What is the title of your latest release?
MURDER WILL OUT
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When the owner of a historic (and haunted) Maine mansion dies in a what appears to be a tragic accident, her shy goddaughter Willow returns to Little North Island, determined to figure out who is getting rid of the property’s heirs one by one - without becoming the next victim herself. The living aren’t much help.
Fortunately, the mansion is full of ghosts.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
When my parents retired, my parents bought a little cabin on in Downeast Maine and soon lived there most of the year; my mother, a ceramic artist, works out of Islesford Pottery on Little Cranberry Island, and my father soon got involved with the local historical society. I love the place so much - even the air tastes different - this wonderful blend of salt and balsam and, at the right time of year, the wild blueberry bushes that grow everywhere.
Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Oh, absolutely. Willow and I are both socially anxious nerdy musicians, and people from our subcategory of humanity tend to find one another. I like to think Willow and I would be the kind of friends who could stop in and see each other on the fly, without anyone feeling like they have to frantically neaten up the house before the doorbell rings.
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What are three words that describe your hero?
Shy, brilliant, surprising
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned a lot about poisons (fascinating), Maine inheritance law (boring), Gilded Age architecture (gorgeous), and most of all about the amazing community of mystery and thriller writers out there who are happy to support one another and share what we know. It feels so strange at my age to say I’ve found “my people,” but it really feels that way.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I have never been able to keep going without reviewing the previous day’s words. I usually go back over what I wrote yesterday, editing as I go, and then when I come to where I stopped, I pick up the narrative again.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Pinning down a favorite is difficult …but if I had to pick a favorite particularly indulgent indulgence, it would have to be a truly fine drinking chocolate, rich and creamy and like sippable ganache, dabbed with homemade whipped cream on top.
Describe your writing space/office!
I don’t have an office - not a proper one, at least. My desk is tucked at one end of our dining room, but I’m just as likely to write with a keyboard in my lap on the couch, or at a coffee shop, or dictating into my phone while on a dog walk. A lot of writers say sitting down at a consistent place and time is key to productivity, but I do much better when I change things up.
Who is an author you admire?
Oof - this is like the food question; there are too many! There are so many great people in the mystery world right now; Olivia Blacke, Kate Racculia, Kemper Donovan, Gigi Pandian, Jess Armstrong, and Brandy Schillace are among my current favorites.
Also, Louise Penny - I didn’t discover her work till she was more than a dozen books into her Armand Gamache series, but once did, I was hooked.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time was the first book I can remember that showed me the uncomfortable too-brainy socially awkward characters who would become my favorites in every book forever. Meg Murry was my kind of heroine.
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.
We were driving from Minnesota to Chicago in a blizzard. I had submitted to the Minotaur/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel contest early in my querying journey and promptly forgotten about it. My husband was driving, and I can’t even imagine what he was thinking as I carried on this very normal-sounding conversation and then hung up the phone and screamed. (He is a good driver and he stayed on the road.)
What’s your favorite genre to read?
Mysteries and thrillers, especially with a touch of magic or the supernatural.
What’s your favorite movie?
Until this year it was unequivocally The Red Violin. Gorgeous movie, with gorgeous music, and a plot twist to make you weep.
Then I saw The Life of Chuck. It’s such a lovely story, so well-written and well-filmed and with such a top-notch cast, gentle and heartbreaking and funny and sad…plus, it has Tom Hiddleston dancing; what’s not to love? Now I have two favorite movies.
What is your favorite season?
Autumn, no question. Crisp air, warm days, cool nights, wonderful smells, and the promise of all the good holidays to come. Fall in Chicago is glorious.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Truthfully? I’d be happy to ignore it. I’m more of a celebrate-through-the-year-when-the-spirit-moves kind of person.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I’m addicted to the Pick Your Poison podcast—I started listening to it for writing research, and then I got hooked.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I love Indian food. Nothing beats a good biryani.
What do you do when you have free time?
I’m learning to play the drums. (I’m not very good.)
What can readers expect from you next?
Willow, Cameron House, and the ghosts of Little North Island aren’t done with me yet; I’m hard at work on the next installment!
Narrator: Gail Shalan
Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award winner Jennifer K. Breedlove brings coastal Maine to life in Murder Will Out, a lighter, modern gothic mystery that's as atmospheric as it is heart-warming.
Come for the memories. Stay for the murder...
Little North Island, off the coast of Maine, is so beautiful it could be a postcard. Organist Willow Stone cherishes her memories of childhood summers spent on the island with her godmother Sue... even though her visits ended abruptly, and she hasn't seen or heard from her godmother in over fifteen years. Until a letter from Sue—and word of Sue’s death—brings Willow back to the picturesque island.
The islanders rarely mention Sue without also bringing up Cameron House, and the controversy around Sue’s unexpected inheritance of the sprawling mansion. When Willow overhears someone threatening the next heir to the property, she starts to question whether Sue’s death was really an accident, and can’t help but wonder whether someone on this sleepy island is willing to stop at nothing—even murder—to claim Cameron House for their own.
Through Willow’s eyes, as well as those of others on the island, a mystery unfolds that keeps drawing Willow back to Cameron House and the very real ghosts that walk its corridors.
Mystery Amateur Sleuth | Suspense Gothic [ Minotaur Books, On Sale: February 17, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9781250382610 / eISBN: 9781250382627 ]
Jennifer has been writing stories since she was in preschool, when she delighted in crafting tales of magic and adventure; she wrote and illustrated them with her 64-box of Crayolas, stapled the pages together, and waited for fame and riches to come calling. (They did not.) When her parents insisted that she pursue a career more secure than fiction writing, she decided to be a musician instead.
This was not what her parents had in mind when they said “more secure,” but they were wonderfully supportive nonetheless.
Jennifer holds degrees in piano, choral conducting, and theology; she is on the music faculty at Loyola University in Chicago and serves as an assistant conductor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Jennifer has worked as a church musician, educator, and editor and is a prolific composer of choral music; her compositions, as well as her nonfiction books and articles, are available through several major publishers. A frequent visitor to Downeast Maine since childhood, she has an enduring affection for the wild beauty of the coastal islands and the warmth of the people who make their homes there. Her debut novel, Murder Will Out, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award, and was also a finalist for the Killer Nashville Claymore award.
She lives in the western suburbs of Chicago with her husband, two dogs, and two kids currently attending college. Demonstrating once again the cliché about apples and trees, her son is a music major, and her daughter plans to be a writer.
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