Sarah Woolson Mysteries Books In Order

Publication Order of Sarah Woolson Books

The Sarah Woolson Mysteries novel series is a popular series of historical fiction, mystery, thriller, historical mystery, and cozy mystery books. It is written by a notable American writer named Shirley Tallman. The series is comprised of 5 books in total published between 2004 and 2012. Each of the novels in this exciting series features the chief protagonist in the role of Sarah Woolson. Author Tallman has depicted Sarah as an attorney living in the 19th century San Francisco. The books are primarily set in the 1880s in San Francisco, California. Throughout the course of the series, Sarah Woolson is seen as taking up several cases of mystery, mostly involving murder, and solving them with the best usage of her skills and intelligence. Shirley Tallman has described Sarah Woolson as a young lady having life-goals and possessing the fortitude for achieving them. Sarah always dreamed about becoming an attorney at law and takes a great pride when she successfully achieves her dream.

While serving the law, Sarah also fights against the societal stereotypes, who believe that women only belong in homes and are meant to look after household chores and bear children. Sarah strives to prove men with such thinking wrong. She also makes sure to prove her point that it is natural and not against God’s will for a woman to seek a respectable career like men. A number of other exciting characters are mentioned by Tallman in this series that are seen supporting the lead character. Some of the essential ones include Eddie, Leonard Godfrey, Caroline Godfrey, Robert Campbell, Killy Doyle, Madame Olga Karpova, Frederick, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Woolson, etc. Each of the books of the series became famous all over the world and received huge praises and appreciations from the readers. The books were also liked by numerous critics and fellow writers, who enjoyed the excellent depiction of the storyline and characters by Shirley Tallman. The tremendous success helped author Tallman in becoming a noteworthy author of the historical fiction genre. She grew as a writer and became more confident in her abilities to write mystery stories. This series’ success also enabled Tallman to start working on other projects, which she is expected to release in the days to come.

Shirley Tallman is a noteworthy author and screenwriter from Oregon, United States. She has achieved a lot of fame with her maiden historical mystery book series featuring Sarah Woolson. The series has made her very popular among the fans of mystery stories. In addition to writing this series, Tallman has penned some standalone novels under a nom du plume of Erin Ross. Tallman received a lot of praise for her portrayal of Sarah Woolson as an outspoken attorney. Her depiction of the protagonist as a determined and feisty lawyer, who faces off against the critics and gives her best in fighting for her clients has been highly appreciated by one and all.

The debut book of the Sarah Woolson Mystery series written by author Shirley Tallman is entitled ‘Murder on Nob Hill’. It was published in 2004 by the Minotaur Books. The book’s plot takes place in San Francisco, California at the time of the year 1880. At the book’s start, it is mentioned that Sarah Woolson graduates from law college and goes to appear for an interview in one of the most prestigious law firms in the city. Neither her close ones, nor anyone else had any hopes that she would get hired as a lawyer in a male-dominated society. But, Sarah succeeds in achieving the unthinkable. Her employer thinks that she has everything in her that make up a good lawyer. With the help of a little bit of subterfuge and her smartness, Sarah Woolson not only becomes the newest and only associate attorney of the firm, but she also bags her first client immediately after getting hired. Sarah’s client is a beautiful, young, and rich society matron, who faces the accusation of brutally stabbing her rich and abusive husband to death.

Everyone thinks that the woman is the culprit and she killed her husband for personal benefit. But, Sarah has other opinions. She thinks that her client is innocent and doesn’t have any role to play in the murder of her abusive husband. But, when it is revealed that the woman had a secret lover, it becomes very difficult for Sarah to prove her innocence. Later, four other murders take place in the city in the same manner. It becomes clear that the killer has some other agenda at hand. Sarah Woolson fears that she might have landed herself in a great danger as the killer has also cited her as a target. As Sarah attempts everything in her capacity to solve this murder mystery, she finds herself embroiled in much more she can handle. She continues to look for clues and evidences for proving her client’s innocence, and prevent the killer from the life other innocent people.

The next installment of this series is called ‘The Russian Hill Murders’. It was also released by Minotaur Books. This book features the primary characters as Robert Campbell, Killy Doyle, Leonard Godfrey, Sarah Woolson, Caroline Godfery, and a few others. At the story’s beginning, it is described that Sarah’s mother repeatedly pleads her to give up her law practice and settle down. Her chauvinistic employer keeps looking for spiteful ways for pressurizing the only female lawyer of the firm to quit. But, Sarah doesn’t give up and shows the determination to keep fighting as long as she can. Also, she doesn’t intend to remain far from any action. Shortly after, Sarah gets an interesting case to solve. She comes to know that the wife of a rich society entrepreneur, Leonard Godfrey, has dropped dead due to heart attack while she was attending a charity event. Sarah senses some foul play and becomes curious to more about the case. She seems pretty much confident that Caroline Godfrey has not died of natural causes, but no one seems to believe her.

Sarah’s theory starts making sense to others when several others involved with the charitable organization start dropping dead. In the meantime, Sarah is approached by a pregnant widow, whose husband died in a fire incident where he was working. She asks for help in finding the shop’s owner so that she can claim compensation for her loss. Sarah’s boss orders her not to accept this case, but she doesn’t listen to his orders. Sarah takes the assistance of a colleague named Robert Campbell and a young cab driver called Eddie, and goes on the manhunt for finding Killy Doyle. Also, she tries to reveal the identity of the killer, who is killing the members of the charitable trust one by one. Once again, she puts her life in danger, but doesn’t fear about her life as long as she is able to serve justice.