A MIDWINTER'S TAIL
A Midwinter's Tail (Lucky Paws Petsitting Mystery) by Bethany Blake
About the Book
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Kensington (November 27, 2018)
Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 1496717333
ISBN-13: 978-1496717337
Digital ASIN: B07B7C8XQY
To bark or not to bark . . . Professional pet sitter Daphne Templeton loves the holidays in Sylvan Creek, Pennsylvania. And nothing gets her into the spirit more than the town’s annual Bark the Halls Ball. The whole community will be there to wag their tails, especially this year’s special guest—Celeste “CeeCee” French, founder of a national chain of pet care franchises, who’s returning home to announce plans for a bright new flagship store. But not everyone’s celebrating CeeCee’s homecoming. Daphne’s friend Moxie Bloom, owner of Spa and Paw, a unique salon for people and their pets, has plenty to growl about. So when CeeCee is found face down under Sylvan Creek's town Christmas tree, stabbed with a distinctive pair of professional-grade pet shears, suspicion lands squarely on Moxie. Despite Daphne’s promises to Detective Jonathan Black, she quickly reprises her role as amateur sleuth. Ably assisted by her basset hound sidekick, Socrates, she must hurry to prove her friend’s innocence before a killer barks again . . . Includes recipes for homemade pet treats!
A MIDWINTERS TAIL EXCERPT
· Moxie Bloom might’ve
been caught off guard by the unexpected appearance of an imperious and wealthy,
not to mention impeccably dressed and perfectly coiffed, high school bully, who
wasn’t supposed to arrive in Sylvan Creek before the Bark the Halls ball, according
to Moxie’s rumor mill. Yet I had to give my best friend credit for grace under
pressure when CeeCee French rudely brought up cheating with Moxie's old
boyfriend - a topic that most people would’ve been ashamed to mention.
“How
have you been, Celeste?” Moxie asked politely, her voice level but her chin
high. She wisely ignored CeeCee’s reference to Mike Cavanaugh, whom Moxie
certainly did remember. She forced a smile, trying hard to be kind. “It’s been
a long time.”
CeeCee
took a moment to coolly survey the lobby, her angular jaw jutting as she
absently stroked her poodle with long, red-tipped fingers. Her toes, encased in
sharply pointed, distinctive crimson shoes that contrasted with her black,
form-fitting shift, tapped the thick carpet, as if she was already impatient
with the whole affair. I supposed that I should’ve been awed by our
multi-millionaire classmate, but, to be honest, I couldn’t muster more than
mild curiosity and a bit of disappointment to learn that she was still arrogant,
and, let’s face it, mean.
“Yes, it has been a
while,” CeeCee finally agreed, again looking Moxie and me up and down, her cool
gaze taking in Moxie’s vintage outfit and my old barn jacket. “And I find that
nothing’s changed.” The corners of her lips twisted upward, and she got a
knowing, almost secretive gleam in her dark eyes. “At least, nothing’s
changed... yet.”
About the Author
Bethany Blake lives in a small, quaint town in Pennsylvania with her husband and three daughters. When she’s not writing or riding horses, she’s wrangling a menagerie of furry family members that includes a nervous pit bull, a fearsome feline, a blind goldfish, and an attack cardinal named Robert.
Like Daphne Templeton, the heroine of her Lucky Paws Mysteries, Bethany holds a Ph.D. and operates a pet sitting business called Barkley’s Premium Pet Care.
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