Connie di Marco Books In Order

Publication Order of Zodiac Mystery Books

Connie di Marco is the American author of many mystery novels under the nom de plume Connie Archer. She is a nationally best-selling author of the Soup Lovers Mystery series published by Berkely Prime Crime that includes A Spoonful of Murder and the follow-up three novels a Brother of Betrayal, A Roux of Revenge, and the series-ender Ladle to the Grave. A fifth book will be published in the series.

Connie Archer has also appeared in different roles in television and film under her professional name. However, she has been interested in mystery and thriller fiction and media for a very long time. She belongs to the Sisters in Crime group, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers group. Connie di Marco currently resides in the Los Angeles area of California.

Connie di Marco has also written the Zodiac Mystery series, which features an astrological element in combination with a classic murder mystery genre. The first book in this series is titled The Madness of Mercury and was published in 2016 by Midnight Ink. The second book in the series is called All Signs Point to Murder and was published by Midnight Ink in 2017.

In The Madness of Mercury, the main character is Julia Bonatti. She works as an astrologer in the city of San Francisco. She absolutely loves her job and is not too upset about her life either– she has great friends and the perfect place to live that she just loves. However, she and the rest of the city are coming into Mercury in retrograde, and it is expected to be a rough time for everyone that will test the will and bring misfortune and tricks.

Julia gets a letter from a reader of her Zodiac column in the newspaper about the Prophet cult and makes it a featured reply suggesting that Reverend Roy is swindling an old woman out of her money. It’s a bad move, but how is she to know that Reverend Roy is really that crazy? Well, he’s now gunning for her.

Julia becomes a target of the man and followers of the Prophet don’t just stop with her– they start attacking her house, her friends, and her business. The authorities refuse to help and seem to either be bribed by him or just not wanting to incur the wrath of such an intimidating figure that clearly will overstep bounds and threaten.

Sure enough, Julia is driven out of her apartment during a turn for the worse when Mercury comes into retrograde. She’s lucky to be able to take shelter with a client caring for two older aunts. One is sick with dementia, but the other may just be under the spell of Reverend Roy, a new cult leader that leads the Prophet’s Tabernacle. When Julia finds herself the target of this cult leader, things take a turn for the worse.

A young man shows up at the home claiming to be a nephew that was long last. But they just aren’t sure if he’s a member of the family and is who he says he is. As things get more dangerous, Julia wonders if astrology can help her figure out this newcomer’s true identity. They are in the period of Mercury in retrograde. Julia knows first-hand that Mercury was more than just a messenger of the gods. He was a trickster and liar too.

Besides that, Dorothy is having troubles caring for the two aunts because one wants to move to Prophets Paradise and the aunt who isn’t in a cult, Evandra, won’t stop accusing her niece of trying to murder her. Julia decides to check astrology charts for them and it doesn’t look good. Then the older gardener dies and it is not only horrible but a suspicious death on top of that. Things begin to get worse if that’s even possible.

Julia must help her friend out, but what chance does she have against the power of Mercury in retrograde? Julia is about to discover just how insane a plan the universe can have in store, and how far a group will go in order to protect their secrets.

All Signs Point to Murder is the second book in the Zodiac mystery series. Astrologer and San Francisco resident Julia Bonatti is back, although she could have never predicted what was about to happen– murder. Sure, she had been paying close attention to the astrological signs that were over Geneva Leary’s wedding plans, but she didn’t think that the stars had something so grand and horrific in mind.

Besides, it is Geneva Leary’s wedding day, and Julia has chosen to support the bride as a bridesmaid and leave her paranoid fears about the astrological signs aside. Even if it is a foreboding Moon-Mars-Pluto three for one combination lineup in the heavens that mean bad news. But Julia doesn’t want to speak up and ruin the mood, and no is consulting her for a mystical opinion about the day, so she says nothing. Not a lot of people even believe in astrology anyway.

But no one is prepared the grand array of events that end up going down. There is a sister that doesn’t even show up for the ceremony, and then there is the wedding planner who is completely passed out. Then, of course, a shooting in the middle of the night that ends up being lethal. Pretty much the worst wedding trio of bad luck wedding events that you could get. Could the stars have more coming in the future for them? Julia feels terrible for not warning her friend about this, but even she never expected the events occurring to be that extreme.

Julia sees all the upset people and the grief that the Leary family are suffering and wonders just how something like this could have happened. Sure, she thought the combination of the Moon and Mars and Pluto spelled bad news, but even the planet alignments seem to be putting in motion something that is already there. But family secrets are hidden for a reason, and Julia vows to use her gifts in astrology and readings to get through it all and truly find out what happened. What she finds, in the end, may shock her.