ink Press Publication Date: April 7, 2026 Number of Pages: 320 ISBN: 9798232470982
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
THE LAST FATAL HOUR by Jan Matthews is an intriguing historical murder mystery and domestic suspense mash-up set post-Civil War in Brooklyn Heights, New York. This book features a female main character attempting to be an amateur sleuth to clear her name and due to blackmail. She was previously a fighting female soldier in disguise during the Civil War who is now struggling with severe PTSD. This is a standalone fictional historical story that is authentic to the era and society it portrays.
Socialite Leona Gladney has attempted to put her past as a soldier in the Union Army and death of her first husband behind her. Remarried and working on personal literary pursuits, she still has dreams and moments of anxiety over her time in the service. Her anxiety is exacerbated by her husband’s business partner disappearing with their company’s funds.
When the robbery and suspicious death of a wealthy friend and matriarch leaves Leona a suspect, she is determined to uncover the real culprit. What she is not prepared for is a tangled web of seances, lies, deception, and murder.
This is an enlightening as well as maddening story of the legal and political struggles women faced in the 19th century intertwined with the intricately plotted chase of a killer. Leona is a strong character that is more than just her heritage and social status, but even as she tries to fulfill her feminine societal duties, she has an entire previous life she has kept from everyone but her grandfather. While her time as a soldier makes her an unusual protagonist, her life is historically possible. The many uses of laudanum especially involving females throughout this story is not only historically accurate, but also sad. While I suspected the outcome, it is still satisfying and once again brings society’s treatment of women to the forefront.
I highly recommend this intriguing historical mystery and domestic suspense mash-up.
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Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
The blot of ink stuck to her finger, tacky like drying blood. Leona scrubbed at it with her handkerchief as the clock chimed two hours after midnight. She capped the inkwell, and while the ink dried on her most recent entry, she organized the copies with ribbons. Blue for Daphne and red for Ruth. With shaking hands, she slipped the copies into stiff cardboard folios and tied them closed. Sighing, she set them on the desk in front of her.
The flames in the hearth beckoned. This wasn’t the first night she’d yearned for obliteration. It wouldn’t come if she gave in to the urge to throw her labor into the fire. Only paper and ink would vanish, leaving the memories behind.
Pen and ink or back to the laudanum.
A grim thought, the grimmest of all.
The words had clawed their way out tonight. She’d begun the memoir of her time as a Union soldier months ago with the hope her drowning spirits would revive once the words dropped to the page. Yet the foreboding crept through her and tightened around her throat as the little study filled with familiar shadows. This old terror had become a second skin, like the tattered and dirty uniform she’d once worn.
Over the monotonous chatter of the rain, the clock ticked away the seconds until her husband came home. Leona moved to the window, pushed aside the heavy velvet curtains, and looked out at night-shrouded Cranberry Street. A lamp glowed in a window across the street. Homesickness for Boston, for life before the war, for herself before the war, settled on her. The wind threw a heavy splash of rain against the window, and she jumped back, letting go of the curtain.
Pacing the study, her restless thoughts rushed on without fatigue. To keep the memories inside only fed the persistent mental return to the battlefield, and the outpouring of words somewhat tamed her tormented soul. She stopped and touched the folio. Work would save her: work, family, friendship, and love. Maybe she’d write a story about two clocks. A natural clock which kept good time and a mad clock that twisted time out of true.
The street door below opened and closed. At last Gil, home safe. She couldn’t even bring herself to scold him for being so late. Leona listened for his footsteps as she crossed the room to tuck the folios into her desk drawer and locked it. She closed the gaslight apertures in the study and turned up the flame on the wall sconces in the drafty hallway so he could find his way. In the bedroom, she shed her dressing gown, stepped out of her slippers, and kicked them under the bed. Gil made his clumsy climb up the stairs. When he stumbled into the room, she pulled the covers back. He fell into bed fully clothed beside her, mumbling and fretful, the sharp ripe scent of whiskey lacing his breath.
