The Filbert Steps - An Interview & Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Lila Blake to Cozy Up With Kathy. Lila writes the Telegraph Hill Mystery series. THE FILBERT STEPS is the first book in the series and will be released tomorrow!

Kathy: In THE FILBERT STEPS Vivian Salvatore returns to Telegraph Hill in San Francisco to rebuild her life. Did you ever have to reset your own life?

LB: Mine wasn't dramatic. Nobody left and I didn't move.

I've had a desk job my whole working life. What changed is that I started getting up early to write instead of promising myself I'd do it on the weekend.

Then I was out on the Filbert Steps one morning, stopped on the third landing to catch my breath. It gets quiet up where the concrete ends and the steps turn to wood at Napier Lane. I stood there and thought, if a body turned up right here, everybody on this hill would know by nine. I went to work and thought about it all day.

Vivian's reset is a lot bigger than mine. She's newly divorced, her daughter is on the other side of the country, and she's starting over at fifty-two in four rooms she picked out by herself.

Kathy: Setting plays such an important role in a mystery. Some cities are a character unto themselves. Why choose San Francisco, and more specifically Telegraph Hill, as the setting for your series?

LB: The stairs! You can't drive the Filbert Steps. Vivian climbs two hundred and seventy-three of them twice a day, and everybody she runs into is on foot and can't get away from her. If you write mysteries, that's a dream.

North Beach also still runs on the same square mile of people. Sal opens the espresso bar at Coppa's before six. The Caruso family has been behind the deli counter at Bay Cypress for eighty years. The wild parrots scream in the plane trees and Coit Tower sits up there keeping the time for everybody. I've been walking those blocks for years and the same faces are behind the same counters.

And most of it is real. Liguria Bakery, Washington Square, Saints Peter and Paul, Caffè Trieste, the climb up Filbert from Sansome. You can walk the whole book in a morning. There's a walking key in the back so you can do exactly that.

Kathy: What first drew you to cozy mysteries?

LB: Louise Penny. I read the Three Pines books and wanted to move there. That's my whole test now. Do I want to hang around these people?

I also love Cleo Coyle's coffeehouse books, because her narrator likes people and comes right out and says so.

My favorite kind of mystery is the one where the detective knows the victim's grocery order. Vivian figures things out because she notices that Sal has a pastry waiting for the widow from Green Street every morning and never lets on that he set it aside for her. That's the kind of detail my books run on.

Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?

LB: Just mysteries, and San Francisco ones. All my books come from the same idea. Four women meet in a night writing class at City College, the class ends, and they keep showing up anyway, each one writing down her own neighborhood. That's the Fog & Quill Society. Vivian has Telegraph Hill and North Beach. Lola Quintero has the Mission, River has the Haight, and Nora Sullivan has my neighborhood, the avenues out by the ocean. I want to write all of them.

Kathy: Tell us about your series.

LB: The Telegraph Hill Mysteries are atmospheric whodunits set in San Francisco, for readers who like their cozies a little darker and a little slower, with a setting vivid enough to get lost in. Steep stairways, hidden gardens, neighborhood cafes, fog.

Vivian Salvatore is fifty-two and newly divorced. She's back on the hill to write a book about Dashiell Hammett's San Francisco, and one October morning the steps below her apartment hand her a body. After that it's old secrets, unexpected connections, and a woman starting over who lands somewhere she never expected.

There are four coming: THE YEAR OF THE GOAT, A NOTE FOR THE MISSING, and THE LAST SITTING. Every one ends with recipes. I don't think a book set in North Beach has any business ending without them.

Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?

LB: Maria Vitale. She's 78 and she's lived in the same North Beach apartment since 1971. She has an Italian greyhound named Pippo who she's totally devoted to. He's old enough now that she stops at the same three corners every time to let him rest.

Vivian couldn't solve a thing without her. Maria has been watching this neighborhood her whole life and she catches what doesn't get written down, who is wearing new jewelry, whose story has changed. She also tells you the punchline first and makes you ask for the rest. “He proposed in a parking lot, eventually.” She's my favorite to write and it isn't close.

Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?

LB: Two things. One is the Grace Marchant Garden. Grace was sixty-three when she started clearing trash off that hillside in 1949, and she kept at it for thirty-three years, right up until she died at ninety-six. Now it's one of the prettiest places in San Francisco and people walk past it every day with no idea.

The other is a plaque in Burritt Alley, right off Bush Street, marking the spot where Miles Archer was shot in The Maltese Falcon. It's a memorial to a murder that never happened, to a man who never lived, and people still stop and stand in front of it. I put it in the book because I love it.

Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?

LB: I finished THE FILBERT STEPS and then sat on it for a while, which I think a lot of writers will recognize. What got me off the fence was that I kept wanting to go back to Coppa's. If I wanted to spend more mornings there, other people might too.

Then it came back with five 5-star Readers' Favorite reviews and I stopped second-guessing myself.

I like this book. That's a weird thing to say out loud.

Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?

LB: Dashiell Hammett, because I've spent four years in his San Francisco and I have a lot of questions about that apartment at 891 Post Street. Agatha Christie, because I want to watch her plot something at the table. Louise Penny, for the company. And Armistead Maupin, because he'd keep everybody talking.

I'd seat Dashiell Hammett next to Agatha Christie and let them fight about whether a detective should have a private life.

Kathy: What are you currently reading?

LB: THE SERIAL KILLER GUIDE TO SAN FRANCISCO, by Michelle Chouinard. I'm really enjoying it! Some of the murders take place right near my house at Land's End. On a side note, last year I met a retired detective who works old cold cases part time, and he told me he's been working several that happened out there in the 1970s. Now I spook myself a little when I'm walking around out there. Ha!

Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?

LB: I walk the city constantly. Most of what ends up in the books I noticed on a walk first.

I cook every recipe before it goes in the back of a book, so if a dish made the final pages it worked in my kitchen first. And I design my own covers. That started because I'm picky and turned into my favorite part of the job.

Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.

LB: A wedge of real Parmigiano-Reggiano, Meyer lemons, good olive oil, and coffee beans.

Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?

LB: Lots. THE YEAR OF THE GOAT is out in October, A NOTE FOR THE MISSING comes in November, and THE LAST SITTING lands in December, so Vivian has a busy year ahead of her. After that the Fog & Quill Society books move across town to the Mission, the Haight and the Outerlands.

Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?

LB: I like showing people a San Francisco they haven't seen. Most visitors get the bridge and the cable cars and go home, and I get to hand them a whole neighborhood instead. I also like that my daydreaming counts as work now.

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 The Filbert Steps (The Telegraph Hill Mysteries) by Lila Blake

About The Filbert Steps

The Filbert Steps (The Telegraph Hill Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery 1st in Series
Setting - California
Publisher: ‎ Sutro House Press
Publication Date: ‎ August 31, 2026
Print Length: ‎ 301 pages

A body on the steps. A neighborhood that saw nothing.

Vivian Salvatore came back to Telegraph Hill with a cat, a divorce settlement, and a book she cannot seem to write.

At fifty-two, newly single and trying to rebuild her life, she has settled into the rhythms of San Francisco’s most beautiful staircase: coffee at the corner café, morning walks on the Filbert Steps, old neighbors on three corners, and the comforting illusion that everyone knows everyone.

Then, on a bright October morning, Vivian finds one of the city’s most ambitious developers dead on the third landing.

The police are ready to call it a fall. But Vivian spent twenty-seven years reading teenagers’ faces for a living, and she knows when a story does not fit. A coat buttoned wrong. A cigarette ground out where it should not be. Storefronts quietly sold to a post-office box in Delaware. And a neighborhood full of people who had reason to want one man gone.

As Vivian begins asking questions, she discovers that Telegraph Hill has been keeping secrets for years — about money, loyalty, grief, and who really gets to call a place home.

The Filbert Steps introduces Vivian Salvatore, a sharp-eyed, warm-hearted sleuth who notices everything and forgives almost as much.

Perfect for readers who love older women sleuths, atmospheric San Francisco mysteries, neighborhood secrets, found community, and fair-play cozy mysteries with literary depth.

About Lila Blake

Lila Blake writes San Francisco neighborhood mysteries about foggy stairways, old houses, found family, and the secrets people keep when a place begins to change. Her Telegraph Hill Mysteries begin with The Filbert Steps, a literary cozy mystery featuring Vivian Salvatore, a fifty-two-year-old former teacher rebuilding her life after divorce. Lila is published by Sutro House Press, an independent fiction imprint based in San Francisco.

Links:  

Website: lilablake.com  

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/71129242.Lila_Blake  

Purchase Link: Amazon

The Well-Forgotten Past - A Review

 Review

THE WELL-FORGOTTEN PAST by Kari Lee Townsend
The Sixth Wishville Mystery 

It's time for the Summer WishFest, but things are different this year. Due to the unstable nature of the land by the well, the venue has taken to the lake. A path to the well remains for people to make their wish, but vendors and activities will be on barges tethered to the shore. One of the first presentations was a talk given by Dr. Elena Rojas. A talk hijacked by a smooth prospector, Sterling Vane.Vane is doing more than telling a scientist she's wrong. He's filing claims for most of Main Street, trying to kick the shopkeepers out to get at the water underneath. Though Lyra Wells and the rest of the Fearless Four are unaware that there was an ancient treaty even before the one currently in dispute between the human world of Wishville, Vermont and the Dwellers in Elarion an overlooked party is starting to make its presence known. While Lyra is concerned about the land, she needs to be worried about the water. 

