Paws and EffectMy mornings all start the same way—with a good breakfast. Yes, I know some scientists have been saying that old adage, Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, has no basis in scientific fact. Well, all I can tell you is that my mother ate a hearty breakfast every morning of her life and she made it well into her nineties and was sharp as a tack until the day she died. If fact, if she’d stayed off the roof of the barn when it was raining she’d probably have made it to one hundred. But that’s a story for another day.

After breakfast I either head to the gym or to the library. I may look like someone’s sweet little grandma—well, heck, I am someone’s sweet little grandma—but I can promise you that you don’t get to be the state senior kickboxing champion because you have fluffy white hair and make a mean peach cobbler. It takes work: weight training, plenty of time on the bike, and lots of stretching.

Not that my job at the library doesn’t help keep me in shape. It does. I’m up and down stairs all day, moving books and boxes and occasionally putting the run on a couple of amorous teenagers who think I don’t know what can happen in the library’s gazebo after dark.

I like working at the library, especially since Kathleen Paulson took over. She did a fine job supervising the renovations for our centennial. The building looks the way I remember it from when I was a girl. Now there are so many more people coming in and borrowing books, using the computers, joining a discussion group or taking a course. Thanks to Kathleen, the library has become the focal point of Mayville Heights. She resurrected the seniors’ reading group, she offered free space to the quilters and started Reading Buddies for the little ones.

That’s not to say Kathleen and I are always in agreement. We’re not on the same page when it comes to the proposed development out at Long Lake. I really hope all the controversy doesn’t end up splitting the town down the middle. I think the development is a great idea. More tourists in the area means more money for Mayville Heights. How could anyone think that’s a bad idea? And if you don’t share my opinion, then we can agree to disagree. After all, at the end of the day, it’s not really a life or death issue.


Paws and Effect is the 8th book in the Magical Cats mystery series, published by Penguin Random House, October 2016.

Magical cats Owen and Hercules and resourceful librarian Kathleen Paulson are back in the latest from the New York Times bestselling author of Faux Paw. . .

Kathleen is excited to meet three old pals of her beau, Detective Marcus Gordon, while they visit charming Mayville Heights on business. But the reunion is cut short when one of the friends is killed—and the evidence points toward Marcus as the murderer.

Though it seems she doesn’t know all of Marcus’s secrets, Kathleen is sure he’s no killer. With his suspect status sidelining him from investigating the case, it’s up to Kathleen and her feline partners-in-crime to find whoever is framing Marcus—and make sure the good detective hasn’t found his last clue.

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About the author
Sofie Kelly is an author and mixed-media/fiber artist who lives on the east coast. She’s the author of the New York Times bestselling Magical Cats mysteries that feature librarian Sarah Paulson and her two very special cats, Owen and Hercules, who have a magical knack for solving crime.

As Sofie Ryan she writes the New York Times bestselling Second Chance Cat Mystery series, featuring re-purpose store owner Sarah Grayson, a group of senior sleuths, the world’s oldest computer hacker, and Elvis, a black cat with an uncanny ability to sniff out a lie.

Connect with Sofie at www.sofiekelly.com or www.sofieryan.com.

All comments are welcomed.

Giveaway: Leave a comment below for your chance to win a print copy of Paws and Effect and A Whisker of Trouble by Sofie Ryan. Four lucky winners will be randomly selected. US entries only, please. The giveaway will end October 6, 2016 at 11:59 AM EST. Good luck everyone!