Hello and Welcome All!

Today I’m very lucky to be interviewing Terri Karsten author of A Necessary Death.

Hi Terri, thank you for agreeing to this interview. For those readers not familiar with you, would you please tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m a retired English teacher, with a lifelong passion for history. I live in Southeast Minnesota, a stone’s throw from the Mississippi River.

What do you do when you are not writing?

I have seven grandchildren, between the ages of 7 and 19, so they keep me busy. I enjoy hiking and camping. I also love experimenting with historical cookery. I research recipes from 300 or more years ago and figure out how to make them today. Some, like Lettuce Pie, are very tasty. How did you choose the genre you write in?

Historical fiction is my favorite genre, with a lot of its variations- like historical mystery, and historical fantasy. I read a lot and always have. The first chapter book I remember reading was Children of the Lost Crusade. I loved that book, and that started my passion for historical fiction. Where do you get your ideas?

Really- from all over—a snippet in a newspaper, a diary entry, an artifact in a museum, a law. Something will catch my curiosity and make me want to dig deeper. Then as I find out more, I start imagining a story about it.

Who inspired you to become a writer?

I started writing stories when I was seven to amuse my sisters and entertain neighbor kids. My second-grade teacher assigned us to write a story. I wrote about a little girl who wanted a dog. Of course my story was autobiographical to begin with. I wanted a puppy, but my parents wouldn’t let me get a dog. The little girl I wrote about got her wish. That made me realize writers have power: they can make anything they want to happen. So, I decided to become a writer.

Can you tell us about your upcoming book?

A Necessary Death is a cozy historical mystery set in colonial Pennsylvania. On the same day Penelope Corbitt hears her husband has died, she learns he gambled away their home, and she must sell everything she owns to pay off his debts. As she travels north with her two children to live off her stingy brother-in-law’s charity their coach crashes, leaving them stranded at a rundown tavern. When she stumbles upon a deadman in the tavern privy, she and Miles Tucker, tavern owner and town constable, join forces to figure out what happened to him.

A Necessary Death can be read as a stand-alone title, but it is the first in a three-book series set in the same tavern with the same main characters. All three books include recipes for some of the dishes Penelope serves in the tavern. The second in the series, A Player’s Exit, will be released in September 2026. In it, a traveling theater group arrives at the tavern. Before they settle in, one of their players is murdered.

How did you come up with the concept & title for A Necessary Death?

The initial idea for this story came from an article in Smithsonian about archeological excavations in Pennsylvania. The archaeologists had discovered the skeleton of a colonial era child buried in a tavern yard. I kept thinking about this boy, imagining what might have happened for him to end up there, not in a cemetery. This novel is the result of the story I gave him. He may not have ever had a ‘happy ending,’ but in my version of his story, those who did him in, got what they deserved.

The title is a pun. An old-time word for an outhouse is the necessary, which is where Penelope finds the body.

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

There’s a scene near the middle of the book when Penelope and Miles are working late to finish preparation for the funeral. It’s cozy in the dim kitchen, with a small fire crackling in the hearth. For the moment, they have put aside their differences and have found a sweet camaraderie, even tenderness. It’s a quiet moment, a pause for breathing. I liked writing it because I knew no matter how sweet it was, it was the calm before the storm.

Tell us all about your characters — Who are they? What makes them tick?

At 32 years old, Penelope Corbitt considers herself too young to be called a widow. She’s used to being self-reliant, but without a husband or the means to support herself, her choices are limited. Her main goal in life is to find a safe harbor for her two children, 16-year-old Nabby and 10-year-old Nathaniel. She’s a very practical woman, with a strong sense of what’s right and how things should be done, and she’s not shy about sharing her opinions.

Miles Tucker is the other viewpoint character. He is a lonely, gruff, widower, tavern owner, and town constable. His wife died a year ago, and his son joined the militia in the French and Indian War not long after. He’s still so full of grief he’s neglecting the tavern to the point of ruin. He’s a good man, haunted by his sorrows, but with a clear idea of what is fair.

Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to take part in this interview.

A Necessary Death

Historical Cozy Mystery
Setting – A tavern in Colonial Pennsylvania (1764)
Publisher: Wagonbridge
Publishing Publication Date: September 15, 2025
Print Length: 272 pages

With Penelope Corbitt in the kitchen, the tavern will never be the same.

Penelope Corbitt can turn a lump of meat and a bit of flour into a mouth-watering pie or make a tasty meal of cabbage and vinegar. But all her skill can’t save her family in the spring of 1763, when she loses everything to pay off her missing husband’s debts. Walking a tightrope between the freedom of poverty and the confines of propriety, she must accept her stingy brother-in-law’s reluctant charity to keep her family fed and her children close. The miserable journey north from

Philadelphia is interrupted when the coach crashes in the mud. Penelope and her children are stranded at a run-down tavern. Penelope doesn’t think things can get worse.

Then she finds a dead man.

AMAZON * B&N

Living in the shadow of the Mississippi River bluffs, Terri Karsten has been a writer and educator for many years. She grew up in sunny San Jose, California, playing amid the cherry orchards that soon gave way to houses. In her search for education and adventure, she lived in Iowa and Wisconsin, Mexico and France, before settling into a hundred-year-old house in Winona, Minnesota. She spends most days in her tiny office, surrounded by books, papers, and good memories.

With more ideas than time, Terri writes a bit of everything, ranging from historical fiction novels to picture book folktales to dozens of short stories and articles in magazines, encyclopedias, and newspapers.

When she is not writing, Terri loves poring over old cookbooks and recreating dishes from long ago, especially medieval, Renaissance, and colonial foods. Always ready for the next adventure, she enjoys camping, hiking, and traveling. Her latest goal is to visit National Parks in every state. Only 13 states to go!

Website * Facebook * Goodreads

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