The first thing I see every morning when I sit up in bed is a quilt. It’s the Double Wedding Ring pattern and it was made for me by my grandmother, who hoped that the love and marriage the pattern implied would be my destiny. As it happened, my destiny was not love and marriage but rather a career as a museum curator in the pleasant town of Banburyport, Massachusetts. My specialty is quilts and their history.
To reach the arts and crafts museum where I work, I walk past immaculately preserved houses from the eighteenth century. Banburyport is situated at the mouth of the Mackinaw River, and the eighteenth century was its economic heyday as a key port town. I ride the staff elevator to my office, where I work undisturbed for the first few hours of my day. I always have emails to answer, emails from scholars wanting access to items in our collections—from hand-carved decoys to colonial-era muskets to, yes, quilts.
If I’m interrupted at that point in my workday, it’s by my boss, museum director Gabriel Tryon. His visits deal with mundane issues, like upcoming exhibits—except on unfortunate occasions when a murder has disrupted Banburyport’s calm, and quilts have gotten tangled up in the case.
Coffee-break time offers a chance for a stroll. Banburyport is so small that any place a person wants to go can be reached on foot. At ten-thirty a.m., the most popular place, for a surprising number of Banburyport residents, is Farrow Square Coffee. In a nod to nearby Boston, the shop’s motto is, “Forget the tea party. Our coffee is revolutionary.” Among the locals to be found at Farrow Square Coffee are Mona Moncrief, an aspiring mystery author, and Elaine Hazelton, a dedicated cat-rescuer. The person I’m always happiest to see, however, is my friend and landlady, Libby Seldon. Libby is an artist and gallery owner, but also the mother of Garret Seldon, Banburyport’s lone—and quite inept—police detective.
The rest of my workday involves meetings, organizing exhibits, and writing catalogue copy, and my evenings are devoted to quilting.
I’ve made quilts for myself and quilts for relatives and quilts for friends, but lately I make custom quilts on commission. I know that if I kept track of the hours that go into making a quilt, and multiplied that figure by even the minimum wage, I would be unaffordable. But after giving quilts to everyone I could think of, maybe even to people who didn’t appreciate them, I realized that a person who bothers to commission a quilt is someone who truly wants a quilt. So I charge a reasonable amount and am happy that my creation is going to a person who will cherish it.
My ability to organize random bits of cloth into patterns has proven to have broader application too. Given this skill, and the fact that Banburyport’s murders curiously tend to involve quilts, I’m often the first to see the pattern, overlooked by Detective Seldon, in a random assortment of clues.
THE QUILT WHISPERER INVESTIGATES
Series: A Quilt Whisperer Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: August 2026
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link
Working at the Arts and Crafts Museum in small town Massachusetts, a quilting and antique quilts expert pieces together a patchwork of clues against the vibrant backdrop of a New England fall in this crafty new cozy series from Peggy Ehrhart, acclaimed author of the Knit and Nibble Mysteries.
As Associate Director and Curator of Special Collections at the Yates Museum, Caroline is excited to pick up a prized antique quilt from Nancy Critchley, one of Banburyport’s wealthiest residents, for an upcoming exhibit. . . . Until she discovers Nancy dead on the floor of her beautiful Federalist home. The muslin bag that held the quilt is empty. On the table is a napkin smeared with what appears to be tomato juice—in a design that may have been Nancy’s final message.
Garret Seldon, the town’s new police detective, pinpoints museum intern Amber Foster as the top suspect. Amber’s blog is sharply critical of the Critchley family, among other prominent citizens from Banburyport’s past, for exploiting less fortunate residents in order to gain their riches. But could long-ago sins really have spurred someone to stab Nancy with a pair of sewing scissors?
All of Banburyport is abuzz with theories, including the regulars at Farrow Square Coffee. A humiliated caterer, a developer angered by Nancy’s work with the Historical Preservation Committee, disgruntled family members—there are plenty of possible motives and suspects. And then there’s the missing quilt, a priceless creation that’s almost 200 years old.
Caroline and her good friend and landlady, Libby, are convinced of Amber’s innocence. And somewhere among these tangled threads, Caroline knows there’s a pattern to be uncovered, one that ties together the colorful secrets of Banburyport’s past and present . . .
Includes quilting tips and pattern!
About the author
Peggy Ehrhart is a former English professor with a doctorate in Medieval Literature. She writes the Knit & Nibble mysteries for Kensington Books. Book #12, Last Wool and Testament, was released in May, 2025; An Eggy Way to Die appeared in Kensington’s 2026 Easter novella anthology, Easter Egg Murder. In September Peggy will be launching a new craft cozy series with The Quilt Whisperer Investigates, also from Kensington. Peggy herself is an avid crafter, dating from her childhood as a member of the 4-H Club in rural Southern California. She now lives in Leonia, New Jersey.