My name is Kari Stuart, and my life now is very different from the days not so long ago when I worked as a waitress in the Lakeview Diner and tried to figure out who I wanted to be when I grew up. (Okay, I was already twenty-nine, but you know what I mean.) Then I stopped at the convenience store on my way home to pick up cat litter and bought a lottery ticket on a whim. And would you believe it? I won.

I was still trying to decide what to do with the money, since I’d already made enough wrong decisions in my life, and didn’t want to do anything impulsive. Then I found a small black stray kitten and tried to take her to the local shelter, only to find that there was no room anywhere. Too many cats and kittens, too many dogs no one wanted, and not enough space in any of the nearby shelters.

It was too bad that the Serenity Sanctuary had to close down, I was told. The woman who’d started it had hoped to help all the animals that fell through the cracks. But she ran out of money and energy, and ran afoul of the nasty local dog warden who was making her life miserable. Now the place was rundown and on its last legs. The only thing that could save it was someone with too much money and too little sense.

I think you can guess what I did with my lottery winnings.

Now instead of slinging plates of food for people, I feed dogs and cats, scoop a lot of litter boxes, and work on upgrading the Sanctuary so it has everything the animals need. Thank goodness for my friend Suz, the dog groomer, and my stalwart volunteers, former school teacher (and woman who has something on everyone in town) Sara, and young vet tech in training Bryn. Now we just have to figure out how to deal with that horrible dog warden. But at least my life has a purpose now, even if that purpose does include cleaning up a lot of poop!

Oh, and that kitten? Her name is Queenie, and she lives with me, runs my life and the Sanctuary, and generally pokes her little black nose into everything. Something tells me she’s going to get me into trouble. . .

Furbidden Fatality, A Catskills Pet Rescue Mystery #1
Genre: Cozy
Release: February 2021
Purchase Link

Kari Stuart’s life is going nowhere—until she unexpectedly wins the lottery. The twenty-nine-year-old instant multimillionaire is still mulling plans for her winnings when rescuing a bossy black kitten leads her to a semi-abandoned animal shelter. They need the cash—Kari needs a purpose.

But the dilapidated rescue is literally going to the dogs with a pending lawsuit, hard to adopt animals, and too much unwanted attention from the town’s dog warden. When the warden turns up dead outside the shelter’s dog kennels, Kari finds herself up a creek without a pooper-scooper.

With the help of some dedicated volunteers, a cute vet, and a kitten who mysteriously shows up just when she needs it, Kari must prove her innocence all while trying to save a dog on death row. Now she just needs to hope that her string of unexpected luck isn’t about to run out.

Meet the Author
Deborah Blake is the author of three previous series from Berkley, including the Baba Yaga paranormal romances, and numerous nonfiction books on modern witchcraft from Llewellyn Worldwide. Furbidden Fatality, the first book in her new cozy mystery Catskills Pet Shelter series, came out February 23rd. She lives in upstate NY in a 130-year-old farmhouse with four slightly deranged young cats.

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