Connie Shelton Books in Order

In Taos, librarian Emily Plankhurst inherits her family’s research library and discovers it comes with a ghostly grandmother and a very real mystery. When a professor disappears while chasing a legendary cache of conquistador gold, Emily must decipher old documents before treasure hunters, or worse, get there first.

As a new season unfolds in Taos, Samantha juggles bakery demands, shifts in her family, and a fresh investigation that starts close to home. What seems like a simple favor soon reveals tangled motives and reminds her that danger can bloom in the most ordinary places.

At a helicopter industry gala, one of Drake’s old colleagues asks Charlie to track down a missing company van. What sounds like a routine job leads her to two frightened kids on the run, a dangerous payload, and a web of lies that someone is willing to kill to protect.

Thanksgiving week has Sam baking pies for a community feast while Beau steps back into his old sheriff’s job. When a celebrity chef is poisoned during a high profile holiday cook off, the pair must solve the crime quietly so the town’s celebration can go on.

A frantic call from Beau’s cousin sends Sam and Beau to Oklahoma, where local police have written off a man’s murder as a random shooting. As they dig into his mysterious work and a fortune in hidden money, they discover someone is willing to kill again to keep the secret.

Thirteen years after his wife vanished during a fiery anniversary cruise, businessman Talbot Farber is sure he has just seen her alive in an airport. Charlie and Ron follow a trail of insurance files and old shipboard rumors to learn whether Jenna Farber drowned or chose to disappear.

Charlie accepts a simple assignment, driving a runaway teen back to her mother in Arizona and spending one night on the road. Bad weather, a seedy motel, a surly passenger, and a murder at their destination quickly turn the errand into a joint case with the Heist Ladies.

When librarian Emily Plankhurst is visited by the ghost of Gabriel Graystone, a man murdered a century ago, she turns to Samantha Sweet for help. Together they explore hidden corners of Taos and long buried scandals, trying to uncover the truth before old secrets claim new victims.

Three California college students head to the snowy mountains of New Mexico for spring break and promptly vanish after checking into the wrong cabin. When one boy’s sister calls Kelly Sweet, Sam and Kelly follow a scant trail of clues, racing the clock and a skeptical sheriff to find the missing trio.

When cash starts disappearing from a local charity thrift shop, Charlie goes undercover to protect her beloved surrogate grandma Elsa from suspicion. The straightforward theft case turns deadly after her top suspect dies, forcing Charlie to hunt both a thief and a killer.

During the busy holiday rush at Sweet's Sweets, new librarian Emily Plankhurst tells Samantha Sweet about a vision of a hidden niche in the Taos library. Inside they find a painting long believed destroyed in a mansion fire, and their search for the truth reopens an old arson case.

After a dream vacation in Paris, Amber Zeckis is stopped at the airport when customs agents uncover a fortune in undeclared cash in her luggage. Facing prison and job loss, she turns to the Heist Ladies, who follow a trail of digital tricks and dangerous lies to clear her name.

A fortune cookie message sends Charlie to visit her Aunt Louisa in a quiet English town, just as a hidden skeleton is found behind a café wall. With old gossip, a cold case website, and family loyalties colliding, she must clear her aunt before the past strikes again.

Volunteering at the Heaven Sent homeless shelter, two of the Heist Ladies discover someone has been stealing from the residents. Their search for the thief leads to a suspicious “charity” next door and a pair of faux spiritual leaders channeling donations into their own pockets.

Back at Sweet's Sweets while Beau runs his ranch, Sam meets Danny, a new hand with a manipulative ex girlfriend who tracks him to Taos. When the woman is murdered and a clue points squarely at Danny, Sam must untangle jealousy, magic, and her own experimental potion to save him.

As Samantha Sweet juggles her daughter’s wedding and a huge new chocolate contract, someone takes a shot at her and an old enemy returns to town. While the sheriff’s office chases alibis, Sam’s family trip to England reveals startling clues about the carved box that changed her life.

While on a helicopter job in rural Maine, Charlie and Drake help an elderly man reach his son’s remote cabin, then realize they may have aided an escaped criminal. Digging into a ten year old case pulls Charlie into twisted family histories, political secrets, and a fresh murder.

When banker Sandy Werner sees that her longtime client’s savings have mysteriously vanished and the woman’s ex husband has traded her in for a younger wife, she calls in the Heist Ladies. Their hunt for the missing money uncovers a globe spanning shell game that has deadly players.

