Sally Gunning Books In Order

Publication Order of Peter Bartholomew Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Satucket Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Sally Gunning is a history enthusiast from the United States that writes historical fiction. Also writing novels as Sally Cabot, Gunning is best known for the ‘Satucket’ series.

+Biography
Sally Gunning spent many years writing fiction under the ‘Sally Gunning’ name. So it came as something of a surprise to her fans when she wrote and published ‘Benjamin Franklin’s Bastard’ under the ‘Sally Cabot’ name.

The author had to come out in some interviews to assure everyone that Sally Gunning and Sally Cabot where the same person.

Interestingly enough, the pen name came about when Gunning began working with a new agent called Kris Dahl.

Kris, who worked with International Creative Management, noted that Gunning had written over a dozen novels in a series set in Cape Cod. And now she was moving forward with ‘Benjamin Franklin’s Bastard’, a new standalone novel that had nothing to do with Cape Cod and its characters.

According to Kris, it made all the sense in the world to deploy ‘Benjamin Franklin’s Bastard’ under a new pseudonym. That way, old readers would realize that the novel was something entirely different while new fans that did not care for the Cape Cod books could approach the volume without any bias.

Regardless of one’s opinion of the pseudonym, Sally Gunning is a renowned name in the historical fiction genre. She is best known for her stories that feature prominent figures from America’s history.

The lifelong resident of New England was drawn to history from a very young age. Gunning was a voracious reader. And she only began to write because she ran out of books to read one random, rainy day.

So rather than rereading Dr. Seuss and his ilk, she decided to put a few poems on paper. By the time she progressed to ‘Catcher in the Rye’, Gunning felt like she was finally ready to produce full-length fiction.

Of course, life had other plans. It wasn’t until Sally Gunning left college that she finally sat down to write her first book.

By then, she had lived a full and varied life that involved stints on a cruise ship where she worked as a stewardess.

She also spent some time guiding tourists in a War Museum. Sally Gunning was working at a country doctor’s office when she started writing seriously.

The work initially kept the author quite busy. But then her employer, the doctor, started taking one extra day off every single week.

It was that extra day that Gunning used to write. She had a typewriter that she would place in the dining room. Her friends and family knew not to bother her once she closed those doors.

They knew that she would not call or clean or do laundry or participate in any activity that took her away from her writing. She didn’t go to the beach or have lunches either.

Gunning knew one undeniable truth. She might have experimented with the activity when she was so much younger but as an adult, Gunning did not know how to write.

So she had a lot of work to do over a relatively short period of time. Gunning would have loved to emulate the writing styles of legends like Harper Lee.

But she lowered her expectations. The author set her sights on standards of quality set by the likes of the Hardy Boys because those were attainable.

And when she actually wrote the first words of her first book, she knew that the story that would unfold over time was merely a checkpoint on the way to publishing success, a tool that might not get her noticed but which would help her master the basics of writing.

She was certain that her debut novel would never actually sell. However, not only did she succeed in teaching herself how to write but she actually landed a book deal, one that buried her in additional contracts that saw her write mystery fiction for the next decade.

It was a startling change of pace but the author acclimated to it well enough. And as her writing abilities grew, she began to yearn for greater challenges.

Her transition into the historical fiction genre wasn’t surprising, though. Sally Gunning lived in Brewster, Massachusetts, Cape Cod with her husband.
Her ancestors had come to the area centuries earlier and Gunning was well aware that her home was steeped in history.

She often walked the ancient Indian trails and visited the local Colonial houses. Before Gunning started yearning to write historical fiction, she merely wanted to study history.

She would look out of their window, ponder on the lives that had been lived in Cape Cod in times past, and find herself wanting to know more.

So she began to read history. She poured over the historical tomes of Cape Cod and the biographies of its most renowned figures.

Then she began to read her own family history and that led her down a rabbit trail that gave birth to novels like ‘The Widow’s War’.

Sally Gunning writes historical fiction because she loves history. The historical stories she produces are born from her musings over the adventures her favorite historical figures probably undertook but which were never documented.

+The Widow’s War
Lyddie has been married to Edward Berry for two decades. And whenever Edward, a Whaler, goes out to sea, Lyddie has no guarantee that he will return.

Still, she does what she can to live a fulfilling existence in Satucket, a Cape Cod village.

When Lyddie’s worst fears come to pass, she must contend both with her grief and the instability of her future.

With her husband gone, everything Lyddie owns is transferred into the hands of her daughter’s overbearing husband.

Lyddie will fight both tradition and the law to reclaim her destiny.

+Bound
Alice Cole grew up in a crowded home in London. When she was seven, her father decided to take the family to the colonies where they hoped to find greener pastures.

But Alice’s mother and brothers died along the way. And having lost so much on the journey, when they arrived in New England, Alice’s father bound her in servitude to pay off his debts, unaware of the unexpected twists and turns her life would take as a result.

2 Responses to “Sally Gunning”

1. Judith Watts: 2 years ago

   LOVE her historical novels. I hope she plans to continue.
   Judith Watts
   Dennis Village

   Reply
2. Mary Dee: 3 years ago

   Someone at the Yarmouthport Library recommended
   reading Sally Gunning’s books,

   Reply