Whiskers & Wards

Book One of the Whispering Falls: Cozy Magical Cat Mysteries

By: Hazel Whitmore

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

She came to settle an estate. The cats had other plans.

Clara Mercer is good at two things: managing projects and not looking back. When she inherits her Aunt Evie's Victorian estate in Whispering Falls, Pennsylvania, she arrives with a six-week timeline and zero intention of staying. Sell the property, hand off the key, and get back to her career. Simple.

Except there's a body on the creek trail. A ward system built into the walls of the house that hums when she touches it. Thirteen shelter cats living at the local vet clinic because the Sanctuary roof caved in and nobody stepped up. And seven house cats who are absolutely, unambiguously not ordinary cats, and have very strong opinions about what happens to this property.

Then the big orange one starts talking.

Bartles. He's been waiting for her.

Suddenly, Clara's spreadsheet has a column she didn't plan for: figuring out what, exactly, she inherited. Because the magic humming through the walls of the Blackwood estate? It runs in her blood. It always has. She just spent a couple of decades pretending it didn't.

As Clara untangles what really happened on that creek trail, she finds herself pulled deeper into a town built on secrets, a land dispute someone was willing to kill over, and a magical system that needs her whether she's ready or not.

Add in a charming local vet who's been keeping Evie's cats alive and her secrets close, a sheriff she hasn't seen since they were teenagers (and still can't quite look at without losing her train of thought), and a mother who would very much like her to sell the house and go back home, and Clara's six-week plan is looking increasingly optimistic.

Good thing she's excellent under pressure.

Whiskers & Wards is a warm, witty, page-turning cozy mystery packed with small-town charm, inherited magic, very slow-burn romance, and a found family of cats who will absolutely run everything if you let them. The mystery is complete. The magic is just getting started.

🐾 Check the back pages of this book for access to your FREE Reader Vault — bonus content, the series prequel, and more waiting for you inside.

🌊 Perfect for fans of Amanda M. Lee, Danielle Garrett, and Heather G. Harris.

Welcome to Whispering Falls. The falls have been speaking for centuries. You just have to learn to listen.