A luxury travel firm hires Samantha to create $200 a box chocolates for a jet set tour just as a friend begs her to take on one last house breaking job. When a fatal crash proves to be murder, Sam must connect a nosy customer, a bag of cash, and a trail of sticky lies.

Women are lining up to invest in producer Robert Williams’s latest movie, and Gracie’s mother has put in her life savings. When the money disappears and foreclosure looms, the Heist Ladies go behind the scenes of the film world to expose a charming fraud before he ruins more lives.

Halloween at Sweet's Sweets means pumpkin cookies, ghostly cupcakes, and a costume party at the neighborhood bookshop. When a guest is murdered and a rare volume vanishes almost before anyone can blink, Samantha must rely on her instincts and a touch of magic to find the culprit.

Seventy two year old novelist Penelope Fitzpatrick refuses to sit quietly after thieves steal her last heirloom necklace during a slick museum robbery. She recruits four friends to form the Heist Ladies, chasing an international con man to steal back what is hers.

Spring in Albuquerque finds Charlie juggling a ridiculous cheating spouse surveillance job involving a star football player and her neighbor Elsa’s worries about troubled teen twins. When real danger surfaces behind the gossip, Charlie has to separate teenage mischief from something far darker.

Joyful wedding plans in Charlie’s circle take a sharp turn when suspicious accidents and simmering grudges threaten to ruin the celebrations. As tempers flare and one incident turns fatal, she and Rusty must uncover a killer hiding among the guests.

Samantha Sweet lands a lucrative chocolate contract just as she outgrows her little shop. A sprawling Victorian house seems like the perfect solution, until eerie sounds, a mysterious duffel full of cash, and Beau’s new case collide to suggest the building has secrets of its own.

In thirteenth century Europe, woodcarver John Carver crafts three boxes from a lightning struck tree and discovers they hold uncanny powers of healing and harm. As the boxes pass from owner to owner across centuries, rival factions compete to control them, setting up Samantha Sweet’s modern adventures.

A woman who claims to have amnesia walks into Sweet's Sweets, oddly knowledgeable about Sam’s special chocolate order. While Beau copes with a flu stricken department and a distant murder case, Sam realizes their Jane Doe’s missing memories may be the key to everything.

When Daisy hears a strange noise in the night, she is sure someone new has come to live with her, Maisie, and their person Dan. Discovering a frightened stray kitten teaches Daisy that sometimes making someone else happy matters more than keeping all the attention for herself.

Daisy is a big yellow puppy who loves to chase anything that moves in the desert near her Arizona home. One day her wild pursuit of a lizard brings a few scary surprises, and with Maisie’s help she learns to slow down and look before she leaps.

Samantha is organizing a chocolate festival in Taos, wrangling feuding committee members, big prize money, and competitors with sharp elbows. When someone ends up dead, she has to keep the event from collapsing while learning just how powerful her magical box may truly be.

In the tiny town of Sembramos, tensions explode when two men convicted of murdering a local girl are released after serving only a few years. As Easter crowds descend on Sweet's Sweets, Sam and Sheriff Beau struggle to keep order while they search for the truth behind the old crime.

Charlie and Drake head to Skagway, Alaska, flying tourists by helicopter to rustic cabins. When a guest discovers bones in an old mine and Charlie uncovers letters from a long gone prospector, she finds that gold rush legends and modern motives can be equally deadly.

An unexpected inheritance from an Irish great uncle sends Samantha and Beau to the Emerald Isle for their honeymoon. Between rocky coastlines, a missing charter boat, and wary locals, Sam must decide whether the promised blessing is truly a gift or a dangerous trap.

With her September wedding days away, Sam is buried under bakery orders and visiting relatives when old flame Jake Calendar strolls into the shop with a Hollywood scheme. His demand for money threatens to wreck both her business and her big day unless she stops him.

Christmas in Albuquerque is disrupted when Charlie and Ron reopen a notorious case involving a mother once acquitted of killing her children. Hired by the grieving father, they sift through buried evidence and media fueled outrage to learn what really happened years ago.

Valentine’s week brings a flood of wedding cakes and romantic orders to Sweet's Sweets, plus pressure over Sam and Beau’s own plans. When a dying woman begs Sam to find her missing son before it is too late, Sam has to balance matters of the heart with a desperate search.

