I'm pleased to welcome Marta Kowal to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Marta writes the Paczek Lane Mystery Series. A DEADLY PACZEK is the first book in the series and was released last week. Be sure to return to the blog Tuesday when I'll post my review of this delectable new book!
Kathy: In A DEADLY PACZEK Lena Mazur visits Miłosław in Poland to settle her late grandmother's estate. I was lucky enough to visit family in Poland staying in Sandomierz and Krakow. Have you spent time in Poland? What parts?
MK: Yes, I live n Poland currently, near Poznan in Great Poland. I know Krakow, and I completely understand why people fall in love with it. It has that mix of beauty, history, cafés, churches, old streets, and slightly mysterious corners that makes you want to keep walking.
But for this series I was more interested in smaller-town Poland than the big famous cities. I wanted a place where people notice who is walking across the square, where the bakery has a history, and where family stories don’t really disappear. Miłosław gave me that feeling. It felt like the right size for a cozy mystery: small enough that everyone has an opinion, but big enough to hide plenty of secrets.
Kathy: What is your favorite part about Poland and why set your mystery series here?
MK: My favorite thing about Poland is probably the mix of warmth and history. There is food, family, humor, strong opinions, beautiful old places, and then underneath it all there is this deep sense of memory. Even ordinary things can feel connected to the past.
That is exactly what I wanted for the series. I didn’t want the mystery to happen in a place that felt generic. I wanted the town to matter. In *A Deadly Paczek*, the bakery, the recipes, the neighbors, and the family history are all part of the mystery. Miloslaw gave me the atmosphere I wanted: cozy, but with shadows.
Kathy: Lena is a Polish-American pastry chef. Do you like to bake? Or cook?
MK: I do like to cook, yes. I’m probably more of a home cook than a precise baker. I enjoy making food that feels comforting: soups, simple dinners, things you can share. I like the process of putting something together and then sitting down with people to eat it.
Baking is a little different for me. I love baked goods, but baking itself requires more discipline than I naturally have. Lena is much better at it than I am. She understands dough, timing, texture, and all the details that separate something good from something truly beautiful. I admire that. I think that’s why I enjoyed writing her so much: she has a skill I respect.
Kathy: Do you have favorite Polish foods? When it comes to baked goods I adore kołaczki and, of course, pączki!
MK: Pączki, definitely. They are impossible not to love. I also love pierogi, especially the classic potato and cheese kind, and barszcz. There is something very comforting about Polish food. It is not shy food. It feeds you properly.
For sweets, I like anything with plum, poppy seed, or farmer’s cheese. I also like that Polish food comes with opinions. Everyone has a family version, a correct way, a grandmother’s way, or a memory attached to it.
Kathy: What first drew you to cozy mysteries?
MK: I like that cozy mysteries give you a murder, but they also give you a world you want to return to. I enjoy the puzzle, but I think I’m just as drawn to the town, the recurring characters, the small routines, and the feeling that you are slowly getting to know a community.
There is also something satisfying about order being restored. The world can be messy and frightening, but in a cozy mystery someone pays attention. Someone asks questions. Someone cares enough to put the pieces together.
Kathy: Do you write in any other genres?
MK: This is my first published book, so I’m still finding my feet. Right now cozy mystery feels like the right place for me because it lets me combine many things I enjoy: reading, food, small towns, family secrets, humor, and world-building.
I can imagine writing other kinds of mystery in the future, maybe something with more history or a slightly darker atmosphere, but for now I’m very happy in Miłosław with Lena and the bakery.
Kathy: Tell us about your series.
MK: The Paczek Lane Mysteries follow Lena Mazur, a Polish-American pastry chef who inherits her grandmother’s bakery in the small Polish town of Miłosław. She arrives thinking she is only there to settle the estate, deal with paperwork, and decide what to do with the property. Instead, she finds a dead man in the cellar, missing pages from her grandmother’s recipe notebook, and a town full of people who know much more than they are willing to say.
The series is a cozy culinary mystery with a Polish setting, a bakery at its heart, and a lot of small-town secrets. Each book has its own mystery, so readers can enjoy a complete investigation, but there is also an ongoing emotional story: Lena slowly deciding whether this inherited bakery is a burden, a responsibility, or maybe the home she did not know she needed.
I wanted the books to feel warm and inviting, but not too simple. There are recipes, neighbors, humor, gossip, and plenty of food, but there are also old family stories, property disputes, buried grudges, and secrets that have lasted for years. Miłosław is not a dark place, but it is a place with memory.
Book 1, A DEADLY PACZEK, introduces Lena, the bakery, and the town. Book 2 continues her story with another mystery, more Polish food, and more complications from the past. My hope is that readers come for the murder and the pączki, but stay because they want to walk those streets with Lena again.
Kathy: Do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why?
MK: Lena is my favorite because she is capable, but she is not completely sure of herself. I like characters who are still becoming who they are. At the beginning, she thinks she is only in Miłosław to deal with her grandmother’s estate. She does not expect to care so much.
