Cozy and traditional mysteries usually take place in small towns with quirky
characters and bakeries, and kittens and puppies. The Museum Mysteries aren’t
quite like that. Well, there are quirky characters and some good food, but the
books are set in Philadelphia, which is definitely a city—in fact, in 2014 it
was the fifth largest city in population in the country.
Cozies usually include a death, which is a shock to the small community.
Philadelphia sees a lot of deaths each year, and too many go unnoticed.
Is DEAD END STREET a
cozy? Yes and no. You see, Nell Pratt is president of the Pennsylvania
Antiquarian Society, which is part of the city’s cultural community, where
everybody knows everybody else, especially if they’re looking for contributions
of collections or money. The staff members at places like the Society know how
much money a donor has, what his or her family history is (public and private),
and often a few of their secrets. (But most of those people use that information
carefully!) I’ve worked in more than one museum in Philadelphia, and I know
what’s in those files!
Museums offer their visitors a mix of entertainment and education. But Nell
believes that institutions owe more to their city: they are keepers of the
city’s and the nation’s history, which in an old city is still very present,
especially in Philadelphia.
Nell gets sucked into a community redevelopment project in the worst part of
Philadelphia because the Society still owns a building there. There’s a drive-by
shooting while she’s visiting the site, and someone dies. For Nell it’s a
wake-up call: parts of the city are dangerous and ugly, but there must be
something to be done about it, rather than ignoring it and pointing the tourists
to Independence Hall. So using the Society’s deep collections and resources, she
comes up with a way to remind the public what those decaying neighborhoods were
once like, and what they should be again. Can it work? She doesn’t know, but she
wants to try.
Not exactly cozy, but Nell believes in what she’s doing, and she rallies her
friends and colleagues to help her save at least a small part of the city. And
that death at the beginning? It’s not what it first appears to be, but she helps
figure that out too.
The New York Times bestselling author of Privy to the Dead
returns to Philadelphia for more history—and a chilling mystery . . .
When the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society discovers it owns some unique
real estate, a deadly plot unfolds . . .
Society president Nell Pratt believes life is finally going her way.
Everything’s running smoothly at work, and her love life is thriving. Then some
unexpected news rocks her foundation. Two members of a local neighborhood rescue
program, Tyrone Blakeney and Cherisse Chapman, inform Nell that her society owns
an abandoned row house in a rundown area of Philadelphia and they insist on
taking her to see the property before its date with the wrecking ball.
But soon after they arrive at the house, Cherisse is fatally shot and Tyrone
is badly injured. The police believe it’s just random violence in a bad
neighborhood, but Nell thinks there’s more to it and is determined to find
answers before someone else becomes history . . .
Sheila Connolly, Anthony and Agatha Award–nominated author, writes
three bestselling cozy mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime. Her Museum
Mysteries are based in Philadelphia, her Orchard Mysteries take
place in rural Massachusetts, and her County Cork Mysteries are set in
Ireland, and include BURIED IN A BOG and SCANDAL IN SKIBBEREEN,
both New York Times bestsellers. In addition, she writes an
paranormal romance series, which began with RELATIVELY DEAD in 2013. She
has also published ONCE SHE KNEW, a romantic suspense, and REUNION
WITH DEATH, a traditional mystery set in Tuscany, as well as a number of
short stories. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and three cats, and
visits Ireland as often as she can.
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