Sometimes the best way to know a person is by asking questions, so let’s meet Lara.

What is your name?
Lara Caphart.

How old are you?
I’ll be (yikes!) 29 next March.

What is your profession?
Watercolor artist and cat shelter proprietor

Do you have a significant other?
Happily, yes.

What is his name?
Gideon Halley.

What is his profession?
Local family lawyer and all around great guy. Cute, too.

Any children?
Not yet; and not unless you count the dozen or so cats we have in the shelter at any given time.

Do you have any sibling(s)?
I’m an only child. Sigh.

Cats, dogs or other pets?
Are you kidding? My aunt and I have cats galore in our shelter–the High Cliff Shelter for Cats.

What town do you live in?
Whisker Jog, New Hampshire

House or building complex?
My aunt’s Folk Victorian home, which doubles as a cat shelter.

Do you rent or own?
My aunt Fran owns the home.

What is your favorite spot in your house?
The small parlor a/k/a my art studio. I can sit in there for hours working on a watercolor without even realizing how much time has elapsed. Of course, I never know when Blue, my elusive mystery cat, will pop in and leave me a clue about the latest murder.

Who is your best friend?
Sherry Bowker, my BFF extraordinaire. I’ve known her since childhood. She and her mom run Bowker’s Coffee Stop in the center of Whisker Jog.

Amateur sleuth or professional?
Amateur with a capital “A.” Just ask our chief of police!

Whom do you work with when sleuthing?
Mostly I work alone, but my aunt Fran and shelter assistant Kayla provide occasional sleuthing backup.

Favorite meal?
Not the healthiest of choices, but the fried clams Gideon and I discovered at a nameless little clam shack are my absolute to-die-for meal.

Favorite dessert?
My aunt Fran’s yummy butterscotch brownies!

Favorite hobby?
I’m too busy for hobbies, but the book club I belong to with my aunt and two other women keeps me reading the classics.

Favorite vacation spot?
My skimpy budget has never allowed for much traveling, but I love picnicking with Gideon on the shores of Squam Lake in New Hampshire.

Favorite color?
Pretty much all shades of blue.

Favorite author?
Dean Koontz. His thrillers are always fresh and intriguing!

Favorite sports team?
Mmm. . .I’m not a sports aficionado, is the best way to put it.

Movies or Broadway?
Definitely movies. When do I ever get a chance to visit Broadway?

Are you a morning or a night person?
Morning person, by choice and by necessity. By six in the morning I’m typically faced with a cluster of cats clamoring for breakfast. Sometimes they walk on my head to wake me up!

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
My day starts with cat duties–feeding, freshening the water, scooping litter boxes. After that I head to Bowker’s Coffee Stop for my morning injection of caffeine and one of Daisy Bowker’s yummy muffins. The rest of my day varies, but usually I have a commissioned watercolor project that I’m working on, not to mention brushing and grooming cats and trips to the vet. Three afternoons a week we hold cat adoptions, so the “meet-and-greet” room (a/k/a Aunt Fran’s back porch) has to be spiffed up and ready. Luckily, our terrific assistant Kayla helps out in between her vet tech classes.

Giveaway: Tell us how many cats does Lara have? Leave a comment below for your chance to win a kindle copy of Claws of Death. The giveaway ends June 29, 2018. Good luck everyone!

You can read about Lara in Claws of Death, the second book in the “Cat Lady” mystery series. The first book in the series is Escape Claws.

The meow of death . . .

Whisker Jog, New Hampshire, is a long way from Hollywood, but it’s the place legendary actress Deanna Daltry wants to call home. Taking up residence in a stone mansion off Cemetery Hill, the retired, yet still glamorous, septuagenarian has adopted two kittens from Lara Caphart’s High Cliff Shelter for Cats. With help from her Aunt Fran, Lara makes sure the kitties settle in safely with their new celebrity mom.

But not everyone in town is a fan of the fading star. Deanna was in Whisker Jog when she was younger, earning a reputation for pussyfooting around, and someone is using that knowledge against her. After being frightened by some nasty pranks, Deanna finds herself the prime murder suspect when the body of a local teacher is found on her property. Now, it’s up to Lara, Aunt Fran, and the blue-eyed Ragdoll mystery cat Lara recently encountered to collar a killer before another victim is pounced upon . . .

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About the author
A dyed-in-the-wool New Englander, Linda Reilly lives with her husband in southern New Hampshire, where she loves solving mysteries of the cozy type. She is the author of the Cat Lady Mysteries from Kensington Lyrical, and the Deep Fried Mysteries published by Berkley Prime Crime. When she’s not pounding away at her keyboard, she can usually be found prowling the shelves of a local bookstore or library hunting for a new adventure. You can learn more about Linda at her website, lindasreilly.com.

All comments are welcomed.