Sharon Pape Books In Order

Publication Order of An Abracadabra Mystery Books

Publication Order of A Portrait of Crime Mystery Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Sharon Pape is a popular American author best known for writing several paranormal and mystery novels. She first started writing as soon as she could read and write in the first grade. She was an early bloomer with serious literature, as she would write little plays that her friends would perform for family and friends, and even went as far as writing a novel when she was in grade seven. After finishing her college studies, she went on to tech Spanish and French in high school, while also penning some poetry on the side.

Sharon Pape would go on to teach for several years before she left to start a family. After her two children were old enough to go to school, Pape would go back to writing and found that she was just as good and that she loved it just as before. Her first novel titled “Ghostfire” was published in Redbook magazine. She would also go on to publish two more novels in quick succession and her first short story that she went on to be published in several foreign magazines. With a supporting and loving husband, a golden retriever, and two kids she felt that she had achieved most of what she set out to achieve. However, fate had different plans for Pape, as she would contract breast cancer not long after her writing career took off.

However, she was lucky to discover the cancer early even though she found it overwhelming at the time. Having overcome the illness, she became a volunteer with “American Cancer Society” where she run the Suffolk and Nassau counties Reach to Recovery programs. As a volunteer, she worked to help newly diagnosed women to deal with their diagnosis and the treatment processes. Several years later, she would start the “Lean On Me” nonprofit organization alongside two other volunteers and her surgical oncologist. The organization was to provide information and peer support to breast cancer patients. After she had been running “Lean On Me” for over a decade, she handed it over to other volunteers and decided to go back to her first love – writing.

Sharon Pape’s characters in her several novels are stubborn and impulsive characters who inherit either paranormal friends or property. Rory the lead in the “A Portrait of Crime Mystery” and Kailyn Wilde of the “An Abracadabra Mystery”, are lively independent female characters paired up with old fashioned and crotchety supporting characters that are old-fashioned. Kailyn is the last in the line of great sorcerers and wizards inherits her uncle’s magic shop and soon finds herself using her special abilities to try to solve crime. She teams up with a crotchety and charismatic investigative reporter from two centuries back, and together with her grumpy cat and Tilly her eccentric aunt they solve crimes in her hometown. Rory, who starts out as a police sketch artist, inherits her uncle’s old house, his detective agency, and Zeke Drummond an old ghost that had once served as a Federal Marshall in the nineteenth century. The lead characters are likable characters who tend to feel that they have something to prove given their backgrounds. The supporting characters are sexist, cantankerous, and old-fashioned though they serve as steadying influences on the leads.

Sharon Pape’s novels are fun detective mysteries interspersed with a little bit of the paranormal and quirky characters, which give them a lot of humor and personality. Zeke Drummond and Aunt Tilly are perfect old-fashioned characters dealing with strong and independent charges, who are determined to prove that they have what it takes to take over from them. The old-fashioned attitudes of the likes of Tilly and Drummond make for some zany humor as the lead characters’ sidekicks drive them nuts. Both Kailyn and Rory are extremely confused with how to use their friends and special abilities in ways they have never had to before. Visits from paranormal relatives in the typical small quirky town make for a great story, even if the novels are essentially detective mysteries looking to solve serious crimes. What is great about the novels is the challenge of the average person who faces the greatest challenge of their lives who uses their intuition to solve a case in the most unique and unusual of ways. You get the usual interesting background to the character and setting, and a decent twist that culminates in the resolution of the murder mystery in a highly satisfying conclusion.

“Sketch Me If You Can”, the first novel in the A Portrait of A Crime Mystery series opens to Rory McCain having to deal with the death of her uncle Mac. He has left her his estate, which includes his private investigation company and a huge Victorian mansion. Being a police sketch artist, she cannot take private assignments and hence starts reviewing her uncle’s unfinished cases, before she can hand them to another private investigative agency. However, one client will not accept to go to another agency, and she is forced to solve her case, albeit without any payment. But as she starts investigating the case, she soon discovers that she is not alone in her uncle’s Victorian house. The house is also home to Ezekiel “Zeke” Drummond, a 19th century federal marshal who insists on helping with the case. She finds him sexist, crotchety, and stubborn but finds she needs him more than she has ever needed anyone, once she becomes a target of a vicious killer that would do anything to keep the murder mystery just that.

“In To Sketch A Thief” Rory has finally agreed to let Zeke Drummond become her partner in helping her solve complex cases for her private investigative firm. However, she would be happier if Zeke just did not air out his old-fashioned opinions every so often. Stumbling on a stray dog, she reads his tag and takes him home only to find the door wide open. She knows something is wrong, and her fears are soon confirmed when she finds the owner murdered in one of the bedrooms. She is now embroiled in a murder mystery, and the plot only thickens as a friend of the murdered woman tells her of recent dog-nappings that have raised eyebrows in the neighborhood. Rory is now stuck in house shared with a stray dog and a ghost who does not like dogs. All she can do is hope the ghost and the dog can work out their differences and work together to find just who was responsible for the recent murder and canine kidnappings.