Cozy Cat Press Celebrates Fourth of July with "Firecrackered"

AURORA, Ill. - May 7, 2016 - PRLog -- Independent book publisher Cozy Cat Press honors senior citizens and patriotism with its new Essie Cobb mystery FIRECRACKERED. Author and publisher at the company, Patricia Rockwell, will launch her new mystery on Saturday, June 25, at Half Price Books at 2867 95th Street in Naperville, Illinois, from 10 a.m. until noon.  The free event will feature prizes, eats, and fun for all attendees.

FIRECRACKERED is the fifth in the Essie Cobb senior sleuth mystery series.  The previous books include BINGOED, PAPOOSED, VALENTINED, and GHOSTED.  Author Rockwell says, "I like to feature a specific holiday or annual event in each of my Essie books." Essie is a ninety-year-old resident of the Happy Haven Retirement Home and is always up to mischief. Her favorite activity is solving mysteries, and she and her three friends--Opal, Marjorie, and Fay--often get quite carried away in their investigations.

"In FIRECRACKERED," says Rockwell, "a new male resident at Happy Haven saves Essie's life when he jumps on top of her just before a stray firecracker comes barreling down on them during a local fireworks display. Essie is grateful and, when she discovers that the errant rocket was not accidental, she goes into full detective mode."

As Rockwell's Essie Cobb books feature an elderly woman in a retirement home, the mysteries have proven to be quite popular with retirement home residents. Essie's spirit and energy--despite her rather typical "old lady" ailments--inspire all of these books. Rockwell based the Essie character on her own mother, Dorothy, who spent the last years of her life in a retirement home much like Happy Haven. Rockwell claims that her mother was quite a character--just like Essie--and was thrilled when Rockwell began to produce books based on her life. She says:  "Mom would keep a copy of my first Essie book BINGOED in the basket of her walker--just where Essie keeps all her important things. When Mom walked around and visited people at her facility, she always loved to show them the book that I had written about her."

Rockwell also writes a second, more traditional mystery series--the Pamela Barnes acoustic mysteries. These books feature a pyschologist who is an expert in sound technology who uses her knowledge to help the local police to solve various murders. Rockwell is retired but was at one point a university professor who actually conducted research using such acoustic technology, and the main character in this series is based on her own experience.

Following retirement, Rockwell began writing and soon after, discovered other authors who wanted help getting published.  It was just a short step to forming her own publishing company--Cozy Cat Press--which has been in business since 2010.  The company now has over 40 authors with over 120 titles in its catalog. For more information about Cozy Cat Press and the Essie Cobb Senior Sleuth mysteries, visit: http://www.cozycatpress.com