The Secret in the Sampler
About The Secret in the Sampler
The Secret in the Sampler: A Plain Truth Mystery
Amish Adjacent Cozy Mystery with Slow-Burn Romance
1st in Series
Setting - Ohio
Publisher : Plain Truth Press
Publication date : May 31, 2026
Print length : 358 pages
Digital ASIN : B0GX372D82
Paperback Coming Soon!
What would you do if the family heirloom hidden in your aunt’s estate could expose a stolen inheritance—and make you the next person someone needs silenced? Two years after losing her husband, Nora Bell returns to the quiet Ohio Amish-country town of Briar Creek to settle her late aunt’s estate. She expects dusty type drawers, unpaid bills, and enough sympathy casseroles to survive a minor siege. Reopening The Bell & Quill, Aunt Lenora’s old letterpress and stationery shop, is supposed to be a temporary project—not the beginning of an entirely new life. Then Nora discovers an antique hand-stitched sampler concealed inside a cedar trunk. Its mismatched initials, reversed border, and nearly invisible name suggest that the sampler is more than a family keepsake. It may be the only surviving record of a child erased from Briar Creek’s history—and an inheritance quietly stolen decades ago.
Before Nora can uncover what her aunt knew, a local estate appraiser is found dead. He had been asking questions about the sampler, searching for a missing auction ledger, and meeting privately with someone determined to keep an old land transfer from being examined too closely. Now Nora is following a trail of altered records, old letters, disputed property, and carefully guarded family secrets.
Her unexpected ally is Eli Yoder, a reserved Amish widower and auction clerk who knows Briar Creek’s family histories almost as well as he knows when people are refusing to tell the truth. Eli’s dry humor and steady presence make him useful. The grief he recognizes in Nora makes him dangerous in an entirely different way. As suspicion spreads through the Amish farms, antique shops, auction houses, and polished tourist businesses surrounding Briar Creek, Nora realizes the sampler does not simply reveal what happened in the past. It threatens someone’s money, reputation, and future. And the person who killed to keep its secret hidden may already know Nora has begun to unravel the pattern.
Readers will discover:
- A clever, emotionally grounded amateur sleuth whose knowledge of printing, paper, handwriting, and design helps her notice what others overlook.
- An atmospheric Amish-country setting filled with rural roads, estate auctions, quilt work, family businesses, and small-town secrets.
- A layered, low-gore cozy mystery involving an antique sampler, a hidden heir, altered records, and a disputed inheritance.
- A clean, chaste slow-burn romance between two widowed people rebuilding their lives through trust rather than instant attraction.
- Warm community characters and lightly witty dialogue without turning the mystery into slapstick.
- A satisfying standalone investigation that opens the door to more secrets from The Bell & Quill.
The Secret in the Sampler is the first novel in The Plan Truth Mysteries, a gentle Amish-adjacent cozy mystery series about old objects, hidden histories, rural grudges, and the truths people leave behind on paper and cloth. Perfect for fans of Amanda Flower's Assaulted Caramel, Laura Bradford's Hearse and Buggy, and Vannetta Chapman's Falling to Pieces.
About Abigail B. Hartwell
Abigail B. Hartwell, known
to friends and readers as Abby, writes warm Amish-country-adjacent cozy
mysteries set among the small towns, wooded backroads, and quiet rhythms of
rural Ohio. Though she is not Amish, she lives near Amish communities and draws
inspiration from the region’s close-knit families, handmade traditions, old stories,
and plainspoken women who know that even the smallest clue can bring a buried truth
into the light.
Abby shares a modest home on five
wooded acres with her long-haul truck driver husband. They have two grown
daughters and three grandchildren, and when she is not writing, she enjoys
church activities, family time, and the peaceful beauty of the Ohio
countryside. Her stories grow from the same things she treasures most: faith,
family, small-town kindness, and the promise that every mystery has a way of
finding its way home.
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My Thoughts
What a delightful little mystery to tuck into! The Secret in the Sampler by Abigail B. Hartwell transports readers to Briar Creek, Ohio, a charming town in Amish country that makes an inviting backdrop for the story. I especially enjoyed the details surrounding The Bell & Quill, the letterpress shop Nora Bell inherits from her late aunt, from the antique press to the type that gives the setting such character. Nora is easy to root for, and Eli Yoder’s steadiness and dry humor make him a wonderful partner as they begin unraveling the puzzle together. The mystery builds nicely from the start, with secrets, hidden objects, a hand-stitched sampler, and a mysterious trunk all adding to the intrigue. As the first book in The Plain Truth Mysteries, this is a warm and promising beginning, and I’m already looking forward to untangling the next mystery—needle, thread, and all!