THE WELL-FORGOTTEN PAST introduces a new realm, well, an ancient realm, but new to readers and our Fearless Four. It will be curious how the three worlds proceed, even as rebel dwellers act against Elarion. Lyra is also learning to deal with her diminishing powers. Is it truly just something different and not less? I love the addition of the kittens and enjoyed their antics. Kittens can cause all manor of mischief-but shapeshifting ones?!? I also continue to appreciate the Wellies and admire their contributions.

The sixth Wishville Mystery is a somber affair. There's less festival fun and more unsettling reality. Fortunately there are kittens and Wellies, so there are some smiles. The human disruptions caused by Vane, his whole modus operandi is a mirror to the real world, and a disgusting truth.

A novel of discovery THE WELL-FORGOTTEN PAST gives what was once diminished its voice as characters discover who they truly are.

Currently Reading...

I'm currently reading The Well-Forgotten Past by Kari Lee Townsend. This book is the sixth in the Wishville Mystery series and was released yesterday.

It's time for the Summer WishFest, but things are different this year. Due to the unstable nature of the land by the well, the venue has taken to the lake. A path to the well remains for people to make their wish, but vendors and activities will be on barges tethered to the shore. One of the first presentations was a talk given by Dr. Elena Rojas. A talk hijacked by a smooth prospector, Sterling Vane.Vane is doing more than telling a scientist she's wrong. He's filing claims for most of Main Street, trying to kick the shopkeepers out to get at the water underneath. Though Lyra Wells and the rest of the Fearless Four are unaware that there was an ancient treaty even before the one currently in dispute between the human world of Wishville, Vermont and the Dwellers in Elarion. An overlooked party is starting to make its presence known. While Lyra is concerned about the land, she needs to be worried about the water.

The Secret in the Sampler - An Interview, Review, & Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Abigail B. Hartwell to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Abigail writes The Plain Truth Mystery series. THE SECRET IN THE SAMPLER is the first book in the series and was released 

Kathy:In THE SECRET IN THE SAMPLER Nora Bell reopens her Aunt Lenora’s old letterpress and stationery shop. I love stationery and make my own greeting cards. I even have a crafter's version of a letterpress. So do you write letters or send cards?

ABH: I do, although I’m much better about cards than I am about actual letters. I still send birthday cards, sympathy cards, anniversary cards, and the occasional “I saw this and thought of you” card. There is something about receiving an actual envelope among the bills and advertisements that still feels special.

My daughters tease me because I keep cards that most sensible people would have thrown away years ago. I have birthday cards from my girls when they were children, cards from my husband sent from the road, and little notes that probably mean nothing to anyone except me. Paper remembers things differently than a text message does.

That affection for paper certainly found its way into The Bell & Quill. Nora notices paper texture, ink, type, handwriting, and the physical history of documents because those are things I notice too, although I should probably clarify that I have never solved a murder by examining stationery. So far.

Kathy:Nora uncovers a sampler that may hold family secrets. Do you have family heirlooms or family secrets?

ABH: Heirlooms, yes. Secrets? Every family has them. Most of mine are fortunately much less dramatic than the ones I give Nora.

I’m less interested in expensive heirlooms than in ordinary things that somehow survive. A recipe written in somebody’s handwriting, a photograph with a name penciled on the back, an old piece of furniture nobody can quite remember acquiring. Those objects fascinate me because their monetary value can be almost nothing while their emotional value is enormous.

That idea is at the heart of THE SECRET IN THE SAMPLER. Nora discovers that something domestic and seemingly harmless can carry a history nobody bothered to put into an official record. The series keeps returning to that notion. Samplers, invitations, ledgers, quilts, hymnbooks, maps, recipes and other ordinary objects become witnesses in their own quiet way.

As for my own family secrets, I believe some stories belong to the people who lived them. A mystery writer learns very quickly that there is a difference between being curious and being entitled to know everything.

Kathy:Nora's unexpected ally is Eli Yoder, a reserved Amish widower and auction clerk. I live not too far from a few Amish communities. Why do you think readers find Amish characters so appealing?

