Paw and Order: A Detective Whiskers Cat Cozy Mystery
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – Florida
Wright on the Mark, LLC. (May 23, 2023)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 204 pages

Synopsis

What’s better than a K-9 cop? A feline detective. Detective Whiskers is out to prove himself, and keep his human from being framed for murder, or worse. He’ll need the help of his new animal friends and Sheila’s group of female sleuths. This cozy mystery set in a small town in Old Florida is purrfect for cat lovers and anyone who enjoys a fun beach read.

Who is really catching killers in Paradise Cove? It’s not the local police. The Paradise Cove Murder Society is getting the job done, with more help than they realize from a furry detective named Whiskers.

Sheila and her cat Whiskers are starting a new life in the perfect little Florida beach town that managed to avoid the big crowds, condos and chain stores. But as soon as they arrive the town has its first ever murder. Good thing Whiskers is a trained detective! Fred, Sheila’s husband of forty years, was a police detective who recently passed away, right before they were supposed to retire to the beach. After forty years of devoting herself entirely to being a good wife and mother she’s now left to put her life back together, but what kind of life will it be? In a fresh setting, and with some quirky new friends, she slowly begins to remember all of the dreams she had as a young woman. She has a second chance to chase those dreams, if she can stay alive and out of prison. When her next door neighbor is killed and the evidence points to Sheila, it’s time for Whiskers to step up.

Whiskers was Fred’s loyal assistant and he’ll need to remember everything he learned from his mentor to keep Sheila safe as she rediscovers herself. With the help of some unexpected new friends of his own Detective Whiskers sets out to prove to the world, and himself, that he is worthy of the shiny badge on his collar. If you love humorous cozy mysteries where pets take the lead and eccentric friends come together to solve crimes with just the right amount of suspense then the Detective Whiskers Cozy Mystery Series is exactly what you’re looking for.

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Guest Post

I’ve been asked several times why I choose to write mysteries with animals as the lead characters. The answer may be connected to my childhood.

At the age of ten I moved over 4,000 miles with my family from Alabama to a place I’d never been before — Scotland. And not Edinburgh or Glasgow, but a tiny village in the Highlands on the shores of Loch Ness. That’s right, the home of the world’s most famous monster. The World Hide and Seek Champion (sorry, Bigfoot). I was in the middle of one of the world’s greatest mysteries and it wasn’t human.

You’re probably saying that the Loch Ness monster isn’t real. I can’t prove that you’re wrong. But I can tell you that on my last visit back to Scotland there was another video sighting of ‘Nessie.’ That’s what the locals call her. Don’t ask me how they know Nessie is a she.

That wasn’t the only sighting this year. At last check, no fewer than three pictures or videos of a possible Loch Ness monster had been registered. The website LochNessSightings.com shows ten webcam sightings since 2021 and over 1,100 sightings overall. Somebody is seeing something.

My first sighting of the Loch Ness monster was on an episode of Scooby Doo. The episode called A Highland Fling With a Monstrous Thing was part of the third season of Scooby Doo, Where Are You? in 1978. In that episode Finnyan McDuff summoned the monster to scare away tourists. It didn’t work. Tourists flock to Loch Ness every year hoping for a chance to see Nessie themselves.

The tourist appeal of the monster is not showing any signs of fading away. Just this summer the Loch Ness Centre in Drumnadrochit reopened following an extensive and expensive renovation.

How long have these sightings been happening? The first one (that we know of) was reported by Saint Columba in the year 565 AD. The “water beast” recorded in the book Life of Saint Columba was responsible for the death of a man swimming in the River Ness. Personally, I have my doubts about this encounter because you would never catch me swimming in water that cold. But in the book Saint Columba faces down the monster, sending it deep into the water where it stayed for a very long time.

The sighting that started the modern day monster craze occurred 90 years ago in 1933. The Inverness Courier newspaper reported that Aldie Mackay, driving with her husband near where the Loch Ness Centre is now located, saw a “whale like fish” rolling in the loch. The newspaper article. Was titled Strange Spectacle in Loch Ness and said “The creature disported itself, rolling and plunging for fully a minute, its body resembling that of a whale, and the water cascading and churning like a simmering cauldron. Soon, however, it disappeared in a boiling mass of foam. Both onlookers confessed that there was something uncanny about the whole thing, for they realised that here was no ordinary denizen of the depths, because, apart from its enormous size, the beast, in taking the final plunge, sent out waves that were big enough to have been caused by a passing steamer.”

If you would like to look for the monster there are plenty of locals willing to help you, for a fair price. Regular tours of Loch Ness depart from at least three docks, including one that I walked past every day that I lived there. The boat operator was kind enough to place monster-shaped stickers on the window so that, if you didn’t get a picture of the real thing, you could point your camera at the water with the sticker in the right place and get a picture that might fool a couple of your more gullible friends back home.

You may also be able to get a seat on a boat scanning the depths of Loch Ness with sonar equipment. If you happen to see a very large object swimming below your boat, I do not recommend throwing a fishing line over the rail. Should you hook Nessie you would either get pulled overboard or, if you somehow succeed in catching everybody’s favorite ‘beastie’ then you would be an instant villain and would not make it out of the Highlands with your catch.

So, growing up near such a mysterious creature, is it any wonder that I chose to write mystery stories that are not dominated by humans? Detective Whiskers and his friends in Paradise Cove are not quite as famous as Nessie (yet) but they will keep you entertained while you try to help them figure out whodunit. I invite you to read Paw & Order and the rest of the cozy mysteries in the Detective Whiskers series, available exclusively on Amazon. And, if I ever spot Nessie, I promise to write a book about it.

Excerpt

Sheila does not understand. I know we’re not supposed to play favorites with our humans, but we all do. Fred and I had a connection that was … special. I’ve tried communicating with Sheila, but— Okay this part is a little embarrassing. Every time I tap her hand with my paw, she thinks I want food or a belly rub. Which, of course, I do. I ALWAYS want food or a belly rub. Or both. But I’m trying to tell her something important, and all of a sudden, she puts those fingernails to work on my belly and I’m gone. Lost. A zombie. It feels sooooo good. Whatever I needed to say is up in smoke, my eyes are closed, and I hear a Karen Carpenter love song in my head.

Don’t judge me.

About the Author

Chris Abernathy has narrated more than 200 audiobooks and now he is writing his own stories. He has been a storyteller his entire life — around campfires at a summer camp as a counselor, on the radio for more than 30 years, as an actor with background roles on major motion pictures and TV series, as a producer of short films for social media and more. Chris is married with two sons and lives on the Gulf Coast in Alabama. He is a dual national with citizenship in the US and UK and visits family in the Scottish Highlands as often as possible.

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