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

What is your name?
Theodora Iona Esmeralda Bentley, but you can call me Teddy.

How old are you?
I sprang fully formed — and 35 years old — from my mama Betty Webb’s brain back in 2008. She was a volunteer at the Phoenix Zoo at the time, which probably had something to do with it.

What is your profession?
I’m a full-time zookeeper, part-time television host, part-time sailor and part-time sleuth.

Do you have a significant other?
You bet your bippy I do!

What is his name?
The hunk’s name is Joe Rejas.

What is his profession?
He’s the sheriff of San Sebastian County, California. But he’s really nice, I swear! If only he’d stop getting so angry when I play amateur detective.

Any children?
He has two (that he knows of). Me? Zippo.

Do you have any sibling(s)?
No. Well, not that I know of, anyway, but considering my father’s behavior in the past. . .

Cats, dogs or other pets?
I’m prone to rescuing animals from shelters, so right now I have D.J. Bonz, a three-legged terrier mix, and a one-eyed Persian cat named Miss Priss. A white cat named Toby sometimes lets me call him mine, but he’s unfaithful and mooches from the neighbors, too.

What town do you live in?
I am proud to call Gunn Landing Harbor, California, my home. It’s a little place tucked into a northeast corner of Monterey Bay. My home away from home is the Gunn Zoo, where I work.

House or building complex?
My boat moored in Gunn Landing Harbor. She’s called the Merilee, and I love her dearly.

Do you rent or own?
Own, since my father gave the Merilee to me before he embezzled millions from his own company and took off to South America, dragging the family name through the mud.

What is your favorite spot in your house?
The deck. With my pets. And maybe a visiting blue heron or two.

Who is your best friend?
Any animal that walks, crawls, slithers, swims or flies.

Amateur sleuth or professional?
Amateur. And if my sweetie Sheriff Joe had his way, I wouldn’t even be an amateur sleuth. This is a problem we have yet to work out.

Whom do you work with when sleuthing?
I go it alone. After all, I’m not supposed to be doing it in the first place.

Favorite meal?
Clam chowder from the nearby Chowder N Cappuccino stand.

Favorite dessert?
Coffee ice cream.

Favorite hobby?
Who has time for hobbies? Not only do I work full time as a keeper at the Gunn Zoo, I also have to host a goofy TV program named, “Anteaters to Zebras.” Oh, then I have to spend whatever time is left over trying to keep my many-times-married mother out of trouble. She’s a handful, she is. Ex-beauty queens can be like that.

Favorite vacation spot?
I’ve never had the time to take one, but someday I think I’d like to dive the coral reef in Australia.

Favorite color?
Pacific Blue.

Favorite author?
Jack Hanna. He’s also my favorite TV star because he’s always introducing some cute animal on camera. For some reason, his animals behave better than mine. I simply cannot get through a program without someone being bit or shat upon.

Favorite sports team?
The America’s Cup yacht race. As for myself, I used to be a competitive equestrienne, but I’ve given up land for the sea.

Movies or Broadway?
Since I can never get away long enough to see a Broadway show, I content myself watching Jack Hanna’s animal features on TV and the Madagascar toons.

Are you a morning or a night person?
When you’re a zookeeper, you have to be at work at 6 a.m., so I guess that makes me an early bird. Animals don’t care how cranky you are at 6 a.m., just as long as you’re bringing them food.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
I clock into the Gunn Zoo at 6 a.m., climb into my zebra-striped zoo cart, drive to the zoo “cafeteria” and pick up all the worms, bugs, hay, eucalyptus leaves, monkey chow, raw meat and whatever else I need to feed my animal friends. Once loaded up, I start my rounds, which will include the giant anteater, the ocelot, the koalas, the wallabies, the squirrel monkeys, and all the animals in the petting zoo, which include goats, chickens, and a llama. The first thing I do is check on the animals’ health, and if all is going well, I feed them and tidy up their enclosure. In fact, the largest part of my day is scooping up animal poop. Mine is not a glamorous job, but I love it anyway. After all, animals are easier to deal with than my family is.

You can read about Teddy in The Otter of Death, the fifth book in the “Gunn Zoo” mystery series. The first book in the series is The Anteater of Death.

While taking the yearly “otter count” at a marsh near Gunn Landing Harbor, California, zookeeper Theodora Bentley sees Maureen, her favorite otter, swimming around clutching someone’s expensive smartphone. When Teddy rescues the device, she discovers a photograph of a murder-in-progress. A hasty search soon turns up the still-warm body of Stuart Booth, PhD, a local Marine Biology instructor.

Booth was a notorious sexual harasser of young female students, so the list of suspects is long enough to make Teddy wonder if the crime will ever be solved. But when her friend, Lila, one of Booth’s original accusers, is arrested and charged with his murder, Teddy begins to investigate. This creates considerable tension with Teddy’s fiancé, Sheriff Joe Rejas. He believes the ever-inquisitive zookeeper might be putting her own life at risk, and so orders her to butt out.

Concerned for her accused friend, Teddy ignores Joe’s ultimatum. She questions not only members of Gunn Landing’s moneyed social elite, but also the other side of the financial spectrum – the financially strapped young women willing to do almost anything to pay for their college tuition. Alarmed by Teddy’s meddling, Booth’s killer fights back – first with a death threat, then via gunshot.

In this fifth Gunn Zoo Mystery, Teddy is torn between living a peaceful life on her Monterey Bay houseboat with her three-legged dog DJ Bonz, or moving inland to marry Joe, who comes with kids and a mother who has her own mysterious agenda. The choice is scary for Teddy – who has barely been managing her own many-times-married mother, and her imperious employer, Aster Edwina Gunn, overlord of the famed Gunn Zoo. Teddy’s life is further complicated by a wayward snow monkey named Kabuki, taunter of teenage boys. The zookeeper’s dedication to her charges – including the anteater, the koala, the llama, and Magnus, the polar bear cub from Iceland (met in Teddy’s last adventure, The Puffin of Death), never falters in a cleverly plotted series rich in characters and in animal lore.

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About the author
As a journalist, Betty Webb interviewed U.S. presidents, astronauts, and Nobel Prize winners, as well as the homeless, dying, and polygamy runaways. The dark Lena Jones mysteries are based on stories she covered as a reporter. Betty’s humorous Gunn Zoo series debuted with the critically acclaimed The Anteater of Death, followed by The Koala of Death. A book reviewer at Mystery Scene Magazine, Betty is a member of National Federation of Press Women, Mystery Writers of America, and the National Organization of Zoo Keepers.

All comments are welcomed.