Meow Missing by Lisa J Lickel is a Shake Off Winter Doldrums pick #cozymystery #cats #mustread #giveaway
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  • N. N. Light
    • Mar 11
    • 5 min read

Meow Missing by Lisa J Lickel is a Shake Off Winter Doldrums pick #cozymystery #cats #mustread #giveaway



Title: Meow Missing       

 

Author: Lisa J Lickel

 

Genre: Cozy Mystery

 

Book Blurb:

 

Ivy's aunt is missing, and Ivy vows to find her ...after she gets out of this kidnapping mess.

 

Home in Apple Grove after a shortened honeymoon, Ivy is confronted with her first quandary of married life: admit to her husband that she picked up a piece of garbage that turns out to be the tip of the iceberg of an international smuggling ring, or toss the evidence? While seeking advice from her mom, retired criminal studies professor Geneva Preston, Ivy learns her aunt is missing in South America. Ivy wants to help, but her new husband convinces her to let the authorities handle the situation while they prepare for their first Apple Fest.

 

Ivy happens upon a robbery and is kidnapped by desperados demanding a response to the terrible plight of itinerant coffee workers. During her captivity she meets a man who claims to be her long-absent uncle. Can she trust him and his plot to find her Aunt Chris after they're rescued?

 

Excerpt:

 

I had tripped on the hem of my wedding dress after we’d climbed the steps to the third floor turret room at the inn. Thankfully it happened privately, not in front of everyone at the actual wedding. I had landed on all fours in front of my husband who was about to open the door to our room. Well, more, like face-planted on the floor in front of Sam Clemens when I accidentally kicked his door open. He’d been staying in the room across the hall from ours.

 

Yes, the Clemens I mentioned a few minutes ago in my list of disasters. As if one could ever forget such an interlude at such a time. He was not the Samuel Clemens! Of course I knew that, but I was taken aback. Even more so when our hostess called him “Mr. Waxley,” the same last name as my Aunt Chris, my father’s only sibling. And then two men took Mr. Waxley away, presumably to a hospital.

 

Before Adam picked me up from the floor, I had noticed something sparkly near the door where the man had lain. Then I—we—got busy with other things and I forgot about it. (Me, blushing.) But in the morning I happened to step out the door before Adam and happened to kick the sparkly thing, happened to bend down and pick it up, happened to put it in my pocket, and it eventually made its way into my toothbrush bag where out of sight, out of mind.

 

Until now. The sparkly thing looked suspiciously clear and green with facets that were quite emerald-ish. I really should return it to Mrs. Daucett. Like, really soon. After I talked to Adam about it, of course. Explained how I forgot about finding and picking up a precious gem from the floor of the fantastic B and B where we spent our first night as a married couple, and probably tarnish the whole memory of our honeymoon?

 

I held the green sparkly thing up to the light. It probably wasn’t an emerald. What do I know about precious gems, anyway? Was it even precious? It was probably some tourist souvenir or something like that. If it was valuable, surely the owner would be looking for it, and if the owner asked her about it, Mrs. Daucett would call us. I fisted it and took a deep breath. Then I stuck it back in my empty toiletries bag and stuffed the bag behind a stack of towels.

 

Two hours later of pretending to dust and looking in all the cupboards and closets, opening and closing the washing machine and dryer and general looking-out-the-window activities, I could no longer dismiss the sound of the thing calling to me. “Iveeee! Get me out of heeere!” I retrieved the green gem and considered my options of confidants. Addy, my best friend, was the town’s veterinarian and probably hard at work. Amy, our friend Elvis’s fiancé, was likely at work at her business, Ethereal Events, and Marion, Adam’s assistant—well, it would look pretty weird for me to show up to talk to Marion about something I couldn’t share with Adam. My former neighbor Martha was downstairs working in the shop and besides she tended to chat a lot with customers, and wasn’t great at keeping confidences. Yolanda at the Apple Grove Gazette would have some good ideas about what to do, but I knew she was swamped with working on Apple Fest.

 

Mom was my last best hope. Good thing she lived nearby. Geneva McTeague Preston, Professor McTeague as she was known to her former criminal justice students in northern Illinois at Maplewood College, had retired at the end of the last school year. She and dad had been a little older when they met and married, and had me, their only child. She had been widowed young and never dated, at least while I was at home. I tried not to blame myself. I’m not exactly a spring chicken, but certainly young enough to plan on having a family. Sooner than later. Anyway, Mom fell in love with Apple Grove, too…besides falling in serious like with one of our delightful citizens. Mr. Virgil Toynsbee had once served as Apple Grove’s mayor, long before Adam. He had been an attorney and had represented me a couple of months ago when I’d been wrongly accused of murder. Long story. He got me off, but in the course of events, met my mother. Both widowers, they hit it off well enough to have her sell our house in Maplewood and buy the little cottage I had bought for myself and my cat buddy, Memnet, when I relocated. Speaking of whom, I hadn’t seen the kids, that is, my Memnet, Adam’s cat Isis, and their kittens, for a week. Another good excuse for a visit as Mom was cat-sitting.

 

I headed out into the warm sunshine of early July, deciding to walk the half-dozen blocks since it wasn’t too hot yet and I needed to come up with a plan about how to broach the subject of my pocketed faux gem that didn’t involve the term “kleptomania.”

 

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


What’s your favorite activity to shake off the winter doldrums?

 

Games!

 

We have some cultural game-playing habits in Wisconsin to get us through the long dark winters, where it’s often dark before 5 p.m. in December and January, and not really a good light in the morning until after 7. In the evenings we play cards, and get together for tournaments when there’s no icefishing, or even when there is! Euchre, a game of war with partners and five cards, or its cousin, Sheepshead, spades on steroids where queens rule, are popular on each side of the state. In my golden years I am leaning to play Bridge, something on my bucket list, along with more travel and one day finishing the landscaping.

 

Why is your featured book a cure for the winter blues?

 

Meow Missing: Sweet and light, cats, coffee, stolen gems, kidnapping, and found family go together like love and marriage and a baby carriage. Visit Apple Grove with its loveable screwups and amazing pets. And cats.

 

Giveaway –

 

One lucky reader will win a $35 Amazon gift card

 

 

Open internationally.

 

Runs March 1 – 31, 2024

 

Drawing will be held on April 1, 2024. 

 


Author Biography:

 

Lisa Lickel writes from the peaceful rolling hills of Wisconsin’s driftless area. A multi-published and award-winning novelist, she also writes short stories and radio theater, articles, is an avid book reviewer, blogger, and freelance editor. She loves books, collects dragons, and encouraging authors. She’s a member of the Wisconsin Writers Association, the Chicago Writers Association, and Assistant Director and book coach for Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp and Writing Retreat, Inc. She manages the Wisconsin Writers Association Press and edits Creative Wisconsin magazine. Lisa and her husband enjoy gardening, travel, spending time with their family. They have two grown sons, daughters-in-law, and lots of adorable grandchildren.

 

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