She laid her hand on his shoulder. Beneath the cloth of his shirt, his skin was cold and damp. “Rest now, go to sleep,” she whispered.
***
At first light, Leona had dressed in a blue and cream day gown and made her way downstairs for breakfast. The creeping dread of the night before had waned. She rubbed her gritty eyes and yawned again. Mrs. McCarthy poured coffee from the silver pot, the familiar, civilized table a welcome sight. The scent of bacon made her stomach growl.
“Are you well, m’um?”
Leona glanced into the broad face of their cook and housekeeper, a sturdy and mature woman with a comforting Irish burr. She wore her fading blonde hair in a crown around her head.
“I didn’t sleep much.” Leona yawned again behind her fingers.
Gil’s heavy tread on the stairs made them both jump, and Mrs. McCarthy squeaked.
“I’ll bring more breakfast in a jiffy.” She fled through the side door to the kitchen just as Gil ducked through the hall entrance.
Leona rose and smiled at her husband. He’d made a great effort to come down early after returning so late. She accepted his peck on the cheek, poured him coffee and set it between them, wifely mask in place. He glared with bloodshot eyes at the letter in his hand, and her stomach clenched.
“It’s not all bad news, Gil.” She’d read the contents of the letter before leaving it on his desk in his study, as Grandfather had addressed it to both.
He raised his hazel eyes to her. “You recall Henry has absconded with all our funds?” he asked in a sarcastic tone, squinting at the letter, then back at her.
She no longer knew what to say about Gil’s former business partner, Henry Caldwell-Jones. The police were still looking for him. It put the devil in Gil’s eyes to speak of it, so she tried to let it be, not wanting to distress him even more.
“Of course, I remember, Gil. I—”
“And now your grandfather won’t give me a second loan. I’ll have to go back to the bank and ask them again.”
“He only wants to speak with you face to face about our situation,” she said, in her grandfather’s defense. “He’ll help us, Gil. He did offer to speak at the lyceum on his return from Ohio, to help raise funds. It isn’t as if—” Or was it? “We won’t lose the house, will we?”
The muscles in his lean face twitched as Gil fought to hide his disappointment, and her heart broke a little more to witness it. “Your grandfather does not bring in the interest he once did.”
It was true Leona’s grandfather, poet, abolitionist, and Transcendentalist, didn’t bring in the money he used to at readings in New York and Brooklyn, but he didn’t suffer for it.
Gil raked his fingers through his thick, brown hair and opened his mouth. Mrs. McCarthy entered with his breakfast, apparently stopping what he meant to say next. He reached inside the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a small notebook and pencil. Laying them on the table, his frown deepened.
Once Mrs. McCarthy had bustled out again, Leona said, “I could write to Aunt Louisa.” Who was not truly an aunt, but a friend of her mother’s.
He opened the notebook and touched the tip of his tongue to the pencil. “We cannot afford to feed and house a man of Bronson Alcott’s caliber,” he replied with heaviness. He bent his head to the columns of numbers on the pages.
His confidence and spirits were usually high, and it hurt to see him laid so low. She did mean Louisa Alcott herself, not her father Bronson Alcott, as the speaker for the lyceum to draw a crowd. Her novel, Little Women, published two years before, had become hugely popular.
“I’ll sell the lyceum, that should help,” Gil murmured, eyes downcast.
Leona winced. It was where they’d met nearly a year before. At a loss again, she glanced down at her lapel watch—9 o’clock already. She stood and set cups and plates on the tray.
“Let Mrs. McCarthy do that.” His pencil went on calculating their precarious position.
“I don’t mind. I’m off to see Daphne this morning. I won’t be home until the late afternoon.” Taking a deep breath, she dared to ask, not expecting an answer. “How much do we owe?” She blew out her held breath, apprehension biting at her. “Why won’t you tell me how much Henry has stolen?”
“He’s made me a laughingstock.” His handsome lips formed a tight smile, but he didn’t look at her. “Don’t you worry, Leona, leave it to me. This will all be over by Christmas.”
