Thank you Netgalley for the eArc in exchange for an honest review.
I was surprised to find out this was the second in a series. You can easily read this as a stand-alone as I didn't feel I missed any context.
A great mix of historical fiction and mystery, we follow Maple's journey to finding her way in life after the death of her husband and the war.
After a fire and the tragic loss of the Sheriff's Deputy best friend, Maple is called in to assist with the investigation, recreating the scene with one of her signature miniatures. The investigation takes a surprising turn and Maple is required to return to her old neighbourhood in Boston.
This mystery will have you hooked right up to the last page.

Expected publication September 23, 2025

I was really excited about this book because the premise is fascinating—especially since it’s based on a real woman with such an interesting history. I also love miniatures. I was eager to see how they would play a role in the story. While I appreciated the cozy, nostalgic feel (it reminded me of watching Murder, She Wrote or Monk with my grandmother), I found myself wanting more—more depth in the characters, more emotional connection, and especially more vivid descriptions of the miniatures and the process of creating them.

At times, the story felt over-explained in certain areas while leaving others underdeveloped, which made it difficult for me to fully engage. That said, I think this would be a great fit for readers who enjoy low-stakes, comforting mysteries with a historical touch.

I loved this quirky little book and truly enjoyed the mystery and the plot . It was a fast easy read for me
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review book

Murder in Miniature was a very good story. I enjoyed it very much. It takes place in the town of Elderberry, Vermont. The country was just getting over the war. Maple Bishop is the main character who makes custom dollhouses. Ben Crenshaw is the owner of the hardware store where Maple sells her dollhouses. He would like their friendship to be more. Ken Quirk works with Mable constructing the dollhouses. She had hired him when he came back from the war. Sam Scott is the chief of police who worked with Mable on a murder case, the Elijah Wallace murder. He was a local farmer. She is now a independent consultant for the police. She also reconsructs the murders via nutshells.

Sam calls Mable and tells her that there was a fire and a body was discovered. Could she come with him to the scene. Kenny Quirk is Sam's nephew and is a deputy also comes along. They arrive at the scene and finds Curt Olsen, fire chief, there. The dead man was Daniel Perkins who lived with his Uncle Phillip who was a long haul trucker and is away on a trip. Daniel had been a childhood friend. Daniel had moved when he was 8 but came back recently and was a trainee for the department. He has also just came back from the war overseas. Peter Johansen, also a childhood friend of Kenny's had also came back from the war. He was there to pick-up Daniel and take him to work for their shift. Mable wondered why Daniel was in bed if he knew he was being picked up. The only part that was destroyed by the fire was Daniel's bedroom and a little bit of the livingroom. Mable was troubled about where the fire was. The rest of the cabin looked like nothing happened. The fiire chief, Sam, Kenny and Mable walked around the cabin and looked in the windows. The kitchen was tidy except for the table that still had food from dinner on it. Mable was surprised at the mess on the table. A chair was pushed back as if someone had pushed it back in a hurry. A fork was on the floor under the table. They also checked the uncle's bedroom which was also very neat. There were footprints outside of the window. Peter's or someone else? They looked into Daniel's room with the body still there. Daniel was lying on his back. The top part of the body was burned, the bottom was intact. Except for the bed area the rest of the room was intact and neat. How could someone have set the fire and no one saw the person. Whilel looking up the mountain Mable saw smoke coming from the Patterson's cabin. He had died earlier of old age. She and the sheriff would have to go and see who was living there.

Dr. John Strong was the new doctor from Oklahoma. He had his teenage daughter with him. After reviewing the body he felt that the death was not right and wanted to check Daniel's lungs for smoke. He could have been dead before the fire started. Mabel sent Kenny to see about his friend, Peter who was sitting near a tree.

