When one of my publishers asked if I wanted to write another cozy mystery series, I was thrilled. Similar to my other two series, I tapped into my personal experiences for inspiration. I was born and raised in Northwestern Indiana but as I got older, I realized that I hated cold weather (NW Indiana can get very cold in the winter). I owned two toy poodles (Coco and Cash), and I was very active with Echo Dog Club where I trained and competed with my dogs in obedience and agility. One day, I stumbled across a website, FINDYOURSPOT.COM (sadly it doesn’t exist anymore). The beauty of the website was that you answered a series of questions and at the end, an algorithm determined the best cities for you to live in. One of the cities on my list was Chattanooga, Tennessee. So, when an opportunity came to relocate to Eastern Tennessee, I jumped at the chance.
IN THE DOG HOUSE, is the 1st book in the series. Readers meet Lilly Ann Echosby, whose husband, Albert, sells cars and Albert wants to trade Lilly in for a younger model. A chance encounter with a mysterious woman on a train, Miss Florrie, helps her realize that she hasn’t been happy for a long time. Both of her kids are grown and have moved away. She’s living in a house she doesn’t love. She hasn’t even been able to get a dog because her husband is allergic. That’s when Lilly decides to go in search of her “happy place.” She reconnects with her best friend from college, gets a toy poodle, Aggie, and moves to Chattanooga. In Chattanooga, Lilly makes friends, gets involved with the Eastern Tennessee Dog Club where she trains and competes with Aggie. With the help of her new dog-loving friends and with a great deal of canine assistance, she also solves quite a few murders.
SIT, STAY, SLAY, the 5th and final book in the series, releases on Tuesday, December 8th. It’s been a long journey for me and Lilly. I’m amazed when I look at how much we’ve both grown. Lilly may have grown more than me (I still can’t drive up Lookout Mountain). However, I think we’ve both finally found our “Happy Place.”
When her best friend Dixie is suspected of killing a dog show judge, Lilly must bring one sick puppy to heel . . .
Tennessee transplant Lilly Echosby has two great loves: dogs and mysteries. So naturally, she’s named her poodles Aggie, after Agatha Christie, and Rex, for Rex Stout. Now that she has two dogs to manage, it makes sense to enter Aggie in an obedience competition—especially since her instructor is Lilly’s gal pal, Scarlet “Dixie” Jefferson.
But when one of the judges for the competition turns out to be Dixie’s high school rival, the dog trainer gets hot under the collar. When the woman is found strangled, Dixie becomes the number one suspect. With the help of the other dog club members, Lilly must find the real killer—before the next judge Dixie tangles with throws the book at her . . .