Nancy Tingley Books In Order

Publication Order of Jenna Murphy Books

Publication Order of History Books

Nancy Tingley is an author of fiction. In addition to penning mystery novels starring young art curator Jenna Murphy, Tingley herself is an expert on Asian art. She has also written several books on the subject and collaborated with several other authors on art pertaining to ancient Vietnam, southeast Asia, India, and more.

Tingley is known for writing the Jenna Murphy Mystery series. The series kicked off with the release of the first novel in the series, which is titled A Head in Cambodia. The main character Jenna Murphy is a young woman who works as a curator. Follow her adventures through the first book and the second as well, A Death in Bali.

Read the first book in the Jenna Murphy series and you will instantly see what Nina Schuyler means when she describes this debut novel as a ‘spellbinding mystery’ that works to weave lush language and the Asian art world and thrills together into one beautiful tapestry of what The Translator author is calling richly rendered scenes.

Schuyler warns that reading this book will be tough because they may wish that the story never ends! Fortunately, there is more than one book in this engaging series that is intimately laced with Asian artifacts and history.

A Head in Cambodia is the exciting first novel in Nancy Tingley’s fictional series. Here you can experience all the excitement of an international trip without ever leaving your home town! The main character in this novel is Jenna Murphy. She works as a curator, a very fulfilling job for a young woman like her.

Jenna has no idea that when a stone head of Radha shows up at her museum that it will lead to a murder. .The Cambodian head is of the consort to Krishna and was made in the eleventh century. It is certainly as alluring as it is valuable, and a wonderful new addition to the Searles Museum. Murphy has no idea that when the Cambodian piece of art shows up there that it will be the start of a timeline that draws her deeply into a mystery.

When it comes to her own field of expertise, Jenna is a curator that specializes in Asian art. It’s the subject that she knows, and she has no experience when it comes to murder or solving mysteries. Jenna never really thought of herself as the potentially detecting type, so she finds this whole turn of events rather interesting.

However, she decides that the case is too important and intriguing to ignore. At the end of the day, she is concerned with discovering whether the head is genuine and has been taken from its original sculpted body or it is being fabricated– a knowing fake placed there for reasons unknown. But then a second decapitation occurs, and an art collector is dead.

Jenna Murphy is gradually becoming part of a deadly and intriguing mystery where the stakes are higher than ever. She has the skills necessary to become an art historian and curator to rival the ages; but these same skills for research and clues and attention to detail may just serve her a little too well when it comes to things like solving mysteries.

Jenna will travel to far away places like Thailand and Cambodia on her quest to find out whether the art piece is the real thing– and whether ultimately she will be able to solve the murder that started all of this. Through a world laced with risk and containing all types of people, from shop keepers to con artists to black market dealers and art collectors, Jenna must navigate an entirely different geographical area while on a quest to take down a killer.

She’s quickly coming up with more questions than answers, but when it comes to this murder case, does she have what it takes to finally crack it in the end? With the risks mounting and the threat of a killer coming around the corner always present, thrill seekers and suspense novel readers will certainly enjoy this first novel, set in Asia and focusing on art and murder and mystery alike!

A Death in Bali is the second novel in the Jenna Murphy Mystery series by Nancy Tingley. The shrewd and finely tuned observation skills of the young curator Jenna are back in this thrilling sequel of the series!

When it comes to the art world, no one knows Asian art better than Jenna Murphy. Readers were first introduced to this smart and focused curator in the debut novel, and since then Jenna has become much more savvy and even adventurous! Fresh off of an interesting murder mystery case, Jenna has cause to delve back into her work like never before.

She’s traveling to the town on Ubud, a tourist town in Indonesia. Her goal is to study Balinese painting from the early 20th century. However, when she gets there for the first time, the first thing that she sees is Flip Hendricks’ body– the ex-pat artist is speared and dead.

Horrified and shocked, Jenna goes to the police force. Soon she finds herself collaborating with an older friend on the force in order to try and track down the killer. She thinks that the killer may have had a motive as well: something to do with Flip Hendricks’ paintings.

However, Detective Wayan is not certain that is the case. She has no idea whether her hunch will prove correct or not, but when it comes to a paradise that is completely run over by tourists and outsiders, they’re going to have to figure it out fast if they want to protect the sheer number of people that show up every day.

When it comes to this case, are there other things out there working against them in this paradise? Jenna’s starting to suspect that being here may mean potentially risking her life. The threats to her safety cannot be denied, and she ultimately accepts her life is at risk.

Nancy Tingley brings her extensive knowledge of Asian art and her scholar’s eye to these two delightful novels! Check them both out and see why this murder mystery series with an emphasis on art is so engaging.