Glassblowing Mysteries Books in Order

The Glassblowing Mysteries, written under the name Sarah Atwell, introduce Emmeline Dowell, a working glass artist in Tucson, Arizona. Em has carved out a life in the city’s Warehouse District, where old industrial buildings have been turned into studios and galleries and the desert heat presses in on everything.

Em runs her own glass shop and teaches classes, which means juggling custom orders, kiln schedules, and the finances of a small creative business. She is practical about money and equipment, but she also cannot help taking in strays, whether that means a homeless dog, an extra student, or a lonely newcomer who needs a place to land. That soft spot is why a murder in her studio in the first book feels like both a professional crisis and a personal betrayal.

Across the three novels, trouble tends to arrive through her work. A troubled woman Em has befriended is tied to a killing that plays out literally under Em’s nose. A rich software entrepreneur hires her to work with his valuable stained glass collection, only for the glass to vanish and the client to die violently, leaving Em as the most convenient suspect. During Tucson’s huge gem show, a nervous stranger begs to use her kiln for an experimental treatment, and soon a body in the desert and the reappearance of Em’s missing brother pull her into dangerous territory on nearby reservations.

Connolly leans into the specifics of glassblowing without turning the books into craft manuals. Readers see how molten glass moves, how a studio is laid out, and how artists rely on one another for favors, safety, and scuttlebutt. That technical detail gives the crimes extra weight, because small choices about timing or tools can have fatal consequences.

The tone stays on the cozy side, but the setting has more grit than some small town series. Em deals with police and a police chief boyfriend, with landlords and tourists, and with the mix of artists and hustlers who drift through a Southwestern city that is always half under construction. Friendships and romances weave through the background, but the heart of the series is Em’s stubborn insistence on owning her life, her shop, and the choices she makes, even when a murder investigation makes everything fragile.

With only three books, the Glassblowing Mysteries offer a compact arc. You can read them quickly in order and watch Em’s world expand from a single studio to a wider community, all while enjoying the unusual mix of molten glass, Arizona sunlight, and tightly plotted crime.