Hi! My name is Dr. Ally Winter, and I take care of animals, not people. Mostly because I like them better. Especially with my lousy track record with relationships. After Tim my fiancé and veterinary partner skipped town with Tiffany, the blonde buxom vet tech, I decided to return to my hometown in Willow Bluff, Wisconsin. I managed to salvage enough money from my ruined business and wedding debt to buy out the former Willow Bluff veterinarian. All I wanted was to run my business—accounting for every dime, nickel and penny—while keeping an eye on Gramps.

My grandfather was a former Vietnam vet who preferred to think of himself as the soldier he once was, rather than the man who now needed to walk with a cane after suffering a broken hip. Taking care of animals and watching over Gramps shouldn’t be too difficult, right?

Wrong.

Unfortunately, the folks in Willow Bluff still thought of me as the Calamity Jane who set the chemistry lab on fire, and then sat on a nest of fire ants, which sent me running and screaming into Lake Michigan. Both of which earned me the title Hot Pants, dubbed by Noah Jamison, the quarterback of the high school football team and the most popular guy in our class.

Then of course, there was Gramps who lives in a modified assisted living home with three women, all widows like him. He refers to them as the WBW’s. You know, the Willow Bluff Widows. Harriet, Lydia and Tillie spend their days attempting to curry favor with Gramps, hoping to become the next Mrs. Oscar Winter. Uh, yeah, that was so not happening. Although if you ask me, Harriet had the edge over the others as her cooking and baking was incredible. It wouldn’t surprise me if the way to Gramps’ heart was through his stomach.

None of that really mattered, though because the biggest problem I encountered was the day I headed over to perform my dog walking services with Roxy, an adorable female boxer. When I arrived, I was shocked to stumble across Marty Shawlin’s dead body. Marty was a lawyer, one who Gramps had already kicked out of the Legacy house over allegations Marty was taking advantage of the WBW’s. And seeing Marty’s dead body, his head crushed with a glass globe paperweight, with his open briefcase beside him, I suspected Gramps was right. Otherwise, why would Marty have been murdered?

To make matters worse, my old nemesis, Noah Jorgenson is the Willow Bluff Police Detective assigned to the case. The only witness to Marty’s murder is Roxy, and she’s not talking. Gramps fancies himself as an amateur sleuth and keeps getting in Noah’s way in his attempt to track the murderer. And me? I’m just trying to keep my struggling business afloat. But family sticks together, so of course I have to help Gramps investigate the murder, if only to keep him safe.

But when the killer turns his (or her) sights on me, things really get dicey. I’m forced to work with Noah, instead of against him. And while Roxy may not have formal training as a police dog, I trust her to save the day.

Dogged by Death, A Furry Friends Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: July 2021
Purchase Link

In Laura Scott’s Furry Friends series debut, veterinarian Ally Winter must collar the killer of a shifty lawyer. Does the dead man’s dog know who committed the arf-ul crime?

Ally Winter is going through a ruff patch. The thirty-something veterinarian lost her fiancé, her clinic, and her savings in rapid succession. So when Ally’s grandfather undergoes hip replacement surgery, she moves back to Willow Bluff, Wisconsin, to care for him. She arrives home, tail between her legs, only to find sleazy lawyer Marty Shawlin murdered in his home office. And the only witness was Marty’s faithful boxer, Roxy.

Quick as a greyhound, Noah Jorgensen is on the case. The good news is, he’s the best detective around. The bad news, at least the way Ally sees it, is that Noah is still just as fetching as he was back in high school. He also just happens to have witnessed every embarrassing incident that befell accident-prone Ally–including the fire-ant attack that set tongues wagging and won her the unshakable nickname Hot Pants.

Meanwhile, true-crime aficionado Gramps fancies himself a sleuth, and he is doggedly determined to sniff out the culprit himself. . .with Ally’s reluctant help, of course. Ally has no choice but to team up with Noah–and the irrepressible Roxy–to solve the case while keeping Gramps on a short leash.

Ally had better learn some new tricks, lickety-split. Because if she can’t bring the killer to heel, she won’t just be playing dead.

Meet the Author
Laura Scott is a Registered Nurse by day and an author by night. She has written over 70 books and has more ideas than time to write. Laura lives in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin with her husband of 35 years and Otis, a Red Fox English Lab retriever.

All comments are welcomed.