1--What is the title of your latest release?
MAKING FRIENDS CAN BE MURDER
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Sarah Jones moves from Vermont to Minneapolis for a fresh start and joins a group of women all with the same common name. They came together for a high school student’s project, but a couple of months in, another Sarah Jones is murdered in their city, and the group investigates. They’re aided by a handsome FBI recruit and a cloistered nun with a complex past.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I have only lived in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, so all my books have taken place here. This one is the first that takes place in the real city of Minneapolis instead of one of my imagined suburbs.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
100%. The main Sarah – they go by their ages in the book, and this one is Thirty– is a great friend.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Earnest, thoughtful, lonely
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned a lot about the FBI! I hope most of it is true!
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I revise in stages. For instance, I like to give my agent and a couple of early readers pages near the beginning of a project, so I’ll go back and polish maybe 10,000 words so. But so far, I haven’t been able to avoid pretty major rewrites at late stages. I think it’s part of my process.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Too hard! I love food! This morning, I had a delicious glazed donut for breakfast. It had a gooey center, and I dribbled glaze bits on my pants on my way to work.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I’m adaptable. I wrote most of MAKING FRIENDS in a local counter-service bakery/restaurant called Yum. I sat across from a best friend of mine who wrote her dissertation at the same time. At home, I have a sunny office, but I’m just as likely to write from my bed while sitting on top of the covers.
10--Who is an author you admire?
There are so many, but the first to come to mind this morning is Colleen Oakley. Like another favorite of mine, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Colleen is a great writer who just keeps getting better. And, her premises are absolutely fire.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
There are a lot of them! One is The Great Gatsby which I read with a favorite high school teacher. That was when I realized there was more to reading than just reading, that I could understand major truths about life and human nature by examining text. My focus on that book in my debut, Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes, is an homage to that teacher. As an adult, a book I think about all the time is A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki. There’s so much we don’t understand about human consciousness, and this book about a type of time travel really blew me away.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I was teaching third grade the year my book was acquired by Berkley. I had to schedule a call with my editor during my prep period (my kids were at P.E.), and then I got the news about the offer later that week. When that call came, I was in a professional development session about Google Earth. I had to excuse myself. The whole thing felt surreal, and after I squealed a little bit with my agent, I went back in for a full afternoon of social studies planning. I still teach school. I’m a middle school English teacher right now. Almost all my publishing news arrives when I’m working with twenty or thirty kids.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Cozy mystery and police procedural! That’s why I decided to write a cozy! But I read and enjoy almost everything.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Again, too hard. The movie I know by heart is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I first saw it in the theater when I was eight.
15--What is your favorite season?
Fall! Just like Anne of Green Gables! But, my birthday is in the spring.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I’m not picky! This year I’m getting fancy sushi with my husband and one of my sons. (The other son is in college in Vermont, right where Sarah Jones hails from!)
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Three people recommended the Telepathy Tapes podcast, and I just started it. It fits right in with A Tale for the Time Being and relates to us just not fully comprehending the possibilities within our minds.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Oh, I just love food! I mentioned sushi. We also get Indian from our local place about once per week. At home, I cook a lot of things… I’m a great recipe-follower, and my favorite cookbooks are the Half-Baked Harvest offerings and Milk Street Tuesday Night.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I love running and resting. Pretty much equally.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I hope more cozies!! Wouldn’t it be great to hear from the Sarahs and Sister Mary Theresa again!?
Thanks for having me!
Thirty-year-old Sarah Jones gets caught up solving a murder after unknowingly befriending a dangerous con artist (who’s nothing like what she seems) in this playful, twisty mystery from acclaimed author Kathleen West.
It feels like kismet when Sarah Jones, newly relocated to Minneapolis after abruptly calling off her engagement, gets invited to join a group of women who share her same (very common) name. For years Sarah has received all types of correspondence intended for different Sarah Joneses, but now it seems that this mistake has given her the opportunity for an instant community.
What starts as a low-stakes meet-up called “The Sarah Jones Project” soon turns sinister when another local Sarah Jones is found dead, under suspicious circumstances, at the base of the downtown Minneapolis bridge. After fielding numerous calls from concerned loved ones ruling out their Sarah as the victim, the surviving Sarahs decide to take matters into their own hands.
Aided by the dead woman’s nanny, a newly commissioned (and very handsome and eligible) FBI agent, and a cloistered nun with a complicated past, the motley crew of unlikely friends are determined to get to the bottom of the murder of one of their own.
Mystery Amateur Sleuth | Mystery Cozy [Berkley, On Sale: June 10, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593335536 / eISBN: 9780593335550]
Kathleen West is a veteran school teacher. She graduated with a degree in English from Macalester College and holds a master’s degree in literacy education from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis with her A+ human family and three B- dogs.
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