Veterinarian Hal Medley sank every penny he had into a fresh start: a small-town practice in Urchin Cove, Oregon, a classy Victorian to call home and clinic.
He didn’t plan on the enormous black cat who refuses to leave, either. But Jericho isn’t lost, and he isn’t ordinary — he’s an angel on assignment, even if nobody bothered to tell him what the assignment is. When the town’s most hated cop turns up dead — scattered in bits and pieces along a quiet rural road — and Urchin Cove has its first murder in decades. Plenty of people wanted him gone. And the new vet who tussled with the man makes a convenient suspect.
To clear his name, Hal will have to navigate a town where no one tells the whole truth: a mayor with big appetites and bigger plans, a blackmailer who’s badly misjudged his target, a reclusive grande dame watching it all from her mansion on the hill — and a cat who understands every word and has opinions about all of it. In Urchin Cove, the pets are adorable, the pastries are exceptional, and the secrets are buried just deep enough.