Hermux has got his paws full solving a new mystery.  He needs to find a missing heir, protect the world’s roses – while avoiding killer bees, and plan his wedding to his aviatrix sweetheart in this fourth Hermux Tantamoq Adventure^®, TIME TO SMELL THE ROSES (G. P. Putnam’s Sons; October 2007; ISBN: 978-0-399-244902; All Ages; $15.99; 288 pages).
     Michael Hoeye’s watch-maker/detective mouse, Hermux Tantamoq, took booksellers by storm when Hoeye self-published his first Hermux Tantamoq Adventure^®, Time Stops for No Mouse, in 2000. “Being a self-publisher is like being a washing machine on permanent spin cycle,” says Hoeye. “There are always twelve things that should have been done yesterday. And a hundred more things before you go home for the day.”  In a heated auction, Penguin Young Readers Group won the rights to republish Time Stops for No Mouse and Hoeye’s subsequent novel, The Sands of Time. Both books have been adored by the critics. The New York Times Book Review said, “[Time Stops for No Mouse] . . . reads more like an adult thriller than a children’s book, with the occasional mention of the delights of moldy cheese and the perils of mousetraps serving as subtle reminders that its characters are in fact mice and rats.” Publishers Weekly described The Sands of Time in a starred review: “Galloping plot, evocative descriptions and exuberantly sophisticated wit keep the pages rapidly turning.”  Hermux saved the Varmint Theater in his third adventure, No Time Like Show Time, and cemented his reputation as the best detective/watchmaker in Pinchester.
     In the winter of 1999 Michael Hoeye began writing an email to his wife Martha, telling Hermux’s story. It certainly wasn’t the first email he had ever written, but it turned out to be the longest. Six months and seventy-five chapters later Time Stops for No Mouse was published. Since then the adventures of Hermux Tantamoq have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Hoeye splits his time between a stone cottage in Oregon and an apartment in Pinchester with a panoramic view of the Twisty River. He was elected an honorary citizen in 2003 and currently serves as official spokes-human for the city.