Excerpt
Nora moved the packet of letters aside without opening it. Beneath the linens was another layer of tissue, more brittle, folded around something flat. She touched it and felt fabric beneath. Not quilt batting. Not linens. Embroidery.
She
lifted the bundle carefully and set it on the floor between them. The tissue
sighed as she unfolded it.
A
sampler emerged in muted colors, cream linen browned with age, stitched
borders, tiny flowers, a verse from Scripture, initials placed at odd
intervals, and a date worked in thread so faded she had to bend close to read
it.
Rain
tapped the glass. Somewhere in the shop, water dripped into a bucket with slow,
patient plinks.
Nora
forgot to make a joke.
The
sampler was beautiful in a restrained, deliberate way. Not showy. Not
decorative only. The stitches were small and even, though one side of the
border seemed wrong. Reversed, perhaps. Turned inward where the others opened
out. Near the lower right corner, a set of initials had been worked in pale
thread almost the same color as the ground cloth.
Nora traced the air above them without touching. “A.K.,” she whispered. Eli did not answer. She looked up. He was staring at the sampler. “You recognize the initials,” she said. “I recognize the name they could be.” “Keim?” His jaw tightened. “That careful silence again,” Nora said. “This is not my history to speak first.” “No, it’s my aunt’s trunk in my shop.” “It may be more than that.” “Everything in Briar Creek seems to be more than that.”
“Yes.”
The simple agreement irritated her. It also steadied her, which was inconvenient. Nora lifted the last fold of tissue. A slip of paper slid free and landed face down on the floor. Eli saw it at the same moment she did. Neither moved for half a second. Then Nora picked it up.
The
handwriting struck her before the words did. Aunt Lenora’s hand. Firm, slanted,
precise, with the capital D shaped like a half-open door. Nora had seen it on
birthday cards, recipe notes, Christmas labels, and once on a stern letter to a
utility company that had overcharged her by twelve dollars and learned regret.
She turned the note over. Do not sell until the initials are understood. Nora read it once. Then again. The words seemed to draw the cold from the brick walls and lay it directly along her spine. Eli rose slowly.
“What does it say?” he asked. Nora held the note out. He did not take it. He leaned close enough to read, hands at his sides, careful even now not to claim what was not his. His face changed.
Not much. Eli Yoder did not appear to be a man who allowed his face to conduct town meetings. But the stillness in him sharpened. “You know something,” Nora said. “I know enough to say you should not show that to Vernon Pike.” “The appraiser?” “Yes.” “Why?”
Eli looked at the sampler, then the trunk, then the locked cabinet across the room. “Because Vernon admires old things most when someone else does not understand their value.” “You still have not told me why Vernon matters.” “It is the answer I can give now.”
Nora
stood, the note trembling slightly in her hand. She disliked the trembling. Her
body had taken liberties since Daniel died, expressing things before she had
approved them.
Outside,
the rain thickened, turning the windows silver. The shop lights hummed
overhead. The sampler lay between them like something quiet that had waited
years to be found and had not forgiven anyone for taking so long.
Nora looked again at Aunt Lenora’s note. Do not sell until the initials are understood. Aunt Lenora had not left her a keepsake. She had left her a warning.
You can find The Secret in the Sampler on Amazon, along with the other books in The Plain Truth Mysteries series. Even better, the entire series is available to read for free with Kindle Unlimited. If you follow Abigail B. Hartwell on Amazon, you’ll be notified whenever she has a new release. If you’d like a chance to win a digital copy of The Secret in the Sampler, you can enter using the form below, the widget in the sidebar, or click here. Good Luck! I’ll be back on Wednesday, August 19, with the festive and suspenseful The Last Noel by Sarah Hamaker, Jayna Breigh, and Kimberley Woodhouse. Until then, I hope your day is filled with good books, cozy moments, and a little mystery worth savoring.
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*I voluntarily read an advanced copy of thi book. I am not required to leave a review. The comments and opinions expressed are strictly my own.
