Known Associates

Thirty names stitched in red. One murder tangled in their history. A genealogy cozy mystery with an heirloom worth killing for.

An 1893 signature quilt arrives at a Hudson auction house carrying the names of thirty Kettle Kill women. Collector Harriet Moss wants to find their descendants, hang the quilt in the church where it began, and put real families in front of those carefully stitched names. Genealogist Greta Hollenbeck is delighted to take the case.

Church minutes, membership rolls, and old census entries begin turning signatures into lives. But the quilt's more recent history is harder to piece together. When the auctioneer is found dead before he can explain the gaps, a project about remembering women becomes an investigation into what someone would rather everyone forgot.

Greta follows the connections among friends, associates, and neighbors—the people a straight family tree can miss. Antiques-world rivalries and competing accounts of the quilt's journey complicate the search. Somewhere between what the fabric preserves and what its sellers claim is a truth with consequences for the living.

As another deeply personal search brings Greta to a moment she cannot prepare for with index cards, Known Associates pairs a complete murder mystery with the warmth of an ongoing family story. Book 9 of The Kinfinder Genealogy Mysteries celebrates the lives, loyalties, and unexpected connections that leave their mark long after a name is stitched.

For readers who love:

•   Antique quilts and the women behind their signatures

•   Auction-house intrigue and missing provenance

•   Church archives and clever family-history research

•   A compassionate woman sleuth and an affectionate recurring cast

•   Clean cozy mysteries with a heartfelt family thread