Concept author website by Knepper Design Write.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barbra McDermont is the author of the Hatterly House Mysteries, a series about a very curious woman, a very old house, and a village that simply cannot stay out of trouble. Her books have been described as “tea with an old friend”—if the friend kept mentioning where everyone was on the night in question.
She lives in a small stone cottage with an unreasonable number of teacups, a garden that wins no prizes, and a grey cat named Pippin who has opinions about all of it.
THE LONGER STORY
Barbra spent twenty-two years as a librarian in a town small enough that she knew which patrons dog-eared pages (she forgave them, eventually). It was the perfect apprenticeship for a mystery writer: a librarian hears everything, notices everything, and learns that the quietest person at the counter usually has the best story.
She wrote her first novel in the forty-five minutes before the library opened, longhand, in a series of blue notebooks she still keeps in a biscuit tin. That book—Murder at Marigold Manor—went on to charm readers everywhere, and Kate Hatterly has been poking her nose into Thistlewick’s business ever since.
Her mysteries are cozy in the truest sense: no gore, no grimness, and no cynicism—just clever puzzles, warm company, and the firm belief that most problems look smaller after a proper cup of tea. She plots every book on index cards pinned to her pantry door, which means the killer’s identity is, quite literally, hidden behind the marmalade.
When she isn’t writing, Barbra judges the village bake-off (an irony not lost on her readers), teaches a Tuesday class on classic detective fiction, and takes long walks that are really just excuses to eavesdrop respectfully.
Barbra
NOTES & MISCELLANY
Writing ritual
One pot of Earl Grey, blue notebooks first, keyboard second. Chapters are read aloud to Pippin, who has never once guessed the killer.
On her shelf
Agatha Christie (well-thumbed), Dorothy L. Sayers (annotated), and a shelf of village histories that are, she insists, purely for research.
Frequently asked
Is Thistlewick real? No—but it is stitched together from every village she has ever loved, so parts of it may feel suspiciously familiar.
NEW TO BARBRA’S BOOKS?
Start in Thistlewick.
Begin with Murder at Marigold Manor and meet Kate, Pippin, and a village where the kettle is always on and someone is always up to something.