***
On the street, she began to walk, then turned to observe the window where Gil labored, smoke curling from the chimney. The image stayed with her as she made her way to the newsstand around the corner and waited patiently for her turn to buy a paper. The sunny day, though cold, had driven people outdoors, well wrapped in fur-collared coats and wool scarves. Woodsmoke and the sharp tang of the river mingling with the scent of baking bread drifted on the breeze. She chewed on the frustration that he wouldn’t share their financial details with her. It made her more fearful not to know. Though she kept the memoir and chapter stories a secret from him, this was hardly the same.
Passing the newsstand, an article about the new bridge caught her eye so she bought the latest Brooklyn Eagle. The previous summer, the four of them, Henry, his wife Helen, herself, and Gil, had stood at the end of Noble Street to watch the construction of the giant caissons in the naval yard. Though approval of the bridge was a long-foregone conclusion, the article was typical of the Eagle’s awful anti-consolidation fear mongering. The article repeated the claim linking the boroughs would only bring the dregs of Manhattan’s Lower East Side into Brooklyn’s pure white Heights. The wrongness of such an attitude churned her stomach.
Leona folded the paper and tucked it under her arm with the folio, sighing. Who would save the poor of this world from the hatred of the rich? Her spirits drooped lower.
She breathed deep the November air on familiar, tree-lined Remsen Street, where she’d lived for two years before marrying Gil in August. The red door of the brownstone opened, welcoming her in. Timothy, the butler, took her hat and coat. Before he disappeared with them, his eyes met hers with a familiar blue twinkle.
“I’ll tell her you’re here,” he said.
“Thank you.” She inhaled the sweet smell of hothouse roses set in vases along the long hallway and waited for word of her arrival to reach Daphne and her nurse Audrey.
Audrey approached from the depths of the house. Her eyes, though hooded, were a pure delphinium blue, blonde hair pinned tight to her head. She wore a plain uniform of dark gray with long cuffed sleeves and a white apron.
“Mrs. Van Wyn is in the Lavender Room.” With a curt nod, she turned away.
When they first met, Leona and Audrey had often shared tea and conversation, but of late Leona felt nothing but a wall of smothered animosity between them. They hadn’t argued, as such, though she had an idea where the strained relations came from.
“Is she well?” Leona asked.
For a moment, she didn’t think Audrey would answer, but the woman turned toward her again. “She passed a quiet night. The laudanum helps.”
Leona frowned. Audrey flicked a dismissive hand and went on her way.
The introduction of laudanum in Daphne’s life began not long after Leona moved to Cranberry Street with Gil that summer. The spas and cures Daphne’s grandson Benedict and his wife arranged didn’t seem to help anymore. The family hired Audrey, who administered the laudanum, a common enough panacea. Laudanum’s presence always disturbed Leona, and she had protested to the family, but no one listened. Audrey had become cold after this discussion. Leona believed some of Daphne’s pain came from her daily battle with grief. Leona often feared her own grief and the overuse of laudanum, prescribed by a respected doctor in Boston, had killed the child from her previous marriage to Jack Davenport. Poor dead Jack.
***
Author Bio
Jan Matthews is an American expat living in the sunshine in Portugal.
She is (finally) retired from HIM and writes historical mysteries from the Middle Ages to World War I. When not writing or drinking coffee and wine in nearby cafes, she knits and crochets for charity and reviews books on her blog.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for 27 (A Jan Norge/Hilda Baker Thriller Book #2) by Stewart Giles on this blog tour.
Below you will find a book blurb, my book review, and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Blurb
27 : A club you definitely do not want to be a member of.
What starts out as a series of seemingly unrelated murders, soon turns into something much darker. A murderer is killing people, based on the causes of death of the members of the mythical 27 Club.
Detectives Jan Norge and Hilda Baker are baffled. Someone is going to a lot of trouble to get the details right, but none of the officers on the team are able to figure out why they’re doing it.
