Occupation: Occasional Detective. At the Bird in Nest

Hello there, nice to meet you. I’m Hunt. Fancy a G&T? Oh, you’d rather have a coffee? Alright, to each his – or should I say her – own poison.

Yes, I’ve been living in this dinky little village for about a year now, and I like it almost too much.

What I mean is, Sophia may want me to move to London once we’re living under the same roof, and I’d rather be in Upper Shrewsbury than Chelsea any day.

But that’s a decision for the future, because my lovely lady doesn’t know yet that she’s going to marry me – in fact, she says she’s too old for me.

Which is nonsense. What’s 23 years? Women live longer than men.

Until I can convince my woman that she’s mine, I’ll go on taking my modest midday meal here at The Bird in Nest, where they do an excellent range of pub lunches.

That’s some consolation, I suppose.

My gym is right next door, too, that’s pretty handy.

And there’s a direct train to Newmarket, so what more could a sensible man want?

Well, OK, it would have been nice if Nancy O’Blearly hadn’t turned all the local ladies against me, but after I met Sophia, there was no other woman in the world for me.

The only local females I’m interested in nowadays are the promising fillies I sometimes watch training on the downs.

In fact, life here would be pretty much idyllic if my old boss and a lot of my former associates didn’t keep hounding me to find missing puppies and the like.

Oh no! Here comes my old boss right now!

John, you can see I’m talking to a lady –

Oh, very well!

I’ll be back in a moment… I’m not going to neglect Dru’s friends for some stupid fuss about bets on the — oh, it’s not about that?

It’s about MacNamara? That’s different.

I’m so sorry, my dear, but I shall have to leave you.

MacNamara’s the most promising colt there’s been in a decade, he’s running in the Challenge Cu– oh, he’s not?

Well, John, we’ll have to see about that, won’t we?

I’ve never failed to crack a case yet.

Goodbye, my dear. I must race off to Newmarket, pardon the pun…

The Case of the Missing Peke, A Huntingdon Hart Investigates Mystery Book #1
Genre: Cozy, A Quick Read
Release: March 2023
Format: Digital, Print to come
Purchase Link

Hunt is enjoying a quiet drink in the Bird in Nest, when two mysterious figures from his past turn up out of the blue – both wanting the same thing – for Hunt to locate the Duchess of Blantyre’s Pekingese puppy. On the case, Hunt meets with surprises – and a most unusual woman!

Meet the author
Living in gorgeous Coastal Devon, Kate synergises her lifelong love of reading Cozy Sleuths with years of writing experience and her extensive knowledge of foreign climes to write Travel Cozies.

Her first cozies were the 1970s-set Màiri Maguire Cozy Mysteries – fun, frothy, fast-paced mysteries, with just enough clues and twists to keep you guessing until the end. Now Kate’s Quick Reads Cozy series is released: Huntingdon Hart Investigates, Casefiles of an Occasional Detective. Hunt is an insouciant ex-MI5 agent.

Kate hopes that her readers will get as much pleasure from reading Hunt’s adventures as she gets from reading Father Brown, Raffles, and Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune series. Kate is a member of: Sisters in Crime, Women in Publishing, IBPA, and SoA

All comments are welcomed.

Giveaway: Kate has generously offered to give away one print copy of Death in Paris, debut cozy featuring Màiri Maguire, which has won 15 book awards. To enter, please leave a comment below. One entry per person and the giveaway is limited to U.K. and U.S. residents only. Giveaway ends May 15, 2023. Good luck everyone!