'Animal lovers will delight' Ann Granger

'A real treat . . . I loved it. Cats, dogs, murder and a credible and relatable heroine' Barbara Nadel

'This debut promises to build up into a popular series' Daily Mail

Clarice Beech has two passions in life: animal rescue and Detective Inspector Rick Beech. She is devoted to the first but she and Rick have been separated for the past six months - life without him is hard.

Clarice shares her other love, for contemporary ceramics, with the charming Lady Vita Fayrepoynt. When Vita's adopted three-legged ginger cat Walter disappears from Weatherby Hall Clarice is called in to find him. Walter, snug in an old barn, is quite well. But his discovery ends with Clarice in hospital, and Rose Miller, late of the Old Vicarage in the morgue. There is nothing natural about Rose's death...

Putting their differences aside, Clarice and Rick are drawn together to try to understand the murder that has shaken the rural Lincolnshire community. As she explores Rose's past Clarice is pulled into a shady world of blackmail, scams and violence. And as the secrets of Weatherby Hall and the Fayrepoynt family threaten to spill out Clarice finds friendships tested, and her own life at risk.

A debut mystery set in the Lincolnshire Wolds, featuring an amateur detective who mixes sleuthing with her other great love: animal rescue. The perfect classic crime mystery for fans of Ann Granger, M. C. Beaton and Caroline Graham's Midsomer Murders.

Kate High is a graduate of the Faber Academy, as well as a contemporary artist, working in metals. She has exhibited internationally, with her work having been shown at the V&A, the Design Council, and also selling through outlets such as Liberty's and Chelsea Crafts Fair. Kate is a former voluntary branch administrator for the RSPCA and she co-founded a charity that aims to support older animals, Lincs-Ark.

The Cat and the Corpse in the Old Barn is her debut novel and the first mystery in the Clarice Beech series, which is set in the Lincolnshire Wolds.