Sheila Connolly Books In Order

Publication Order of County Cork Books

Publication Order of County Cork Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Glassblowing Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Museum Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Museum Mysteries Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Orchard Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Orchard Mysteries Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Relatively Dead Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Victorian Village Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Cozy Case Files Mystery Sampler Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Sheila Connolly (born in 1950 in Rochester, New York) is a critically acclaimed writer and author with three mystery series under her belt. All her books are published by Berkley Prime Crime.

As recounted by her, she’s lived in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, California, North California, and finally, Massachusetts where she still lives to date. In 1972, she graduated at Wellesley College with first class honors, after which she enrolled at Harvard University for a master’s degree and later on a Ph.D. in Fine Arts.

Jobs in Art History prove to be pretty much elusive, so she enrolls at the University of California for a second M.B.A. Since then, she recounts being employed as a municipal financial advisor for the cities and states in the US, an art historian, a non-profit fund-raiser for two statewide political campaigns and institutions, and lastly, a professional genealogist. Most of her books in the series have some these elements perfectly integrated.

Connolly started writing at 21. At the time, she could pick out an author photo for her book jacket whenever she managed to get a book written. Although it took her a few decades before anything panned out, she never stopped believing in her dreams. According to her, every time she sat herself down to write a book, she couldn’t stop until the book was brought to a finishing point. Speaking of which most of her early works got rejected, until 2006 when she somehow managed to sell her first book. Since then she’s never looked back.

She now considers everything she did before getting her first book published a research. The funny bit is that she’s used everything she mentions in her books, which puts her in a better position to explain everything in great detail. It goes without saying the books have given her a good opportunity to study lots of new things, such as managing a pub or growing apples in Ireland.

Connolly is married to her first and only husband, with whom they have one daughter. She owns two cats and lives in her Victorian home in Massachusetts, altogether with her husband.

Besides writing, Connolly loves to travel, which she claims is part of her writing research. She’s also quick to add that she can fix anything in an old house, just like Corey in her series. Needless to say, Connolly is also passionate about genealogy, like it can be seen in some of her books.

Dubbed the author with many degrees, Connolly is well-educated with more degrees than she can actually figure out what to do with them. From finance, art history to education, Connolly is one of the few authors with a strong education background.

Connolly may have ventured into writing late, but so far she has managed to write four bestselling mystery series, all published by the Berkley Prime Crime as already mentioned. In their order of publication, they include the Orchard–featuring eight episode books, the museum—featuring five episode books, and lastly, the county Cork mysteries—currently featuring two episode books.

As Sarah Atwell

Using Sarah Atwell as a pseudonym for the series, Connolly debuted her first mystery series in March, 2008—The Glassblowing Mystery. In the series, we are introduced to glassblower Em Dowell, the good guy in Tucson, Arizona. The guy owns a shop that he manages on his own, but still, he has to spare some time to expose the truth behind the occasional murders in Tucson.

From the series, “Through a glass, Deadly” is considered the most successful, following its nomination at the Agatha Award for the Best First Book.

The Orchard series

The Orchard is her second mystery series, debuted five months later after the Glassblowing mystery. So far, the series has eight books—One bad Apple, Rotten to the Core, A killer Crop, Bitter Harvest, Sour Apples, Golden Malicious, and Picked to Die.

One Bad Apple, August 2008

The first book in the lineup “one bad apple” features an investment banker by the name Meg Corey who relocates from Boston to Granford, Massachusetts. But unfortunately, her new life doesn’t turn out to be all rosy as she expected. This comes after her Boston job gets swallowed up in a merger. Then there’s this ex-boyfriend of hers, Chandler Hale, who she leaves behind as she moves to Grandford in excange of a colonial house with an orchard.

First she has to spare a little time to get the house fixed up, after which she can sell it as she continues to look for a new job and, well, lick her wounds. But things take a wrong turn when she heads back to Boston for a short visit, only to find Chandler, her ex-boyfriend, dead in her septic tank. The sheriff holds her as the prime suspect. With the help of Seth, the plumber who discovered Chandler’s body, she finally succeeds in identifying the killer. But then, she finds it hard to leave Granford, her new home, despite everything that happened.

Rotten to the Core, July 2009

“Rotten to the core” is the second book in the orchard series.

It is spring and Corey’s two-hundred-year-old, apple orchard seems to have attracted a new murder case. A local farming activist dies under mysterious circumstances, and since his body is found dumped in Corey’spring-house, the locals accuse her of murder.

To begin with, the man is suspected to have died of pesticide poisoning, something that arouses a lot of suspicions. First, why would anyone plant the body on Corey’s land, when she barely knew the dead man? This murder case leaves Corey totally hard-pressed, more so as she tries to prove her innocence to the unbelieving locals and the law.

The Museum Mysteries

The museum mystery is Connolly’s second mystery book. It opens up in the central hubs of Philadelphia, where we are introduced to Nell Pratt, a renowned fund-raiser at a prestigious museum. The job is not that exciting, but Nell seems to derive her satisfaction from history and hanging around historical collections. Everything goes on well for some time, until a body is discovered in the museum. Realizing she has all the information she needs to implicate the assailant, she teams up with a special FBI agent James Morrison, and together they successfully manage to bring a number of crimes that occurred at the city’s cultural community to light.