Katie Tietjen: Death in the Details
Debut
This ingenious historical novel begins in post WWII Vermont, where Maple Bishop is enduring a tidal wave of loss – she’s lost her brother, her mother and her husband, and, as the insurance company informs her in the opening chapter, most of her money. She has $12 to her name, no way to pay her mortgage and, since she and her husband donated its tires to the war effort, a car she can neither drive nor sell.
What keeps her (and the book) going is her obsession with building dollhouses. She can’t stop herself, and her garage workshop is full of the things, complete with idealized dolls living idealized doll lives. When she goes into the hardware store to purchase supplies, the owner, sensing a promotional opportunity, offers her a corner to set up shop, in order to bring in customers and spice up his window display.