Anne Emery Books In Order

Publication Order of Collins-Burke Mystery Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Anne Emery is a published Canadian author.

Anne was born in Halifax. She attended St. F.X. University for a few years and graduated, then attending Dalhousie Law School. She was a lawyer and then a legal affairs reporter/researcher.

Emery is not just a published author. She has a lot of interests, one of them being reading. The others include learning about Irish history, travel, philosophy, architecture, and music. She resides in Halifax with her family.

Anne Emery is the creator and author of the Collins-Burke Mystery series. This series kicked off for the first time in 2006 with the release of the debut novel. The sequel, titled Obit, came out the next year. There have since been several more books published in the series and it is quite popular. The tenth book came out in 2018 and is titled Through The Heavens Fall.

Sign of the Cross is the debut novel in the Collins-Burke series of fiction. Here readers get to meet the main character of Monty Collins for the first time.

The saying goes that you should be careful just what it is that you’re wishing for. Monty’s mother used to have a fondness for this saying. He always took it as being a vague warning, but that hasn’t stopped him from wishing for things over the years.

Mostly, he wishes to have a client come his way that does not have any tattoos, is able to articulate their sentences well, and has a level of intelligence. He always made it his mission to defend those that belonged to the lower class for two decades, yet you can’t blame him for wanting to change things up once in a while.

Even though his mother warned him against being careful about what you wish for, Monty has now find that he has a client just like he wanted. How relevant could warnings like that really be? Still, he has a little bit of worry in the back of his head– what if his mom was right?

Monty hopes that in this one case the warning will not come true. But it turns out that it might just come true yet. His client is Brennan Burke, a priest. While he was born as a baby in Ireland, his family moved to New York where he was raised. Traveling the world further still, he received his education in Rome. As a result, the Father has a fluent tongue in Latin and also knows the common tongue spoken there by locals on the street.

He is a man of the world and of God, but now Father Brennan is facing a new challenge. It appears that the murder of a young girl has all eyes turned towards him, as he is now the main suspect in the case. The girl was attractive and on her body it was discovered that a religious sign had been carved into her.

Naturally, suspicion makes its way to the priest. This could be a set up, and the father has now come to Monty for help. Ever since the very first time that they met, the lawyer has had his doubts. Instead of finding his client a pleasure to work with– as he hoped initially thanks to the fulfilled qualities he had hoped for being apparent in this individual– Monty views Brennan as being arrogant and even acerbic in nature.

On top of all of that, he seems to be uncomfortable and even evasive when Monty questions him about how he knows the victim. Monty would rather be on the same page as his client, but how is that supposed to happen when the father does not appear to be answering questions in a straight forward way?

It’s clear that this attorney has his work cut out for him. As he struggles to try and work with his client, Monty is doing his best to try and get some answers out of his client so that he can go ahead and defend him. This is becoming steadily more difficult as they always seem to be having some type of conflict between them– and the tension and the evidence against him only seem to rise.

It seems that the end result will be Burke being charged with murder. Monty does not want to see that happen, but with the priest continuing the course of staying mum when it comes to the past, there might be no other way that this thing concludes.

The lawyer is left with no other choice– he has to go ahead and dig into his client’s background to get the answers that he needs. He would rather get the answers from his client, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. He’s won cases in the past, but this one might finally be the one to get away from him.

He’s lacking for answers, but when some new information surfaces about an incident from long ago, will he be able to rise to victory? Or will he go up in flames, just like his client? Find out for yourself by picking up this thrilling debut novel in an awesome crime fiction series.

Obit is the exciting second book in this fun mystery series from Anne Emery. In the last book, we met Collins, a lawyer based out of Halifax. He fights the good fight and always does his best to try and represent his clients to the best of his ability.

Forty years before, Declan Burke left Ireland in a hurry. Once he started his new life in New York, it was full steam ahead and he decided to forget the past. When he reads an obituary, Declan realizes that it is a message making him a target.

Monty decides to investigate this case and the obituary. Burke’s offering no help or info thanks to his past with the IRA. When a shooting at a family wedding occurs, Burke may be more involved in this than the lawyer would like to believe.

When a body is discovered in Brooklyn, is Burke’s old commanding officer from Dublin to blame? Is Burke being manipulated secretly? Read this book to find out!

2 Responses to “Anne Emery”

1. Brian Lahey: 9 months ago

   This Irish history and everything that has gone on makes me glad that in Canada we did’t go through any strife to form our country. Just a bunch of guys in Charlestown got together and drew up a charter and the Crown said eh whatever and here we are. What I’d like to know is the tit.e of the next book after Though the Heavens Fall which I enjoyed. I need to see ( read) what happens to our good Father Burke.

   Reply
2. Kathy Birt: 1 year ago

   Hi Anne: I met you in Charlottetown in 2019, or maybe 2018 when the PEI writer’s Guild brought you here for a workshop at the Haviland Club. I have read all your Collins-Burke mysteries. I’m half way through Though the Heaven’s Fall. My goodness this book is so far removed from the others … I know at least one other book was set in the UK, but it had a really good mystery to it. I’m finding this book tedious. Just not a story I’m enjoying at all. Why did you decide to write about the IRA and all that past history at this time? I do recall back in the day, all this being in the news, but at this time, have no interest in going back there. Maybe it is just me. I have had several books home from the library since last Nov. and only finished a couple. All others I took back without reading all of them. A few chapters in and I close the book. I do like to read familiar authors with familiar characters. And have loved all your books in the past. I’m just not enjoying this one at all. No big murder mystery to get into. I have no interest at all in Ireland and it’s people or landscape or past history. But, again, that is just me. You may have people who are reveling in this history lesson. And it is a past life of Monty and Maura, before they separated? IS it not? Just not sure I’m going to finish it. Again, I say it might be my own frame of mind this winter. I have a Tess Gerritsen book here, so may start it to see if I can get ‘into’ a good read.

   Reply