Rainy Dale is the sleuth in the “Horseshoer” mysteries. One of the best ways to learn about a person is by asking questions. So, let’s get to know Rainy.

Howdy, I’m Rainy Dale, going on 25, a horseshoer, about to marry Guy Kittredge who cooks at the Cascade Kitchen, the best diner in Cowdry, Oregon.

Can I please take a mulligan on the question about children?

I’m an only child (so’s Guy), and my folks divorced when I was little, then passed me back and forth between her in California and him in Texas.

Melinda Kellen is my best friend—she’s a new deputy here in Butte County. Cowdry is as small as it sounds, and it’s where I’ve been the last couple-three years. I’d be happy enough to die an old lady here. I was tracking down my childhood horse, Red, when I first arrived; found my dog Charley on the way. Guy has a cat, Spooky, who is unemployed, and a colt that my Red is big-brothering. We’re watching over The Kid—a friend’s draft horse that needed a pasture to hang out in while trying to recover from an injury. Fact is, I’d just bought Red back the night I met Guy. He has a little one-bedroom house and I suppose the pasture is my favorite spot. From there, Red and I can hit the trails with Charley following along, but if I have to pick a place inside, the kitchen smells great, Guy gives amazing backrubs in the bedroom and we do spend a lot of our evenings on that couch once we move Spooky.

Guy makes chocolate ravioli with mascarpone filling. He makes stuffed onions. He makes these cheesy things I always forget the name of but, mercy, they are a delight. He makes noodles by hand. All of which to say, picking a favorite food is hard. Most days I grab a burger at the Cascade so we get to see each other in the middle of our work day and I get grub to fuel my afternoon shoeings.

Riding Red is my main hobby. I look forward to the day when Guy’s colt is old enough for Guy and me to ride together. We’ll do my dream vacation—horse camping in the backcountry.

Music? People often leave radios on in their barns, so I hear all kinds while working, and I’m okay with just about any of it.

My favorite book would be any of my big textbooks such as Equine Podiatry, Lameness in Horses, or Therapeutic Farriery. I have dozens and study hard.

I’m pretty happy hanging out at home with the critters and people I’ve come to love.

If I wrote an honest-to-goodness memoir, the title would be *** Why Not to Be Stupid When You’re Thirteen ***.

So, yeah, I intend to just build my horseshoeing business, but it seems I regularly get in over my head with nefarious happenings around hereabouts. A client died under suspicious circumstances right after I left one day. In another situation, I sort of accidentally put together some things about a widow’s dead husband. I’m heading down to California next. What could possibly go wrong?

Forging Fire is the third book in the “Horseshoer” traditional mystery series, released September 15, 2020.

Days before her wedding, Rainy Dale jumps at a chance to visit the fabled Black Bluff bull sale down in California, but things go awry when she is assaulted and her truck is stolen.

In this twist on the “locked-room” form, more than one mystery is hidden on the ranch where Rainy and her dog, Charlie, end up. Everyone—the owners, ranch hands, angry neighbors, and perhaps even the deliveryman who brings coke coal for the ranch’s old-fashioned forge—is harboring a damaging secret. When Rainy realizes that even her dog knows a grisly hidden truth, the stakes are raised as high as life and death.

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About the author
Lisa Preston began writing after careers as a fire department paramedic and a city police officer. She was first published in nonfiction, with titles on animal care, such as The Ultimate Guide to Horse Feed, Supplements and Nutrition. Her debut novel, Orchids and Stone, (Thomas & Mercer, 2016), has been described as a book club thriller, or domestic noir. Her psychological suspense novel, The Measure of the Moon, (Thomas & Mercer, 2017) was also a book club pick. The Clincher (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018) debuted her mystery series featuring a young woman horseshoer. She lives with her husband in western Washington. Visit her website at lisapreston.com.

All comments are welcomed.