Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Murder at Meadows Lake Clubhouse (Soup the Supernatural Kitten Mysteries) by Debbie De Louise. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Murder at Meadows Lake Clubhouse (Soup the Supernatural Kitten Mysteries)
by Debbie De Louise
Murder at Meadows Lake Clubhouse (Soup the Supernatural Kitten Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – South Carolina
Publisher : Independently Published (March 25, 2025)
Paperback : 254 pages
Widow and retired realtor, Rose Fairchild, is gifted with a sixth sense. Moving from Long Island to a community in South Carolina, Rose is reluctant to leave the house she shared with her husband Harvey and her cat Moxie before they died, but a strange vision of a disappearing kitten on the community’s website intrigues her.
When Rose arrives in the Meadows Lake community, she meets two singles her age: Grant, a real estate agent and widower, and Blake, the divorced Fallsview sheriff. She also meets the orange cat of her vision who introduces herself as Soup and claims to be sent by Rose’s husband as a guide for her new life.
Soon after, a murder takes place at the clubhouse. The victim is the restaurant cook who wasn’t well liked, and Rose becomes involved in the sheriff’s investigation, only to receive a written threat to stop snooping around. Will her visions help her solve the case… or will she need help from her supernatural kitten?
Author Guest Post: The Inspirations for My New Release
My kitten soup
My cats Harry and Hermione
Readers enjoy learning the story behind the story of what inspired an author to write a book. I was already writing two series, The Cobble Cove Mysteries and The Buttercup Bend Mysteries when I was approached by a resident in my community, a fellow cat lover, who said he couldn’t get enough of my cat books. While my Cobble Cove series features Sneaky the Library Cat and a female calico who joined him later in the series, my Buttercup Bend books, also featuring cats, focuses on a different animal in each book from parrots to llamas to whales to reptiles. I thought it would be nice to start another series with a cat character who, while not the main character, was a strong supporting one. Thus, Soup the Supernatural Kitten was born.
Soup is a somewhat rare female ginger kitten. As she explains in the book, only twenty per cent of ginger cats are female. I rescued a feral female ginger cat in 1995. Currently, I have a new ginger, Soup, whom the series cat is named after. Soup joined our family in September 2024 when my daughter saw her in a pet store in South Carolina where we’d moved the previous March. The pet store’s kittens were rescues. We adopted Soup who was a few months old at the time, and she joined our six-year-old cats Harry and Hermione who came with us from New York.
The plot of Murder at Meadows Lake involves a widow who moves from New York to a community in South Carolina. I used many of my moving details and my experience in my community as research, although the town and community are fictional.
Unlike my other series, I’ve given the main character, Rose, psychic abilities. I’ve also given her two single men that attract her, the realtor who sells her the house and the sheriff. Since Rose has a hard time coping with the loss of her husband, she isn’t ready for another relationship, but she ends up working with these men to solve a murder. She also receives Soup’s help.
The origin of the character Soup involves a back story that is related in various parts of the book. Soup was drowned as a kitten but was brought back on the day that Rose’s husband died. He instructed her to be a guide for Rose in her new home. Returning with special powers —the ability to talk, teleport, and stay a young kitten—Soup uses these “gifts” to assist Rose in catching the killer.
As the story develops, Soup becomes more than a pet or a guide to Rose. She becomes a friend. As someone who has found comfort and inspiration from my cats, I love being able to illustrate in my book the type of bond that a human and cat can share.
While Soup and my move were inspirations for Murder at Meadows Lake Clubhouse, my cats Harry and Hermione were my inspiration for Soup’s back story. I adopted them from a rescue in 2018 after my beloved mother and cat Oliver died. When my daughter and I met Harry and Hermione, I had a strong feeling that I should adopt them. I don’t have psychic ability, but I’ve experienced signs that I recognized by paying attention to them. What convinced me to adopt Harry and Hermione was that I felt my mother, a cat lover, would have wanted those kittens to comfort me after her loss. In my book, Rose saw a vision of her dead husband who gave her permission to move on and explained that he’d sent Soup to help her.
I hope readers of this guest post will find my inspirations for my new release and series interesting and that it gives them a better perspective of the book when they read it.
About Debbie De Louise
Debbie De Louise is an award-winning author and a retired reference librarian. She is a member of Sisters-in-Crime, International Thriller Writers, and the Cat Writers’ Association. She writes two cozy mystery series, the Cobble Cove Mysteries and Buttercup Bend Mysteries. She’s also written a paranormal romance, three standalone mysteries, a time-travel novel, and a collection of cat poems. Her stories and poetry appear in over a dozen anthologies. Debbie also writes articles for cat magazines. She recently moved from Long Island to South Carolina, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and three cats. Learn more about Debbie and her books by visiting her website at https://debbiedelouise.com
Author Links
Website/Blog/Newsletter Sign-Up: https://debbiedelouise.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debbie.delouise.author/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Deblibrarian
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2750133.Debbie_De_Louise
Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/2bIHdaQ
All Author: https://allauthor.com/author/debbiedelouise/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbie_writer/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiedelouise/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/debbie-de-louise
Debbie’s Character’s Chat Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/748912598599469/\
Sneaky the Library Cat’s Blog: https://Sneakylibrarycat.wordpress.com
Purchase LinkS – Amazon
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Murder at Meadows Lake Clubhouse TOUR PARTICIPANTS
April 23 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
April 23 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
April 24 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – AUTHOR GUEST POST
April 24 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
April 25 – Ascroft, eh? – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
April 25 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
April 26 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
April 26 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
April 27 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST
April 28 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – REVIEW
April 28 – Frugal Freelancer – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
April 29 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
April 30 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
Thanks so much for featuring my author guest post and hosting a spot on my book tour.
You’re welcome!
This book sounds like a fun and entertaining read.
Thank you!