An interview of New Oslo’s nonagenarian Prunn Sisters.
Tessa Treslow: “Okay, you’ll speak into this. Deeda will use it in her podcast.”
Olive Prunn: “Podcast. Like we’re shucking peas.”
Ginny Prunn: “That’s a good one, Olive.”
Olive: “I can be funny.”
Ginny: “Not usually. Tessa, how does my tiara look?”
Tessa: “Wonderful, Ginny. As does your fascinator, Olive. Oh, look at that. It’s a giant…olive.”
Olive: “Of course. So everyone knows which sister I am.”
Tessa: “Um. Okay, let’s start. And…recording.”
Ginny: “Hello New Oslo and surrounding communities…and world! It’s so nice to be here with you today to tell you about our recent trip to a Montana ranch. This is retired kindergarten teacher Eugenie Prunn here, along with my sister…”
Olive: “Olive.”
Ginny: “Say more than that.”
Olive: “Olive Prunn.”
Ginny: “Really?”
Olive: “Just tell the story!”
Ginny: “Someone needs a nap! So, Tessa wanted a romantic getaway with her boyfriend, Nick, but ended up with Freddie, Edna, Olive, and me, too.”
Olive: “Yeah, Treslow, we all coulda died because of you.”
Tessa: “Hey!”
Ginny: “Oh stop. We can do without your snark.”
Olive: “It’s what I’m known for.”
Ginny: “No, what you’re known for is those ridiculous fascinators!”
Olive: “At least I don’t bedazzle everything and blind people with glitter and sequins. You look like a demented Rockette.”
Ginny:
Olive: “Oh, stop pouting. Back to the story: We drove for hours without any bathroom stops to the Triple J Ranch. Our friend Jaime Juarez runs a veterans’ program there and we were volunteered as kitchen help.”
Ginny: “Yes, it’s a wonderful program. Unfortunately, some of the attendees were not very nice.”
Olive: “Like that nightmare of a cook! She used way too much butter and yelled at Ginny.”
Ginny: “Yes, she was mean, but even with her being horrible, it was the most singularly awful experience of my entire life to find that woman dead in the freezer, between the sides of beef!”
Olive: “Okay Sarah Bernhardt. Dramatic much?”
Ginny: “She had a knife sticking out of her chest, Olive!”
Olive: “Pphht. We see worse on Crime TV.”
Ginny: “That’s not real, or in person. It was traumatizing, okay?”
Olive:
Ginny: “Anyhoo, there were also wildfires, which stranded Deputy Freddie in Missoula, so we helped investigate.”
Olive: “We always do. But never get thanked.”
Ginny: “Well, we investigated, searching the victim’s room, looking through computer files and pictures. We found clues. And, the whole time, those fires were coming from both sides! It was terrifying! And on top of all that, we made a thousand sandwiches for the firefighters.”
Olive: “Pretty optimistic of us. We coulda died there, buried in sandwiches.”
Ginny: *sighs* “Anyway, we can’t tell you who the murderer is, pending trial and all, but it was solved. Oh, and the fires were put out.”
Tessa: “Okay. That’s a wrap.”
Olive: “We didn’t make any wraps.”
HOMICIDE ON THE RANGE
Series: A Hometown Mystery, Book 6
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: May 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | Gemma Halliday Publishing
From author Rosalie Spielman comes a wild western homicide!
US Army retiree Tessa Treslow is ready for a much-needed and romantic getaway with her boyfriend, Nick, to volunteer on a dude ranch for recovering combat veterans in Montana. What she gets instead is a whole crew from her little town of New Oslo, Idaho, tagging along. Her BFF Freddie, aka Deputy Frederickson, her aunt Edna, and the Prunn sisters are happy for a little vacation as well, but little do they realize it’s not going to be the rustic, idyllic visit to the range that they think it will be.
The other volunteers at the ranch are a variety of characters, from a jealous wife, to a multi-limb amputee, to a blast from Tessa’s past, and a combative and unpleasant ranch cook. When the cook ends up dead along with sides of beef in the walk-in freezer, Tessa realizes the one of them is also a murderer! With Freddie stranded in town, Tessa teams up with the New Osloans—the only ones she can be sure didn’t commit the crime—to take a closer look at the other volunteers. They soon learn that each and every cowboy wannabe knew the cook for more than just her buttery cooking, and each of them had a motive to want her dead.
To make matters much worse, not one but two wildfires are closing in on the ranch and cutting them off from the outside. What results is a locked-room style mystery where the crew from New Oslo are unsure which will prove more dangerous—a murderer or the wildfires!
About the author
Rosalie Spielman is an award-winning author, mother, veteran, and retired military spouse who finds joy in giving people a humorous escape from the real world. In addition to the Hometown Mysteries, she has contributed to the Aloha Lagoon mysteries and several short story anthologies. Rosalie is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Military Writers Society of America, and Women Writing the West. For more information on her books or to subscribe to her newsletter, go to www.rosalie-spielman-author.com. Rosalie strives to provide you an escape…one page at a time.