About the Book
Book: The Search for the Shadow Cat: Book 3 of the Jaguar Oracle Series
Author: Kurt Mähler
Genre: Magical Realism Fantasy
Release Date: October 26, 2025
Venture into a lush, mystically
supercharged natural world where the fate of an entire animal
kingdom hangs in the balance in The Search for the Shadow
Cat, the captivating third installment of the Jaguar Oracle
series.
After a long absence from the Rio Grande Valley, the majestic jaguar named Oracle returns for a perilous quest to restore the three feline tribes—bobcat, ocelot, and long-lost jaguarundi: the “shadow cat.”
With Patch the raccoon, Plod the horse, Bog the toad, and the child named Miracle, Oracle navigates a richly-drawn landscape, pressing through pain and perplexity to rediscover ancient wisdom that will awaken creation, from a jabber of green jays to secretive turtles to trees holding on to treasured knowledge. Along the way, Oracle finds an unexpected ally in a conflicted young entrepreneur, while a hermit holds the key to unlocking the jaguar’s destiny.
Blending magical realism, mythology, and environmental advocacy, this pulse-pounding adventure will captivate readers with its tale of courage, honor, and the power of reclaiming our forgotten roots.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
Kurt helps those who built
someone else’s dream finally build their own.
As a speaker, advisor, and award-winning poet, he draws from twenty years of lived experience in forty nations.
He is a sought-after voice on five continents, advising expats in places as challenging as Cuba, Persia, and North Korea. He has published multiple books , hundreds of articles, and well-respected poetry.
Kurt and his wife Karen have been married since 1993 and raised their family in Afghanistan, where they founded a community development agency. They are Americans living in the Emirates with ties to the Gulf Coast, the Rio Grande Valley, Central Texas, Louisiana, and New England.
He writes in the poetic tradition, inspired by the wonder of creation, the mysteries of the Ancient Faith, and the drama of the nations. Guiding sources for his work include the Hebrew prophets, the Desert Fathers, Dante, Milton, George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, and Tolkien.
Why? Because thought leaders go back to the beginning to find the way forward.
The key to the future begins with a memory. Our calling comes from the original self the Creator had in mind when He said, “Let there be you.”
More from Kurt
How do you begin again? How do you take the first step alone?
Sometimes we don’t need a how-to manual to answer these questions. We need an encounter. We need a story.
That’s why I wrote this epic tale.
Saturated with poetry, proverbs, parables, and prayers, this book is in the tradition of the Christian poets and the Hebrew prophets. It is an immersion in a mystically supercharged natural world alongside a very real human drama.
Why? Because poetic storytelling, when done well, gives prophetic insight for the decisions we face. Then we can begin again. Then we can take the first step alone. Then we can do the thing that is in our heart to do. The thing the Creator placed there. Your calling: the original self He had in mind before the Fall when He said, “Let there be you.”
That’s what this story is about.
An epic quest for redemption and self-discovery
Venture into a lush, mystically supercharged natural world where the fate of an entire animal kingdom hangs in the balance in The Search for the Shadow Cat, the captivating third installment of the Jaguar Oracle series.
A long, mysterious absence and the fulfillment of a legacy
The majestic jaguar named Oracle has returned to the Rio Grande Valley to pick up the trail left by the last guardian of this endangered realm, Kahoo the Grave. Awakening a dormant legend, Oracle embarks on a perilous quest to restore the three feline tribes—bobcat, ocelot, and long-lost jaguarundi: the “shadow cat”—to their rightful place as stewards of the animal kingdom.
With Patch the raccoon, Plod the horse, Bog the toad, and the child named Miracle, the jaguar navigates a richly-drawn landscape where created things have a voice. Oracle must press through pain and wrestle perplexity to rediscover the wisdom of the Days of First Things and restore the fragmented animal realm. As he does, creation awakens, from a jabber of green jays to secretive turtles to trees holding on to ancient knowledge.
Reclaiming lost wisdom and honoring our connection to nature
But Oracle is not alone in his quest. He finds an unexpected ally in Tripp Menefee, the ambitious and conflicted young entrepreneur who runs the Eden’s Bend preserve and high-tech ranch, where a rhino, zebras, and other exotic beasts dwell alongside native ones.
Tripp and Oracle forge an invisible partnership as both seek to restore the animal kingdom while Tripp grapples with his own motivations—and the growing affection he has for the woman confronting him on the toll his development plans are taking on the delicate ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the hermit Brazos Ben, who had once nursed Oracle back to health, holds the key to unlocking the jaguar’s past and the secrets of the Lonely Tree at the heart of this landscape. As Ben is forced to confront his own painful history, he must decide whether to help Oracle complete his legacy or remain trapped in the shadows of the past.
