Left Bank Books presents An Evening with Elaine Viets to benefit the Animal House Fund Cat Shelter. Elaine will read from her newest Dead-End Jobs mystery novel, Catnapped! (New American Library, May 2014), on Thursday, May 8, 7pm, at Left Bank Books (399 N. Euclid), and a portion of all the evening’s sales will benefit the shelter.

$30 admits one and includes one copy of Catnapped!. A portion of the ticket price will benefit the Animal House Fund Cat Shelter. Tickets are available at catnapped.brownpapertickets.com.

In Catnapped!, the one thing celebrity Trish Barrymore and her no-account accountant husband, Mort, can agree on in their bitter divorce is shared cat custody. But when Mort is found brained by a mahogany cat tower, and Justine, their pedigreed Chartreux show cat, goes missing, Trish calls on husband and wife PI team Helen Hawthorne and Phil Sagemont. Discovering that Mort had some shady dealings within cat show circles, Helen goes undercover as an assistant for a woman who shows prizewinning Persians. But Phil is not buying Trish’s cat-that-swallowed-a-canary act – he thinks she might be staging the whole catnapping.

Of Viets’s Dead-End Jobs series, a review from Kirkus Reviews claims, “Moving Helen from dead-end jobs into full-time employment does nothing to stifle her quirky good humor.” Marilyn Stasio of The New York Times Book Review calls Catnapped! “[c]lever…The real draw, though, is Viets’s snappy critique of South Florida.”

Elaine Viets has actually worked many of those dead-end jobs in her mystery novels, just like her character Helen Hawthorne. She is also the author of the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series, which takes place in St. Louis, and numerous short stories. Elaine has won an Anthony Award and an Agatha Award. Originally from St. Louis, she lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with her husband, reporter Don Crinklaw.

Animal Hosue Find is an independent, nonprofit, stray cat rescue organization dedicated to maintaining a no-kill shelter and adoption center for the homeless and abandoned cats and kittens of St. Louis City. For more information, visit animalhousefund.org.

Elaine Viets will discuss Catnapped!, answer questions, and sign books at this fundraiser for the Animal House Fund Cat Shelter. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased at catnapped.brownpapertickets.com. For more information, call 314.367.6731 or visit left-bank.com. To request an interview with the author, a review copy of the book, or photos, please contact Lauren Wiser at lauren.w@left-bank.com.