ABH: Part of it is probably the contrast with modern life. Many readers are surrounded by notifications, traffic, schedules, screens, and constant noise. Amish communities appear to offer a different rhythm built around family, faith, work, and community.

But I try to be careful with that attraction because Amish people are not decorations for a picturesque setting. They have personalities, disagreements, grief, humor, stubbornness, family problems, financial worries, and complicated relationships just like anyone else.

That is very important with Eli. I never wanted him to be “the handsome mysterious Amish widower.” He is a father, an auction clerk, a widower, a man of faith, and occasionally a remarkably stubborn human being. His Amish identity matters enormously, particularly because his developing feelings for Nora involve genuine differences between their worlds. He’s not there just to make the relationship seem exotic.

Kathy:What first drew you to mysteries?

ABH: Probably the satisfaction of discovering that something ordinary isn't ordinary at all.

I've always loved stories where the solution was hiding in plain sight, particularly when the answer depends more on observation than violence. An old photograph, the wording of a letter, somebody remembering the wrong date, a detail everyone else dismissed. Those are much more interesting to me than explosions and car chases.

I also like what mysteries allow a writer to explore. The crime asks, “What happened?” but the better question is usually, “Why did people allow this to happen?” That takes you into family, loyalty, money, shame, love, resentment, and all those wonderfully inconvenient human things.

Kathy:Do you write in any other genres?

ABH: At the moment, mysteries are where I feel most at home. I enjoy weaving family history, relationships, humor, and a very slow romantic thread into them, so the books aren't simply puzzles with a body attached.

I have notebooks containing ideas that would probably qualify as women's fiction, historical fiction, or even straight family drama. Whether any of them behave well enough to become books remains to be seen. My notebooks have far more ambition than I do. 
 

Kathy:Tell us about your series.

ABH: The Plain Truth Mysteries follow widowed Nora Bell after she returns to Briar Creek, Ohio, and inherits her Aunt Lenora's old letterpress shop, The Bell & Quill. Nora discovers that the shop's decades of invitations, memorial cards, auction notices, maps, labels, ledgers, and private printing jobs contain an astonishing amount of unfinished history.

Her investigative partner is Eli Yoder, an Amish widower and auction clerk. Nora understands paper and printing; Eli understands auctions, land, family histories, and the things a community remembers without ever writing them down. The mysteries grow out of that partnership and the question that runs through the series: when does silence protect someone, and when does it protect the wrong person?

Kathy:Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?

ABH: I suppose I'm expected to say Nora, but I have a tremendous affection for Maeve Hartley.

Maeve owns the bed-and-breakfast and possesses the remarkable ability to turn hospitality into surveillance. She is generous, bossy, perceptive, and convinced that offering somebody a scone gives her limited jurisdiction over their personal life.

Nora is probably closest to me temperamentally, though. She watches before she speaks, has little patience for false cheer, and occasionally judges people by their choice of typeface. I would like to claim that last quality is entirely fictional.

Kathy:Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?

ABH: Several things came together.

I have lived near Amish communities long enough to be interested in the places where Amish and Englisch lives overlap: auctions, farm stands, hardware stores, roads, schools, businesses, tourism, and ordinary neighbor relationships. Those intersections seemed much more interesting to me than writing an idealized “Amish world” sealed away from everyone else.

I also had years of little mystery fragments. An odd piece of paper. An estate-sale object. A name that shouldn't appear in a record. A family story that didn't quite make sense.

Eventually I realized they all belonged in the same place.

The Bell & Quill became the mechanism that could connect them. People bring Nora paper without realizing they are also bringing her their history.

Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?

ABH: My family, mostly.

I had accumulated story ideas and fragments for years and treated them as something I did privately. Once our daughters were grown and out on their own, I had more room in my life to consider what those fragments might become.

My husband and daughters kept encouraging me to stop talking about someday writing a novel and actually finish one. Families can be terribly inconvenient when they begin making sense.

Eventually I realized I was waiting for some official permission that was never going to arrive. So I wrote the book.

Kathy:If you could have a dinner party and invite four authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?

ABH: Agatha Christie would have to be there. I would want to ask her about everything from misdirection to how she survived people endlessly asking where she got her ideas.

Jane Austen, because I suspect her observations over dinner would be far more entertaining than the dinner itself.

Louise Penny, because I admire the way she makes community and character as important as the crime.

And Shirley Jackson, partly because she was brilliant and partly because I have a feeling the conversation would become wonderfully strange before dessert.

I would make something uncomplicated and spend the entire evening hoping nobody criticized it in prose later.

Kathy:What are you currently reading?

ABH: I usually have more than one book going. Right now I'm alternating between a mystery and some nonfiction about local or social history. I particularly enjoy books that examine ordinary lives rather than only famous people and famous events.

