Sheila Connolly

From Publishers Weekly:

Old families, old papers, and the old demons of sex and money shape Connolly's cozy series launch, which will appeal to fans of her Orchard and (as Sarah Atwell) Glassblowing mysteries. The venerable and cliquish Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society has a security problem. Documents worth millions are missing, and the staffer who uncovers the losses is found dead in the stacks. Nell Pratt, the society's director of development, is instructed by board member Marty Terwilliger to account for the absence of Marty's ancestor's correspondence with George Washington. ... the archival milieu and the foibles of the characters are intriguing, and it's refreshing to encounter an FBI man who is human, competent, and essential to the plot.

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*Let's Play Dead* *Berkley Prime Crime, July 2011* ISBN 978-0425242209 *For this killer, murder is child's play* *The president of the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society in Philadelphia, Nell Pratt, is jolted into action when someone is electrocuted at a colleague's children's museum* When Nell Pratt is invited to the beloved Philadelphia children's museum, Let's Play, for a sneak preview of a newly installed exhibit based on the Harriet the Hedgehog book series, she's in for quite a shock. In the middle of her visit, one of the installers gets a severe jolt from working on an electrically animated forest creature. He recovers, but when a second man gets zapped—this time fatally—it sparks a homicide investigation, with Nell right in the middle of things. Is someone out to sabotage the exhibition, or to discredit the museum president, Arabella Heffernan? Even with the help of Nell's potential beau, FBI agent James Morrison, it's ultimately up to Nell to channel her energy into finding the killer—before she gets burned herself.

*Fundraising the Dead* Berkley Prime Crime, April 2010 ISBN 978-0425237441 At The Society for the Preservation of Pennsylvania Antiques, fundraiser Eleanor "Nell" Pratt solicits donations-and sometimes solves crimes. When a collection of George Washington's letters is lost on the same day that an archivist is found dead, it seems strange that the Society president isn't pushing for an investigation. Nell goes digging herself, and soon uncovers a long, rich history of crime. *From Publishers Weekly:* Old families, old papers, and the old demons of sex and money shape Connolly's cozy series launch, which will appeal to fans of her Orchard and (as Sarah Atwell) Glassblowing mysteries. The venerable and cliquish Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society has a security problem. Documents worth millions are missing, and the staffer who uncovers the losses is found dead in the stacks. Nell Pratt, the society's director of development, is instructed by board member Marty Terwilliger to account for the absence of Marty's ancestor's correspondence with George Washington. ... the archival milieu and the foibles of the characters are intriguing, and it's refreshing to encounter an FBI man who is human, competent, and essential to the plot.