GUEST POST and GIVEAWAY
Left Fur Dead
(A Jules & Bun Mystery Book 1)
(A Jules & Bun Mystery Book 1)
by J. M. Griffin
Left Fur Dead is the first book in the Jules & Bun Mystery series by J. M. Griffin. Available for pre-order: Who’s Dead, Doc?.
Left Fur Dead is currently on tour with Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours. The tour stops here today for a guest post by the author, an excerpt, and a giveaway. Please be sure to visit the other tour stops as well.
Description
On Fur Bridge Farm, Jules cares for rescued rabbits. But when a killer strikes, she’ll need a rabbit to rescue her ...
Juliette “Jules” Bridge prides herself on the tender rehabilitation she provides for injured or abused rabbits on her New Hampshire rescue farm, but she has a very special relationship with one bunny in particular. Bun is a black-and-white rabbit who happens to have the ability to communicate through mental telepathy. Once she got over the shock, Jules found her furry friend had a lot to say.
One frigid March morning on their walk together, Bun spots a body. The police identify the frozen stiff as Arthur Freeman, aka Arty the Mime. Jules and Arty knew each other on the children’s party circuit, where he’d perform magic tricks and she had an educational rabbit petting pen. With Bun egging her on, Jules decides it’s time they hop to it and put their heads together to discover who silenced the mime. But their investigation leads them down a rabbit hole of more suspects and lies, while a killer sets a trap for them ...
Excerpt
“It’s quite blustery today,” I murmured as a fine sheen of ice-crusted snow crunched under my feet while a steady wind buffeted us. The edge of the water, glazed with shards of ice, reminded me of broken glass. Tall grasses, stiffly encrusted with snow, barely swayed in the wind coming off Lake Plantain. Frosty boulders dotted the landscape. New Hampshire in March was frigid. I stopped abruptly when Bun’s voice entered my head.
Bunny, my black-and-white rabbit, snuggled against my chest in the baby sling he rode in. Bun’s head protruded from the sling opening, and his ears twitched as he glanced around.
“That looks odd, like a frosty hand rising from the tall grass over there.” Bun dipped his head to my left. I followed his lead, slanting a look in that direction.
Holy crap, it did look like a frozen hand reaching upward. My heart began to pound, my breath came short and fast, and I veered toward the area.
“You don’t think it’s real, do you?”
“I’m sure it’s just the way the frost has clumped the grass together. We’ll have a look.”
My name is Juliette Bridge, better known as Jules. I’m the owner of Fur Bridge Farm, where I raise rabbits, find good homes for them, and care for others that have been rescued from difficult and often abominable situations. Bun, my best buddy, lives in my farmhouse as my resident housemate. He has a personality that warms my heart, that is, when he’s not poking his sweet little nose where it doesn’t belong.
Not your average rabbit, Bun’s smart, sociable, talkative, and very talented. His specialty is pure nosiness. He communicates with me by way of mental telepathy, which adds another dimension to an ongoing list of my problems. I know, it sounds ludicrous, but when Bun talks, I’ve learned to listen. I never thought I’d have a talking pet, but there you have it. He’s never mentioned how this ability came about, and I’ve never asked. Uncertain if everyone can hear him, I can only assume they aren’t willing to acknowledge his ability.
We’ve shared the farmhouse for the past couple of years, after I rescued him from a despicable family with no respect for animals. They were glad to see him go, saying he was in league with the devil. I figure they could hear him talk.
The first time I heard his voice, a soft, lilting, somewhat musical sound, I wondered if I’d imagined it. As time went on, he kept talking to me, and I continued to ignore him. One morning, about a year ago, we were taking our usual walk, when I ran into Margery Shaw. Margery had been Bun’s previous keeper and there was no love lost between us. Having seen Margery coming before I did, Bun had huddled down inside the sling, burrowing as far as he could, trying to disappear. I heard a warning to take care before there was only silence.
