Mysterious Cozy Cats

“What do you think, Penny?” I asked.

     She sprang to her feet and arched her back, her fur standing up like an animated bristle cone. She stared at the window then whirled and dashed upstairs.

     “Well, my goodness, it was just a question,” I called after her.    

     She was clearly frightened. Could someone be lurking around the house again? Listening, I didn’t hear anyone trying the new locks. All seemed serene.

     Deciding to check out the yard and porch, I went to the dining room window and glanced out. Like a full moon, the dusk to dawn light illuminated the yard, throwing long shadows of trees and bushes across the lawn and sidewalk.

     I saw nothing alarming. Penny’s imitation of a bottle brush must have been caused by her imagination. Perhaps she had a bad dream too. I was turning away from the window when, in the edge of my vision, I glimpsed a movement. My heart in my throat, I drew the curtain aside and stared into the night.

     A figure in white moved swiftly and silently from behind the pines and disappeared inside the carriage house. Pressing my hands together to still their shaking, I stood like a statue, gazing at the ramshackle building. I was almost afraid to blink, afraid I would miss seeing it again, but the figure did not emerge. Excerpt from  Moonlight Can Be Murder.

Animals are important in real life and certainly in cozy mysteries. In Moonlight Can Be Murder, to be released November 15, Ned is alone in a large, Victorian house. Alone except for a small cat named Penny and the mysterious happenings both inside and outside of her uncle’s old home.

In the Darcy and Flora series, Jethro the cat is there to see this mother and daughter team through some mighty harrowing experiences.