Judith K Ivie Books in Order

If you want the series from the beginning: Waiting for Armando → Murder on Old Main Street → A Skeleton in the Closet
If you like small-town Connecticut mysteries: Murder on Old Main Street → A Skeleton in the Closet → Drowning in Christmas
If you want later books with publishing-world intrigue: Dirty Tricks → Swan Song
If you want Judith K Ivie's nonfiction side: Calling It Quits

Judith K Ivie was born in Connecticut and has spent most of her life there, apart from a period in California. That long New England connection matters, because so much of her fiction is rooted in Hartford, Old Wethersfield, and the kinds of workplaces and neighborhoods she knew well.

Before she turned to mystery fiction, Ivie built a career in public relations, advertising, sales promotion, the trade show business, and nonprofit work. She also worked as an executive assistant for top executives. You can feel that background in her novels, where office politics, practical women, and the details of everyday work are never treated like filler.

She was writing the whole time.

Along the way, she produced three nonfiction books and a steady stream of articles and essays. She has said that no matter what job she happened to be doing, she always thought of herself as a writer. In 2002 she wrote her first mystery novel, and by 2006 she had expanded her work into fiction in a bigger way.

That shift paid off in a very down-to-earth way. Waiting for Armando puts legal assistants, not star attorneys, at the center of a murder case in a Hartford law firm. Murder on Old Main Street and A Skeleton in the Closet move into historic Connecticut streets and houses, where gossip, old grudges, and local history become part of the mystery. The settings are not generic cozy backdrops. They feel specific, lived in, and a little nosy.

The Kate Lawrence books became her best-known fiction. At the center is Kate, surrounded by friends, family, romance, and work headaches, with murder arriving at the worst possible moment. Readers who enjoy cozy mysteries often seem to respond to Ivie's mix of humor, friendship, and very recognizable middle-aged life.

She also kept one foot in publishing itself.

Ivie was associated with Mainly Murder Press as a publisher, and other writers have described her as a mentor with a strong feel for both books and business. That makes sense given her background. She came to fiction after years of communications and marketing work, so she understood early that writing a manuscript is only one part of building a writing career.

Her later books show that wider view. Drowning in Christmas drops Kate into a chaotic holiday season at a Hartford institution. Dirty Tricks and Swan Song turn toward the publishing world, with authors, conventions, manuscripts, and bruised egos helping drive the plot. Even her nonfiction title Calling It Quits shows the same interest in work, change, and the moment when people decide they cannot keep living the same way.

Across genres, Ivie tends to write about adults with real obligations. Careers shift. Money gets tight. Families complicate everything. Romance comes with history attached. Somebody still has to answer the phone, sell the house, or keep the office moving. That everyday texture is a big part of what makes her books easy to settle into.

She has also encouraged newer writers to stick with both the writing and the marketing. That advice feels earned. Ivie built her career from practical experience, local knowledge, and persistence, then turned all of that into mysteries full of smart women, tangled lives, and unmistakably Connecticut settings.