Troy Warner sits down for a question-and-answer session with dru’s book musings so that we can learn more about her. Let’s get to know Troy.

What is your full name?
Troy Seth Warner. Troy because my folks liked the name and Seth because I’m descended from Seth Warner, leader of the Green Mountain Boys and a colonel in the Continental Army during American Revolution. (Also: I’m not supposed to know this, but my author named me Troy after her father’s hometown in Indiana. She thinks we don’t know her as well as she knows us, but she’s dead wrong about that.)

How old are you?
I’m in my mid-thirties.

What is your profession?
I’m a game warden for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. I joined the warden service after coming home from my deployment in Afghanistan and retiring from the military. Our mission is to protect the flora and fauna of the great state of Vermont. It’s the best job in the world.

Do you have a significant other?
Mercy Carr. We met when we were kids in high school—she says she had a crush on me when she was a freshman and I was a senior—but we didn’t reconnect until a few years ago.

What is their name and profession?
Mercy was an MP, serving in Afghanistan as I did. Now she works as a security expert and investigator while she studies for her degree in wildlife management. She’s wicked smart and sexy. I’m a lucky guy.

Do you have any children?
It took us awhile to get together, mostly because Mercy needed some convincing LOL.

I knew as soon as I saw her standing there in the Lye Brook Wilderness with her dog Elvis and the abandoned baby she’d rescued in the woods that she was the one and only woman for me. Forever. And that includes marriage and children. To say any more would be one spoiler alert too many.

Who is your best friend?
Mercy. But I count my boss Captain Floyd Thrasher as my friend, too, and Gil Guerrette, park ranger for the Green Mountain National Forest. And there’s always my brothers Tyler and Theo.

Do you have cats, dogs, or other pets?
Susie Bear is the Newfoundland retriever mix I adopted when she was just a puppy. She’s the happiest dog in the world, but don’t let her cheerful nature fool you. She’s also the best search-and-rescue dog in New England. Pair her with Mercy’s retired bomb-sniffing Malinois, Elvis, and you have the best team of working dogs on the planet. Mercy and Elvis also rescued a kitten named Muse, and we’re always taking in other animals in need and try to find them forever homes of their own.

What town do you live in?
We live on Grackle Tree Farm on the outskirts of the village of Northshire. We’ve got thirty acres that’s mostly woods. It’s a grand old place.

What type of dwelling do you own or rent?
When we first met, Mercy lived in a cabin in the woods and I lived in a converted fire tower. Now that we’re together, we live in an old limestone Victorian that we’re restoring bit by bit.

What is your favorite spot in your home?
I should say the living room, which where we spend a lot of our time hanging out in front of the fireplace. Or the kitchen, where we always seem to end up sitting around the marble island eating one of Mercy’s grandmother Patience’s desserts. But truth be told my favorite room is the den, which is where the pool table is. Mercy’s mother Grace decorated the place for us—and I told her that whatever she and Mercy wanted was fine by me, as long as there was a comfortable couch in the living room, a pool table in the den, and a grill outside.

What is your favorite meal and dessert?
If you knew Mercy’s grandmother Patience, you’d know that is an impossible question. She’s Vermont’s favorite veterinarian, but she’s also an amazing cook and baker. She feeds the whole family—the bigger the celebration or the crisis, the better the meals. If I had to choose a favorite, I’d say her Yankee pot roast. With chocolate doberge cake for dessert. Patience only makes that for very special occasions, like Mercy’s birthday, but she made one for me this year. Which I guess means I’m truly one of the family now.

Do you have any hobbies?
Does pool count? I mean, what I like to do the most is be at home with my family and be in the woods with nature. Love and work. Mercy says that’s the one thing Freud got right.

What is your favorite vacation spot?
I have the good fortune to live in Vermont, one of the world’s most beautiful places. I saw enough of the rest of the world when I was in the military. I don’t need to go anywhere else. If Mercy wants to go somewhere—she’s always threatening to take me to Paris—I’ll go, no problem. Otherwise, I’m good right here.

What is your idea of a really fun time?
A long hike in the woods with Mercy and the dogs.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
My favorite author is Henry David Thoreau. So I’d riff on on his classic, WALDEN: or, Life in the Woods and call my memoir Life in the Vermont Woods.

THE SNOW LIES DEEP – A “Mercy Carr” Mystery, Book 7
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: December 2025
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

The latest thrilling installment in the bestselling Mercy Carr mystery series

Mercy and Troy are looking forward to baby Felicity’s first holiday season, and they’re determined to make it a Christmas to remember. At Northshire’s annual Solstice Soirée, hosted by Northshire’s finest and funded by Mercy’s billionaire pal Feinberg, Amy’s little girl Helena is sitting on Santa Claus’s lap. She’s telling him she’d like a Bitty Baby doll just like little Felicity when the bearded man leaps up, thrusts the toddler at her mother Amy, and staggers away from the festivities. He disappears into the woods. By the time Elvis and Mercy find him, Santa Claus aka the town mayor, is lying on his back, dead. A yule log made of oak sits on his chest, burning bright, a beacon of light on the darkest day of the year.

This strange murder is the first of a series of similar Solstice-themed killings targeting the town’s most prominent citizens. Beloved family friend Lillian Jenkins, the grande dame of Northshire, could be next. Mercy and Troy and the dogs must team up with Thrasher and Harrington to capture The Yuletide Killer before he strikes again, this time far closer to home.

About the author
PAULA MUNIER is the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy Carr mysteries. A Borrowing of Bones, the first in the series, was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and named the Dogwise Book of the Year. Blind Search also won a Dogwise Award. The Hiding Place and The Wedding Plot both appeared on several “Best Of” lists. Home at Night was named Library Journal’s Mystery Pick of the Month. THE NIGHT WOODS, her humble homage to The Odyssey, earned great reviews, including a starred Library Journal review. THE SNOW LIES DEEP—which Publishers Weekly called “captivating”—came out in December. A literary agent by day, Paula lives in the northern New England woods with her family, four rescue dogs, a rescue cat, and lots of wildlife. For more, visit Paula’s website at www.paulamunier.com.