Madeline McPhee Mysteries

Professor Madeline McPhee is on a deadline. But she and her grad student, Jordan Marshall, must take a diversion to meet with Curtis Norville, one of their partners on the project and an environmental activist with an oversized personality and a tendency to push the limits. Will working with this man draw Madeline and Jordan into dangerous territory? A Furmidable Wreck chronicles an environmental mystery within a murder investigation.A Furmidable Wreck is the fourth installment in the Madeline McPhee mystery series, stories that embrace the quirky characters of a small village in the Pacific Northwest, the antics of a Maine Coon cat, and an amateur sleuth with the calm demeanor of Jessica Fletcher and the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes. June Lucas is the pen name of Dr. Laurel Standley, a scientist and author living in northern California, though her heart remains in the misty forests of Oregon, especially Portland, which is where the Madeline McPhee mysteries take place. To learn more about her cozy mysteries and the associated cookbook, 50 Shades of Scones, visit www.authorjunelucas.com and follow @junelucasauthor on Instagram.The idea for the Madeline McPhee mysteries began when a light-hearted story Laurel wrote about her cat was accepted for publication in Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Cat Did That? Laurel decided to try her hand at writing cozy mysteries with a strong feline presence. And, of course, she loves all things Scottish-tea, scones, plaid, the accent. Many of the antics of the fictional cat Angus in the stories were inspired by Wall-E (see picture), a big orange kitten Laurel adopted from a shelter in the winter of 2019.The titles for the McPhee mysteries were inspired years ago by Laurel's Aunt Gail when she nicknamed Laurel's sweet but grumpy cat Teacake "The Wreck of the Hiss Purr Hiss," a play on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, The Wreck of the Hesperus. Thus, titles for the McPhee mysteries are created in the spirit of lines from Longfellow's poem with a feline twist.

Professor Madeline McPhee and her daughter Kirsty take a day off work to help Aunt Fiona decorate for Dunnett Village's Halloween haunted house tour. That night while cleaning up after the crowd of costumed visitors, Kirsty finds a bag of drugs one of the visitors must have left behind. Then a waitress at Madeline's favorite café is killed in what at first appears to be an accident. When Madeline and Kirsty try to capture the waitress's fierce little cat, Esmé, they find another stash of drugs in her apartment. Before long, Madeline's graduate students discover a mysterious chemical in what was supposed to be a clean stream at the Oregon Coast. Coincidence? Madeline doesn't believe in those. Determined to untangle the mysteries churning amidst the stormy fall days, Madeline ventures into Portland's criminal underbelly, leaving her wondering just who among the people she knows has a dark side.A Whiskered Storm is the third installment in the Madeline McPhee mystery series, stories that embrace the quirky characters of a small village in the Pacific Northwest, the antics of a Maine Coon cat, and an amateur sleuth with the calm demeanor of Jessica Fletcher and the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes.