by Linda O. Johnston
It’s not official until May 8, but my second Barkery & Biscuits Mystery, TO CATCH A TREAT, is about to be released. I’ll be doing a launch party the day before at the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego, California, as part of the store’s Birthday Bash. There’ll be other authors there too, and I intend to have a lot of fun!
I’ve already seen TO CATCH A TREAT on one bookshelf available for purchase. One of the vendors at Malice Domestic, a wonderful cozy mystery fan and writer conference I attended last weekend, had the book there for sale, and since my editor was there that must have been considered kosher. It was certainly fun for me!
So what’s it about? Well, in the Barkery & Biscuits Mysteries, protagonist Carrie Kennersly is a veterinary technician who also gets to realize her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. A good friend had to sell her bakery, Icing on the Cake, and move away from Knobcone Heights, California, because her mother was ill. Carrie bought it from her before the first book in the series, BITE THE BISCUIT, and converted half of Icing into Barkery and Biscuits, a store that sells handmade dog treats made from healthy recipes Carrie developed for patients as a vet tech.
In TO CATCH A TREAT, Carrie’s brother Neal has developed a romantic interest in Janelle Blaystone, a photographer who has come to Knobcone Heights partly to grieve over the loss of her dog Go, who was dognapped. So were a lot of other dogs who’d visited dog parks in Los Angeles, which is a distance from Knobcone Heights. But somehow Go shows up at Mountaintop Rescue, the area’s excellent pet shelter. How? Well, Janelle suspects someone to be the dognapper, Ada Arnist–and when Ada is murdered Janelle becomes the primary suspect. For Neal’s sake, and because Carrie likes Janelle, she tries to figure out who the real murderer is.
And while I’m celebrating TO CATCH A TREAT’S release, I’m also having the fun of writing the third book in the series, title to come. In addition, it appears there will be at least two more books in the series. I’ve relayed that information to Carrie and her adorable gold poodle-terrier mix Biscuit, and they both seem excited, too–even though Carrie never set out to be an amateur sleuth on top of everything else she’s doing.
I hope you’ll check out TO CATCH A TREAT. Enjoy!
TO CATCH A TREAT can be purchased in trade paperback and/or eBook format for/from: