The Great Houses of Pill Hill

A literary take on the locked-room mystery following a woman who makes miniatures of murder scenes, from a scintillating new voice in crime fiction

Hannah "Cookie" Cooke, an interior decorator and frustrated artist with a sideline making miniature reproductions of crime scenes, is hired for the job of a lifetime—the renovation of a spectacular historic New England home owned by New Preston’s wealthiest couple. But her dream job goes spectacularly wrong when her client, Chuck, is murdered at the housewarming party.

The detective on the case is sure the key to the baffling murder is hiding in one of Cookie’s miniatures. Complicating matters further, Cookie's mother, a retired archaeologist recovering from surgery in a local rehab facility, knows more than she's willing or able to admit about the dream client's dream house and its history—in particular, why there's a hidden room decorated in 19th-century Egyptian kitsch on the premises, and what it might mean for the house's current owners.

The Great Houses of Pill Hill meditates on the many meanings of possession, consumption, and development. Following an artist struggling to come to terms with her ambitions, talent, and prospects, the novel shifts through interiors of all kinds, from domestic crime scenes to psychological landscapes.