"Muzzled"

Eileen Brady is a veterinarian living in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is a wife and mother of two daughters and often has to chase her six cats and two dogs away from her laptop keyboard. The Kate Turner, DVM Mysteries is her first series.

Brady applied the Page 69 Test to Muzzled, the first book in the series, and reported the following:

The page 69 Test turned out to be a fun and quirky vignette from Muzzled. I think readers can get a feel for my writing style and sense of humor. Let me tell you something about the plot. Dr. Kate Turner is a veterinarian who thinks she’s seen it all until she finds two of her house call clients shot dead, and their 27 show dogs running loose in the house. Chief of Police Bobby Garcia dismisses it as a sad murder-suicide, but Kate isn’t so sure. Perhaps the estranged daughter got tired of waiting for her inheritance? Is the tattooed biker who loves to bake a hit man? As the number of suspects goes up so does the cups of coffee and pieces of pie Kate wolfs down, leaving her nerves jangling and her pants too tight. Before she knows it someone tries to frame her for the murder. Who can she trust? The bookkeeper with her pet parrot Capt Hook, conveniently stuffed into her cleavage, or the grouchy office manager who knows where all the bodies are buried? Since I am a veterinarian, as well as a writer, I mix real medicine in with the murder, to give the reader an enjoyable and informative read.

CHAPTER 10

“What was in your backpack?” my friend Gracie screamed through the phone.

“This gun I’d never seen before, plus the usual stuff.” I took another sip of white wine and sprawled on my sofa in front of the television trying to chill. After going over and over what happened before and after the shooting and viewing the Goth kid’s video a hundred times, the State Police reluctantly let me go, advising me not to make any travel plans. Prudently I’d stopped myself from blurting out that I’d heard that before.

Gracie’s voice brought me out of my little fog.

“What usual stuff do you carry around, Kate?”

I thought for a moment. “You know, my wallet and credit cards, duct tape, syringes, a bag of fluids, some sterile needle, epinephrine, dexamethasone, Advil, some extra socks...”

Her quick intake of breath warned me something was wrong.

“That sounds like the stuff serial killers carry around. No wonder they kept you so long.” She made a funny smacking noise with her lips. “Why did you have all of that with you?”

I took another sip of wine. “That’s my veterinary emergency kit. I always have some medical supplies with me.”

“Why?”

I straightened up, put my glass down, and tried to explain. “A couple of summers ago I was hiking part of the Appalachian....

Visit Eileen Brady's website.

--Marshal Zeringue