A threatened cemetery. An ancestor's will. Dark secrets revealed. Where heritage and power collide, some truths are too dangerous to print.
Reporter Leni Spencer's investigation into the sudden death of Muriel Banks, a beloved town matriarch, unearths missing records and buried secrets in her Missouri hometown. Muriel's daughter, Elizabeth Banks, is shattered by grief. Determined to honor her mother's memory by preserving a neglected Black cemetery, she turns to Leni for help. The trail leads them, to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, where a Monacan elder-a memory keeper-guards stories that could shift the balance of power back home.
What they uncover is more than genealogy-it's a trail of land disputes, political ambition, and a vanished will that could alter the future of the town. Mayor Coralee Coleman has her own plans for the cemetery land, and not everyone welcomes the truths Leni stirs up.
Detective Doug Joseph-both an ally in the investigation and the man who has captured Leni's heart-urges her to leave the sleuthing to him. But Leni knows that Muriel's dream is slipping away. To protect the past, and the people she loves, she must decide how far she's willing to go.
But some histories were meant to stay hidden. As old grievances collide with present-day ambitions, Leni must decide how much truth to reveal-before the past rewrites the future.
The Past Is Not at Rest is a heartland mystery about history that refuses to stay buried, the bonds of community, and the courage it takes to confront uncomfortable truths.

Katherine Bennett has always been drawn to the stories history leaves behind. A lifelong lover of community, heritage, and narrative, she has worked as a teacher, journalist, stained glass artist, and nonprofit leader-roles that sharpened her eye for detail and deepened her curiosity about how ordinary people confront extraordinary circumstances.
Her Heartland to Hometown Mysteries series blends the intimacy of small-town Midwestern life with richly researched history and the thrill of travel. In the first book, The Next Great Discovery, and its sequel, The Past Is Not at Rest, Bennett weaves genealogy, preservation, and suspense into page-turning mysteries that explore how the past continues to shape the present.
Originally from the Midwest, Bennett has also lived in Virginia, California, Georgia, Missouri, and Louisiana. These places-and the archives, cemeteries, and communities she has explored along the way-provide authentic backdrops for her fiction. When she isn't writing, she can often be found tracing forgotten names through courthouse records, wandering historic sites, or swapping stories with readers who share her fascination with uncovering hidden histories.
Now based in Illinois, she continues to write, research, and imagine new mysteries that invite readers to puzzle out the truth alongside her determined journalist-sleuth, Leni Spencer.
For information about books in progress, bios of characters, and more, visit her website at https://kbennettauthor.com