Oddly enough, I am reading the Jo Nesbø book COCKROACHES; very different from what I normally read.

For pleasure reading, I return often to writers such as Louise Penny and Anne Perry, and I still pick up Christie when I want to remind myself how efficiently a mystery can be constructed.

I also have an embarrassing number of books sitting beside my bed that I continue calling “the next one.”

Kathy:Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?

ABH: Reading, naturally. Gardening, although the deer on our property regard that as a cooperative enterprise and we disagree about the division of produce.

I like old paper, antiques with some actual wear on them, local history, country auctions, and poking around small towns. I enjoy cooking and baking, particularly when our daughters and grandchildren are visiting.

We live on about five acres, most of it wooded, so I also spend a fair amount of time outside. I don't think of myself as a serious birdwatcher, but I own binoculars and have interrupted conversations to identify birds, so the evidence may be mounting against me.

Church and family take up an important part of my life as well. My husband is a long-haul truck driver, so when he's home I try not to fill every minute with plans. Sometimes sitting at the kitchen table with coffee and nowhere we need to go is quite enough.

Kathy:Name four items you always have in your fridge or pantry.

ABH: Coffee, eggs, butter, and flour.

There are almost always potatoes too, but you asked for four and I am attempting to demonstrate restraint.

There is also an alarming amount of cheese whenever grandchildren have recently visited.

Kathy:Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?

ABH: Absolutely. I have a long list of Plain Truth mysteries planned, and one of the pleasures of the series is that the central idea gives me tremendous room to experiment without abandoning Briar Creek. There are a handful in the series that I’ve released, but the perfectionist in me wonders if I didn’t rush it. Because, you know, 10 years isn’t enough time.

Nora's cases can begin with a sampler, an invitation, a ledger, a quilt label, a hymnal, a cemetery map, a recipe box, an orchard map, an old will, or even a postcard. Some involve murder, but others involve fraud, disappearance, theft, sabotage, or buried family history. I don't want readers arriving in Briar Creek already knowing exactly what kind of crime they are going to get.

And Nora and Eli still have quite a bit to figure out. I am determined not to hurry them simply because readers may occasionally want to reach into the book and knock their heads together.

I also have ideas outside the series. Whether they become another mystery series or something entirely different is still being decided in several notebooks.

Kathy:What's your favorite thing about being an author?

ABH: Taking something that existed only as a scrap of an idea and watching it become a place other people can enter.

Briar Creek began as fragments: an old printing shop, a widowed woman returning home, an Amish auction clerk, a sampler, an aunt who knew too much. Eventually those pieces became Nora and Eli and Maeve and The Bell & Quill. Now there are roads I can picture, rooms I know, families with histories, and stories waiting behind drawers I haven't opened yet. THE SECRET IN THE SAMPLER establishes that foundation with Nora's return to Briar Creek, the inherited shop, and the first secret carried by an ordinary object.

The best part is when a reader tells me that for a few hours, Briar Creek felt like somewhere they had actually been.

That's a rather remarkable thing for a collection of words on paper to accomplish.

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Review

 

THE SECRET IN THE SAMPLER by Abigail B. Hartwell
The First Plain Truth Mystery 

Nora Bell has come to Briar Creek, Ohio to take over her late aunt's letterpress and stationery shop. What she finds is a sampler that holds secrets, people who want those secrets to remain hidden, and a warning from her aunt. She also finds untrustworthy antiques dealers, a curious friend, and an unlikely collaborator in Eli Yoder, an Amish widower. Tension gets even higher when someone ends up dead. It's one thing to try to take possession of the sampler, but to kill? Working together with Eli, Maeve, and local law enforcement Nora will attempt to uncover the secrets in the sampler and let the truth come to light.

I enjoyed meeting the characters in THE SECRET IN THE SAMPLER. Nora makes an admirable protagonist. A widow, she's starting a new chapter in life. Maeve is the fun and funny supporting friend, strong, capable, with muffins. Eli is the strong silent type. A widower he's willing to open himself up, and allow Nora to be herself.  

The first Plain Truth Mystery has dialogue that dances. It thrusts and parries. While the physical action moves at a slower pace in Briar Creek, the conversations move the story forward with quick witted repartee. While paper may be Nora's forte, words are its author's. Challenges, duels, and admissions create a chess match of words.

THE SECRET IN THE SAMPLER is a mystery wrapped in cleverness and wit. I enjoyed my time in Briar Creek and I look forward to returning to see what other secrets lie in wait, hidden in objects many would dismiss. 

