Author Event: Katherine Scott Crawford in conversation with Heather Bell Adams

Page 158 Books is thrilled to welcome author Katherine Scott Crawford to the store to celebrate her latest novel, The Miniaturist's Assistant. She will be joined in conversation by Heather Bell Adams.

An art conservator in historic Charleston unearths a familiar face in a 200-year-old miniature portrait and realizes she’s lived more than one life, fighting to stay true to herself as she races to reconcile her complicated past, solve an art mystery, and save the people she loves across two different lifetimes—in this romantic and brainy timeslip novel sure to appeal to fans of Diana Gabaldon and Deborah Harkness.

2004: In historic Charleston, recently divorced art conservator Gamble Vance throws herself into her career restoring centuries-old miniature portraits. But one portrait haunts her: a woman in a fox stole, with familiar hazel eyes. When Gamble meets a girl in an alley, she’ s convinced it’ s the same woman— and it’ s not the first time they’ ve met. For help, Gamble turns to African American Studies scholar Tolliver Jackson— a former foster kid with secrets of his own. But as Gamble’ s memories resurface, the pair discover a connection which may endanger more than one life… in more than one lifetime. 1804: Miniature portraitist and fallen-away Quaker Daniel Petigru paints for Charleston’ s high society. Daniel and his sister live with a free Black family, their connection long and complicated. When Gamble arrives from the future and her presence puts them all at risk, Daniel must decide if he loves her enough to let her go. THE MINIATURIST’ S ASSISTANT explores the mystery of time, how our choices ripple throughout history, and what it means to be a fully-realized woman— in any century.

Katherine Scott Crawford is the award-winning author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant and Keowee Valley. A former backpacking guide, adjunct professor, and recovering academic, her newspaper column appeared weekly across the country and abroad, including in USA Today, The Detroit Free Press, the Herald Scotland, and more. Winner of a North Carolina Arts Award in fiction, she holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She’d rather be in the woods with her dog than anywhere else, enjoys curious people, adventure, and snow—and believes historical fiction the best way to time travel. An eleventh-generation Southerner, she directs writing retreats at a remote mountain lodge in Western North Carolina, where she lives with her family.

Heather Bell Adams is the author of two novels, Maranatha Road (West Virginia University Press 2017) and The Good Luck Stone (Haywire Books 2020) and a novella, Starring Marilyn Monroe as Herself (forthcoming from Regal House Publishing). Maranatha Road won the gold medal for the Southeast region in the Independent Publisher Book Awards and was selected for Deep South Magazine’s Fall/Winter Reading List. The Good Luck Stone appeared on Summer Reading Lists for Deep South Magazine, Writer’s Bone, The Big Other and Buzz Feed and won Best Historical Novel post-1900 in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.