Hi, I’m Abby Foster, formerly a retired accountant, currently co-owner and CEO of Alberta’s Grizzly Gulch Guest Ranch—in spite of my horse phobia. My two sisters and I inherited the run-down dude ranch at an age when most sensible women contemplate retirement. Hey, no one ever called us sensible.

Facing financial ruin due to renovation cost overruns, we organized a week-long horse breeding symposium to boost our popularity and attract more guests to keep us afloat. Hours into the symposium, a cowboy’s sudden death appeared accidental to everyone, even the Mounties. Was I the only one who smelled murder?

I convinced my sisters and our hot barn manager to help me conduct a covert investigation without alerting the guests. Problem was, our quirky guests were the suspects.  

Chaos ensued when we tangled with one seriously amorous gelding (yes, it happens), a stud of the equine variety named Lancelot, dwarf goats in the swimming pool, a spitting llama, and an uncooperative stallion. A late-life romance upped the ante for me, while drugs and deceit increased the danger for all.

Did I mention my horse phobia?

Warning: This book may contain nuggets of naughty boomer humor.

Inspiration for Horsing Around with Murder

My main goal when writing any book is to transport readers to a fun place where they can relax, escape, and forget all the challenges life throws at them.

Having said that, I figured that three retirement-aged sisters owning and operating a dude ranch would provide an excellent canvas for showcasing, shall we say, the more mature woman. I wanted to place my wily senior sleuths in humorous situations, embarrassing situations, awkward situations, dangerous situations, even romantic situations, all to test their mettle.

At that point, all I knew was that the book would be a cozy murder mystery. I also knew there had to be horses. Now I needed a plot.

Truth be told, plotting isn’t my strong suit. Luckily my brainstorming partner possesses an off-the-wall imagination. As soon as I mentioned horses, she recounted an anecdote about how, as a former veterinarian ‘s assistant, she somehow managed to get a stallion’s pride-and-joy wedged up her sleeve during a semen collection mission.

I built my book around a similar event, creating a world and characters to accommodate that single scene.

Target Audience for Horsing Around with Murder

Since this is a cozy murder mystery, the target audience is primarily women aged 40 and over, though both men and younger adults have read and enjoyed the book.

My Hopes for Readers

First and foremost, I hope Horsing Around with Murder makes readers smile, even laugh out loud. I’ve had people tell me they couldn’t read the book on public transit because they kept howling with laughter, tears of mirth streaming down their cheeks.

I also hope the book disproves those stereotypes that are commonly applied to most women of a certain age. Hey, we are not invisible. We have plenty of fire and personality left in us. We’re not willing to be put quietly out to pasture. We have value, lots of value, and we most certainly have voices (some more than others). We’ve accumulated a whole pile of wisdom during our long(ish) and fruitful lives. Okay, we might have gained most of our wisdom through our mistakes, but still. We can surprise you with a naughty sense of humor, even use certain naughty words upon occasion (my heroines have workarounds for those words because they are, after all, forbidden around their guests).

Most of all, I hope Horsing Around with Murder makes readers forget their troubles, if only for a short time.

Where to Find Horsing Around with Murder

Amazon:  MyBook.to/HAWM (a universal link for both ebook and paperback)

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43523749-horsing-around-with-murder

You will find all my books on my website at http://booksbymaureen.com

More About Maureen Fisher

I was transplanted from Scotland to Canada at the tender age of seven.

An escapee from the I.T. world, I’m currently writing funny and furry adventures and misadventures, guaranteed to tickle the funny bone, lift the spirits, & warm the heart. All my books contain characters I hope you can relate to, an animal or two, romance of varying quantities and heat levels, and always tons of humor. As Charlie Chaplin once said, “A day without humor is a day wasted.”

Besides being a writer and a voracious reader, I’m also a community volunteer, bridge player, yoga enthusiast, seeker of personal and spiritual growth, pickleball devotee, and an infrequent though avid gourmet cook. I love to travel, mostly with my husband and, occasionally, alone. I have swum with sharks in the Galapagos, walked with Bushmen in the Serengeti, sampled lamb criadillas (don’t ask!!!) in Iguazu Falls, ridden an ATV over Venezuela’s rutted jungle paths, bicycled in the Netherlands, snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef, ridden an elephant in Thailand, watched the sun rise over the mountains surrounding Machu Picchu, wandered through souks in Morocco, climbed to the top of Mount Vesuvius, sailed along the Bosporus, and bounced from Johannesburg to Cape Town on a bus named Marula.

At this moment, I’m writing another cozy murder mystery called Lights, Camera, Murder, featuring a group of Hollywood elite who are evaluating Grizzly Gulch Guest Ranch as potential accommodations for a film cast and crew of a new television series. To summarize the plot, a guest is murdered during a blizzard, all the other guests have a motive for murder.