Danger at Dunhaven Castle: A Cate Kensie Mystery
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Publisher: A Novel Idea Publishing, LLC
Number of Pages: ~400

Synopsis

Frightening nightmares.
Aberrations in time.
Who is haunting Cate’s nightmares?

 

Months after solving two mysteries involving her ancestors, time-traveling, castle-dwelling Countess, Lady Catherine Kensie, still suffers from haunting nightmares. Chased by a mysterious man, Cate ponders who could be haunting her dreams and disturbing her sleep. She’s also smack dab in the middle of a brand-new research project, having found journals belonging to the Scottish castle’s original owner.

As Cate digs into the castle’s history, not only do her nightmares become more frequent and more frightening, but Cate also begins to experience strange phenomena with the time portals enclosed in the castle walls. Controlled by the mysterious heirloom timepiece she received as part of her inheritance, Cate is shocked when she begins to slip in and out of other time periods despite not activating the mechanism that controls them!

Can Cate learn the secret to control the time portals and discover who haunts her dreams before she finds herself lost in time?

 

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Guest Post

Living with Riley and Bailey (and the rest of the zoo!)

By Nellie H. Steele

Readers often ask me if Riley and Bailey are based on real dogs (and a few clever readers in my area have ferreted out that they are!).

Riley has been a major part of the fabric of Cate Kensie’s story since Book 1.  When I began to piece together Cate’s story, I first considered giving her a cat but didn’t think the hop across the pond would suit him very well!  Instead, I decided to pair Cate with a dog.  I first toyed with giving her a Scottie (since she was heading to Scotland, what better dog breed!).  But I wanted her to have something a bit smaller and easy to carry and cuddle.

In the early days of writing The Secret of Dunhaven Castle, I recall taking a break to take my own dog outside (well, one of them, but that’s a different story).  And that’s when it hit me.  As I watched the little black and white ball of fur bound around the yard, I thought that’s it!  Use Kylo!

Kylo (named after Kylo Ren from Star Wars) provided a perfect model for Cate’s best bud.  After a quick rename (since I had no desire to go up against Disney to use the name Kylo), Riley was born.  He shares a lot of the same traits with Kylo.  Both have an exuberance for life, both enjoy running outside, both have a blue ball.  The list could go on and on.

The one thing Riley didn’t have that Kylo did was a buddy.  Enter Bailey, also known as Finn (yep, another Star Wars name!).  Kylo and Finn are litter mates.  While Riley and Bailey didn’t grow up together, Kylo and Finn have been together since birth!  They do share beds, toys and spend time playing or lounging together.

Bailey is also quite a bit like his real-life counterpart.  The more backward of the pair, Bailey takes after more serious doggo, Finn.  Like Finn, he also “sings” (a long, higher-pitched woo-ing sound) and he does wave his front paws when excited and seeking attention.

Okay, I’ll admit, the one place they differ is that Riley and Bailey are a bit better behaved than Kylo and Finn ;). (They’ve also never found a secret passage in the house, but then again, I don’t live in castle!).

Kylo and Finn also have several other brothers and sisters, unlike Riley and Bailey.  Cate jokingly remarks to Jack in the latest installment of the series that if Riley finds another dog on the estate, she may need to rename it to Dunhaven Rescue Castle.  The real-life Riley and Bailey know all about that since they DO live in a rescue pet home!  In addition to Kylo and Finn, four other dogs share our home (Lily, Lizzie, Maddie and Lola) and eight cats (Grayson, Willie, Angelique, Maggie, Cassandra, Mace, Yoda and Percy).

Like Riley and Bailey for Cate, Kylo and Finn make up a large part of my life.  As a pet owner (and animal lover), I really enjoy writing the Riley and Bailey components of the story.  Whether it be Cate’s interactions with them, which I base off of interactions with Kylo and Finn, or Riley and Bailey’s own mini-mysteries within the book, the two pups make up as large a part of the Cate Kensie Mysteries series as Cate herself.

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About the Author

An Indies Today finalist for Best Book of the Year 2020 with Cleopatra’s Tomb, Nellie H. Steele made the leap from science to art with her first book, The Secret of Dunhaven Castle.

An animal enthusiast, Nellie often features a version of one of her fourteen rescue animals in her stories, though the fictional pets are usually better behaved than her own fur-babies!  A literary split personality, Nellie’s work ranges from cozy mystery to supernatural suspense to riveting adventure.

She lives in the South Hills of Pittsburgh.  When she isn’t writing or engaging in animal care, she enjoys teaching Statistics and Data Science at a local university.

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