It’s another bright, beautiful spring morning in New Jersey. I’m always grateful for a sunny morning since my day begins with multiple dog walks. First, I walk my pups, Boone and Crockett. Then I’m off to the Forever Friends Animal Shelter. There are five to twenty-five dogs needing a morning walk, depending on how well I’ve been doing my job. I’m Lily Dreyfus, the shelter adoption coordinator. It’s up to me to find all of our four-legged residents their forever homes.
It’s usually a low-stress job, but somehow I keep finding myself tangled up in murder investigations. It all started one day when the state police brought my boyfriend’s dog, Burrow, to the shelter. They’d been called by one of the neighbors to do a wellness check and found Pete dead. No one at the shelter knew that I had a connection to Pete, and it was really hard to keep my emotions in check.
I was determined to sniff out who killed him and why. And I was successful. Although my boss and the shelter’s director were not too enthusiastic about my involvement with the police. From there, murder just seemed to fall at my feet. My coworker’s nephew was killed in a drive-by shooting. He was playing in an outdoor concert. I was on a date, with Pete’s friend Jim.
I know you’re stunned. How could I date my murdered boyfriend’s friend? Jim came to New Jersey directly after he retired from the Marines. He took over Burrow’s care, proving that he loved dogs and Pete. We met at Pete’s memorial service. Jim was like a terrier chasing a rabbit when it came to wanting to date me. He had grabbed the scent and wasn’t giving up until he had captured my heart.
Anyway, one of the ways that I help our four-legged companions find their perfect humans is through the shelter’s events. Our largest annual event is a fundraiser, with a 10K run. Jim gathered a team of veterans to raise money and run. The event was going great until one of the veterans on Jim’s team collapsed and died.
And here I was in the midst of a murder investigation. This man had a relationship with Jim. I had to know how he ended up dying at the shelter event. I enlisted some of the other veterans to help me sniff out the killer. Jim was about as enthusiastic about my involvement as my boss Martin was, which is to say, not in the least bit happy.
But what can I say? When clues need to be leashed together, I’m the girl to take care of it. TAIL OF DECEPTION led me down some murky trails, but I flushed out the killer and helped bring them to justice.
TAIL OF DECEPTION
Series Name: A Lily Dreyfus Mystery, Book 5
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: February 2026
Format: Digital, Print
Purchase Link
A cozy mystery series with a unique amateur sleuth. And where the animals are true characters, not just plot points.
When Forever Friends Animal Shelter hosts its annual Walk and Run fundraiser, they expect sore feet, wagging tails, and enough donations to keep every dog and cat in comfort. However, when one of the runners collapses at the finish line, the successful fundraising is overshadowed by a tragic death.
Lily Dreyfus finds herself at the center of a mystery where tempers flare as hot as the midday sun. The dead man worked for her boyfriend and was part of a group of veterans running to help the cause. Was his death related to one of his military deployments? Or did he have an enemy closer to home?
With her human and canine pack to help dig up clues, Lily must untangle a snarl of secrets before the killer strikes again.
Perfect for fans of heartwarming pets, small-town charm, and puzzling whodunits, TAIL OF DECEPTION is the fifth book in the Lily Dreyfus Mystery Series and proves that sometimes the most loyal detectives have four legs.
Meet the author
Darlene Dziomba combined her passion for the written word and animals into the Lily Dreyfus series. The books are written based on her experience as a volunteer at the Animal Welfare Association, a no-kill animal shelter in Voorhees, New Jersey. Darlene had a thirty-five-year career in Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, which aids her in crafting quirky characters. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Manuscript Swap Coordinator for the Guppies, and served as a mentor in the Sisters in Crime Mentorship pilot program. She lives in New Jersey with her four-legged best friend, Billie.