Tracy Gardner Books In Order

Publication Order of Avery Ayers Antique Mystery Books

Publication Order of Shepherd Sisters Mysteries Books

Tracy Gardner
Tracy Gardner is a native of Detroit that writes romance and mystery novels. As a daughter of two teachers, she has been writing ever since she was able to hold a pen. She grew up on rock n roll and Nancy Drew mysteries.

Tracy works as a visiting nurse in a rural community. She is a firm believer in the power of live music, baked goods, and girlfriend therapy as the staples to leading a happy life.

“Ruby Red Herring” was a Best 100 of 2021 New York Public Library book and a 2022 Mary Higgins Clark Award finalist.

“Out of the Picture” is the first novel in the “Shepherd Sisters Mystery” series and was released in the year 2019. Join the Shepherd sisters in solving this mystery. Before time runs out!

Savanna Shepherd was once an art authenticator, somebody that’s able to tell a forgery from the real thing. She has got a talent for spotting secrets that are hiding in plain sight. After a painful breakup, she moves on back to her peaceful hometown located on the banks of Lake Michigan. At least she is much closer to her sisters once more, and she is enjoying her new job as a grade school art teacher.

Savanna even finds her creative side again when an old friend of the family hires her to paint this mural for them. With some help from her sisters, and from Aidan (the intriguing town doctor) is she going to be able to piece together what is wrong with this picture?

Each of these three sisters is very likable, with each one being unique and their family bond is quite clear. The mystery is a bit complex with enough twists that keep you guessing until Savanna pieces everything together. There’s also a light romantic touch throughout the novel but it never detracts from the mystery aspect of the story.

“Behind the Frame” is the second novel in the “Shepherd Sisters Mystery” series and was released in the year 2020. Savanna Shepherd, who is an art expert turned elementary art teacher, is planning out the Art in the Park festival for Carson. However apparently, there is somebody out there none too happy that Carson is hosting the event: as the beloved statue in the park is destroyed.

Savanna, not long after, discovers the corpse of one member of the planning committee. Savanna and her sisters are convinced that the suspect arrested did not actually do it, despite some strong evidence to the contrary.

With the help of her new romantic interest, Dr. Aidan Gallagher, they find some hidden intrigue and resentments. Several people in Carson had a motive to commit this murder. Can they figure out which one of them was behind the framing of somebody that is innocent?

This has some well developed characters with their own charming personalities, some close relationships in which they’re able to rely on one another, a charming setting, and a sweet love interest.

“Ruby Red Herring” is the first novel in the “Avery Ayers Mystery” series and was released in the year 2021. An antiques appraiser hunts down a missing gem as she probes the death of her parents.

After the death of their parents, Avery Ayers and Tilly (her teenage sister) take over Antiquities & Artifacts Appraised, the family business. Lilac Grove is place overrun with paintings, jewels, tapestries, and the antics of eccentric Aunt Midge. However their world gets rocked once they learn about the theft of priceless ruby being linked to the demise of their parents.

The trouble begins when the Museum of Antiquities hires Avery to appraise this resplendent and rare ruby. It bears quite a striking resemblance to a stone found in the museum’s bejeweled dragon’s-head medallion. One of the ruby eyes was stolen a long time, and then replaced with a fake.

Now, Avery’s colleagues: fatherly Micah Abbott and the pompous Sir Robert Lane, suspect that they might have the missing gem. However the facets of this case are cloudy. Detective Art Smith snoops around, and another corpse pops up. Avery finds these mysterious notes which, impossibly, appear to be penned by her dad.

Avery, accompanied by her Afghan hound, enlists Art’s help in eliminating suspects that may have polished her parents off and swiped this jewel. Was it curator Nate Brennan? Or art collector Oliver Renell? Possibly actor Tyler Chadwick? Or maybe the theft was an inside job, perpetrated by somebody much too close to Avery? If she cannot find the culprit, Lilac Grove could be the setting for Avery’s death.

“Peril at Pennington Manor” is the second novel in the “Avery Ayers Mystery” series and was released in the year 2022. Thanks to the unlikely friendship that Aunt Midge has with Nicholas Pennington (the Duke of Valle Charme), Avery and her associates from Antiques and Artifacts Appraised head off to do their most glamorous assignment to date.

They’ll be appraising and cataloging the contents of a castle-style mansion located on the Hudson River. However regal splendor becomes a backdrop to mayhem once the precious Viktor Petrova timepiece vanishes. Well, that and Suzanne Vick plummeting off a parapet to her death.

Avery, along with her father William, and colleagues Sir Robert and Micah, quickly learn that Suzanne’s predecessor met with an untimely end, as well. Furthermore, the housekeeper’s suspicious demise coincides with a discover Avery makes which many of the Duke’s most priceless heirlooms were replaced by fakes at one point.

Detective Art Smith lends his expertise, however the suspect list encompasses the Duke’s whole retinue, which includes his family. Could this murderer be somebody intimately familiar with the Pennington estate, like Roderick (the Pennington’s chauffeur), Lynn and Ira Hoffman (the caretaker couple), or possibly even one of the heirs to the Pennington’s fortune?

The duke himself gets injured in an inexplicable riding accident, and time quickly ticks down toward a reckoning with a cold-blooded murderer. A criminal mastermind is making quite the desperate bid for ill-gotten riches, can Avery possibly bring the culprit on to justice before her time runs out?