Hanna “Cookie” Cooke is a young woman with an interior design business in New Preston, a small New England town. She has a side gig doing crime-scene dioramas, which are highly detailed, right down to leather book volumes, handmade curtains and blood spatter. 

We join Cookie’s story as she is engaged by New Preston’s wealthiest couple, Chuck and Lana Halsey. Recently they have purchased a rundown mansion and want to restore it, keeping as much of the original character as possible. Cookie can’t wait to jump into the middle of this project, even with all of the problems that the house --- and the Halseys --- presents. She puts her whole heart and soul into it --- and something more personal than maybe she should.

"There is a lot going on in Diane Josefowicz’s THE GREAT HOUSES OF PILL HILL: a murder or two (maybe more), drugs, bad medicine, botched surgeries, people with ill intent everywhere. But there are also some excellent twists that frankly even Cookie doesn’t see coming."

But finally the big reveal comes at the housewarming party the Halseys throw. While it’s meant to showcase the months of hard work and fantastic style choices, the night goes spectacularly wrong. A fire breaks out in the renovated chimney, spreading rapidly and causing the guests to run for their lives. Tragically, not everyone makes it out. Chuck is found dead in the smoldering ruins.
 
In the days following the blaze, the New Preston police approaches Cookie and asks her to build a miniature of the scene when it becomes apparent that Chuck did not die because of the fire. He was the victim of a homicide, dead before the smoke and flames could take him. Reluctantly, she agrees. It’s not that she doesn’t want to help; it’s just that the Halsey commission had felt almost cursed from the beginning. Frankly, Cookie would like to leave it all behind her. Besides, she has other work. 

A local psychiatrist, Simon, has an office that needs updating. While he doesn’t want any involvement in changing its décor, his wife, Wendy, insists. Cookie seems to attract troublesome clients. However, she manages to convince Simon to allow her to at least paint his office a different color. When Wendy is killed in an auto “accident,” Cookie has to take a closer look at the people in her life. A longtime friend of hers may not be quite who they seem. 
 
In many ways, Cookie appears to be floundering. Maybe the miniatures she constructs are her way of making sense of her life. She briefly was married to entirely the wrong person, but she kept the man in her life after their marriage failed. He’s supposedly a good friend, but he doesn’t act like one. Plus, Cookie has relationships with married men. So what’s that about? It all points to self-destruction, or self-doubt at the least. 

As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, Cookie is trying to help her mother, who is in a rehabilitation center, which causes all kinds of trouble for the staff. Day by day, her mom drifts in and out of lucidity. When she has her wits about her, she comes up with some very interesting observations about Cookie’s renovation project. Does she know something? 
 
There is a lot going on in Diane Josefowicz’s THE GREAT HOUSES OF PILL HILL: a murder or two (maybe more), drugs, bad medicine, botched surgeries, people with ill intent everywhere. But there are also some excellent twists that frankly even Cookie doesn’t see coming.