I also really enjoy the neighbors. Small-town side characters are fun because everyone has an opinion, and not all of those opinions are useful. Some people help, some people interfere, and some people know far more than they admit.
Kathy: Did you have a specific inspiration for your series?
MK: The first idea was a bakery with a secret. I liked the image of someone inheriting a place that should feel warm and safe, then discovering a body there. That contrast interested me.
The recipe notebook came very early too. Family recipes are so personal. They can be messy, handwritten, stained, full of little notes. If pages are missing from a notebook like that, it immediately feels suspicious. From there, Lena and the town started to grow.
Kathy: What made you decide to publish your work?
MK: Honestly, I think I wanted to see if the world I had built could live outside my own head. I love reading, and I love creating fictional places, but publishing is different. It means letting other people walk into that place and decide whether they want to stay.
Because this is my first book, I still feel a little strange calling myself an author. But I did finish the book, and now readers are meeting Lena, so I suppose I have to get used to it.
Kathy: If you could have a dinner party and invite 4 authors, living or dead, in any genre, who would you invite?
MK: Agatha Christie, because I would love to ask her very direct questions about plotting and then probably get very elegant, not entirely direct answers.
Jane Austen, because she would understand everyone at the table within five minutes.
Louise Penny, because she writes community and kindness and darkness in such a beautiful way.
And Olga Tokarczuk, because her imagination is so wide-ranging and rooted in place, myth, and history. I think that would be a fascinating table.
Kathy: What are you currently reading?
MK: I usually read more than one thing at once, and not always in the same genre. For pleasure, I often return to mystery series because I love seeing how writers build a place over several books, not just one plot.
Right now, I’m reading and rereading books that help me think about three things: mystery structure, small communities, and atmosphere. I love Louise Penny’s STILL LIFE because Three Pines feels like a real village, full of warmth, beauty, secrets, and people who are kinder or more dangerous than they first appear. That sense of a community with memory is something I think about a lot while writing Miłosław.
I also admire Richard Osman’s THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB. It has a very different tone from my series, but I love the balance of humor, friendship, and crime. It reminds me that a mystery can be clever without becoming cold, and funny without losing emotional weight.
For classic mystery, I still enjoy going back to Agatha Christie, especially THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE. Miss Marple’s village is a wonderful reminder that small places are never simple. Everyone knows everyone, but that does not mean anyone knows the whole truth.
Outside mystery, I like reading books that give me a stronger sense of place and history. Olga Tokarczuk’s HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT is one I think about because of the way it treats place almost like a living thing, full of stories, fragments, and old memories. That kind of layered atmosphere is very inspiring to me.
I also browse cookbooks and food writing, especially anything connected to Central and Eastern European food. For the Paczek Lane Mysteries, food is not just decoration. Recipes can be family history, comfort, pride, rivalry, and sometimes clues. So even reading about bread, jam, pierogi, or holiday baking can send my imagination in a useful direction.
So my reading is part escape and part research. Sometimes I read because I want to relax with a good mystery. Sometimes I read because one small detail, a village custom, a recipe, an old house, a line about family history, opens a door in my imagination.
Kathy: Will you share any of your hobbies or interests with us?
MK: Reading is the big one. I love getting absorbed in a book series and feeling like I know the place. That is probably why I enjoy writing a series too.
I also like food, local history, travel, old towns, and small details that suggest a story. A handwritten recipe, an old building, a family photograph, a locked cabinet, a bakery window: those are the kinds of things that make me start asking, “What happened here?”
Kathy: Name 4 items you always have in your fridge or pantry.
MK: Coffee, because that is non-negotiable.
Butter, because it makes almost everything better.
Eggs, because they are useful when you don’t know what else to make.
And jam or preserves, ideally something plum or raspberry. It feels like the sort of thing that belongs in Lena’s kitchen too.
Kathy: Do you have plans for future books either in your current series or a new series?
MK: Yes, I definitely want to continue the Paczek Lane Mysteries. Lena’s story is not finished, and neither is Miłosław’s. Book 2 brings another mystery, more of the bakery, more Polish food, and more trouble from the town’s past.
What interests me most is watching Lena slowly belong somewhere she did not plan to stay. She came to settle an estate. Instead, she found a bakery, a community, and a lot of unfinished business.
Kathy: What's your favorite thing about being an author?
MK: Since this is my first book, I’m still getting comfortable with the word author. But my favorite part of writing is creating a world. I love the moment when a place starts to feel real: the bakery has a smell, the neighbors have opinions, the streets have routines, and the characters begin to surprise me.
And now, the best part is seeing readers respond to that world. When someone says they liked Lena, or the town felt real, or they want the next book, that means a lot. It makes the imaginary place feel shared.
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For more information check out the author's site: https://www.martakowalbooks.com
And don't forget to come back Tuesday for my review.
