Sandra Orchard Books In Order

Publication Order of Port Aster Secrets Books

Publication Order of Serena Jones Mystery Books

Publication Order of Undercover Cops Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library Books

Publication Order of Amish Inn Mysteries Books

Sandra Orchard is an award-winning Canadian author best known for the writing of romantic suspense novels. As a Christian writer, she is active in many Canadian Christian Writer Guilds including The Word Guild, Romance Writers of America, and American Christian Fiction Writers. She had always dreamed of becoming an author from a very young age. Even as a math major at university, she never gave up hope of one day becoming a writer. Even while she was taking care of her children, she enrolled in a writing course and wrote many articles and reviews for a homeschooling newsletter. However, she never published any fiction until the death of her mother, when she found Christian fiction. Reading about people just like her who battled with frustrations, yearnings, and questions that she was facing, and eventually emerge victorious rekindled her hope and passion in writing. She still never took the leap despite the mountain of Christian fiction she had read piling up in her house. It was until her husband suggested that he would like to read some of her works that the flame was lit under her feet. Her husband’s trust in her was the spark that she needed, and six years later Sandra had signed her first writing contract, just on the day her daughter was reporting to college. She now had all the time in the world to concentrate on writing – she had in essence graduated from homeschool teacher to career writer.

As a child, Sandra Orchard was never a very religious child even though her neighbors would take her to Sunday School together with their kids. In fact, she never understood the words of the Apostle’s creed until she was 15 and went to the screening of the popular movie, “A Thief in the Night”. For a person so passionate about her religious beliefs she had no inkling that the Christian faith believed that the return of Jesus was imminent. She was soon attending a youth group and reading the Bible with expositions from a youth pastor. Soon after, she became a born again Christian dedicating herself to the Christian life and walk. Orchard asserts that becoming a Christian is one of the best things that ever happened to her as she found many opportunities to mentor others and to be mentored by some of the best Christian mentors. Her faith has been a critical component in raising her children, and providing the support she needs in navigating the perilous journey that is professional writing. She has always been determined to make a success of a writing career even as she left it in God’s hands. She credits God with showing her that the journey to becoming someone was just as important as the destination. She uses her writing to teach her children perseverance, and minister to people who may be undergoing trying times. Through her writing, she also finds an avenue to open conversations with non-believers that she regularly meets with at non-Christian writing groups and forums.

Sandra Orchard’s novels are romantic inspirational, mystery/suspense novels that keep the reader guessing at who the villain will turn out to be. Faith plays a critical role in all the series as the characters, particularly the lead are usually believers that have to deal with some aspect of their faith being challenged at some point in the narrative. Most of the settings and challenges are typically, what the author has lived in or gone through, even as they are for the most part fictionalized. Orchard manages to write a very well balanced novel that does not come across as too preachy, by remaining true to the essentials of sense of danger and suspense in the story, even as she transmits her message of hope and trust in God in the overarching story. Her lead characters such as Kate Adams of the Port Aster Secrets series and Serena Jones of the Serena Jones Mystery series are fiercely loyal people. They believe the best about people, love their family and friends selflessly, and will stay true to them regardless of the consequences. She contrasts this with other characters such as Tom, who believes that experience is a better barometer and having been burned before, believes people are rarely what they appear to be. What make the characters so admirable are the lengths they will go to in trying to uncover the truth.

“Deadly Devotion” by Sandra Orchard is a delicious mystery set in a small picturesque town near the Canadian border with the United States. In a story full of suspense and intrigue, Orchard will have you guessing throughout the novel, as she tells the story of the life and times of the sleuthing and romantic life of Kate Adams the lead character. On the brink of a major breakthrough on their research for a herbal remedy for depression, Daisy her colleague dies under mysterious circumstances. The police rule the death as a suicide. Kate is not convinced and vows to find out who killed her mentor and friend. Meanwhile, Tom Parker, a former FBI agent is finding life back in Port Aster hard, despite getting a detective job with the local police force. Things get even more complicated for Tom when Kate demands that the case on her friend be reopened against police protocol. Even as he is attracted to the feisty Kate, he thinks that she carries a look of suspicion herself. What follows is an intricate web of intrigue as Tom and Kate dance around each other while the evidence mounts.

“Blind Trust” is one of Sandra Orchard’s most exciting of books in the Port Aster Secrets novels. A sequel to the first novel, it can be read as a continuation of Deadly Devotion or as a standalone title. The novel is full of the red herrings, romance, and rogue characters that were in the earlier novel. Kate no longer knows who to trust after a seemingly innocuous neighbor saddled her with counterfeit money, which could land her in hot water with the ever-vigilant Detective Tom Parker. As a character that always thinks the best of everyone, she is determined to prove that her neighbor did not have knowledge that the money she had given her was counterfeit. But she soon learns that people are not what they seem to be when she stumbles into a long held secret that turns out to be even deeper than a simple case of money counterfeiting. It gets even worse when she finds that the secret hits closer to home than she first thought, threatening the budding romance between her and Detective Tom.