The Great Houses of Pill Hill — Diane Josefowicz

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 with a sideline making miniature reproductions of crime scenes, lands her dream job when New Preston's wealthiest couple hires her to renovate their historic New England home. But things go 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 living in a local rehabilitation and nursing facility, knows more than she's willing or able to admit about the 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 current owners.

This character-driven contemporary take on classic noir spins themes of possession, consumption, and development into a twisty, one-of-a-kind mystery.