The Stray Call Mysteries
Cozy mysteries by Polly Albright. In a small Wisconsin county, an animal-control officer’s stray calls keep leading her to murder.
Tell me when book 1 is outComing to Kindle
Released to Owner
Book 1. Monday, before dawn. A gray terrier sits alone at the café door on Division Street, under the block’s one working streetlamp, waiting for the man who is always a minute behind her.
Animal-control officer Clem Tollefson drives her home and finds her owner, the supervisor who wanted Clem’s job cut, dead in his latched apple cooler.
The first ruling is accident. The terrier’s routine says otherwise.
Coming to Kindle
The Blue Book
The county keeps a ledger of every animal Clem takes in, and every entry goes in blue ink. This is the terrier’s line.
| Date | Oct. 12, 6:02 a.m. |
|---|---|
| Caller | S. Fossum, by dispatch |
| Location | Division St., at the Rosemaling door |
| Animal | Terrier mix, spayed female, gray wire coat, white beard, about 7 yrs, 16 lbs |
| Collar | Red, current red round tag |
| Licensed to | E. Paulson, orchard road |
| Owner | Deceased |
| Status | In county custody |
| Disposition |
Fill in the last word of the line.
Not one of them is true yet. Clem has written every kind there is after that word: released to owner, adopted, sent to the Barn. The county can hold the terrier fourteen days. Clem has until the twenty-sixth to fill the line.
“Released to owner” is what Clem writes in the Blue Book when a stray goes home to the person she belongs to. It is the entry she likes best to write.
What to expect
- The puzzle
- Fair. You can solve it along with the sleuth.
- The cast
- Worth coming back to.
- Violence
- Nothing graphic.
- Language
- No bad language.
- Animals
- None is ever hurt.
In Plenty, Wisconsin
- Clem Tollefson
- The county’s animal-control officer.
- Ole
- Her Great Pyrenees mix, who rides along.
- Sunny Fossum
- Her cousin, who runs the Rosemaling Café.
- Nickel
- The terrier at the café door.
About Polly Albright
Books under the name Polly Albright are cozy mysteries set in small American towns. In The Stray Call Mysteries, an animal-control officer’s calls keep leading to murder. Expect a fair puzzle you can solve along with the sleuth, a cast worth coming back to, no graphic violence, no bad language, and no animal ever hurt.
Reading order: Released to Owner is book 1. More calls are on the way.
Polly Albright is a pen name used by an independent publisher.
