New Mystery Blends Politics and Cats

AURORA, Ill. - March 1, 2018 - PRLog -- "It's the most frequently asked question of writers," observes Allen Boyer, author of his latest mystery novel, Blair House Cat Mystery.  "I hear it all the time whenever an author gets interviewed.  The question of where a writer gets an idea for a book is always asked by readers.  For me, for this particular book, the inspiration actually came walking right down Pennsylvania Avenue."

 Flash back to last summer, when Mr. Boyer was visiting Washington D.C. with his wife and children.  It was a day trip for the Boyer family to walk around town, duck into some museums and check out some monuments.  Somewhere between the White House and Blair House, while walking down a secluded part of Pennsylvania Avenue, a stray cat cut across the street and vanished between two buildings.

"My daughter has a soft place in her heart for cats and spotted it first," Boyer recalled.  "I watched as the cat walked along the sidewalk ahead of us, before turning down an alley.  It was a just a little thing, but for me, it got the wheels turning.  Here we were in this city filled with powerful people, and here was this cat just roaming around.  What kind of things did it see?  What places
had it been to?  What conversations was it privy too?"

The questions led Boyer to write a second book in his Dupree Sisters Mystery Series, Blair House Cat Mystery.  As with the first book in the series, Death at the Presidents Church, Boyer again features Ruth and Charlotte Dupree in another mystery centered in the nation's capital.

 "While most detectives are bright people or very observant," Boyer explains, "I liked the idea of two older sisters who are socially well connected in Washington D.C.  I thought it would be interesting to have them use their social connections to solve mysteries, rather than using more traditional methods.

The second book begins with a stray cat following the Dupree sisters to their home, where they give him something to drink, and see him on his way.  It's a relationship that last for days until one of the sisters notices blood on the cat.  Those drops of blood lead them into a mystery that involves love letters from an unknown writer, a political scandal, and, of course, a dead body.

The character of Charlotte Dupree, the older of the Dupree sisters, holds a special place in Boyer's heart.

"I had a friend who worked in the House of Representatives starting in the 1950s," Boyer explained.  "She worked in the office of a representative, much like the character of Charlotte Dupree.  My friend, Charlotte Bouton, told me stories about the historic figures she came to know during her time on Capitol Hill.  She was a political junkie and a die-hard football fan until the day she died.  She was a special lady, clearly worthy of having a character built around."

A political junkie and a stray cat.  For Allen Boyer, it was these two encounters that led him to write Blair House Cat Mystery,  published by Cozy Cat Press. The book will be available soon in print and ebook format from Amazon.  For more information, visit the Cozy Cat Press website at:  http://www.cozycatpress.com