Please join me in welcoming back Linda O. Johnston to the Lair! She's here to tell you all about her latest Pet Rescue mystery! Take it away, Linda!Hi, Romance Bandits and fans. Thanks for inviting me here. Now, ready for a challenge?
Here it is: What do you do if you’re given two choices--yes or no? You must go one way or the other--and you have reasons you don’t like each of them. How do you make your decision?
The lesser of two evils? The one you’re most likely to succeed at?
I’ll tell you in a moment what I’ve done to Lauren Vancouver, the protagonist of my Pet Rescue Mystery series, by giving her that kind of decision in her latest adventure, THE MORE THE TERRIER.First, though, I’m going to provide you with that decision. You can choose to read THE MORE THE TERRIER, or not. Guess which one I’m aiming for! Better yet, you can also choose to read its predecessor in the series, BEAGLEMANIA, if you haven’t already. If you choose yes, I’m betting you’ll have fun with them. And, by the way, THE MORE THE TERRIER is a Mystery Guild selection!
Now, let me tell you about Lauren. She’s a skilled and dedicated administrator of a private, no-kill pet shelter. She’ll do anything to save animals, and she despises those who harm them. Most of the time.
But in THE MORE THE TERRIER, Lauren is faced with a decision she doesn’t like at all: ignore her one-time cherished mentor, who is the major suspect in a murder case, or help her. Sounds easy, right? But that mentor has apparently become the kind of person Lauren hates most: one who abuses animals.So what does she do?
Here’s the background:
At the beginning of THE MORE THE TERRIER, Lauren is horrified to learn that her former mentor, Mamie Spelling, has become an animal hoarder. Of course Lauren does all she can to save the animals. Every one of them comes out of it just fine. It’s fiction, after all. And in the Pet Rescue Mysteries, “no-kill” means pets, not people!
It doesn’t hurt that Lauren’s love interest, Matt Kingston, is a captain with Los Angeles Animal Services who can let her know when the abused animals that are taken into official custody are ready for private shelters to come and rescue them. Oh, yes, my mystery protagonists always have a love interest, just like my romances always come with suspense.Anyway, a woman who has been hounding Mamie is soon murdered, and Mamie becomes the major suspect. But Mamie is aging and confused. Lauren lost touch with her after she, and not Mamie, was chosen to run HotRescues, a generously funded private pet shelter.
What do you think Lauren does? You undoubtedly guessed it. She helps Mamie. That means that Lauren once more must solve a murder. She’s already had to do that, in BEAGLEMANIA, when she was the main murder suspect.The Pet Rescue Mysteries are a spinoff series from my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries, in which Kendra comes to think of herself as a murder magnet. Kendra makes cameo appearances in the Pet Rescue Mysteries, and the person who supports Lauren’s shelter HotRescues financially is Kendra’s wealthy guy friend Dante de Francisco.
That adds to Lauren’s dilemma, by the way. She likes Kendra well enough but she doesn’t want to be like her--especially in solving murders. Not that I’m giving her much choice. And the murder in THE MORE THE TERRIER isn’t the last one Lauren will need to solve!
The next Pet Rescue Mystery will be HOUNDS ABOUND, which will be published in 2012.
So--how do you make those yes or no decisions? And if your decision about THE MORE THE TERRIER is to read it, please let me know!
Kate here. I want to thank Linda for stopping by the Lair today! You can visit Linda at http://www.lindaojohnston.com/ and at http://www.killerhobbies.blogspot.com/ on Wednesdays. You can also friend her on Facebook.
P.S. Tricks and Treats begin on October 14 so be sure to stick around for the fun! And later this month, a BIG Bandita Surprise!! More Prizes will be involved! :-)
