I love it when some of my books are on e-book sale for super low prices. Right now, all three of my Hidden Springs mysteries are only 99 cents at many online booksellers, Amazon, Kobo, B&N along with others.Or you can go to my website and check out the link on my book pages for my Hidden Springs Mysteries, Murder at the Courthouse, Murder Comes by Mail, Murder Is No Accident.
Here’s a guest post I wrote for a different blog a few years ago about the mysteries and how much fun Small Town Murder and Mayhem can be.
Books are wondrous things full of words that magically make stories spring to life in your imagination. I discovered that as a young reader making weekly trips to the library. While I would read nearly anything, I give credit to the Hardy Boy Mysteries for enticing me into the writing world. When a kid, I wanted to solve a mystery like the Hardy Boys did. That wasn’t going to happen in the real world. So, I wrote a mystery starring myself. A cuter, smarter, much less shy me, but through the enchantment of words, I made that happen.
While I outgrew that idea and never solved that mystery, I kept writing. Oddly enough, I published thirty plus books in various genres before I had a book labeled mystery. Mystery threads ran through many of my previous stories but until the Hidden Springs Mysteries, nobody ever pointed at one of my book and said “try this mystery.”
My stories often have small town settings modeled on my own Kentucky hometown. So when I needed a place for murder to happen, I renamed my little town Hidden Springs, a peaceful place until Miss Willadean Dearmon stumbled across a body on the courthouse steps. That’s how Murder at the Courthouse begins. More mayhem follows as the citizens of Hidden Springs learn bad things can and do happen everywhere and that things are not always as they seem.
Murder Comes by Mail and Murder Is No Accident follow with more mysterious deaths in Hidden Springs. Fortunately, before all these murderers came to call, my main character, Michael Keene, returned to his hometown, Hidden Springs to be their deputy sheriff. Michael was looking for small town peace but when murder happens, he’s the right man for the task of setting things to right in his town.
My Hidden Springs Mysteries have cats on the covers, a handsome hero and some eccentric small town characters on the pages with murders happening and even a little romance sprinkled in. So yes, now I can finally say, “Try these mysteries!”
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So if you read on a Kindle or other e-reader, you can grab all my Hidden Springs mysteries for 99 cents each. That is less than $3 for 3 trips to Hidden Springs to help Michael solve some mysteries. Maybe you can send him thought messages of ways to get Alex to decide Hidden Springs is a place she could live. That’s going to take a lot of thought waves. Do always check the price when you’re buying online to be sure you’re getting the deal you expected because these special 99 cent deals come and go quickly.
Book giveaway chance continuing
I still have the book giveaway going that I started last post. Only a few commented last post to throw their name in my drawing hat for a copy of The Refuge. That just makes the odds better for those who have already entered by leaving a comment on Wednesday’ post. You can get an entry too by leaving a comment on this post. If you were one of those who commented already, if you leave a comment here, you’ll get another entry to double your chances of your name rising to the top of the giveaway hat. Deadline to enter is midnight EST October 10. 2026. Winner will be notified by e-mail and announced (first name and last initial) on my Sunday night post on October 11, 2026. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.
I can’t share the links to my posts on my FB page anymore without paying a monthly fee. But you can subscribe to my blog, One Writer’s Journal, and the posts will pop up in your inbox when I publish them. No effort on your part other than subscribing in the easy form in the margin here beside my posts. There’s a place to subscribe to my newsletter too. I’m sending one of those out tomorrow. At least I hope I’ll get it zooming out tomorrow with news about the e-book sales, a book signing in Knoxville and more.
You might notice I have a different cat on each cover. So here’s a question for you.
If you’ve read the Hidden Springs mysteries, do you remember any of the cats’ names? If you haven’t read any of the Hidden Springs mysteries (I hope you will), pick out one of the cats and guess a name for it.
Comments 10
I read all three of these Hidden Springs mysteries and they were quick reads.
I’m embarrassed to say I can’t remember the names of the cats. I remember Deputy sheriff Michael’s dog, Jasper more.
I thoroughly enjoyed this series and hope you have more in the works for the future.
Author
That’s fun that you remember Jasper, Janet. A lot of readers weren’t happy with how I let Jasper stay outside while Michael was busy solving crimes, but he had a great place for a dog to live and be free. 🙂
No worry about not remembering the cats’ names. Each had a unique name that sort of went with the story. The first cat was Two Bits. The second, Grimalkin, which is an archaic name for an old cat along with some other meanings. I might have to do a blog post on that name! And then, the last is Miss Marble, a twist on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.
I like the name Goldie for the cat on the first book in the series.
Author
Goldie is a great name for a yellow cat, Martha, but this one was a barbershop cat. So, I let his barber owner call him Two Bits.
I like the orange cat. It reminds me of my next door neighbor’s cat. Her name is Ginger.
Author
I like Ginger for a cat’s name, Diana, but that wasn’t what I used. The Barbershop cat is Two Bits. Yellow cats are always extra pretty.
I haven’t read any of them yet! I didn’t know about these! Sheesh!! I’m not good with guessing names of cats, or naming them, either! I’ll go with Tabby, though! lol!!
Author
Tabby is a pretty good cat name, Trudy. But none of these cats were named Tabby. I, naturally enough, wanted the names to be unique to the stories. And they mostly were. I named them, Two Bits, Grimalkin, and Miss Marble. Now you can guess which name goes with which cat? 🙂
I’ve read the series, but I don’t remember any of the cats’ names. It was a few years back. Maybe I need to read them again.
🙂
Author
No worries, Lavon. You read so many books it would be hard to remember a cat from one of the stories. But the first barbershop cat was Two Bits. A perfect name I thought.