Death in the Details by Katie Tietjen

This historical mystery, Death in the Details by Katie Tietjen, is about a young woman, Maple Bishop, who uses her skill for creating intricate doll houses, to recreate a crime scene and solve a murder. The author was inspired by forensic specialist Francis Glessner Lee’s nutshells of unsolved murders on NPR. Glasser Lee used her nutshells of these crime scenes to train police officers on crime scene analysis. This novel is the first in the Maple Bishop series.

The novel takes place in post-World War II Vermont. It’s 1946. Maple Bishop, living in a small town with a law degree she can’t make use of because no one will hire a woman, has just lost her husband, the town doctor. Tragically, he was killed while stationed in France. She finds out that after the bills of his estate have been paid, there is next to nothing left of the life insurance payment. Mabel finds herself broke with bills of her own to pay.

Unable to work in the legal field and with pressing bills, Maple decided to try and make some money from something that she was extremely good at and was also gender-appropriate, selling the dollhouses she made as a hobby. From top to bottom, inside and outside, Maple was very skilled at paying attention to every miniscule detail. She called her business Maple’s Miniatures.

To get the mystery started, she finds the husband of her first customer dead when she went to their farm to deliver a dollhouse. He was hanging in the barn. At first sight, certain things seemed strange to Mabel’s eye, namely, bruises on his body and the height he chose to self-hang himself. The town sheriff, when he arrived at the farm, immediately thought it was a suicide, ignoring Maple’s concerns.

Maple reasoned that the best way to illustrate her concerns and work through her questions, was to make a miniature of the farmer hanging in the barn – the crime scene in a nutshell. Even with this effort however, the sheriff remained convinced the case was closed. He was not going to change his mind based on the reasonings of a woman, who he believed had no business dealing in such matters. But a young officer-in-training takes an interest in the case and works with Maple to discover the truth. Here’s where Maple’s adventure, which was sometimes very threatening, begins. This was really interesting, using the skill of visual crime scene analysis to figure things out.

Maple’s talent for detail and seeing things others miss, makes her uncompromising and firm in pursuing open questions and secrets of the people in this town. The author gives rich background to her characters as they interact in this post-World War II era novel. The effects of war reached even this small town. The setting in wintry, rural, small-town Vermont served more than as just a backdrop. It helped shape the characters, their quirky personalities, their distrust of outsiders and attitude toward women. The well-developed setting also made it easy to immerse yourself, making the story feel real, leaving a powerful impact. I thought this was well done by the author and I will definitely read the next book in the series, Murder in Miniature, just published in September. I hope you give this historical, crime scene mystery a read, Death in the Details by Katie Tietjen.