Coffee with a canine: Kathryn Miller Haines & Mr. Rizzo and Sadie

Today's featured guests at Coffee with a Canine: Kathryn Miller Haines & Mr. Rizzo and Sadie.

The author, on how she and the dogs were united:

Both are Humane Society pups that we got when they were six months old. The day we went to get Mr. Rizzo, we actually intended to get another dog, but we were told we needed to get a copy of our deed to show that we were home owners and were allowed to have a dog. By the time we got back, the dog we were going to get was gone. My husband found Mr. Rizzo in his cage hidden by the open door to the kennel. In all our dog deliberations, we’d never even seen him. Twas fate.

We shopped for Sadie on the Humane Society’s webpage (both hubs and I caught each other scanning the dogs available page despite our best efforts to close the browser window so as not to get caught – yes, the Western PA Humane Society page is porn in our house). It was our way of healing our heartache after our dog Violet died quite suddenly from a kidney disorder. On the online photo, Sadie was a dead ringer for Violet (though as anyone who’s tried internet dating should know, she looked nothing like her in person). We...[read on]

Among the early praise for Kathryn Miller Haines's new novel, The Girl Is Murder:

"[A] smart offering that gives both mysteries and historical fiction a good name.... The mystery is solid, but what makes this such a standout is the cast. Sounding like they’re right out of the 1940s (well, a 40’s movie anyway), the characters, young and old, pop off the pages.... This joint is jumping."
--Booklist (starred review)

"A stylish, slang-filled teen noir that is as entertaining as it is absorbing."
--Kirkus

"In this fast-paced, quick-witted historical mystery, 15-year-old Iris Anderson has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her German-immigrant mother recently committed suicide; her father came home from Pearl Harbor physically and mentally broken; and circumstances forced her to transfer from an exclusive private school to one of the roughest public schools on New York City’s Lower East Side. Desperate to save her father’s faltering private-eye business, Iris becomes wrapped up in the disappearance of one of her classmates, discovering that the thin line between friends and suspects is dangerously blurry. Haines scores with her first entry into the young adult scene...."
--School Library Journal (starred review)

Learn more about the book and author at Kathryn Miller Haines's website and blog.

Writers Read: Kathryn Miller Haines.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Kathryn Miller Haines & Mr. Rizzo and Sadie.

--Marshal Zeringue