I'm pleased to welcome Rita Moreau to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Rita starts a new series with WHEELER-DEALER, the first in the Ghost and the Camper Kooky Mystery series.
Kathy: WHEELER-DEALER is the first book in the Ghost and the Camper Kooky Mystery series. What made you decide to write a paranormal mystery?
RM: I seem to be drawn to a paranormal mystery. My Mary Catherine Mahoney mystery also is a paranormal mystery.
Kathy: After her husband leaves her for a much younger woman Mabel Gold buys a vintage camper and heads west. Have you ever wanted to travel in an RV?
RM: I did. With my husband. We traveled all across the west in a Bluebird for a number of years. Visiting all the national parks in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana.
Kathy: Mabel's camper happens to come with a resident ghost. Have you ever had a ghostly encounter?
RM: After my mother passed a lamp on my nightstand would come on and off. She also came to me in my dreams. I was at a event with a medium and she was taking messages from beyond. She asked if there was anyone in the room who would claim a message from Georgia (my mother’s name). She didn’t know me. I was in a room of 50 people.
Kathy: What first drew you to cozy mysteries?
RM: To be honest I didn’t know what genre my books were but as I became more knowledgeable I saw they fit that genre.
Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?
RM: No.
Kathy: Tell us about your series.
RM: My name is Mabel Gold, and over the last couple of years, my life took an unexpected detour. What was to be the golden years, you know—playing with grandchildren and lots of baking—turned into the Are You Kidding Me years when my husband Jack lost his mind and traded me in for Tiffanie.
She’s about the same age as my youngest daughter, Bianca, but with bigger boobs—store bought. I’ve been trying to get my life back, driving a pickup and towing a vintage camper around this beautiful country. My five kids think I’ve lost it and maybe I have because I have company. A specter, a ghost, a spirit—whatever you want to call her.
Her name is Irma, and I can see her as plain as day. Neither of us knows why. We’re still trying to figure that out. She’s as stubborn and hard-nosed as me. It’s a wonder we can even talk to each other since we both never learned to bite our tongues.
Irma is stuck in purgatory. You know, where you go to make up for past deeds when you were among the living. She checks in with Saint Peter from time to time at the Pearly Gates. She says it reminds her of checking in with her parole officer. So far, he has sent her packing each time. Back down the Rainbow Bridge she goes until she serves her time, and Saint Peter hands her the get out of jail card—but I digress. This is how it all began. Buckle up—you’re going for a ride, and I hope you like camping.
Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?
RM: I think MC in my Mary Catherine Mahoney series. Probably because she’s a lot like me.
Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?
RM: My mother – she inspired me to never give up on a dream.
Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?
RM: My age. I didn’t have time to find an agent or a publisher. I had just retired. I’m also impatient and don’t like waiting around.
Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?
RM: Probably Michener. I loved his books. Especially Centennial.
Kathy: What are you currently reading?
RM: Tom Clancy and Lee Child.
Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?
RM: I teach Group Fitness, and have for 30 years. At the University of South Florida for the students and now SilverSneakers.
Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.
RM: Garlic pepper, eggs, butter and coffee cream.
Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?
RM: Yes. MURDER IN THE BADLANDS is next after MURDER ON HONKY-TONK ROW which is out August 1. After that Mabel and Irma and gang move on to the Rockies – Grand Canyon, Estes Park. Then Jackson Hole Wyoming. I would also like to make it back to my Mary Catherine Mahoney series.
Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?
RM: Hearing from readers. It's what keeps me working so hard at it.
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Review
The First Ghost and the Camper Kooky Mystery
Wheeler-Dealer Ghost & Camper Kooky Mystery by Rita Moreau
About Wheeler- Dealer
Paranormal Cozy Mystery 1st in Series
Independently published (April 1, 2021)
Paperback: 332 pages
Solving a murder might raise her spirits. But will it spring her spectral friend from Purgatory?
Mabel Gold still isn’t sure what happened. Traded by her husband for a busty bimbo the same age as their youngest daughter, the feisty sixty-something rejects the retirement community and heads west in a vintage camper. But the RV comes complete with a ghost who needs a good deed to get into Heaven, and cracking open a homicide at their first stop in Savannah could give them both a new lease on life.
Determined to dig up the dirt on the dead wheeler-dealer, Mabel and her phantom companion tackle the crime. But with two rich dudes from Dubai, a Willie Nelson lookalike mobster, and a widow nicknamed The Barracuda all on the suspect list, conjuring up the truth could take a real live miracle.
Can Mabel catch the killer before she’s the next soul crashing the Pearly Gates?
Wheeler-Dealer is the high-spirited first book in the hilarious Ghost & the Camper kooky mystery series. If you like golden-girl sleuths, zany characters, and sardonic humor, then you’ll love Rita Moreau’s witty whodunit.
About Rita Moreau
Rita Moreau is the author of the Mary Catherine Mahoney Mystery series and the Ghost & Camper Kooky Mystery series.
A workaholic by nature, upon retirement, Rita Moreau began work on her bucket list, writing a book. Traveling the national parks with her husband George in a vintage Bluebird motor home, (on George’s list), Rita completed her first novel Bribing Saint Anthony. Back home she completed Nuns! Psychics! & Gypsies! OH! NO, Feisty Nuns and The Russian & Aunt Sophia and The House on Xenia. Last year when we entered the Twilight Zone Rita wrote the first two new novels in the Ghost & the Camper series. Rita and her husband live in a postcard called Florida where he has fun telling everyone he is the author’s husband. When not writing she joins PatZi Gil on the Joy on Paper radio program with Book Buzz Mysteries, or you can find her teaching SilverSneakers fitness classes and doing her best to keep busy. She loves connecting with readers. Visit her at www.RitaMoreau.com or find her on Facebook at facebook.com/RitaMoreauAuthor. She would love to hear from you.
Author Links:
Website - http://www.ritamoreau.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RitaMoreauAuthor/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/RitaMoreau
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ritamoreau4996/
Radio - http://www.radio-joyonpaper.com
GoodReads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6587803.Rita_Moreau
Purchase Link - Amazon
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