Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Homemaker (Prairie Nightingale) by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Homemaker (Prairie Nightingale)
by Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare
Homemaker (Prairie Nightingale)
Mystery/Amateur Sleuth/Romantic Elements
1st in Series
Setting – Green Bay, Wisconsin
Publisher : Thomas & Mercer (June 1, 2025)
Paperback Print length : 300 pages
When a former friend and devoted mother vanishes, a confident homemaker turned amateur sleuth follows an unexpected trail of scandals and secrets to find her.
Prairie Nightingale is both the midlife mother of two teenage girls and a canny entrepreneur who has turned homemaking into a salaried profession. She’s also fascinated with the gritty details of other people’s lives. So when seemingly perfect Lisa Radcliffe, a member of her former mom-friends circle, suddenly disappears, it’s in Prairie’s nature to find out why.
Given her innate talent for vital pattern recognition, Prairie is out to catch a few clues by taking a long, hard look at everyone in Lisa’s life—and uncovering their secrets. Including Lisa’s. Prairie’s dogged curiosity is especially irritating to FBI agent Foster Rosemare, the first interesting man Prairie has met since her divorce. His square jaw and sharp suits don’t hurt.
But even as the investigation begins to wreak havoc on Prairie’s carefully tended homelife, she’s resolved to use her multivalent homemaking skills to solve the mystery of a missing mom—and along the way discover the thrill of her new sleuthing ambitions.
Book Excerpt
Prairie Nightingale stood on her tiptoes, ignoring the incessant buzz of her phone in the back pocket of her jeans and craning for a better look at Amber Jenkins.
“What do you think of Mrs. Jenkins’s handbag?” she asked her daughter Anabel.
Prairie and Anabel were part of a loose congregation of parents and family members milling around on the paved playground of the K–8 gifted school, waiting for the final release bell. Prairie hated moments like these, when there was a measurable stretch of time but nothing happening and no way to get anything done. An article she’d once read called it “garbage time.” When she was going through her divorce, she’d found a lot of articles like that—about how women’s time was wasted and their labor undervalued—as she tried to understand why the world believed she’d spent her seventeen years as a wife and mother doing essentially nothing.
“I don’t think of Mrs. Jenkins’s handbag.” Anabel looked away from her phone long enough to flick her eyes over to the purse in question. “But if you’re asking me how much it cost, that’s a seven-hundred-dollar bag. Nine, if it’s from this year.”
“Huh.” Prairie watched Amber, whose gaze was fixed in the middle distance as she arranged her ripple of blond hair over one shoulder. Bearing up under her own garbage time. Amber had two kids, like Prairie. She was sharp and irreverent, with a slightly faded tattoo of koi circling a lotus blossom on her shoulder. Once, she’d been Prairie’s favorite among a group of women who went for coffee after school drop-off and got together to make swag bags for the teachers. Prairie had always thought she and Amber had a genuine connection as the two moms in the group without a prestigious education. Both of them knew how to keep track of the drink orders from a ten top.
“Remember a couple of weeks ago when Mrs. Jenkins backed into that Dodge Ram and smashed her taillight?” Prairie asked Anabel.
“No. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her daughter’s dry tone failed to disguise a hint of interest. She was not immune to what some called Prairie’s nosiness and what Prairie called her talent at vital pattern recognition.
“Well, that happened. And look.” Prairie angled her head at a dirty black Escalade illegally parked across from the school. “The taillight is still busted.”
“So?”
“Who spends nine hundred dollars on a new handbag and doesn’t get their taillight fixed?”
“I don’t know. Why would I know that?” Anabel squinted in Amber’s direction. “Didn’t she used to carry a Kitty Blue purse?”
“That’s right! The metallic blue crossbody bag with the cat ears. And Kitty Blue is not high dollar.” Prairie had never bought anything from the faddish direct-to-consumer brand, but she was familiar from seeing it hyped on the social media channels of practically every woman she’d ever met. “An upgrade like that begs a lot of questions.”
“Not really. Lots of things could explain it. Maybe someone bought her this new purse because her Kitty Blue one started getting ratty. Or the people who fix cars are too busy. Why do you even care?”
“It’s just something to keep me occupied while we wait for your sister,” Prairie said. “I don’t really care.”
About Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare
Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare write critically acclaimed, bestselling mystery and romance, usually (but not always) together. They are the authors of the Prairie Nightingale mysteries and the TV Detectives mystery series. If you want more of their stories, check out their queer romances co-written as Mae Marvel, as well as solo work by Ruthie Knox (het romance), Annie Mare (grounded queer paranormal romance), and Robin York (Ruthie’s pen name for New Adult romance). Ruthie and Annie are married and live with two teenagers, two dogs, multiple fish, two glorious cats, four hermit crabs, and a bazillion plants in a very old house with a garden.
Author Links:
Webpage: https://ruthieknoxandanniemare.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ruthieknox and https://www.facebook.com/anniemareromanceauthor
Instagram: @ruthieknoxromance and @spinsterpress
Purchase Links – Amazon – Bookshop.org – Barnes & Noble
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Homemaker TOUR PARTICIPANTS
June 17 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
June 18 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW
June 18 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 19 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT
June 20 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – REVIEW
June 20 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT
June 21 – Frugal Freelancer – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 22 – Angel’s Book Nook – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 23 – Read Your Writes Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 24 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – SPOTLIGHT
June 25 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
June 26 – Ascroft. eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 27 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
June 28 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
June 29 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
June 30 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
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Thank you for highlighting HOMEMAKER, Christy!
You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping!