Tess Rothery Books in Order

If you want the main Taylor Quinn arc: Assault and Batting → Bound and Deceased → Cups and Killers
If you want a short prequel first: A Stitch in Crime → Assault and Batting
If you want a quirky cat mystery: A Deadly Affair in Petit-Paris
If you want a new lakeside sleuth: Romance is Dead

Tess Rothery is the cozy mystery name used by Traci Hilton, a Portland, Oregon, born writer with deep roots in the Pacific Northwest. She studied history at Portland State University and now lives in Washington State, where her author bios reliably circle back to the same comforts: rain, coffee, a dog nearby, and something mysterious to read.

Before Tess Rothery started appearing on cozy covers, Hilton had already built a long writing life. Conference and rights materials describe her as the author of more than 30 titles across general-market and Christian mystery, written under both Tess Rothery and Traci Tyne Hilton. She also teaches publishing at conferences and writers' groups, which gives her career a practical, working-writer shape.

There is a theater thread in her background, too. Hilton has a Drammy from the Portland Civic Theatre Guild, and that stage experience helps explain the lively dialogue, quick scene turns, and character-first energy that run through her fiction.

She has been indie publishing since 2010.

That long stretch of hands-on work matters. Before the quilt shop books, she had already written series such as Plain Jane and Mitzy Neuhaus as Traci Tyne Hilton, while Tess Rothery became the home for her general-market cozies. The split makes sense once you read the books. The voice stays warm and approachable, but the Rothery stories lean hard into small towns, everyday relationships, and murders that upset the whole local rhythm.

Hilton's career also has some solid milestones behind it. She won the Mystery/Suspense category in the 2012 Christian Writers of the West Phoenix Rattler Contest, served two terms as vice president of the Portland chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers, and has spent years helping other writers understand modern publishing. She is not just someone who writes mysteries. She is also someone who clearly likes figuring out how books get made, sold, and sustained.

As Tess Rothery, she writes cozies that mix family strain, romance, and handmade worlds. Assault and Batting begins the Taylor Quinn Quilt Shop series with Taylor Quinn returning home after her mother's death, and that blend of grief, duty, and small-town gossip powers the books that follow. Bound and Deceased, Dutch Hex, and Emperor's New Quilt keep the quilting angle front and center, but readers who stay with the series tend to remember Taylor's family, the town of Comfort, Oregon, and the way every case feels personal.

Rothery also likes a premise with a little extra wobble to it. A Deadly Affair in Petit-Paris gives readers Birdie Idlebrick, a displaced aristocrat, a murder, and a cat who may be more useful than any ordinary cat ought to be. Romance is Dead shifts to Miracle Lake Lodge, where Tori Crane and a young mortician named Sam dig into the death of a millionaire. Across the books, the recurring appeal is easy to spot: women doing the hard work of noticing things, communities that look cozy until they crack open, and a soft thread of romance beside the sleuthing.

Her own hobbies fit the fiction neatly.

Hilton quilts, knits, paints, teaches, and follows history podcasts, and those interests do real work on the page. Quilts, handmade objects, old stories, and local history are not there just for decoration. They help set mood, shape motive, and give the mysteries a grounded everyday texture. She still writes from the rainy edge of the Pacific Northwest, and it shows in books full of weather, coffee, comfort, and the uneasy idea that even the nicest little town can hide more than it lets on.