Tag: Elk Grove Publications

Black Cat and the Secret in Dewey’s Diary:
A Tale of History, Mystery, Riddles, and Gold.
by Elaine Faber

Today I am pleased to welcome Kimberlee from Black Cat and the Secret in Dewey’s Diary. 

Kimberlee Visits Salzburg
by Elaine Faber

My name is Kimberlee. I’m in Germany and Austria with my cousin, here to attend a convention. While we’re here, we plan to follow the clues to a lost treasure I found in a WWII soldier’s diary. Is there any chance it’s still hidden, and I can find it with the clues no one else has seen for over fifty years?

Today I’m in Salzburg. I see painted scenes on the exterior walls of the buildings, cobbled streets, roofs of clay tiles, and churches with steeples and bell towers. Many of the houses have leaded glass windows and flower boxes. An ancient ivy-covered building across the street has a sagging tile roof across the courtyard. A kitty who looks like my Black Cat sits atop a nearby rooftop, meowing, as tourists peer up and try to decide; is he hungry, or just bored and teasing the tourists? Church spires peek out above nearby houses with red tile rooftops. Dates carved into the bricks range from the year 1200-1400. One church is said to be 1000 years old.

The sky darkens with rain clouds over the city, which remains unchanged for hundreds of years. Yes, as modern times came, freeways and electric wires appeared, the merchandise sold in the stores has likely changed, and automobiles replaced the horse carriages, which once clip-clopped along the cobbled streets. The narrow lanes remain the same, the lovely churches, fortresses, palaces, and hillsides are unchanged.

I marvel at the timelessness of this beautiful country. Though there are industrial areas, much of the countryside is still in its wilderness state, as it was at the moment of creation, lush and green and seemingly immune to modern marvels. The city will tolerate progress but it will not give in to it. Here in the town square, on the church steps, a street musician plays Ave Maria on his violin. Pigeons fly from rooftop to rooftop, seeming mesmerized as the music echoes around the courtyard. I let my mind wander and it is easy to imagine people driving horse-drawn carts through the cobbled streets.

Another day, music might have filled this same courtyard, not from the musician’s violin, but from the window down the street where a thin, young boy named Mozart played the harpsichord and wrote melodies that made him famous, even hundreds of years later.

A horse cart clip-clops by, as the last beautiful strains of Ave Maria fade into the sky.

I return to my car, eyes filled with wonder and do not notice the strange man who followed me back to my car.

Tomorrow we will contact Dewey’s relatives. They may be able to explain the peculiar message written in his diary. Touch the feet of the babe who lies beneath the king…In the place where the storm clouds are frightened away by the ring.

What can it mean? What are the chances we can solve the puzzle and locate the treasure?

For the whole story, read Black Cat and the Secret in Dewey’s Diary, a dual story narrated by Black Cat in Fern Lake and Kimberlee in Austria as she follows the clues to a lost treasure.

About Black Cat and the Secret in Dewey’s Diary

Black Cat and the Secret in Dewey’s Diary:
A Tale of History, Mystery, Riddles and Gold.
Cozy Mystery
4th in Series
Publisher: Elk Grove Publications (September 6, 2019)
Paperback: 264 pages
ISBN-10: 1940781256
ISBN-13: 978-1940781259
Digital ASIN: B07XSJQ5HF

In this dual tale of mystery, lost treasure, and riddles, while Black Cat narrates the exciting events in Fern Lake, Kimberlee discovers a cryptic clue in a diary about a hidden treasure, and heads to Austria to solve the puzzle.

When Kimberlee and Dorian arrive in Austria, they attract the attention of a stalker determined to steal the diary in hopes the clues will lead him to the treasure first. On a collision course, it is inevitable that Kimberlee and the stalker meet in Hopfgarten.

 

Black Cat and Angel’s lives are endangered with the arrival of Kimberlee’s grandmother in Fern Lake, and the return of a man presumed dead for twenty-five years. With both arrivals, emotional and financial difficulties loom for Kimberlee’s family. Since their return to Fern Lake, Angel seems reluctant or unable to adjust to her new home. Does she regret leaving Texas and Grandmother? And, when the opportunity arises, will she decide to leave Black Cat and Fern Lake?

Praise for Black Cat and the Secret in Dewey’s Diary:
A Tale of History, Mystery, Riddles, and Gold.
by Elaine Faber

The story was a fun puzzle and even contained a treasure hunt. The interplay between the two cats, Black Cat and Angel, was cute.
~Ruff Drafts

These are two unconnected stories, linked only in that Kimberlee, the main character, is in both . . . That said, the present-day murder mystery was a puzzle that kept me guessing, right to the surprise ending . . . The WWII treasure hunt also had an intriguing and satisfying tie-up of facts.
~Here’s How It Happened

About Elaine Faber

Elaine Faber lives in Northern California with her husband and feline companions. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, California Cat Writers, and Northern California Publishers and Artists. She volunteers with the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop. She enjoys speaking at public venues, sharing highlights of her novels. Her short stories have appeared in national magazines and multiple anthologies.

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