My name’s Charlie Calderbank and I’ve been keeping a secret that has me living a lie. I received a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis at the young age of thirty. I’ve always been athletic and healthy, so this news came out of left field and changed everything for me. I had to give up my dream of becoming a cop because of it. I’ve been keeping doctor’s appointments, taking my meds, and doing my best to accept mentally that this is my new life.
I’m trying to make the best of things and start my life over in the cozy island town of Orca Cove. My aunt has been very supportive, and I’m working at her pet hotel.
So far, I’m lucky, I guess. My symptoms are manageable, and my joint pain is mostly in my swollen hands. But it’s always hanging over my head that it could get a whole lot worse.
So, you ask, where does the lie part come in? Well, I’ve kept it from Nick, the local hot cop who stars in most of my dreams. Secrets have a way of consuming you. And I was working up the nerve to tell him, knowing that he might not want to go on this ride into the unknown with me, but hoping he would.
Before I could come clean, I was hit with another plot twist I didn’t see coming—a dead body in my moving van. Now I’m a person of interest in a murder case, which puts Nick and me on opposite sides of the law. He even canceled our first date because of it. I mean, how would it look for the cop investigating the crime to be dating one of the suspects? People all over town are talking about me. And I’m not comfortable with that.
I see only one way out of this: to prove my innocence. But the deeper I dig, the more clues I uncover, the more it looks like I’ll be the one in handcuffs when all is said and done. Plus, I’ve ended up keeping even more from Nick. Someone is going to a lot of trouble to pin this crime on me. Problem is, I have no idea who it is or why I’m the target.
Thank goodness I have my dogs to comfort me. But now someone is coming for one of them, too. And that’s more than I can handle. I have no choice but to pull up my big girl pants and keep digging.
DASHING THROUGH THE SHOW
Series: A Wiggle Butt Manor Mystery, Book 2
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: June 2026
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link
Murder is under the mistletoe in the peaceful island community of Orca Cove.
Holiday plans are put on hold to give attention to the grand opening of the Wiggle Butt Manor Agility Course. Special guest, Bently, is supposed to dazzle on the stage, but the locals have had enough of his snooty trainer, Miles Collins. So has his killer. When Charlie Calderbank finds Miles’ body in the back of her moving van, it becomes the season of giving…alibis, that is. Her hopes for a Christmas romance are dashed when the local hot cop is forced to pay more attention to the clues leading to her door than the chemistry that simmers between them.
Tainted treats, a widow who raises a toast along with a few eyebrows, a groomer with a grudge, an angry Santa Claus, a nosey reporter, and a canine custody hearing have Charlie spinning in every direction, juggling clues, dogs, and blizzards. She must identify the killer, or she’ll spend her Christmas behind bars.
About the author
Cindy Goyette is a former probation officer who had a front-row seat to the criminal justice system. She kept her sanity by finding humor in most situations. She also loves dogs. A mix of these things helped her create the award-winning Probation Case Files Mystery Series and her Wiggle Butt Manor cozy mystery series. After spending over twenty years in Arizona, Cindy lives in Washington state with her husband and two Cocker Spaniels.