MURDER AT THE NO-KILL ANIMAL SHELTER is a prequel novella in the Cheater's Lake Mystery series.

The story is set in the fictional town of Cheater's Lake, Washington. The main character is Homicide Detective Mark Walsh, who relocated to the town from Phoenix, Arizona, (after catching his ex-wife in bed with his 'supervisor'). Mark now works with Officer Sharon Laskey, a former bartender, and is also assisted in his cases by his best friend (from Phoenix) retired San Diego Homicide Detective Greg Hogan (in a wheelchair due to a gang shooting), who is in the process of opening a PI practice in Seattle and LA.

Mark arrives at the Cheater's Lake Animal Rescue (a no-kill shelter), where he's informed by Laskey that the two kennels were set on fire and the elderly caretaker (Carson Butts) found dead. The shelter's director is DM (Daisy Marigold) Collins, a wealthy widow who lives on 60 acres of wooded land in Cheater's Lake. Why would somenone set fire to a no-kill shelter and murder a kindly old caretaker? As Walsh investigates, he finds DM has some secrets and so did Butts. Walsh is attracted to DM, but she's all business, guarded by her German shepherd, Henry. Her history with animals includes setting up a prison program with rescue dogs to be trained for companions, as well as developing an area near her home for training security dogs.

DM has a stalker from her off- the-grid upbringing in Oregon, Tony Kurtz, a grifter and con man. He and a couple of 'associates' are to blame for the fire at the kennels and threats to her life. The caretaker (Carson Butts aka Clarence Branson) also has a secret past -- as the accountant for a crime family in Chicago who fled when the Feds came calling. His family was left behind and placed in Witness Protection. The older son, Steven, was already in the Marines but the younger one had mental problems. Stan Branson eventually kidnaps DM and is revealed to have killed his father for leaving the family.

Along the way, Mark finds two terrified cats and ends up adopting them. He names them Fred and Ethel (after the Lucille Ball show). They're terrors and he's not a cat person, but they add humor to the story and manage to teach him about the world of rescue -- his and theirs. Mark eventually comes full circle from the messed up guy who fled Phoenix to a more relaxed citizen of the small town of Cheater's Lake.

Murder at the No-Kill Animal Shelter - pokkari, Englanti, 2021