This cozy series has everything you want and more: an eclectic cast of characters, a mystery or two, and diligent detectives on duty. The detectives, feline and canine, figure it all out, but they have a dickens of a time getting the humans to understand them.The series, Tiger Lily's Café, is set in a Midwestern town nestled into the sunset coast of a Great Lake. The setting itself acts as a character, bringing the reader into the sights, sounds and smells of the small resort community of Chelsea.Read the series in order, or read any book alone. Each volume stands alone with a clear beginning and a clear end.This volume continues the story of Annie, a woman whose ownership of a prime piece of real estate and several businesses was almost a mistake. But own it, she does, and she makes the best of an idyllic situation.With her family of rescue cats and a diverse collection of business managers, staff and friends, Annie embraces her home on The Avenue, a picturesque slice of life that embodies the best - and sometimes the worst - that humanity has to offer.In Turtle Soup, Annie's Café is in trouble. Several issues have marred otherwise pristine reviews from the Health Department. Annie can't figure out what is happening or why. In the meantime, a not-so-very-good friend, Geraldine, has opened a diner that looks remarkably like the Café. Geraldine seems to benefit from Annie's problems. Annie is blind, but Tiger Lily, the oldest of Annie's cats, is wise to Geraldine's deception.A group of guests arrive at Annie's bed and breakfast. They appear to be typical "beautiful people." They have pre-booked an extended fishing cruise on the lake but arrive early to spend a few days in town. Intrigue seems to follow them. The intrigue turns darker, and through the efforts of another of Annie's cats, Little Socks, the depth of their depravity is eventually made known to Annie and her friends. But is it too late?Tiger Lily and her siblings, along with their canine friends Jock and Cyril, are wise to the dangers lurking around Chelsea, but they can't seem to make their humans understand. The humans are in the soup. They just don't know it.

Kathleen Thompson was raised on a small family farm in Indiana. She has an undergraduate degree in Sociology from Manchester College (now Manchester University) and an MBA from Indiana University South Bend. In a variety of towns and circumstances, she served as a probation officer, parole agent and juvenile residential counselor before moving into administrative, marketing and fund raising positions in human service organizations. Ms. Thompson took a break from human services for seven years to own and operate a bar and restaurant. Let's be honest; that's another type of human service. While making plans to return to her rural roots, Kathi and her mother discovered an injured kitten at the family farm. The kitten, whose face was a mass of unhealed injuries, decided to make Kathi her guardian. She wrapped herself around an ankle, started purring, and wouldn't let go. Against the advice of her mother, Kathi took the kitten home and to a veterinarian, the vet diagnosed road burn serious enough to take all the fur from the left side of her face, and the kitten - Tiger Lily - eventually healed and took a huge part of Kathi's heart. Tiger Lily was joined by the rest, rescue kitties, all: Little Socks (thank you, Aunt Mary); Kali, Ko and Mo (thank you, Connie); Sassy Pants (thank you, Ant Sherwy); and Mr. Bean (thank you, Pulaski Animal Center). A recent arrival, Speckles (thank you, Tennille) has joined the cast, but will not live at the Inn. Tiger Lily's Café rattled around in Kathi's brain - there isn't much else up there - for all of the years since, sometimes as an actual café and sometimes as a book. It was less expensive to write the book. Connect with Kathi and her family of cats at their website: www.tigerlilyscafe.com, or find them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/tigerlilyscafemysteries.