The Year of the Cat

Due to COVID-19, Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt Webster and his partner, Alfred ‘Stinky’ Floyd, are about to lose their business, Pine Valley Outfitters.

It seems a miracle when Ruben Benjamin Kaufman, president of On Site Films, offers Teddy a job. Somehow, Kaufman has obtained a rare permit to film in the Pine Valley Wilderness. Since no combustion vehicles are allowed, Teddy’s job is to transport (by horse) film equipment, technicians, and actors onto the mountain and keep them supplied. Stinky (who loves garlic and smells of it) will be the camp host, babysitter, and trash cop.

Unfortunately, trouble, like snow in the high country, comes early. Tony Pisano, Kaufman’s scene scout, is found torn to shreds, apparently the work of Puma concolor—the great North American cougar! Death by cougar is confirmed when its DNA is found in morsels of deer meat embedded in Pisano’s body. The head-scratcher: Why would a cougar, who’d just feasted on a deer, kill again? And so soon?

Sadly, this is not the end of Teddy’s troubles. When Katrina ‘Kat’ Kasey (the female star) wanders off, she also ends up on the medical examiner’s table.

The mystery deepens when the cougar’s DNA is found to match the DNA of Teddy’s (orphaned and rescued) 10-month-old cougar cubs. Caged in Teddy’s backyard, waiting to be released into the wild, they have never been anywhere near the Pine Valley Wilderness. Clearly, something is not kosher here. How could DNA from Teddy’s ‘kittens’ end up on the bodies of two corpses? And equally puzzling, why?

The Sky Pilot’s Wife

The Sky Pilot’s Wife is a historical romance and ‘slice of life’ novel set in the late Victorian period (1899-1902) in a quaint village on the Yorkshire Moors of England.

An intriguing romance arises between two of the most unlikely characters and it is heightened by the ‘secret language of flowers.’ The green-eyed monster, jealousy, causes an inevitable conflict and the rising tension creates a catastrophe which triggers a totally unexpected train of events.

Later, during a storm, the vicar’s wife, Louisa flees the vicarage to seek shelter within the confines of the church. But providence intervenes and gossip in the village becomes rife, much to Louisa’s consternation.

A fire later breaks out in the belltower of the church and the local constabulary is brought in to help solve the unfolding mystery. But who is it that wants Louisa dead? What is the purpose of this heinous crime? And who should pay?

Firstlings of the Flock

As with the story of Cain and Abel, the two MacKenzie brothers, Duncan and Cameron, do not get along – never have. For years, there has been almost no communication between brothers until the death of their father, John Jay.

Cam feels compelled to return for the funeral and the subsequent hearing of his father’s will, though he is uncertain what drives him. Although Cam expects nothing from the estate, surprisingly, the will decrees that he and Dun should travel to the High Uinta Wilderness (a special place for his father) to settle their differences.

Needless to say, both brothers do not return from the wilderness, but unfortunately, that still does not resolve the matter. Now the will is being contested by a third party claiming to be a previously unknown daughter.

Through DNA testing and some serious sleuthing, Cam discovers nothing is as he thought, and even he, Cameron MacKenzie, is not who he thought he was.