ÿþÿþÿþ<html> <head> <title>Nancy Means Wright - Ruth Willmarth Series</title> <meta name="keywords" content="Nancy Means Wright, author, mystery writer, Ruth Willmarth, Mad Season, Harvest of Bones, Poison Apples, Stolen Honey, Mad Cow Nightmare, Pea Soup Poisonings, Down The Strings, books, mysteries"> <meta name="description" content="Nancy Means Wright is the author of the Ruth Willmarth series of mystery books which include: Mad Season, Harvest of Bones, Poison Apples, and Stolen Honey."> </head> <body style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" link="#008000" alink="#ffff00" vlink="#808000" > <table border="0" cellpadding="5" width="700"> <tbody> <tr> <td rowspan="3" background="images/stratus.jpg" valign="top" width="120"> <table border="0" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="100%"><font color="#808000"><img src="images/cow.gif" align="left" border="0" height="59" width="42"></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#008000 "><a href="index.htm"><b>Mary<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Wollstonecraft<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Series</b></a></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><p><font size="1">&nbsp;</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="index.htm#events">Nancy's Events Calendar</a></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#008000"><a href="index.htm#questions"><b>Discussion<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Questions for<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Midnight Fires</b></a></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><p><font size="1">&nbsp;</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="backstory.htm">Nancy's Backstory</a></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><p><font size="1">&nbsp;</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="willmarth.htm">Ruth Willmarth<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Series</a></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><p><font size="1">&nbsp;</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font color="#008000" face="Arial" size="2">Nancy's Books:</font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font color="#008000" face="Arial" size="2">Fiction</font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><i><a href="madseason.htm">Mad Season</a></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><i><a href="harvestofbones.htm">Harvest of Bones</a></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><i><a href="poison_apples.htm">Poison Apples</a></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><i><a href="stolen_honey.htm">Stolen Honey</a></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><i><a href="fire_ice.htm">Fire and Ice</a></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><i><a href="mad_cow_nightmare.htm">Mad Cow &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Nightmare</a></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#008000"><i><u>Runaway!</u></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#008000">The above novels in print, and now<br>e-books (Belgrave House/Kindle).</font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#008000"><i><u>The Losing</u></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><p><font size="1">&nbsp;</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font color="#008000" face="Arial" size="2">Nancy's Books for Children:</font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><font color="#808000" face="Arial" size="2"><b><i><a href="peasoup.htm">The Pea Soup<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Poisonings</a></i></b></font><br><font color="#008000" face="Arial" size="2">Agatha Award 2006<br>Best Children's/YA Novel</font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><i><a href="strings.htm">Down the Strings</a></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><i><a href="circus.htm">The Great Circus<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Train Robbery</a></i></font></b><br><font color="#008000" face="Arial" size="2">Agatha Finalist</font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><p><font size="1">&nbsp;</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font color="#008000" face="Arial" size="2">Nonfiction</font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#008000"><i><u>Make Your Own<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Change</u></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#008000"><i><u>Vermonters at<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;their Craft</u></i></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><p><font size="1">&nbsp;</font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="where_to_buy_books.htm">Buy Books</a></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="agent.htm">Find an Agent</a></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="links.htm">Links</a></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="how_i_write.htm">How I Write</a></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="http://calitreview.com/68" target="_blank">An Interview with<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Nancy </a></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="bio.htm">Brief Bio For Busy Librarians (and other readers)</a></font></b> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="100%"><b><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="mailto:nancymeanswright@gmail.com">Contact Nancy</a></font></b> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><img src="images/clear-dot.gif" height="1" width="120"></p> </td> <td valign="top" width="680"> <img src="images/nancy_means_wright.gif" alt="Nancy