Alice K. Boatwright Books In Order

Publication Order of Ellie Kent Mystery Books

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Children's Books

Alice K. Boatwright is a published American author. She is best known for writing the Ellie Kent Mysteries.

The series debuted with Under An English Heaven, which was received positively and also the recipient of the 2016 Mystery and Mayhem Grand Prize. The next books to be published in the series were What Child Is This?, as well as In the Life Ever After.

Alice has written other fiction as well. She wrote the 2019 collection Sea, Sky, Islands, as well as the stand alone novel Collateral Damage. She has also written several short stories and debuted her imprint Firefly Ink Books in 2022. This was accomplished with the help of the release of her book Mrs. Potts Finds Thanksgiving.

She describes her Ellie Kent books as being traditional mystery stories that were also inspired by writers from the Golden Age, including Josephine Tey, Ngaio Marsh, and Dorothy L. Sayers. She also notes other authors as being influences on her work, including P.D. James and M.C. Beaton. Alice also acknowledges several other influences in her fiction overall, from Raymond Carver to J.D. Salinger, Richard Brautigan, William Gass, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, Willa Cather, Elizabeth Strout, and more.

In addition to being an author herself, Alice has also taught writing. She has instructed others on the art of writing in places that include a computer chip factory as well as to university campuses. She also has spoken at different conferences that center on writing and mysteries.

In addition, Alice likes to meet up with book clubs as well as other different books that are all about books and writing. The author is involved herself, participating in the North America Chapter of the Crime Writers Association (of the U.K.) and serving the Sisters in Crime, Puget Sound Chapter, as their vice president. Boatwright also belongs to PEN America, Mystery Writers of America, and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association.

She has resided in many different places abroad, such as France and England. There she was employed writing about public health for an NGO. The author is married to her husband Jim Mullins, who works as a writer and a photographer. They reside in Seattle and share their home with their cats.

Under an English Heaven is the first book in the Ellie Kent mystery series by Alice K. Boatwright. This novel first came out for readers to enjoy in 2014. If you are looking for a good detective story or just something new to try, give this book a whirl! M.C. Beaton described Boatwright as a ‘first-class storyteller’, and Kirkus reviews promised that readers will enjoy the ‘many pleasures’ of this book.

This debut story introduces readers to the main character of Ellie Kent for the first time. She used to be a teacher at college and had a very full life living in San Francisco, but has left it all behind for a new existence. She is going to marry a vicar who has been widowed and is incredibly handsome. She’ll live with him here in the small Cotswold village, where she is to launch a new life.

The first thing that she thinks she will have difficulty with is to fit in with the other residents there. The villagers might see her as an outsider and treat her differently, she fears. Ellie is happier than she has ever been with Graham, and she wants to find a way to rise above her status as a young American and become part of the community. It’s not her fault that they came together in California while he was taking a sabbatical.

Her worries about fitting in are put to the side when a more pressing thing to deal with comes out. She finds a dead body in the churchyard totally by accident. But when the villagers are asked about the dead man, they all say that they don’t know him at all. It only makes sense to cast suspicion on the newcomer to the area, the newly wed spouse of the vicar.

Now her fears that she will be discriminated against for being different are coming true, and in the worst way. Ellie is now the main suspect in the murder, and there is even evidence being accumulated that could make her look guilty, even though she isn’t.

Now it’s up to the newlywed to look for some evidence of her own, some that can show that she definitely did not kill anyone and is totally innocent when it comes to committing this crime! She must dust off her research skills to look into what is going on and try to get ahead of the police and clear her name.

When she starts looking into old secrets, is she going to find that some people do not like her poking around? Can she solve this mystery and murder and ensure that she doesn’t go to jail in the process for a crime she didn’t commit? Will her new marriage be able to survive all of this drama? Read the first book in the series to find out!

What Child Is This? is the second novel in the Ellie Kent mystery series by Alice K. Boatwright. It is the sequel to the first and is a book that Kirkus Reviews says is perfect for mystery buffs.

This book is set in Little Beecham, a Cotswold village, and the time has come for the holiday season. Everyone is looking forward to celebrating by decorating with mistletoe, going caroling, and baking mince pies.

Ellie Kent is back, and the young American has somehow managed to salvage her marriage and is excited to celebrate Christmas here for the first time. The last thing that she anticipates is a student going missing from Oxford and dealing with an abandoned baby.

Instead of warming by the fire, she’s now involved in a mystery. On Boxing Day, a body is discovered. Ellie thinks that these events all may be connected, and has an idea that it’s related to a teen girl group that have a fixation on Ophelia from Hamlet.

The police don’t believe her, but Ellie is determined to show that she knows the truth. She follows up with her own investigation, determined to find out who the Hamlet they know is and whether he’s the killer. Can she solve a case and get back to Christmas? Read this book to find out!