The story focuses on Mobile Cat Groomer, Molly Stewart. It starts with Molly visiting Lottie and Florence who are octegenerians and cat owners. The two ladies live in houses next door to each other and their Sphynx cats are sisters from the same litter. After Molly bathes the cats, they, and Molly’s own two cats who accompany her to pet visits, take off running for a spot between the two ladies’ houses. The cats come across a dead body lying in the tall grass. It’s a local woman, Carlotta Sykes, a nail technician. And she’s been stabbed in the neck with a nail file.
The local sheriff believes Florence and Lottie must be guilty. But Molly wants to prove they are innocent. She involves her boyfriend, friends, the postman, and people who live in the community.
You won’t want to miss the latest book by Ruth J. Hartman.
My friend Ruth J. Hartman has a new cozy mystery coming out this month. May 14, to be exact. You might have guessed, cats are involved in the story. I can’t imagine Ruth writing a story without a cat.
Here’s the blurb:
When mobile cat groomer, Molly Stewart, asks her friend Evan to photograph her new feline clients, they both get more than they bargained for when the body of Evan’s old art teacher is found bludgeoned to death in his photography studio darkroom. After one of Evan’s photos catches suspicious activity in the background, Molly is ready to call the authorities with the newest piece of information. However, an anonymous phone call which threatens not only her, but Evan and their pets, convinces Molly to clam up and find the murderer herself. Will the tenuous situation end up being picture perfect or a photo bomb?
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 thePaw-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.
Let’s welcome Ruth J. Hartman to the blog today and learn more about her new book, Butterfly Betrayal. Welcome, Ruth. Tell us about your newest book and the cats in your life.
My newest book, Butterfly Betrayal, is about a butterfly farm, a young woman named Seneca, and her cat, Winifred. Seneca runs into trouble when she discovers a body in her greenhouse. The man turns out to be her attorney, who she’d depended on to get her out of a current jam, when a neighbor double-crosses her by going back on a legal contract.
If you own a cat, or three, like I do, you become many things. When they want to lie on your lap just as you were planning to get out of your chair, you become their pillow. When you walk into the kitchen, even just to pass through the room, you become their waitress, supplying them with much longed-for treats. And when you’re standing there, minding your own business, not realizing you have a thread hanging loose from the bottom of your jeans, you become their plaything.
Those of you who are cat moms or dads know what I mean. Cats are funny, sweet, and affectionate. They are also, spunky, feisty, and dramatic. I love all sides of my cats. They keep me entertained when they leap four feet into the air to catch a catnip mouse I’ve thrown, and they sleep on me (all three!) when I don’t feel well and need some little furry nurses to get me through my illness.
I’ve been a cat lover my entire life. I think it started in the womb because my mom was one too. They’ve always been there, no matter what stage of life I was in, from hurrying home to see my cat after a long day at elementary school, to choosing the first cat I picked out with my husband, to retiring from my dental hygiene job so I could write full time, where my cats earn their keep (not really…. they’re usually napping!) as my fuzzy editors.
Winifred is a combination of a couple of different cats I’ve had. Actually every cat in every one of my books (yes, they all have cats!) has personality traits and quirks from one or more cats I’ve had through the years. If you like felines as much as I do, or if you’d like to learn more about them, I hope you’ll enjoy my new release, Butterfly Betrayal!
I first met Ruth on Zoom meetings, then when we got together at a mystery conference, we hit it off. THEN our husbands hit it off. Here’s a little more about my friend, Ruth.
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.
Friends, be sure to check out Butterfly Betrayal.
Blurb:
Raising butterflies is peaceful and calm, until someone dies.
Majestic Monarch Butterfly Farm might flitter away forever. That is, unless Seneca James acquires the property next door. She and Winifred, her costume-wearing cat, have a fight on their hands. Their land sits next to a milkweed-covered field, essential for monarchs. If she’s unsuccessful in buying it, her precious, winged friends won’t survive. When people end up dead on her farmland, Seneca is suspected of murder.
What is it about the milkweed field that’s worth killing for? And who’s the murderer?
Jackie Layton 