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 The Secret in the Sampler: A Plain Truth Mystery by Abigail B. Hartwell

About The Secret in the Sampler

The Secret in the Sampler: A Plain Truth Mystery
Amish Adjacent Cozy Mystery with Slow-Burn Romance
1st in Series
Setting - Ohio
Publisher: ‎ Plain Truth Press
Publication Date: ‎ May 31, 2026
Print Length: ‎ 358 pages

What would you do if the family heirloom hidden in your aunt’s estate could expose a stolen inheritance—and make you the next person someone needs silenced? Two years after losing her husband, Nora Bell returns to the quiet Ohio Amish-country town of Briar Creek to settle her late aunt’s estate. She expects dusty type drawers, unpaid bills, and enough sympathy casseroles to survive a minor siege. Reopening The Bell & Quill, Aunt Lenora’s old letterpress and stationery shop, is supposed to be a temporary project—not the beginning of an entirely new life. Then Nora discovers an antique hand-stitched sampler concealed inside a cedar trunk. Its mismatched initials, reversed border, and nearly invisible name suggest that the sampler is more than a family keepsake. It may be the only surviving record of a child erased from Briar Creek’s history—and an inheritance quietly stolen decades ago. Before Nora can uncover what her aunt knew, a local estate appraiser is found dead. He had been asking questions about the sampler, searching for a missing auction ledger, and meeting privately with someone determined to keep an old land transfer from being examined too closely. Now Nora is following a trail of altered records, old letters, disputed property, and carefully guarded family secrets. Her unexpected ally is Eli Yoder, a reserved Amish widower and auction clerk who knows Briar Creek’s family histories almost as well as he knows when people are refusing to tell the truth. Eli’s dry humor and steady presence make him useful. The grief he recognizes in Nora makes him dangerous in an entirely different way. As suspicion spreads through the Amish farms, antique shops, auction houses, and polished tourist businesses surrounding Briar Creek, Nora realizes the sampler does not simply reveal what happened in the past. It threatens someone’s money, reputation, and future. And the person who killed to keep its secret hidden may already know Nora has begun to unravel the pattern. Readers will discover:

• A clever, emotionally grounded amateur sleuthwhose knowledge of printing, paper, handwriting, and design helps her notice what others overlook.
• An atmospheric Amish-country settingfilled with rural roads, estate auctions, quilt work, family businesses, and small-town secrets.
• A layered, low-gore cozy mystery involving an antique sampler, a hidden heir, altered records, and a disputed inheritance.
• A clean, chaste slow-burn romance between two widowed people rebuilding their lives through trust rather than instant attraction.
• Warm community characters and lightly witty dialogue without turning the mystery into slapstick.
• A satisfying standalone investigation that opens the door to more secrets from The Bell & Quill.

The Secret in the Sampler is the first novel in The Plain Truth Mysteries, a gentle Amish-adjacent cozy mystery series about old objects, hidden histories, rural grudges, and the truths people leave behind on paper and cloth. Perfect for fans of Amanda Flower’s Assaulted Caramel, Laura Bradford’s Hearse and Buggy, and Vannetta Chapman’s Falling to Pieces.

About Abigail B. Hartwell

Short - Abigail B. Hartwell, aka Abby, writes warm Amish-country-adjacent cozy mysteries rooted in rural Ohio, where handmade clues, old family secrets, quiet faith, and plainspoken women bring buried truths into the light.

Long - Abigail B. Hartwell writes gentle Amish-adjacent cozy mysteries rooted in the small towns and wooded backroads of east-central Ohio. Though she is not Amish, she lives near Amish communities and draws inspiration from the region’s quiet rhythms, close-knit families, old stories, and rural traditions. She shares a modest home on five wooded acres with her long-haul truck driver husband. They have two grown daughters and three grandchildren. When she is not writing, Abigail enjoys church activities, family time, and the peaceful beauty of the Ohio countryside.

Social Media Links: 

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/abigailbhartwellauthor/  

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AbigailBHartwell  

Website https://abigailbhartwell.wixsite.com/amish-cozy-mysteries  

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/stores/Abigail-B.-Hartwell/author/B0H71WD53Y  

Purchase Links – Amazon Book Amazon Series

Mummy's Locket - An Interview & Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Nan S. Russell to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Nan writes the Mallory Grayson Mystery series. MUMMY'S LOCKET is the first book in the series and was released earlier this year.

Kathy: In MUMMY'S LOCKET Mallory Grayson retreats to a quiet town after losing everything. Have you ever had to rebuild your life? 

