Booked for Lunch is a free program that invites a local author or speaker to present their work or present their thoughts on a current book. Guests are welcomed to bring a bagged lunch to enjoy during the program.

Katie Tietjen is an award-winning writer, teacher, and school librarian. Her debut novel Death in the Details—inspired by the real-life mother of forensic science, Frances Glessner Lee was published in April 2024, by Crooked Lane Books. Katie’s earlier manuscripts won the Tassy Walden Award in 2019 and 2020. Her short story “Ivy” appeared in Seascape: The Best New England Crime Stories. A lifelong Connecticut resident, Katie is a member of Sisters in Crime. She loves reading, spending time with her husband and sons, and snuggling with their four pets. Katie is an unrepentant tea snob, but otherwise a very nice person.

Book Summary:
Maple Bishop is ready to put WWII and the grief of losing her husband Bill behind her. But when she discovers that Bill left her penniless, Maple realizes she could lose her Vermont home next and sets out to make money the only way she knows how: by selling her intricately crafted dollhouses. Business is off to a good start—until Maple discovers her first customer dead, his body hanging precariously in his own barn.

Something about the supposed suicide rubs Maple the wrong way, but local authorities brush off her concerns. Determined to help them see “what’s big in what’s small,” Maple turns to what she knows best, painstakingly recreating the gruesome scene in miniature: death in a nutshell.

With the help of a rookie officer named Kenny, Maple uses her macabre miniature to dig into the dark undercurrents of her sleepy town, where everyone seems to have a secret—and a grudge. But when her nosy neighbor goes missing and she herself becomes a suspect, it’ll be up to Maple to find the devil in the details—and put him behind bars.