DEATH IN THE DETAILS

A World War II widow solves a crime the police would rather ignore.

Loosely following the story of forensic-science pioneer Frances Glessner Lee, Tietjen relates the sad tale of Mabel “Maple” Bishop, a lawyer who moved with her husband, Bill, a physician, to rural Vermont in search of a safer and kinder life than the one they’d had in Boston. After Bill’s death in a field hospital in France, Maple learns that his estate amounts to a meager $12.67. Bill’s willingness to treat Elderberry’s sick whether or not they could pay had left his practice in the red. Despite her husband’s generosity, the people of Elderberry still regard Maple as an outsider, and, on top of that, no one will hire a woman to work as a lawyer. Maple has gotten to know Ben Crenshaw, owner of the local hardware store, while buying supplies to make meticulously crafted dollhouses. When he suggests she might want to display her dollhouses in his store and sell them, her hobby becomes a means of supporting herself. But while delivering her first sale to local farmer’s wife Angela Wallace, Maple makes a grim discovery: Angela’s husband, Elijah, hanging from a noose in his barn. The police dismiss Elijah’s death as an accident, but Maple believes otherwise. Now her dollhouses take on a third life: from pastime to livelihood to crime-fighting tool. To prod the police into action, Maple recreates the crime scene in miniature to show how an accidental death was impossible. Her efforts are wasted on Sheriff Sam Scott, but Kenny, a young officer-in-training, takes an interest and joins forces with Maple to discover the truth. Firm, uncompromising, and sometimes rubbing her neighbors the wrong way, Maple sees details others overlook and, guided by an unwavering moral compass, pursues questions the police have left open. Tietjen gives all of her characters rich, full inner lives as they interact in ways that are both aesthetically and morally complex.

A compelling account of how the toll of war extends far beyond the battlefield.