Means Wright" align="right" border="0" height="41" width="371"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="680"> <p><font size="+1" face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"><b>Ruth Willmarth Series</b></font></p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="+1"><big>G</big>reetings from the land of milk, maples, and malice domestic. Or, as Ruth Willmarth, my single mother-dairy farmer sleuth, would deem it: the hardscrabble world of contrary cows, unpaid bills, and errant husbands. </font></p> </blockquote> <table align="right" border="0" width="130"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p align="center"><a href="madseason.htm"><img src="images/mad_season_thumbnail.gif" alt="Mad Season" border="0" height="170" width="113" hspace="5"></a></p> <p align="center"><a href="harvestofbones.htm"><img src="images/harvest_of_bones_thumbnail.gif" alt="Harvest of Bones" border="0" height="166" width="113" hspace="5"></a></p> <p align="center"><a href="poison_apples.htm"><img src="images/poison_apples_thumbnail.gif" alt="Poison Apples" border="0" height="169" width="113" hspace="5"></a></p> <p align="center"><a href="stolen_honey.htm"><img src="images/stolen_honey_thumbnail.gif" alt="Stolen Honey" border="0" height="170" width="113" hspace="5"></a></p> <p align="center"><a href="mad_cow_nightmare.htm"><img src="images/mad_cow_nightmare_thumbnail.jpg" alt="Mad Cow Nightmare" border="0" height="170" width="113" hspace="5"></a></p> <p align="center"><a href="fire_ice.htm"><img src="images/crimes_of_passion_thumbnail.gif" alt="Crimes of Passion" border="0" height="170" width="113" hspace="5"></a></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> <font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Ruth&rsquo;s man has left her for an actress who played a bit part in a local film.&nbsp; For good reason, Ruth names her cows after women like Marie Antoinette, Cleopatra, Zelda&mdash;the beheaded, the poisoned, the exploited. But Ruth is tough, she can handle adversity; one reviewer describes her as "earthy, funny, hot-tempered, and sexier than she knows." Moreover, as backup, she has Colm Hanna, her wannabe lover who triples as realtor, mortician, and parttime cop; the bumper sticker on Colm&rsquo;s old blue Horizon reads: "<i>Moonlight In Vermont </i>."</font></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Photo of Nancy's cat, Amelia" src="images/amelia.jpg"> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif" size="-1">Nancy Shares Her Workspace</font> </p> <p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">How did Ruth come about? Well, one day back in the early 90&rsquo;s a pair of elderly Vermont farmers who never banked their money&mdash;stashed it, rather, in rafter holes and torn pocket seams&mdash;were mugged, robbed, and left for dead. The villains were nabbed when they started throwing the wrinkled bills around in bars and Bingo parlors. Alas for them, the money reeked of barn! </font> </p> <p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Out of that true life story came <b><a href="madseason.htm">MAD SEASON </a>, </b>the first in the series from St. Martin&rsquo;s Press&#151;"an admirably crafted first novel," according to <i>The Philadelphia Inquirer</i>. </font> </p> <p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Next came <b><a href="harvestofbones.htm">HARVEST OF BONES</a>, </b>in which "Wright melds setting and character with the skill of Stephen Dobyns in his Saratoga mysteries" (<i>Booklist</i>). </font> </p> <p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Then, <b><a href="poison_apples.htm">POISON APPLES</a></b>, in which a mysterious <i>somebody</i> plants terror in an apple orchard adjacent to Ruth&rsquo;s farm. According to <i> Boston Globe </i>, "...Wright doesn't put a foot wrong in this well-wrought mystery". </font> </p> <p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Next </font><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"><b><a href="stolen_honey.htm">STOLEN HONEY</a></b>, the fourth in the Ruth Willmarth series. A male Branbury College student is found on a local bee farm in a patch of deadly nightshade&mdash;and then a female professor who has been researching a 30's eugenics experiment is discovered, strangled, in her apartment. </font> </p> <p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">And take a look at my novella, <a href="fire_ice.htm"><b>"Fire and Ice," </b> </a> out in January, '02 in the Worldwide Library anthology, CRIMES OF PASSION. A severe ice storm strikes northern Vermont, and with it comes a conflagration of love and hate. Ruth Willmarth is drawn into the murder investigation of a young woman stabbed with a massive icicle in a mystery filled with the dark secrets. </font></p> <p><font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">And now <b><a href="mad_cow_nightmare.htm">MAD COW NIGHTMARE </a> </b>, out in hardcover in April, '05, the fifth in the Ruth Willmarth series. A pair of suspect calves and an Irish traveller woman who might be infected with fatal CJD, the human form of Mad Cow disease, turn Ruth's summer into a nightmare. </font></p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Nancy as a cow" src="images/nancy_cow.jpg"> </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </td> </tr> <tr valign="bottom"> <td width="680"> <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">&copy; Copyright 2001 - 2011, Nancy Means Wright. All rights reserved. </font> </p> <p align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">This site maintained by<br>T.D. Bennett Group, Inc.</font></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </body> </html>