NSR: The closest to “losing everything” happened when I was a child. Our house burned down within weeks of moving to California for my brother’s health. For a long time, we didn’t have a car, or furniture, or a TV. My father was unemployed for months, and I started school with just one dress, which on the first day of school I got black paint on. At Christmas, my only present was a well-worn doll my mother found abandoned at a park.

Kathy: The mummified body of her long-lost great grandmother pulls Mallory into a mystery. Do you have any family mysteries? 

NSR: Yes. Some are bigger mysteries than others, and I’d imagine there are some I don’t know about yet. Luckily none of them involve murder.

Kathy: Are you interested in genealogy and/or the secrets of your family's past? Do you have any jewelry that's been passed down through generations? 

NSR: Yes to both. At different times in my life, I’ve done genealogy research. Both my mother and aunt were active pursuers, and I inherited binders about their findings. So, I focus on my father’s side since less has been captured. I’m definitely a jewelry lover. And family jewelry holds a special place. I cherish the items that have been passed down and will continue the tradition. I incorporated one such item, a wedding ring, which Mallory discovers in the story.

Kathy: What first drew you to mysteries? 

NSR: My aunt gave me a Nancy Drew mystery when I was in fourth grade. Mystery has been my go-to genre ever since. I love the puzzle element of noticing the clues and solving the mystery, ideally before the ending is revealed.

Kathy: Do you write in any other genres? 

NSR: Yes. I write non-fiction and have five published books on topics of leadership, trust, and career development.

Kathy: Tell us about your series.  

NSR: Mallory Grayson Mysteries is a series where the past and present collide. Think twenty-first century “Cabot Cove,” where a reluctant millennial sleuth and her memorable cohorts, need historical elements to figure out whodunit and why.

Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why? 

NSR: The protagonist, Mallory Grayson is my favorite. Mostly because we have a few things in common. We’re both introverts, run a vintage business, and relish historical context.

Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series? 

NSR: The book evolved from my encounter with bog bodies while visiting the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. I was entranced by what stories those lost souls unveiled about the life they lived. That morphed into the idea of a series where the past and present collide, and real history is gingerly woven into the story to enable the solving of the murder.

Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work? 

NSR: I always knew I wanted to write and after leaving a successful corporate career I started my Act 2 career – writing. First, writing non-fiction, and then fiction. It took me six years to birth MUMMY'S LOCKET, my first novel. I never considered the option not to publish. I wanted to bring thought provoking and entertaining stories to readers who enjoyed solving traditional/cozy mysteries.

Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite? 

NSR:  Mary Higgins Clark: 51 bestselling mysteries, and I’m pretty sure I read them all. Shaki Gawain, whose personal development books enhanced my thinking. Eleanor Roosevelt, who besides being a first lady, wrote 33 books, both fiction and non-fiction. And Ken Follett, 44 books, whose historical novels are memorable and eye-opening.

Kathy: What are you currently reading? 

NSR: Typically, I have three books going – one fiction, one non-fiction, and one about writing. Currently, I’m reading YESTERYEAR by Caro Claire Burke, Eve: HOW THE FEMALE BODY DROVE 200 MILLION YEARS IF HUMAN EVOLUTION, by Cat Bohannon, and GOOD WRITING by Neal Allen and Anne Lamott. I post a review on my website every month about one of the books I read that month. (www.nanrussell.com)

Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us? 

NSR: I’m an avid reader, nature lover, quote and vintage collector, Disney fan, seasoned traveler, music enthusiast, and forever learner. And I have grandchildren who bring me great joy.

Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry. 

NSR: Diet Coke, ice-cream, protein bars, olives.

Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series? 

NSR: I was fortunate to receive a three-book contract from my publisher, Next Chapter. The second book in the series, ONE DEADLY POSTCARD, will be out in 2027. And the third book, A BROKEN OLD WATCH is targeted for 2028. After that, I’d loved to keep that series going or develop a split off with one or more of the characters.

Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author? 

NSR: Readers who like my work and pause to let me know. Just like my musician father shared his soul through music, writing gives voice to mine. Since I’m an introvert, writing enables me to express my thoughts and ideas. However, being an author is different. Not because of being published, but being public. There is a raw vulnerability that comes with sharing. Still, I’m eager to know if my words touched your heart, the story drew you in, a character was relatable, you were entertained, solved the mystery, or closed the book with thoughts that stayed around or you wanted to think about. I’d love to hear from you. 

