Ruth J. Hartman
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.
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Bookshop Kitties Mysteries
Dial M for Meow
Bookshop Kitties Mysteries book #1
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When children’s book author, Christy Bailey, receives a call from her aunt Betty to help out at her bookshop, she drops everything to go. Christy packs up her two cats—Milton and Pearl, the stars of her children's mystery books—and leaves busy Philadelphia for tiny Green Meadow, Indiana. The timing of the call is perfect, as Christy’s letch of an ex-boyfriend has just cleaned out her savings, leaving Christy with a pile of unpaid bills and a desire to start over. And what better place to do that than a charming small town in Middle America?
But when Christy reaches her aunt's bookshop, instead of small town hospitality she finds a dead body! Even worse, her aunt is passed out in the corner, hands covered in blood. The dead woman is an old frenemy of her Aunt Betty, and while Christy knows her aunt is innocent, the local detective isn't so sure. With Milton and Pearl prowling for clues, Christy is determined to find the real killer and clear her aunt's name... before her story ends in tragedy!
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Murder She Meowed
Bookshop Kitties Mysteries book #2
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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!
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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.
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