Claire Donally Books in Order

If you want the full series in order: The Big Kitty → Cat Nap → Last Licks → Hiss and Tell → Catch as Cat Can
If you want the clearest introduction to Sunny and Shadow: The Big Kitty → Cat Nap
If you like small-town mysteries with a growing recurring cast: Cat Nap → Last Licks → Hiss and Tell
If you want the later books with bigger local scandals: Hiss and Tell → Catch as Cat Can

Claire Donally is the name on the Sunny and Shadow mysteries, a compact run of cozy crime novels set in Kittery Harbor, Maine. Claire Donally is also clearly a pen name, and the person behind it has chosen to stay mostly out of sight. There is very little public life story attached to the name, so the books end up doing most of the introducing, through tone, setting, and the kind of trouble they like to stir up.

That mystery fits the work.

What is public is straightforward. Claire Donally is billed as a New York Times bestselling author, and the books under this name form a tidy five-book series published from 2012 to 2016. It starts with The Big Kitty and closes with Catch as Cat Can. There is no sprawling backlist here, just one clearly shaped corner of the cozy shelf.

That corner belongs to Sunny Coolidge, a former New York City newspaper reporter who returns to Maine to help her father and winds up back in small-town rhythms. Soon she is joined by Shadow, a stray tomcat who more or less adopts her and refuses to stay out of the action. Sunny brings the questions. Shadow brings the instincts. Local investigator Will Price becomes another steady part of the picture as the series goes on.

Setting matters here. Kittery Harbor is shown through offices, shop counters, docks, homes, rehab rooms, and the local paper, the everyday places where people trade news and hide grudges. That helps the mysteries feel grounded. Sunny is not dropping into flashy conspiracy plots. She is moving through a town where everybody knows something, remembers something, or thinks they do.

The appeal is easy to see. These books mix amateur sleuthing with a reporter's habit of noticing loose threads, and they make room for cat behavior without turning Shadow into a cartoon. The crimes matter, but the stories never lose their cozy footing. Donally seems especially interested in how ordinary town life works, who owes whom, who is feuding, who is gossiping, and who hopes nobody asks one more question.

Shadow is a big reason the books stand out. He is not a talking-animal gimmick, and the series does not ask you to treat him like a tiny detective in a hat. Instead he adds angle, mood, and mischief. His habits, loyalties, and sudden fixations give the stories extra texture, and they also make Sunny's cases feel warmer and funnier.

Each book finds a new way to disturb that everyday routine. The Big Kitty starts with a missing lottery ticket and the death of a local cat lady. Cat Nap folds Sunny into a murder tied to rival vets and bitter ex-spouses. Last Licks moves to a rehab facility, where Sunny's hard-to-please boss, a suspicious death, and a calico named Portia make for one of the series' strangest cases. Then Hiss and Tell shifts to a high-profile waterfront wedding and a body pulled from the water, while Catch as Cat Can opens with a struggling seafood shop and a murdered man in a freezer.

It is a good little setup.

Because the author has kept the personal side so private, readers mostly get to know Claire Donally through craft. The books suggest someone who understands cozy-mystery pacing, likes capable women, enjoys small-town pressure cookers, and has spent enough time around cats to write them as creatures rather than props. If you're deciding whether to try the series, that may be all you need to know. Start at the beginning, follow Sunny and Shadow through the five books, and you'll get a complete, self-contained run of mysteries with a Maine backdrop, a curious reporter, and plenty of local secrets.