The woman marched up and asked if I’d heard the rabbit talk. That was the dawning realization that Bun could, and often did, communicate with me. Unwilling to admit it to Margery, I shook my head and asked if she was imagining things. Her anger evident over my remark, I left her standing on the path as I jogged off, holding Bun close to my chest.
From that day forward, Bun and I have conversed on a regular basis. I doubt I can answer him telepathically and haven’t tried. I’m careful where and when I speak aloud to him. It doesn’t look good to prospective rabbit owners if I’m blathering on about something to Bun when they’ve come to the farm in search of rabbits of their own.
[Want more? Click below to read a longer excerpt.]
Praise for the Book
“An excellent start to a new series, I love the fact that one of the protagonists is a rabbit! It is certainly a change from the usual cats and dogs.” ~ A Wytch’s Book Review Blog
“This was a fun read, and as someone who supports various animal rescue groups, I enjoyed the discussion of the educational and rescue aspects.” ~ Christa Reads and Writes
“I think the highest compliment I can give to this book is that after reading it I want to go out and adopt a rabbit!” ~ Melissa’s Mochas, Mysteries, and Meows
“This was a new twist on the normal cat or dog partners you find in a lot of cozy mysteries ... If you enjoy cozy mysteries with animal companions, you’ll definitely want to give this new series a try.” ~ The Book’s the Thing
“This is a fun story, tender and emotional, with lots of light-hearted moments; impossible to read without smiling much of the time.” ~ The Power of Words
Guest Post by the Author
My Writing Journey
Thank you for having me here on your blog. To say I’m thrilled is putting it mildly. Instead, maybe I should say I’m giddy with excitement (she grins) to have the opportunity to introduce myself and share a bit of what lies behind my first novel in the Jules & Bun Mystery series, Left Fur Dead.
Having been interested in mystery novels and crafting since childhood, it seemed a natural progression to become a storyteller. My family would patiently smile when I regaled them with ideas for, what seemed to me, the next bestselling novel, one that never made it to the manuscript stage. Instead, those tiny kernels would tuck themselves in the nooks and crannies of my brain and bounce forward to fit nicely into a novel I was writing.
I’m not saying that my family wasn’t supportive. They were. It was just that I talked a lot about reading and writing novels, but I didn’t actually produce any until I was in my early fifties. When I reached that stage, I knew I should have been writing all those years. Stories poured out, the good, the bad, and the so-so of them. The very first manuscript I wrote never got further than a discarded flash drive and never saw the light of day. My courage bloomed when I joined a writing group who freely offered their knowledge and advice, along with some great critique sessions.
As I produced more and more work, I found I had included a pet, whose character was important to either solving the crime or coming to the rescue of the main character. That’s when I came upon the idea of having a rabbit who could communicate by way of mental telepathy with his sleuthing owner. In Left Fur Dead, Bun is delighted to be counted on when it comes time to investigate a crime. Bun is a rabbit who was rescued from a home where he was abused and now resides on a rabbit farm with other rescued rabbits and some who have never been in such a situation. Bun is funny, brilliant, and sharp-witted. He engages his new owner, Jules, who is the only one who hears and responds to his ideas and takes his conclusions seriously. Oh, and he believes he has superpowers, which is up for debate.
The sheriff in the New Hampshire town where they reside isn’t a fan of Bun. Sparks fly and danger lurks more often than not when Bun and Jules interfere with police investigations. I have high hopes that readers will find Left Fur Dead entertaining and hard to put down.
As for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed fleshing out the story and the characters in it. Bun and Jules are near and dear to me.
About the Author
J. M. Griffin is the bestselling cozy mystery author of sixteen novels, including the Vinnie Esposito series. She lives in rural Rhode Island with her husband and two very mysterious cats.
Giveaway
Enter the tour-wide giveaway for a chance to win one of five print copies of Left Fur Dead by J. M. Griffin (US only).
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