Peachtree City resident Sharon Marchisello has always been a writer. After earning her master’s in professional writing from the University of Southern California, she spent 27 years working for Delta Air Lines all the while writing magazine articles, short stories, book reviews, screenplays, and eventually, novels. A writer’s life is hard, especially if you write full-length book manuscripts. They are hard to sell, which is why most writers have another job, hence Sharon’s long career with Delta.
In 2015, after ten years of querying agents and publishers (and writing seven drafts), Sharon found a home for her novel, Going Home, at Sunbury Press, a small publisher out of Pennsylvania. Sunbury also published her second novel, Secrets of the Galapagos, in 2019. I haven’t read Going Home, but I did read Secrets and really enjoyed it. I look forward to its sequel, Murder at Leisure Dreams – Galapagos, due out in 2025 from Sunbury Press.
Sharon’s latest book is a cozy mystery, Trap, Neuter, Die: A DeeLo Myer Cat Rescue Mystery. She queried agents for about a year before finding Level Best Books, a publishing house that specializes in crime novels. Buoyed after being named a finalist for the 2023 Killer Nashville Claymore award, Level Best Books accepted her manuscript for publication. I was fortunate enough to snag an advance review copy.
I absolutely adore this book. Let’s start with the cover – it’s quintessentially cozy featuring a desk upon which sits a book, a cat, and a cup of tea. Behind the desk is a bookshelf full of books lit by the waning light from a nearby window, which is to say that the scene is set before you even open the book.
DeeLo (short for Delores) is a divorced transplant from California who, after a brush with the law, is sentenced to do community service with the local humane society in fictional Pecan Point, Georgia. She ends up being assigned to a Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR) program, where she is trained to go out and trap stray and feral cats, also known as community cats, by crusty TNVR volunteer Catherine Foster. On their first night out trapping together, DeeLo and Catherine are led by a cat to a dead body.
The first person I thought of while reading this book was my friend, Peachtree City resident and TNVR guru Marcia Hendershot, who traps kitties for Fayette County Humane Society. On any given night you can find Marcia circling restaurants, scouring empty parking lots, and creeping down alleyways – pretty much anywhere a cat colony has been reported – hunting community cats to humanely trap and transfer to low-cost clinics where they are spayed or neutered and vaccinated before being returned to where they were found (although strays can sometimes be fostered and adopted).
I wondered if Sharon knew Marcia and was delighted to find out that she rode along with her one night as part of her research for the book. Note: If you ever spy a stray cat behind a dumpster, look at their ears – if they have a notch missing from their left ear it means they’ve already been sterilized and vaccinated, saving trappers time and a wasted trip to the vet. To date, Marcia has trapped 4,235 cats in Fayette County and its surrounding areas for TNVR!
But back to the book: DeeLo is a likeable protagonist. Smart, compassionate, and a darn good amateur sleuth. I won’t give out any spoilers but rest assured that there are plenty of suspects to keep you guessing until the very end.
Books make wonderful Christmas gifts, and if there is a better way to “shop local” than by supporting a local author, I don’t know of one. Trap, Neuter, Die is sure to please cat lovers, fans of cozy mysteries, and anyone who enjoys a quiet afternoon curled up on the couch with a good book.
Sharon will be at Peachtree City Library on Thursday, December 12, at 1 p.m. in the Floy Farr Room where she will discuss Trap, Neuter, Die (Level Best Books, 2024). Books will be for sale at the event.