As the body count increases, Jan and Hilda make a breakthrough of sorts in the form of a tragic accident that happened sixteen years ago, But it soon becomes clear that there is more to it than a simple tragic event. The murderer the press is dubbing The 27 Club Killer has another agenda, and with the list of potential victims running into the dozens the pressure is on for Jan and Hilda to stop the most depraved killer either of them has ever come across.
27 (A Jan Norge/Hilda Baker Thriller Book #2) by Stewart Giles is an exciting, fast-paced second book in the new Norge/Baker British police procedural crime thriller series. I have been looking forward to this book to get to know the main characters more intimately and I always know Mr. Giles will give me an intriguing new crime for his protagonists to work. This can be read as a standalone book since it is so early in the series, but the first book, Hakuna Matata is an excellent read, also.
Seemingly unrelated murders are piling up quickly until Detectives Jan Norge and Hilda Baker make the dark connection that the killer is imitating the historical deaths of members of the 27 Club. Discovering the link between the murders is good, but they continue without any indication of stopping as Jan and Hilda work to uncover the why.
I really enjoy this main cast of characters and how they work together. Jan is strait-laced, intelligent and has a strong sense of right and wrong, but he is softened by his backstory and his tripping occasionally over English slang. Hilda is an excellent detective, but she is abrasive and has little to no filter. (I could do with a little less of her bed hopping.) The two do somehow work well together though and make an impressive pair. The plot moves quickly and has several suspects, red-herrings and twists that keep you turning the pages. I was still second guessing the killer right up to the reveal. The integration of the 27 Club history also adds a layer that is very interesting.
As in every Stewart Giles book, you must read and be aware of every sentence right up to the end. While this book has a completed crime plot, the ending has me on pins and needles and I cannot wait for the next book in the series!
I highly recommend this second book in this British police procedural crime thriller.
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Author Bio
After reading English at 3 Universities and graduating from none of them, I set off travelling around the world with my wife, Ann, finally settling in South Africa, where we still live.
In 2014 Ann dropped a rather large speaker on my head and I came up with the idea for a detective series. DS Jason Smith was born. Smith, the first in the series was finished a few months later. 3 years and 8 DS Smith books later, Joffe Books wondered if I would be interested in working with them. As a self-published author, I agreed. However, we decided on a new series – the DC Harriet Taylor: Cornwall series. The Beekeeper was published and soon hit the number one spot in Australia. The second in the series, The Perfect Murder did just as well.
I continued to self-publish the Smith series and Unworthy hit the shelves in 2018 with amazing results. I therefore made the decision to self-publish The Backpacker which is book 3 in the Detective Harriet Taylor series which was published in July 2018. After The Backpacker I had an idea for a totally new start to a series – a collaboration between the Smith and Harriet thrillers and The Enigma was born. It brought together the broody, enigmatic Jason Smith and the more level-headed Harriet Taylor.
The Miranda trilogy is something totally different. A psychological thriller trilogy. It is a real departure from anything else I’ve written before. The Detective Jason Smith series continues to grow. I also have another series featuring an Irish detective who relocated to Guernsey, the Detective Liam O’Reilly series. There are also 3 stand alone novels.
Chet the dog is less than enthusiastic about the Little Detective Agency’s next case. Chet and his human partner, PI Bernie Little, have been hired to find a missing person—only the missing person is a cat. Miss Kitty, an internet sensation, has disappeared, and Chet and Bernie have been hired to find her before her many followers realize something is wrong.
Miss Kitty belongs to Bitty, a sweet teenage girl who lives with her mom. Bitty and her mother are struggling financially, but the arrival of Miss Kitty and the chance discovery of her social media appeal has changed everything. Bitty now has sponsors, a high-powered agent, and all the tools needed to thrive online, and real money is flowing in. At least, it was. With Miss Kitty gone, the family’s income is on the line.
The case presents a slew of challenges for Chet and Bernie. For one thing, a potential witness is a pig named Senor Piggy who may be in possession of an important piece of evidence. For another, it seems like a possible perp has been killed twice—and there’s evidence implicating Bernie in the crime.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Cat On a Hot Tin Woof by Spencer Quinn has the Little Detective Agency run by Bernie with his furry partner Chet asked to find the internet sensation Miss Kitty, a missing cat. Chet is the narrator and as just as most dog owners, Quinn puts words into his mouth.
