Dallas author Katie Bernet is returning to a familiar literary world with another murder mystery.
Announced this week, her next novel, Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, reimagines Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. It is scheduled for publication May 4, 2027, according to publisher Simon & Schuster.
The novel follows Mary Lennox back to Misselthwaite Manor, where she witnessed her aunt’s murder as a child. Her return brings unresolved questions about the killing and the family she has come back to find.
Bernet previewed the project during a September interview with KETR’s The Lede at Brittany’s Favorite Things, a book fair for grown-ups in Melissa, Texas. That conversation, recorded before this week’s announcement, focused largely on her debut, Beth Is Dead, and the challenges of giving beloved characters new lives.
For Bernet, readers’ familiarity with the originals offers an additional pleasure, but she also wants newcomers to enjoy the stories on their own terms.
“It’s just Easter eggs if you do know,” she said.
A different fate for Beth March
Bernet knew Beth March was going to die before she ever read Little Women. A friend’s older sister spoiled the story.
Years later, that knowledge helped inspire Beth Is Dead, which turns Louisa May Alcott’s novel into a modern mystery thriller. Beth is found murdered in the opening chapter, leaving her sisters to discover what happened.
“I had this idea, like what if I turned it into a murder and explored that angle of it?” Bernet said.
Having grown up loving Little Women, Bernet understood the risks of changing characters readers had cherished for generations. Her affection for the sisters also gave her confidence to explore who they might become as contemporary teenagers while preserving their essential personalities.
“I’m not an outsider coming in,” she said.
Her own experience as the oldest of three sisters entered the story, sometimes without her realizing it. Reading an early draft, her sisters recognized lines of dialogue drawn from things they had said.
Five manuscripts before the debut
Before becoming a full-time novelist, Bernet worked as a copywriter and creative director in Dallas.
Advertising taught her to generate many ideas without expecting every one to succeed. Writing commercials also meant learning to tell a story in 60 seconds and capture an audience’s attention quickly—useful practice for a novelist developing hooks and twists.
Still, Beth Is Dead was her sixth manuscript.
The first five brought signs of progress, including signing with an agent and receiving an opportunity to revise for an editor, without producing a published book.
Bernet kept writing because she wanted to reach that goal. New ideas also made it difficult to stop.
“Even when I felt like giving up, like another one would hit me,” she said.
She credits the DFW Writers Workshop with providing both practical feedback and encouragement over more than a decade.
“I would not be a published author without that group,” Bernet said.
When she considered quitting, fellow writers helped her recognize her potential and continue.
Finding courage in Beth
Brittany Morin-Mezzadri, who grew up in New England reading Little Women, joined the conversation with questions about Bernet’s connection to the March sisters.
For years, Bernet had identified with Jo, recognizing both her literary interests and her temper. Writing Beth Is Dead changed her perspective. She began to see herself in Beth, too.
Morin-Mezzadri asked what Bernet admired in a character whose quieter personality can be overshadowed by her sisters—and by her death.
“I really aspire to her selflessness,” Bernet said.
She also came to appreciate Beth’s willingness to acknowledge that she had not yet figured out her dreams or who she wanted to become.
“I think she has a bravery that’s often overlooked,” Bernet said.
Writing the novel gave Bernet room to explore Beth’s life as well as her death. The story’s two timelines include scenes from before the murder, allowing Bernet to write from Beth’s perspective.
Bringing the sisters into the present
Updating the March sisters meant reconsidering how their personalities and ambitions would translate into modern life.
Jo, Bernet said, makes a natural Gen Z teenager. The traits that made her unconventional in the 1800s might make her less unusual among her peers today.
Meg’s desire for a better life raised another question. If marrying someone wealthy was her answer in the original setting, what possibilities would she pursue now?
“So it was fun to ask myself those questions,” Bernet said.
With Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, Bernet is bringing that approach to another classic: familiar characters, a different setting for their struggles, and a mystery at the center.
Above, hear Jerrod Knight’s conversation with Katie Bernet, with additional questions from Brittany Morin-Mezzadri, on the October 30 edition of The Lede on 88.9 KETR.
