I had a talk with my author, Susan Van Kirk, and she agreed that it was high time I got my share of print about my role in her Endurance Mysteries. My wife, Grace Kimball, has always been the main character peeking out of Van Kirk’s laptop, but now that I asked the wonderful Grace to marry me and she did, we come as a couple. It’s half my turn. Right?
I’m so lucky because at age 66 I moved to Endurance to become editor of the Endurance Register. Guess I was always married to my job. I’ve lived all over the country working at high profile newspapers but decided I needed to wind down my career in a small town, and Endurance fit me perfectly. Sleepy. You know what I mean? Then came a huge bonus: Grace Kimball. We married recently, and it’s our honeymoon every day.
Take this morning. We waltzed around the kitchen to the radio playing Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and then I went to work and she met her friends, Deb, Jill, and her former student-now-detective, TJ Sweeney, for lunch. They’re planning a “cemetery walk” where they’ll teach the local high school kids about the town’s history by playing the roles of the founders who now reside in the local cemetery.
While I was at the newspaper office, Grace called me with startling news. A mystery has come to town in the form of Anthony Blackburn. Years ago, Anthony’s parents lived next door to Grace and her first husband. One night, they vanished. Into thin air. Two-year-old Anthony was in the hospital at the time, and he lost his parents that night. It was a watershed moment in the town’s history. What happened to the Blackburns? In thirty-three years, that question hasn’t been answered. Anthony, now grown, wants to know that answer, and Grace is jumping into the mystery with Detective Sweeney.
I’d no sooner hung up the phone than my boss and publisher, Jonathan Winslow, paid a call on me with terrible news. The Register has been owned by his family for four generations, but now a hideous vulture, a grasping, greedy hedge fund is out to take it over and destroy all we have built to keep the fabric of Endurance together. How can we fight this monster with their bottomless resources?
Winslow had barely gone, leaving me shaken and concerned, when I got a call from one of my reporters. Endurance College has joined with an environmental company to map their local lake, Lake Lancaster, and do dredging work. My reporter is adamant that I rush out there. Something highly mysterious has been found in the lake. And to think I was sure that moving to a small town would be a quiet, calm end to my journalism career.
Giveaway: Susan has generously offered to give away one print copy of FABRIC OF LIES. To enter, please leave a comment below. One entry per person and the giveaway is limited to U.S. residents only. Giveaway ends December 26, 2025. Good luck everyone!
FABRIC OF LIES – An “Endurance” Mystery, Book 6
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: November 2025
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link
What happened to the Blackburns?
Grace Kimball and Jeff Maitlin are now married, and into their lives comes an unsolved mystery from 30-some years earlier. In 1981, Matt and Gemma Blackburn disappeared from the house next door to Grace and her then-husband, Roger Kimball. At that time, the Blackburn’s two-year-old, Anthony, was in the hospital recovering from pneumonia. Now, it’s 2014, and a thirty-five-year-old Anthony Blackburn returns to Endurance to find out what happened to his parents and solve a mystery deeply embedded in the history of the town.
Meanwhile, Jeff Maitlin, Editor-in-Chief of the Endurance Register, is threatened with a takeover of his local newspaper. The newspaper has been owned by the same family for four generations, and it would be a disaster for the tight-knit community to lose their local news and local ownership. But Jeff is fighting against a huge competitor—a corporate vulture hoping to steal everything of value and destroy the fabric of the town and Jeff’s beloved newspaper. Can he win? Can Grace help Anthony Blackburn solve the mystery of his parents’ disappearance?
About the author
Susan Van Kirk, an Illinois author, was educated at Knox College and the University of Illinois. She is the author of six Endurance Mysteries beginning with Three May Keep a Secret. Her standalone mystery, A Death at Tippitt Pond, was followed by the Art Center Mysteries: Death in a Pale Hue, Death in a Bygone Hue, and Death in a Ghostly Hue from Level Best Books. The third book of the trilogy was nominated for the Anthony Award for Best Paranormal Mystery of 2025. Member of MWA and past president of the Guppy Chapter of SinC. Her website: susanvankirk.com.
Congrats on another instalment of the Endurance Mysteries, Susan!
Thank you, Judy. I think I have a few more installments in my head! Hope you have a lovely Christmas.
sounds good
Thanks. And thanks for stopping by.
Sounds interesting. I haven’t read any of the Endurance series mysteries, but I did enjoy one from the Art Center series.
Thanks, Sharon. The Art Center mysteries have main characters who are in their 30s. The Endurance mysteries feature Grace Kimball, who is just about to turn 60, and Jeff Maitlin, who is 65. They married at the end of the previous book, so this new story, “Fabric of Lies” is a whole new adventure.
Sounds like I need to start reading a new to me author
Love to have you do that. I had a book signing near Christmas, and quite a few people bought the entire series. You’ll like the characters.
Sounds great!
Thanks so much for stopping in.
This sounds quite intriguing! Putting it on my official (written in a small brown journal) reading list for 2026! I’m glad you posted in Guppies about it, caught my notice there.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Hope your 2026 is wonderful.
I love the Guppies group!
Oh, it sounds really good! I’d love to win!
Thanks so much for commenting and stopping in.
Sounds like a fun read, Susan!
Grace’s ex-sister-in-law, Lettie, is the comic character. She has her fingers on the pulse of the town. But I always have a thought or two for my readers to consider.
Congratulations to Kathy Borges who won a print copy of FABRIC OF LIES.
Thanks, Dru, for having me on. I enjoyed your audience’s comments. Happy 2026.
Jeff, what was Susan wearing when she interviewed you? Or rather, Sue, what was Jeff wearing? And Jeff, what do YOU think happened to Anthony’s parents? I’m an avid reader of the Register by the way.
I look forward to reading your new book.
Thanks so much!
Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy it.