Blog Stops
Simple Harvest Reads, December 17 (Author Interview)
Artistic Nobody, December 18 (Author Interview)
Guild Master, December 19 (Author Interview)
Texas Book-aholic, December 20
Fiction Book Lover, December 21 (Author Interview)
Blogging With Carol, December 22
Vicky Sluiter, December 23 (Author Interview)
Locks, Hooks and Books, December 24
For the Love of Literature, December 25 (Author Interview)
Tell Tale Book Reviews, December 26 (Author Interview)
Blossoms and Blessings, December 27 (Author Interview)
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, December 27
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, December 28
Stories By Gina, December 29 (Author Interview)
Holly’s Book Corner, December 29
Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, December 30 (Author Interview)
Giveaway
To celebrate his tour, Kurt is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card; a high-resolution digital map of the entire series, a high-resolution cover, and the audiobook version featuring Nashville actor Zach Lazar Hoffman when it is released!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://gleam.io/JLkld/the-search-for-the-shadow-cat-celebration-tour-giveaway
Interview
Tell us about your daily life.
My wife Karen and I have two modes of daily life, one being seasons of travel and another being seasons at home.
As a life coach and keynote speaker, I am often living out of a suitcase and traveling internationally. This routine involves a half hour before our Lord, often with the psalms, and often involving prayers from the Eastern Orthodox prayer traditions. The rest of the day often involves serving believers from a wide variety of Christian traditions and the nations they live among.
As a person who, along with Karen, cultivates a home of solitude, the routine at home involves prayer, writing, cultivating greenery, hosting weary travelers, and encouraging the people from the many nations we live among in the United Arab Emirates.
Insofar as love and wisdom allow, mornings are devoted to writing. Afternoons and evenings tend to be devoted to everything else, i.e., matters that do not require the generating of creative content and the solitude that lends itself to that endeavor.
I use a timer app called Flow by Yugen and an exercise app by Mark Lauren.
Give us an insight into your faith in the Lord.
I have drawn from a wide spectrum of Christian faith and practices. In college, I drew from Baptist, Reformed, and other Scripture-centered traditions. In graduate school and young adulthood, I drew from Pentecostal, Charismatic, and other experience-centered traditions. In the prime of life, I drew from Roman Catholic resources while remaining Protestant. Now, in the fourth quarter of life, I draw from Eastern Orthodox traditions, such as The Philokalia, a five-volume collection of practical writings from the Desert Fathers and Church Fathers collected over the early centuries of the Faith. The book reads like blog posts on how to practically obey the commands of Christ, love our neighbor, win the battles of the mind, and cultivate a pure heart.
My faith passed through the fire of living eleven years in Afghanistan, where I founded a community development organization. This, along with decades in forty nations, has deeply strengthened my faith in the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of our Lord as the living way of salvation and transformation of all nations.
If you could change something with your writing career, what would it be?
I would not have published before developing a large audience. I would have first worked for years to develop a large audience through my keynote speaking, life coaching services, and podcast appearances. With the income generated from coaching and speaking, I would have exercised a highly focused advertising effort on social media. As it is, I have dumped tens of thousands of dollars into my writings with virtually no fruit. What I have discovered is that, when it comes to self-publishing with no audience, everyone makes money off the book except the author himself.
Do your books revolve around certain
themes?
My books revolve around finding courage for your calling.
‘Calling’ is not for clergy alone. It means living as your original self, the one God thought of when He said, “Let there be you.” Or, in the words of the animals in the story, calling means to “remember your name.” For them, this is the poem, parable, prayer, proverb, or prophecy Adam spoke when he named the first of their kind. In our case, it is the word our Lord has spoken. Our destinies are found in the things our Creator has already told us. That is where we will most likely find courage for our calling.
Calling is something deeper than your job description. It is someone you can be within the present limitations of life, whether you’re a paraplegic, on parole, or a single parent with two jobs. It is something constant. Something that remains. Something no person or circumstance can remove from you. But you have to drink the cup, and there is no turning back once you do.
Is your book part of a series?
Yes, my books comprise a seven-book series.
The Search for the Shadow Cat is the second book in the Jaguar Oracle series appearing over the next several years. Book 1, The Trail to the Lonely Tree, and Book 2, The Way Back to Eden, are available in print, digital, and audio forms on all major platforms.