The next day Sam and Mable went to the Patterson's cabin. They looked around and then introduced themselves to Eliza Patterson who was there to pack up her father's things and get the house ready to sell. She was there from CA where she was a producer. Another woman came into the room. She was the actress Cecelia Randall. Eliza told them that they had seen three trucks there. One was there all the time. A green one was there but wasn't now and a blue one which was Peter's. The day before they had seen a man she had never seen before. There was something wrong with his arm as if it was in a sling. The man was all in black. Daniel had walked the man out to his car and watched him drive away. After they had spoken to Eliza and Cecelia they left. Mable wanted to go back to the scene and get some things that she could use to reconstruct what could have happened to Daniel. The scenes were called nutshells.

Phillip came home and was told about the death of his nephew. He was very upset when he heard. Kenny had told him. Dr. Strong came to the office with his report. He told them that Daniel had smoke in his lungs and burns and scaring in his esophagus that were not from cigarettes. The body was definitely Daniel and he had been alive before the fire, The upper part of the body was unreognizable.

It was decided that Mable and Kenny would go to Boston and meet with a detective Francis. They were going to find Kenny's mother, Laurie Perkins, who was in a hospital there. They also dropped off a specimen which Dr. Strong sent to his friend that worked the lab there. Detective Francis went with them and found that Laurie had left the hospital. They did not know where she went so it was decided to go back to the police station the next day to meet with the detective. They found out that the man who had visited Laurie was Leo Matthews who was the head of the mafia.

The next day while Detective Francis was at a meeting they went over the folders on Leo Matthews and Thaddeus Perkins, Daniel's father. While looking at the file they came across the name Annabel Hastings. Her husband, Jack. was killed the same time as Thaddeus. They had been arrested many times together. Kenny asked for the file on Jack as well as the file on James Cooper, Mable's brother. They also went over the list of mob members. Kenny recognized three names that he wanted to check out. The detective left to meet with his staff so he left Jame's folder for them to check out. In viewing his folder they found that James was known for his fights. A Robert Halpern was the arresting officer. They decided to go and speak to him about James death.

This is where the story takes off. There is so much to tell that I will leave it to the reader to enjoy with all the twists and turns that take the reader to a surprising ending.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC.


Jamie was Mable's brother who died in the jail in Boston. She wanted to look into what happened to him.

I was worried I’d be lost since I hadn’t read the first book, but this one does a great job of summarizing key details, and the mystery stands on its own. Murder in Miniature blends the Historical Fiction and Mystery genres well, with a compelling plot and fascinating post-WW2 setting. The well done research adds depth, and Maple’s journey of figuring things out after the war is captivating. I’ll be circling back to read the first book and eagerly awaiting the next!

So this is actually closer to a 3.5 star read, but I did enjoy my time enough with the book that I bumped it up rather than down. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Death in the Details, I was really happy to catch up with Maple and her friends. I still love the characters and I think that does a lot of heavy lifting in this book. Maple leaves some new things about her brother's death and Kenny is dealing with the death of his friend in the titular murder.

The major problem I had with this book is the pacing. Maple and Kenny are taken to Boston because of the murder and they spend a decent amount of the story there. This moves Maple's personal story along, but it kind of makes the murder part of the story suffer. I don't feel like the nutshells, the dioramas that Maple makes, really had a major purpose in the story in the same way they did in the first book. I also felt like the mob being involved in the story was kind of a large jump from the first book. I thought there would be a more gentle ramp if the series ever got to that point, maybe in a few books.

However, I still read the book in a day and will gladly pick up the next book. I curious what the author will do.

Murder in Miniature is the second book in the Maple Bishop mystery series by Katie Tietjen. This was a fabulous book and I really enjoyed reading it. The historical setting and details were very well researched and fascinating to read about. The mystery kept me guessing right up until the last page and truly surprised me. The characters are becoming more well developed and interesting, especially Maple herself. I’m enjoying how she is figuring out who she is and what she would like to do with her life in the wake of WWII and the loss of her husband. It’s also interesting to read about what the other characters are going through in the time after WWII. I think sometimes we feel like people just went right back to their lives and of course, that didn’t happen. It was compelling and sad to read about the suffering after the war as people tried to adjust to life back home or adjust to family members who came back different or not at all. I look forward to read more about Maple and her friends and their lives after WWII.