Trapped and Tested by Sharon Marchisello

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I’m excited to welcome Sharon Marchisello back to Salty Inspirations! If you’ve been following along, you may remember Sharon from her previous guest post, Murder at Leisure Dreams– Galapagos, where we got a fun behind-the-scenes peek into her storytelling world. You can find that post linked here.

Today, Sharon is here to talk about Trapped and Tested, the second book in her DeeLo Myer Cat Rescue Mystery series. This installment takes readers deeper into DeeLo’s world—blending cozy mystery, complicated family ties, and timely social issues surrounding animal welfare and ethics. In this guest post, Sharon shares the layered meanings behind the book’s title and the real-world inspirations that shape the mystery.

I’ll turn things over to Sharon now.

Author Guest Post – Trapped and Tested by Sharon Marchisello

Trapped and Tested, the second book in my DeeLo Myer cat rescue mystery series, has a title with a double meaning. The “Trapped” portion brands the series, which features a woman who does TNVR (Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return) for a local animal rescue group in an effort to manage the overpopulation of free-roaming cats. (The first book, Trap, Neuter, Die, where DeeLo was introduced, was released in November 2024.) It’s the “Tested” part of book two’s title that has two meanings.

When the story opens, DeeLo and her mixed-race niece, Demi, are waiting to meet a man who claims he is Demi’s half-brother. Demi is the daughter of DeeLo’s much older sister, Desiree, who wasn’t ready to be a mother at sixteen when she gave birth and thus left her parents in charge of her daughter’s upbringing. Therefore, DeeLo and Demi, only a year apart in age, grew up together like siblings.

Demi has no idea who her father is, and all her life, Desiree has dodged the question. Now that she’s grown, Demi gave up asking, submitted her DNA to an ancestry site, and found a match: a half-brother named Kwintone Johnson. Kwintone claims to have a lead on who their father might be. Demi has set up an in-person meeting with Kwintone, and she persuades DeeLo to accompany her.

On the way to the meet-up at a restaurant in Pecan Point, where DeeLo resides, Kwintone gets a speeding ticket. Demi puts DeeLo on the spot, telling her alleged half-brother that DeeLo will help him get the ticket off his record by doing community service. Demi blabs that DeeLo got her start with the Pecan Point Humane Society by doing community service as penance for a D.U.I.

Fast forward a few weeks, and DeeLo is assigned to train Kwintone on TNVR. The site they’re working is at a brand-new movie studio, which is surrounded by woods populated with feral cats. Kwintone is a difficult volunteer: he shows up late, after DeeLo has already set the traps; he immediately takes a phone call, and then he tells her he has to leave early. She refuses to sign his time sheet since he didn’t do any work.

When DeeLo finishes her cat trapping and drives away, she discovers Kwintone’s car parked on the side of the road. The windows are down, his cellphone lies in the seat, and Kwintone is nowhere to be found. She waits a few minutes to see if he’s coming back; when he doesn’t, she calls Demi, who has made arrangements to meet him for a drink afterwards.

Demi hasn’t heard from him, so she comes over, and together, they search for Kwintone. When they dial the last number in his call log, they hear ringing. The sound leads them to the prone body of a severely wounded man. DeeLo calls 9-1-1, and Demi gets to work trying to stop the bleeding. When DeeLo returns to her vehicle for a blanket with which to cover the victim, Kwintone’s car is gone.

Has Kwintone been taken against his will? Has someone stolen his car? Did he have something to do with the assault on the man they’re trying to save?

DeeLo later learns that the stabbing victim is Aiden Green, CEO of Neuroscience Laboratories, a company that conducts neurological tests on animals—mainly cats. Thus, the double meaning of the word “Tested” in the book’s title: ancestry DNA testing, and animal testing. Also, Kwintone tested DeeLo’s patience throughout the story with his disappearing act and evasive answers. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Should Demi trust him?

I often use my stories to explore contemporary social issues, so the reader can learn something along with solving a mystery. In Trap, Neuter, Die, I show how many communities thwart the efforts of rescue groups to control the feral cat population by passing feeding bans and restrictive laws that effectively render TNVR illegal. One of the threads throughout the series is DeeLo’s quest to change her county’s animal ordinance to support TNVR. After her efforts failed in book one, she picks up the torch again in book two, getting involved in local politics to back a candidate for the county board of commissioners who promises animal-friendly policies. She just hopes he’s not involved in Aiden Green’s murder…

Also in Trapped and Tested, I tackle the controversy over animal testing and the moral question of whether one species has the right to torture another without its consent in order to improve life for the “superior” species.

Regardless of how they feel about the merits of animal testing, readers will enjoy trying to solve two mysteries that overlap. And will DeeLo succeed in her quest to update the Pecan County animal ordinance this time? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Trapped and Tested: A DeeLo Myer Cat Rescue Mystery by Sharon Marchisello

About Trapped and Tested

Trapped and Tested: A DeeLo Myer Cat Rescue Mystery Cozy Mystery 2nd in the Series Setting – Georgia Publisher : Level Best Books Publication Date : December 16, 2025 274 Pages Paperback ISBN: 979-8-89820-057-2 Digital ISBN: 979-8-89820-058-9 GoodReads Link – Coming Soon

When DeeLo’s niece, Demi Myer, tries to find her father on an ancestry site, she meets Kwintone, a half-brother with a few secrets. After getting a speeding ticket, Kwintone is assigned to community service in the Pecan Point Humane Society’s Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return program—trapping cats with DeeLo on the new Oakwood Studios lot. The disinterested trainee leaves abruptly on his first night, and later DeeLo finds his car abandoned beside the road, phone on the seat.

Where is Kwintone, and is he connected to the stabbing of the CEO of Neuroscience Laboratories—a medical research facility that tests its products on cats?

DeeLo is still determined to change the county’s animal ordinance to support TNVR, but is the newcomer candidate she backs for the open commissioner slot involved in a murder?

About Sharon Marchisello

Sharon Marchisello is the author of the DeeLo Myer cat rescue mystery series, which began with Trap, Neuter, Die. She is a long-time volunteer and cat foster for the Fayette Humane Society (FHS) with a Master’s in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. She also published three mysteries with Sunbury Press—Going Home (2014), Secrets of the Galapagos (2019), and Murder at Leisure Dreams – Galapagos (2025). Sharon has written short stories, a nonfiction book about personal finance, training manuals, screenplays, a blog, and book reviews. She is an active member of Sisters in Crime, the Atlanta Writers Club, and the Hometown Novel Writers Association. Retired from a 27-year career with Delta Air Lines, she now lives in Peachtree City, Georgia, and serves on the board of directors for the Friends of the Peachtree City Library.

Website: sharonmarchisello.com

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SLMarchisello

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/slmarchisello

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4297807.Sharon_Marchisello

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharonmarchisello

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slmarchisello/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sharon-marchisello

Purchase Links:
Trapped and Tested (Book 2): Amazon
Trap, Neuter, Die (Book 1): Amazon

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My thanks to Sharon Marchisello for visiting Salty Inspirations and sharing the inspiration and themes behind Trapped and Tested.

If you enjoyed this guest post, be sure to take a look around the blog for more author features, cozy mysteries, and behind-the-scenes peeks at great reads waiting to be discovered.

As always, thanks for stopping by for some Salty Inspirations!