Welcome to the Official Website of
Margaret S. Hamilton
Welcome to my author website. My debut amateur sleuth mystery, What the Artist Left Behind, a 2019 Daphne Mainstream Mystery Finalist, is represented by Dawn Dowdle, Blue Ridge Literary Agency.
In the first of the Jericho Mysteries, Lizzie Christopher takes a job as an interior design shop manager in a small Ohio college town. She relishes starting her new life in a quiet and safe community. Unfortunately, Lizzie gets more than she bargained for:
An artist’s body in her carriage house renovation site. A missing college student, last seen with the victim. Her teenage daughter the target of a bullying mean girl gang.
Stunned by recent events, Lizzie pushes herself into high gear. She works with the school administration to protect her daughter. She joins the search for the missing college student. And she snoops around town, determined to identify the artist’s killer. Lizzie’s investigations lead to a disturbing #Metoo truth, one that she is compelled to stop at great personal risk to herself and her daughter.
News & Updates
Afternoons in New Orleans
Don’t you just love those long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn’t just an hour—but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands—and who knows what to do with it? Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire I found this quote painted on the wall in the entrance to Gallier House, a…
New Orleans Botanical Garden
During my recent visit to New Orleans, I visited the Botanical Garden in City Park several times, both to photograph the gardens and attend an early evening Motown concert in the Pavilion of Two Sisters. The Botanical Garden dates from the original WPA-funded rose garden, planted in 1936. The art deco influences of the period…
My Kitchen Writing Center
I write in the kitchen, under the supervision of my two standard poodles. I do my best, more creative writing standing up, though I spread my manuscript on the kitchen table for paper edits.
The Garden at Lavender Cottage
In What the Artist Left Behind and the Jericho stories, the center of Lizzie’s life is her home, Lavender Cottage. This is a detailed description I wrote, which I deleted from the book.
A spruce hedge screened the yard from adjoining properties. It sloped downhill toward a stone retaining wall, with steps into Juliet’s section of…