Joyce Ann Brown
Short story, blog and novel writer
Joyce Ann Brown was a teacher, a school librarian, a landlady, and a real estate agent before becoming a short story, blog, and novel writer. She published the first book in her cozy mystery series, the Psycho Cat and the Landlady Mysteries, in 2014—Catastrophic Connections. Beth, the landlady in the series, and Sylvester, aka Psycho Cat, solve who-done-its connected with rental properties and condos in the quaint Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City. Her short stories have won awards, and she’s had mysteries published online by King’s River Life and Writers Circle and in a print anthology, Noir at the Salad Bar. Ms. Brown has also written articles for local and national magazines.
Ms. Brown lives in the Kansas City area and resides in the Phoenix area during the winter months. With her husband and cat, she travels the country in an RV, visiting places, friends, and family while gathering snippets for her stories and novels.
Books by Joyce Ann Brown
Catastrophic Connections: A Psycho Cat and the Landlady Mystery #1
Psycho Cat is an animal with a sixth sense. When he announces Adrianna’s disappearance from an urban condo with loud yowls, landlady and amateur sleuth, Beth Stockwell, sets her deductive skills into motion. As she learns of theft and murder at Adrianna’s workplace, impossible tasks and threats make her squirm. But she’s true to the task, even when she must follow the clues from Kansas City to the Virgin Islands.
Furtive Investigation: A Psycho Cat and the Landlady Mystery #2
When Sylvester, aka Psycho Cat, discovers a human skeleton inside a trunk in the attic of one of her rental units, Beth, a Kansas City landlady, must return from wintering in Arizona at the request of the police. Bummer. After only a few days, the investigators are told to put the case on hold. Why? Is there a connection to the stench she encountered in the building seven years earlier? Tracking down the tenants from that time and uncovering evidence won’t be easy, but Beth—for everyone’s sake—vows to identify both the victim and the perpetrator.
Nine LiFelines: A Psycho Cat and the Landlady Mystery #3
A ghoulish, cranky elevator, condo break-ins, and her renter not paying on time. Beth, the klutzy landlady, and her husband, Arnie, have retired to the building where Beth’s last rental unit is located. Have they made a mistake? Beth vowed to do no more sleuthing, but when her tenant is arrested for the murder of the Peruvian neighbor who fell (was pushed?) from the tenth-story balcony, the Ukrainian’s French wife is left without support, and the dead neighbor’s grandchildren are left with only their wheelchair-ridden grandmother to care for them, Beth must do something. Is Sylvester providing clues with his psycho-cat behavior? Is the renter the killer? Do the break-ins and elevator problem have anything to do with the murder? Even Arnie, who has always told Beth to keep her nose out of police business, gets involved—for the sake of the children.
Tailed: A Psycho Cat and the Landlady Mystery #4
Near the end of an almost purr-fect RV vacation to Texas, Beth, the landlady, and her Psycho Cat deal with break-ins, gun theft, and murder. Beth’s brother-in-law becomes a “person of interest.” It’s all enough to make Beth wonder if trouble is tailing them on the way home, too. “Doubtful,” Beth’s hubby, Arnie, insists. “Why would anyone want to follow the RV from Texas to Kansas City?” Why indeed?
At the same time, two petty crooks, Gil and Freddy, fumble about tailing Beth home, trying to retrieve a stash of drugs that will make them rich enough to go straight. Without getting caught!
BONUS: Recipes of foods mentioned in the story are included at the end of the book.