Miss Kitty belongs to Bitty, a sweet teenage girl who lives with her mom, Evelyn. Bitty and her mother are struggling financially, but the arrival of Miss Kitty and the chance discovery of her social media appeal has changed everything. Bitty now has sponsors, a high-powered agent, and all the tools needed to thrive online, and real money is flowing in. At least, it was. With Miss Kitty gone, the family’s income is on the line.
The mystery explores social media influencers and the vast amounts of money that companies spend to have their products posted on social media.
Chet is not a fan of cats ever since Chet flunked out of the K9 police academy because of what he did to a cat. There is also a secondary storyline of some trouble in paradise for Bernie’s ex-wife Leda and her hubby.
This is a fun mystery that will keep readers smiling throughout and turning the pages to see who cat nipped Miss Kitty.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Idea for the series?
Spencer Quinn: In many earlier books the stories were much darker with a third person narration. I enjoyed writing about dogs, and they were part of the story. My wife suggested the idea of writing mysteries modeled on the Sherlock Holmes narrative where the sidekick tells the story in the first person. But the sidekick should be a dog, not a talking dog. Some people think this series are cozies but since sometimes dark things happen, they are not in that genre.
EC: How did you get the idea for this book?
SQ: When I began this series in 2009, I do not think there were social media influencers. Now we are moving to a society where everyone will be an influencer or influenced. I do not want to be either. The dog, Chet, has always had a problem with cats. I decided to combine an internet famous cat influencer.
EC: What was the role of Kitty the cat?
SQ: As an influencer the cat was very valuable and worth a lot of money. Chet and Bernie were hired to find this cat who was taken very quickly. I came up with the name because it rhymes with Bitty.
EC: How did you come up with the title?
SQ: Chet has a Facebook page. When I have an idea for a book I write a post. Any reader who suggests the title and I use it gets a signed book copy. I love that kind of reader interaction.
EC: Were you influenced by dog owners who put words to the dog thoughts?
SQ: Yes, just as Shakespeare had Hamlet turn to the audience and recite a soliloquy so the audience knows what is going on in their mind. Similarly, we all talk to our dogs and never lie to them. People say what is in their heart to their dogs. They also can communicate with their owner without talking.
EC: How would you describe Chet?
SQ: He is a 100 plus pounder. His ears do not match. Chet is a mix of some sort. He can bounce back to his reset position very quickly, to have joy in life. I love writing in his voice. I try to keep the human qualities out. He is not a human in a dog suit.
EC: What about the relationship between Chet and Bernie?
SQ: They have a great love for each other, the beating heart of this series. To Chet, Bernie can do no wrong.
EC: How would you describe Bernie?
SQ: Bernie is a war hero, heroically saving a lot of those in his platoon. He is not a salesman at all and financially is not doing very well. He is an introvert. He is dogged when trying to solve a case.
EC: What about Evelyn and Bitty?
SQ: Evelyn, the mom, and Bitty, are Kitty’s owners. They are a divorced family. Bitty’s father is a bad guy. They have a stroke of luck when Miss Kitty becomes popular. I am hoping they are seen as sympathetic characters. Bitty has some childlike elemental goodness in her.
EC: What about Leda and Weatherly?
SQ: When the series starts Bernie is already divorced from Leda. Weatherly, his fiancé, is his true match. In some ways she is just like him. There is something magical about her. We are moving toward a wedding. In some books she plays a huge role but with this one she was not in it much. She is in more in the background in this story. Since this series has a multitude of characters and I always want to advance the story some characters have a bigger role than others.
EC: Next book?
SQ: It will be out in April 2027. The title is Raiders of the Lost Bark. The plot has competing paleontologists trying to find the giant desert tortoise thought to be extinct.
THANK YOU!!
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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.
