Sugar Mill Marketplace Mysteries Books in Order

The Sugar Mill Marketplace Mysteries take place in Sugar Springs, Colorado, where an old sugar mill is being remade as a lively collection of independent shops. The setting is warm, busy, and full of people betting their savings and hopes on a fresh start. It is also, unfortunately, a place where murder has a way of interrupting business plans.

Dena Russo, the mother of mystery writer Charlee Russo from Clark's earlier series, leads the first three books. After a difficult turn in her life, Dena leaves Santa Fe for Sugar Springs and opens Thrice Sold Tales, a used bookstore in the new marketplace. The prequel novella Rat Race tells the story of that move and helps connect this series with the Mystery Writer's Mysteries.

A new bookstore is supposed to be the easy part.

In Booked at the Sugar Mill Marketplace, Dena and the other tenants are racing toward the grand opening when their unpopular landlord turns up dead. Everyone has a reason to resent him, and the murder puts the future of the entire marketplace in danger before it has properly begun. Dena has books to shelve, a cat named Balaam to contend with, and far too many possible suspects.

The marketplace is designed as an ensemble setting. Alongside Dena's bookstore are a bakery, a specialty cheese shop, a chocolate business, and a photography studio where customers can dress in historical costumes. The shopkeepers are neighbors, potential friends, occasional irritants, and sometimes the people most likely to be caught in the middle of a case. Their personal storylines carry from book to book, which gives the series a connected, community feel.

Plotted at the Sugar Mill Marketplace raises the pressure when the former owner of Dena's bookstore returns, publicly accuses her of breaking their agreement, and then disappears. Dena faces suspicion, online backlash, a boycott, and questions about whether the business she worked so hard to build can survive. In Bound at the Sugar Mill Marketplace, a fierce blizzard and an abduction leave Dena missing while the marketplace tenants confront troubles of their own.

The books take place roughly a month apart, allowing Sugar Springs to move through changing seasons and holidays.

The overall plan for the series gives each major business its own three-book stretch, while keeping the same core group in view. That makes the marketplace more than a backdrop. It is a shared project, a source of gossip and friction, and a place where small details from one book may become important later.

This is a cozy mystery series with a busy cast, a small-town Colorado setting, bookstore charm, and plenty of shopkeeper drama. Start with Rat Race if possible, then read Booked at the Sugar Mill Marketplace, Plotted at the Sugar Mill Marketplace, and Bound at the Sugar Mill Marketplace in order.