A Stone’s Throw
Solstice Publishing (March 8, 2017)
Paperback: 322 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1625265463
ASIN: B06XGNXQCS

Synopsis – Book 1

Widowed librarian Alicia Fairmont needs answers…

After her husband is killed in a hit and run accident, Alicia travels upstate to his hometown of Cobble Cove, New York, hoping to locate his estranged family and shed light on his mysterious past. Anticipating staying only a weekend, her visit is extended when she accepts a job at the town’s library.

Secrets stretch decades into the past…

Assisted by handsome newspaper publisher and aspiring novelist, John McKinney, Alicia discovers a connection between her absent in-laws and a secret John’s father has kept for over sixty years. But her investigation is interrupted when she receives word her house has burned and arson is suspected, sending her rushing back to Long Island, accompanied by John.

Back in Cobble Cove, cryptic clues are uncovered…

When Alicia returns, she finds a strange diary, confiscated letters, and a digital audio device containing a recording made the day her husband was killed. Anonymous notes warn Alicia to leave town, but she can’t turn her back on the mystery—or her attraction to John. As the pieces begin to fall into place, evidence points to John’s involvement in her husband’s accident. The past and present threaten to collide, and Alicia confronts her fears…

Between A Rock and a Hard Place
Publisher: Solstice Publishing (October 12, 2016)
Paperback: 316 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1625264534
E-Book ASIN: B01M59PPBY

Synopsis – Book 2

Librarian Alicia McKinney has put the past behind her…

Two years ago, Alicia discovered both a terrible truth and lasting love with John McKinney in the small town of Cobble Cove, New York. Now a busy mother of twin babies and co-author of a mystery series, Alicia couldn’t be happier.

Alicia’s contentment and safety are challenged…

Walking home alone from the library, Alicia senses someone following her, and on more than one occasion, she believes she is being watched. Does she have a stalker? When the local gift shop is burglarized, the troubling event causes unrest among Alicia and the residents of the quiet town.
John and Alicia receive an offer they can’t refuse…

When John’s sister offers to babysit while she and John take a much-needed vacation in New York City, Alicia is reluctant to leave her children because of the disturbances in Cobble Cove. John assures her the town is safe in the hands of Sheriff-elect Ramsay. Although Alicia’s experience with and dislike of the former Long Island detective don’t alleviate her concern, she and John take their trip.

Alicia faces her worst nightmare…

The McKinneys’ vacation is cut short when they learn their babies have been kidnapped and John’s sister shot. Alicia and John’s situation puts them between a rock and a hard place when the main suspect is found dead before the ransom is paid. In order to save their children, the McKinneys race against the clock to solve a mystery more puzzling than those found in their own books. Can they do it before time runs out?

Written in Stone
Cozy Mystery
3rd in Series
Solstice Publishing (April 3, 2017)
Print Length: 215 pages
ASIN: B06Y1JTHJ8

Synopsis – Book 3

Alicia McKinney is confused . . . .

Was the strange email her husband received from the fictional detective in their mystery series a threat? Did the killer mistake the woman shot in the library for Alicia or the victim’s twin sister?

Cat vs. Dog . . .

After Sneaky goes missing from the library, will he turn up before a young girl becomes ill with worry over his disappearance? And will he return in time to outsmart Fido by being first to find the perpetrator’s smoking gun?

Alicia is worried . . .

While waiting for the killer’s next move, Alicia has other concerns. An old flame of John’s is in town and her friend, Gilly, has adopted the role of Miss Marple to aid her sheriff boyfriend in his investigation.

When all clues point to one of her co-workers, Alicia joins Gilly in searching for the answers to the mystery.

Will they survive . . . .

or is their ending written in stone?

Guest Post

When Your Pet is Missing, A Part of You is Lost

Have you ever lost a pet? It’s an awful feeling to wonder what became of your fur baby who ran out of the house for the first time or just didn’t come back from his or her usual nightly ramblings. Having always had animals, I’m more than familiar with this heartbreaking experience.

When I was ten, a gray and white cat came to our door. My mother, who had a soft heart for stray and feral animals, took her in and tried to find her owners. However, after noticing her bulging stomach, we realized she was pregnant and that was most likely the reason she had been evicted from her home. Not surprisingly, she wasn’t claimed. We kept her, and I named her Kitty. After a short time, she gave birth in our closet to three kittens – two boys and a girl. It was near Halloween, and I named one of the male cats Pumpkin, even though he was gray and not orange. Although my mother said we could keep all the cats, Pumpkin was the one to whom I grew most attached. I still remember the day he and his brother left our hour and never came home. My mother said that they had probably followed a female cat’s trail and lost their way. I was upset with her that she let him roam. I was worried he’d been hit by a car or met some other horrible end. My only consolation was that I still had Kitty and her daughter. My mother spayed them both and kept them inside. They lived with us for 15 and 16 more years.

Another cat of mine went missing when I was much older and already married with a daughter. Although he was strictly a house cat, Stripey enjoyed sitting on the window when the screens were on to let in the nice warm air during the spring and summer. One day, we accidentally left the window open when we went to work, and Stripey knocked out the screen and escaped. My experience with Pumpkin returned to me as I faced my crying daughter when she found out Stripey was missing. I helped her put up signs on telephone poles in the neighborhood and at the library where I worked. We searched for him under bushes, near houses, and through surrounding streets with no luck. What made it harder was that it had recently rained, and I worried that the scent that helps cats find their ways home would have washed away. At the suggestion of my neighbor who knew our cat was missing, we placed some cat food on a paper plate by the back door of our screened-in porch and opened it wide enough for a cat to fit through. The inner door to our house was locked overnight. When I woke in the morning, Stripey was standing there looking at me through the glass. My daughter and I were overjoyed that he was back.

Having experienced both the loss and recovery of a missing cat, I knew that I could use those real-life memories to portray what happens to Sneaky the library cat in my third Cobble Cove Mystery, Written in Stone. When Sneaky disappears from the comforts of his upstairs cat room that is accessible from the staff lounge through a cat flap, Alicia and Laura, the two librarians closest to him, are consumed with both worry and guilt. Alicia, my main character, can’t get him off her mind as she walks through town. She is particularly worried about the effects of his disappearance on a young girl, Angelina, who is fighting leukemia and who enjoys seeing him at the library’s storytimes. The girl’s father, also concerned for his ill daughter, puts up a reward for information leading to Sneaky’s recovery. Even as more pressing matters occur in the book including a murder, a threat on her life, and the appearance of a beautiful woman from her husband’s past, the missing cat remains uppermost on Alicia’s mind. Will Sneaky be lost forever like Pumpkin; or, like Stripey, will he be reunited with his Cobble Cove friends?

About the  Author

Debbie De Louise is a reference librarian at a public library on Long Island and has been involved with books and writing for over thirty years. She received the Lawrence C. Lobaugh, jr. Memorial Award in Journalism for her work as Features Editor on the Long Island University/C. W. Post student newspaper, the Pioneer. More recently, Debbie received the Glamour Puss Award from Hartz Corporation for an article about cat grooming that appeared on Catster.com. She has published a short mystery in the Cat Crimes Through Time Anthology and two novels,CLOUDY RAINBOW and A STONE’S THROW, the first book of her Cobble Cove cozy mystery series. Her short stories, THE PATH TO RAINBOW BRIDGE and DEADLINE appear in the anthologies, REALMS OF FANTASTIC STORIES and PROJECT 9, Vol. 2 published by Solstice Publishing. She is currently working on a psychological thriller, the third Cobble Cove Mystery, and a new pet-related cozy series. She lives on Long Island with her husband, daughter, and two cats.

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