*********************************************************************

 Mummy's Locket (Mallory Grayson Mysteries) by Nan S. Russell

About Mummy's Locket

Mummy's Locket (Mallory Grayson Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery 1st in Series
Setting - New York State
Publisher: ‎ Next Chapter
Publication Date: ‎ May 25, 2026
Print Length: ‎ 308 pages
Paperback Publication Date: ‎ May 1, 2026
Print Length: ‎ 306 pages

The truth doesn’t stay buried forever. After losing everything, Mallory Grayson retreats to a quiet town, hoping a vintage shop and a fresh start will help her rebuild her life. But when the mummified body of her long-missing great-grandmother is discovered, Mallory is pulled into a mystery. Clues hidden in heirlooms, a secret room, and a past lover’s return offer answers … if she’s willing to risk everything to uncover them. In a story steeped in secrets and history, her courage may be the only thing that can break the curse. The past and present collide in MUMMY'S LOCKET, the first book in the Mallory Grayson Mysteries series by Nan S. Russell.

About Nan S. Russell

With both a bachelor’s and master’s in psychology, Nan S. Russell was fired from her first professional job. Taking a minimum wage position to pay the rent, sixteen promotions later, she decided to end a successful corporate career as a Vice President of a multibillion-dollar East Coast company, to pursue a life dream to live and write from the Rocky Mountains, first in northwestern Montana and now along the Front Range of Colorado. With a desire to help others live their dreams, too, she turned her real-world experience into writing award winning non-fiction career and business books and articles, and became a speaker and consultant on leadership, trust, and culture development. But she always knew she wanted to write fiction, too. That point arrived during the pandemic pause which provided the catalyst for rethinking her writing and its purpose, sparking the decision to move towards fiction with more time to study the craft, take online classes, hone skills and work on her first novel. Now, she is living her second dream: Writing mysteries. Mummy’s Locket is her debut novel and the first in her Mallory Grayson series. More at www.nanrussell.com.

Author Links

• Website: https://www.nanrussell.com
• Blog: https://www.nanrussell.com/blog
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nansrussell
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/nan_russell
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@nan.s.russell/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nan.s.russell/
• BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/nanrussell.bsky.social
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nan-s-russell-7868417/
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nansrussell/
• Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TwinklingStarVintage
• GoodReads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/940006.Nan_S_Russell

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The Soufflé Also Rises - A Review

 Review

THE SOUFFLE ALSO RISES by Lauren Johnson
The First Lizi Cleverly Midlife Badass Detective Novel 

A stifling marriage led to an acrimonious divorce and after that things got even worse. At 54 Lizi Cleverly had to rebuild her life, and finding a new job during the recession of 2008 wasn't easy. Finally landing a position at Whole Foods Lizi was making the best of it until a poor emotional reaction that included cartons of eggs ended it. Lizi then made the decision to really start over. She would move to Paris for three months to do what she always wanted - write. Unfortunately, her move wasn't without her own disasters including lost luggage and a stolen purse. She's reconnected with a former lover, but he's just been arrested...again. She's left holding his bag and what she finds inside could either solve all her problems or, more likely, create a whole new set of issues.

Almost everything that could go wrong for Lizi Cleverly does. What goes right is finding a great friend in Frankie, finding a way to make a difference in life, and finding herself. While Lizi finds herself in some outrageously unbelievable situations, I didn't mind. It was fun escapism, but escapism with a message. Tackling issues such as homelessness the first Lizi Cleverly Midlife Badass Detective Novel also highlights the ability of people to help, and shows that one good deed can lead to a revolution of caring and assistance.

Less of a detective novel and more of a finding oneself novel THE SOUFFLE ALSO RISES includes a Ponzi scheme, jewel heists, the mafia, and some dodgy people, along with some famous ones. There's a mystery with hints of both spy and thriller novels along with lots of laughs.

Part screwball comedy, part coming of age (even if that age is midlife), and part mystery/thriller THE SOUFFLE ALSO RISES is a fun romp through Paris. I can't wait to read more of Lizi Cleverly's exploits.

Currently Reading...

I'm currently reading The Soufflé Also Rises by Lauren Johnson. This book is the first in the Lizi Cleverly Midlife Badass Detective series and will be released next month.

A stifling marriage led to an acrimonious divorce and after that things got even worse. At 54 Lizi Cleverly had to rebuild her life, and finding a new job during the recession of 2008 wasn't easy. Finally landing a position at Whole Foods Lizi was making the best of it until a poor emotional reaction that included cartons of eggs ended it. Lizi then made the decision to really start over. She would move to Paris for three months to do what she always wanted - write. Unfortunately, her move wasn't without her own disasters including lost luggage and a stolen purse. She's reconnected with a former lover, but he's just been arrested...again. She's left holding his bag and what she finds inside could either solve all her problems or, more likely, create a whole new set of issues.