An unexpected letter from the aunt she has never met lures Charlie to a medieval English town known for ghost tours. When creepy pranks against one of Aunt Louisa’s friends turn dangerous, Charlie must decide whether the threat is rooted in superstition or in very real malice.

At the height of wedding season, Sam’s pastry shop is slammed and her side job breaking into houses offers no break. After two elderly women she has met die suddenly, she suspects a predator is targeting trusting seniors and that Beau’s late mother might have been an earlier victim.

Still working as a caretaker for abandoned properties, Samantha is on the verge of opening her own pastry shop. When she finds a blood soaked coat at one of her houses and a friend makes a shocking confession, Sam must rely on her unusual wooden box and her wits to sort it out.

As Christmas approaches, a charming chocolatier offers to create a special line of hand dipped chocolates for Sweet's Sweets. When Sam learns of his disturbing connection to her magical box and to ruthless people who want its power, a festive season turns into a fight to protect her family.

A bungled bank robbery turns worse when the criminals mistake Charlie for a glamorous movie star and decide ransom money will fix everything. Trapped with a gang that has nothing to lose, she has only her wits until Drake and the authorities can find her.

Samantha Sweet breaks into houses for a living, cleaning up abandoned properties for the government while baking cakes from her tiny kitchen. When a dying woman gives her a carved wooden box and Sam discovers an unmarked grave and a forged will, her careful routine turns into a paranormal mystery.

This concise craft guide tackles the classic “show, don’t tell” advice with clear examples and practical tips, helping fiction writers make scenes more vivid, characters more alive, and prose more engaging without drowning readers in unnecessary detail.

A week at a plush Santa Fe spa sounds like just what Charlie needs, until she senses something rotten beneath the smoothies and massages. Surrounded by rumors, jealousies, and a missing guest, she has to separate idle talk from a very real threat.

In this holiday novella, Charlie is stringing lights and setting out luminarias when a neighbor turns up dead next door. Between family visits and Christmas traditions, she races to catch a killer before the season is ruined for everyone on her street.

Hoping for a quiet lakeside vacation, Charlie instead becomes fascinated by an unsolved mystery: a showplace mountain home that exploded, a dead young woman, and a vanished owner. As she questions wary locals, she uncovers secrets someone will do anything to keep buried.

Days before the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, record seeking pilot Rachael Fairfield receives frightening notes she blames on the felonious father she sent to prison. Hired to keep her safe, Charlie finds that behind the bright balloons and crowds, someone is determined to bring Rachael down.

Charlie and Drake head to Scotland to help a friend fly workers to North Sea oil rigs, only to land in the middle of a fierce business rivalry. When a teenager from the castle family is kidnapped, Charlie must untangle family drama and industrial sabotage to save him.

Eighty something prospector Willie McBride vanishes just before a big family reunion, and his abrasive daughter begs Charlie to find him. The search leads to a near ghost town, rumors of buried gold, and a modern crime tangled with frontier era greed.

Charlie and Drake finally escape to a ski valley cabin for their honeymoon, but the trip derails when one of Drake’s employees is accused of murdering his priest brother. Following a trail of stolen religious art and family secrets, they find their own lives on the line.

After returning from a visit with Drake in Hawaii, Charlie learns her parents have died in a suspicious plane crash. Her questions trigger a rash of thefts and threats, and she discovers that to protect her future she has to face a dangerous chapter of her family’s past.

A Fourth of July weekend trip to the tiny village of Valle Escondido should be a peaceful escape. Instead, Charlie uncovers spousal abuse, old prejudices, and a string of ugly secrets that show just how deadly a quiet small town can be.

Written for independent authors, this handbook walks through planning, producing, and selling a novel on your own, from choosing formats and printers to budgeting, promotion, and getting books into stores and in front of readers.

When an old school friend’s restaurant partner dies in an apparent suicide, a key life insurance policy refuses to pay. Charlie’s investigation into the man’s finances exposes tax fraud, political ties, and a double life that makes his death look anything but straightforward.

Exhausted by work, Charlie books a solo trip to Kauai and a scenic helicopter tour. After she and pilot Drake Langston spot a body on the cliffs and Drake’s boss is charged with the crime, Charlie must solve a murder while deciding what this new romance might mean.

Accountant and part time investigator Charlie Parker agrees to help an old friend recover a missing Rolex before the woman’s husband finds out. When the suspected thief is murdered, Charlie and her dog Rusty become the only ones determined to clear her friend’s name.