I’m excited to welcome my friend Ruth Hartman back to the blog.
Hi Ruth, thanks for joining us.
Thank you, Jackie, for hosting me on your blog today!
My newest book, Murder She Meowed, is book #2 in my Bookshop Kitties Mysteries, and will release on February 6th. The title, Murder She Meowed, is a play on words from the old TV show, Murder She Wrote, while Book 1, Dial M for Meow, is a takeoff on the 1950’s movie, Dial M for Murder.
Green Meadow, Indiana, the fictional town in the book, isn’t a real place, but since I live in rural Indiana, it has the small town flavor and types of down-to-earth people I’m used to sharing a town with. I love to write about characters who are funny and quirky. One of the highest compliments I receive from readers is that my books make them laugh!
On the two book covers of the Bookshop Kitties Mysteries, the cats—one, all white, the other a black-and-white tuxedo—perfectly capture the cat characters in the stories. And, like a picture within a picture, in my books, the two cats, Milton and Pearl, appear in my protagonist’s children’s mysteries that she writes and sells in her aunt’s bookstore, Words to Read By.
Mostly, I write cozy mysteries, but several years ago, I wrote my own children’s book, Murphy in the Paw-Paw Patch. In the book the cat Murphy is born without paws on his pads and makes a journey to find some, meeting a new friend along the way. I wrote the words and did the drawings. It was so much fun to do!
In Murder She Meowed, my main character’s (Christy Bailey) children’s stories are fun mysteries, where her cats actually find clues and solve murders. Come along on their journey as they prowl for clues and pounce on the killers!
This cover is so cute. Here’s the blurb:
From author Ruth J. Hartman comes the next purrrrfectly fun Bookshop Kitties Mystery…
Children’s book author Christy Bailey is thrilled that her aunt Betty is finally marrying the man of her dreams! The small wedding is a family event, right down to Christy’s cats and subjects of her books, Milton and Pearl, who are dressed in wedding attire and pulled down the aisle in a wagon. After the reception, Christy and her boyfriend-hopeful, Micah, agree to help her friend and wedding caterer, Janie, clean up at her pastry shop. But when they arrive at the shop, they’re not greeted by Janie but Janie’s ex-husband—who’s dead on the floor, cold as a frozen muffin!
Suddenly the murder is all anyone is talking about in the small town of Green Meadow, Indiana, and it’s clear the local police detectives have Janie squarely in their sights. But Christy believes in her friend’s innocence and with Milton and Pearl pawing for answers, Christy will stop at nothing to give Janie a happy ending.
“Meow-velous! Ruth Hartman has penned an engaging mystery. Compelling & Clever!”
~ Kings River Life Magazine
“Readers will wish Green Meadow and the people and animals were real so that you could visit!”
~ Cozy Mystery Book Reviews
Ruth J. Hartman spends her days herding cats and her nights spinning mysterious tales. She, her husband, and their cats love to spend time curled up in their recliners watching old Cary Grant movies. Well, the cats sit in the people’s recliners. Not that the cats couldn’t get their own furniture. They just choose to shed on someone else’s.
Ruth, a left-handed, cat-herding, farmhouse-dwelling writer uses her sense of humor as she writes tales of lovable, klutzy women who seem to find trouble without even trying.
Ruth’s husband and best friend, Garry, reads her manuscripts, rolls his eyes at her weird story ideas, and loves her despite her insistence all of her books have at least one cat in them. See updates about her cozy mysteries at Ruthjhartman.com.
Here are the links to buy Murder She Meowed.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/murder-she-meowed-ruth-j-hartman/1144198315?ean=2940166118059
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/murder-she-meowed-5
Thanks again for visiting, Ruth.
Jackie Layton 