About Jo Brooks
Indiana author. Mystery reader. Cat person. Writer of the kind of books that make you feel warm and safe and just unsettled enough to keep turning pages.
The Writer Behind Kiln Creek
Jo Brooks has been reading mysteries her whole life. Not just cozy mysteries — though those have always had a particular pull — but the full spectrum of the genre, from golden age classics to modern thrillers. She read her way through libraries, through bookstores, through every "if you liked that, try this" recommendation she could find. Eventually, she started wondering what it would feel like to write one.
The Kiln Creek Mysteries started with a place. Jo has family in Kentucky — she knows the particular quality of the foothills, the way small towns hold their histories close, the tension between the people who've always been there and the people who arrived and decided to stay. She wanted to write a town that felt genuinely lived-in. Kiln Creek grew from that impulse.
The characters came next. Frankie arrived fully formed — messy, magnetic, unable to leave well enough alone. Monty showed up shortly after, uninvited, and immediately took over. That felt right. That's how cats work.
Jo lives in Indiana with her wife and their two cats, who serve as both creative consultants and professional distractions. She writes the kind of books she most loves to read — stories where community matters, where found family is as real as blood family, where the mystery is genuinely puzzling and the ending feels earned. Warm books with a dark streak. Cozy books where something real is at stake.
The Kiln Creek Mysteries is her debut series. All six books are written. She cannot wait for you to meet Frankie, Monty, and the rest of The Mystery Dispatch.
There's something about a cozy mystery that other genres can't quite replicate — that feeling of safety even when things are genuinely dangerous. The community holds. The friendships hold. The cat judges everyone and somehow that makes everything better.— Jo Brooks on why she writes cozy mysteries
Keep Up With Jo & Kiln Creek
The best way to hear about new releases, behind-the-scenes news, and the occasional Monty update.