Hi! My name is Ally Winter, and I’m a vet. A Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, not the other kind. After my cheating ex fiancé took off with our buxom veterinary assistant, I moved to the small town of Willow Bluff Wisconsin to open my own veterinary practice. My plan was to help watch over my grandfather, Oscar Winter. Gramps is a Vietnam Veteran. That’s the true kind of hero. Unlike me. My clinic isn’t going gang busters, because the town still sees me as the calamity Jane who set the chemistry lab on fire and sat on a nest of fire ants that sent me running and screaming while yanking off my shorts into Lake Michigan. It was my high school crush, Noah Jorgenson who dubbed me Hot Pants.

Now Noah is the Willow Bluff detective and I’ve turned into a dead body magnet.

Really, I’m not joking. I think there’s something wrong with me that I keep stumbling over dead people.

I don’t go looking for problems, but somehow they find me. My goal is to take care of sick and injured pets. That’s about all I’m good at. Although I’d like to try to join the croque league with my best friend, Lisa. Anyway, when I agreed to board Domino, a large black Standard Poodle for a long weekend, my life took a turn for the worse.

Domino is a sweetheart but he’s not well trained, so I suppose I should have been better prepared. Especially when he took off running near the Lake Michigan shore, knocking me off my feet. When he disappeared beneath a large Weeping Willow tree, returning with a red and white polkadot high heeled shoe, I figured someone had left it behind after a secret liaison.

Yeah, that was so not the case. What did I find? A dead body.

Noah wasn’t happy. I wasn’t happy. Gramps was ecstatic. Not because someone died, but rather because he considers himself an amateur sleuth. The man is a true crime fanatic and nothing makes him happier than the thought of digging into the web of secrets hidden behind a real crime. The fact that he investigated a previous crime earlier in the year with a modicum of success only fueled his desire to get to the bottom of this mystery.

What’s a granddaughter to do? I tried to keep him from interfering in Noah’s case. But that’s a bit like trying to stop the molten lava from flowing down the side of a volcano.

Impossible.

Noah constantly threatens to toss Gramps in jail, and I believe he would, just to prove his point. But when there’s a break in at Gramps’s assisted living home, Noah comes to the rescue, sleeping on the short sofa to watch over him. Pretty soon the Willow Bluff Widows are fawning over Noah and Gramps. And playing matchmaker with me and Noah.

Being in danger doesn’t keep Gramps from poking his nose into the case, dragging me along with him. The closer we get to the truth, the more bad stuff seems to happen. Domino is far from being a well trained K9 protector, but when the killer strikes out at me, both Domino and Noah rush to my rescue.

My true heroes.

Tailing Trouble, A Furry Friends Mystery #2
Genre: Cozy
Release: January 2022
Purchase Link

Wisconsin veterinarian Ally Winter must solve a well-heeled young woman’s a-paw-ling murder in USA Today bestselling author Laura Scott’s second Furry Friends mystery.

Thirty-something veterinarian Ally Winter has found a new “leash” on life since she moved back to her hometown of Willow Bluff, Wisconsin. But when she takes Domino, the black standard poodle she’s boarding for the weekend, for a sunny September stroll along the shore of Lake Michigan, the diminutive dog dashes off, only to return with a single, polka-dotted, high-heeled shoe. Retracing Domino’s paw prints back to a weeping willow tree, they find the other shoe. It’s still on the foot of 20-year-old Pricilla Green–lying dead beneath the willow, with a silk scarf knotted tightly around her neck.

Willow Bluff’s finest–and handsomest–detective, Noah Jorgenson, is soon on the tail of the killer. But he has another worry on his mind when Ally’s grandfather, a lifelong true-crime buff, starts to suspect that the recent burglary of a local big-box store may have some connection to Pricilla’s murder. Noah cautions Ally to keep Gramps well away from the homicide investigation, but the old dog is drawn to danger like a puppy is to a squeaky ball.

The fur flies as Ally, Noah, Gramps, and Domino race the clock to fetch the felon. It will take all of their canine canniness to comb out the twists and curls in this wild and woolly case. And if they fail, they won’t live to go walkies again.

About the author
Laura Scott is a registered nurse by day and an author by night. She has written over 60 books and has more ideas than time to write! Laura lives in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin with her husband of 35 years and takes care of a variety of pets, including a beautiful chocolate lab named Moose.

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