Ruthie Pearlman is the author of 17 novels. She started writing in the late 1980's with the Rifki Nesher trilogy, Working It Out, Getting It Right, Making It Last. They follow the fortunes of a frum young woman who wants to be a doctor. Although these books are no longer in print, she still meets women who attribute their medical careers to having read the trilogy in a "if Rifki Nesher can do it, I can do it!" kind of way. These books are available as eBooks on Amazon. She then wrote the very emotional Daniel My Son, a fictionalized account of her and her husband's experience as foster parents. Following a hiatus of ten years, Ruthie Pearlman found her unique genre, and is now probably one of the only frum female thriller writers. Starting with Dark Tapestry, The Movement, and Carers Ltd, she broke away briefly to write the groundbreaking novel Against the Wall, about Jewish teenagers at risk, the first of its kind. Then she continued writing thrillers from The Group to the wildly popular School of Secrets series, the latest of which, Bloodline, has only just now hit the shelves. She and her husband Joseph made aliya in 2015 and live in Mevaseret Tzion.

Ruthie Pearlman, who was born in London UK, often says: “I was born in the same week as the State of Israel was born”, ie May 1948. “I now live in Israel and I find it amusing to see birthday celebration announcements going up for the State, the same week as my own birthday.”
Ruthie has been a published author for more than 30 years, but has always written fiction, ever since she was small. She diverted from her original aim, to be a hugely successful secular author, to writing for the Jewish market, and has made a big name for herself in this smaller and more exclusive world. Her first published works were a trilogy, known as the “Rifki Nesher Trilogy”
(Working it Out, Getting it Right, and Making it Last), written in the late 1980s, about an orthodox Jewish girl who wanted to break out of the boundaries of what was expected in her culture, and study medicine. The topic was considered controversial by the strictly orthodox culture she wrote for, and so was rejected by the first few publishers she sent it to. Eventually it was accepted by CIS in Lakewood NJ, who also published her fourth book, “Daniel My Son” a standalone “faction” book based on her family’s experience as foster parents. However, it is the Rifki Nesher Trilogy which has
been one of her proudest legacies, as she knows personally at least two young women who attributed their medical career who reading it and thinking: “If Rifki Nesher can do it, I can do it too.” One is a professor of Genetics and lives in Israel.
Later on, Ruthie changed her genre to her present one, which is crime thriller fiction, and her publishers to Targum Press. She believes herself to be the only orthodox female author of this genre. She has written over 15 crime thriller novels. Her present hit series known as the School of Secrets series is published by Menucha publishers, a traditional publisher that took over from Targum, in Brooklyn NY, and numbers 8 so far with more in the pipeline. She writes serials for the American Jewish weekly magazine Ami, which become books when they are finished. Ruthie has never gone down the self-publishing route, saying: “my principle is, if my books are worth
publishing, someone will publish them at their own expense.”
Besides writing fiction, Ruthie is an accomplished lyricist. “I have always wanted to have lyrics of mine sung and performed in a stage musical,” she told me. “In 2016 this item on my ‘bucket list’ came true when I wrote all the lyrics for the songs in a show called Daddy Act, written and produced by, and starring my daughter Avigayil Hool. I also had a cameo role in it, and one of my proudest moments was standing on stage with the entire cast for the finale, all of us singing the songs I had written. It was truly a dream come true”.
Ruthie emigrated to Israel in 2015 with her husband Joseph, where they live in Jerusalem. Two sons and a daughter also live in Israel with their families, but she has four daughters still in London. They have a large family of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.