Sarah Stewart Taylor Books In Order

Publication Order of Maggie D'arcy Books

Publication Order of Sweeney St. George Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Sarah Stewart Taylor is an American mystery and thriller author best known for the Maggie D’arcy and the Sweeney St. George series of novels. As a child Taylor was brought up on Long Island New York and later attended Middlebury College in Vermont. She then went to Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland from where she studied Irish Literature and fell in love with the culture. Before she became a full time author she held a variety of jobs that included being a teacher and then journalist. She published her debut novel O’ Artful Death the first of the Sweeney St. George Mysteries in 2003 and has never looked back since. She now lives with her family on a small farm in Vermont where she grows blueberries and raises sheep.

Much of what Sarah Stewart Taylor writes about is influenced by her time in Ireland. Immediately after graduating from Middlebury College she moved to Dublin since she had fallen in love with the city while she was a student in England. She had worked hard to earn her ticket and thought she would spend some time learning about Ireland and traveling before going back home to find a job in one of the publishing house in New York. But that was not to be as she loved Dublin so much that she made friends, fell in love, worked in restaurants and pubs, fell out of love, worked as a nanny and at a youth hostel, took a film making class, sold and made jewelry and made a new life in the city. She eventually applied for a master’s program at Trinity College from where she graduated with a masters in Irish Literature. It was during her time at Trinity College that she began writing the manuscript that after many transformations, turns and twists would be published as O’ Artful Death the first novel of the Sweeney St. George Mysteries. One of the driving forces that motivated her during this time was a writing professor and members of a casual writers’ workshop that were very supportive. In the writing groups the aspiring writers would read their works out loud after which the other members would offer encouragement and critique.

Unlike Maggie the lead of her popular The Mountains Wild novel who was significantly influenced and surrounded by an Irish American community and family, Sarah Taylor had none of that despite her Irish heritage. Her family was Unitarian and for the most part saw themselves as New Englanders more than Irish. As such she came to love Ireland and the culture of her ancestors from interests in the diversity of a lived experience which made the discovery even more surreal. The Dublin that she lived in during the 1990s had a lot of wild and great energy. Many of the people that lived during those times have said that there were transitional years economically, culturally and socially and Sarah has said that living there felt that way. Nonetheless, while she was very much interested in Irish culture she had Australian, Irish, Polish, Scottish, Spanish and English friends. In fact, one of the lead characters in The Mountains Wild novels is a Polish immigrant to Ireland that was inspired by the real life story of one of her friends. By 2021 she had more than six novels in the Sweeney St. George Mysteries and two free standing novels. Apart from her fiction works she has also published in the likes of The Boston Globe and The Washington Post among several other publications.

Sarah Stewart Taylor’s O’ Artful Death is a beautiful and striking debut that introduces Sweeney St. George. She is a college professor that specializes in cemetery art but her efforts at resolving a hundred-year-old murder mystery have resulted in another homicide. She looks nothing like a college professor with her love for vintage clothing and unruly red curls. Sweeney pours her energy into her passion for cemetery art and love for teaching and has for a very long time been single since a past relationship went horribly wrong. She had been fascinated by a macabre graveyard statue that depicted a beautiful woman that was sinister and astonishing at the same time. She believes the sculpture could be hiding a century old homicide and begins investigating. In her quest for the truth she heads out to Vermont alongside her friends. They believe the historic Byzantium Art Colony may have some archives that could prove useful. They are also hoping to run around the tiny cemetery where the real statue still stands. But what happens from her digging results in an emotional awakening when she finds a link between new and old crimes.

Sarah Stewart Taylor’s Mansions of the Dead is a follow up to the debut novel of the Sweeney St. George series. In this outing, Sweeney St. George the art history college professor is investigating the homicide of one of her favorite students. She has been approached by the police to work as a consultant in the case of the death of her students. Brad Putnam who had been found in his dorm room, suffocated always seemed to enjoy her class a bit too much. The police had been befuddled by the 19th century jewelry found adorning his body and since Sweeney was an expert in that era’s history, she was a natural choice. The situation is made even more complicated since the student came from the prestigious and famous family of the Putnams. It is an old colonial family whose history is as much wealth and politics as it is scandal and gossip. Set in the Newport, Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts, Sweeney explores the secrets of a troubled family with troubled history.

Judgment of the Grave by Sarah Stewart Taylor opens to Sweeney St George the professor and art historian at Harvard investigating the killing of a man. He had been part of the reenactment of the Concord, Massachusetts Battle and had been killed wearing Revolutionary War regalia. As a gravestone expert, Sweeney has been touring Civil War burial sites and she had stopped at reenactment of the Massachusetts battle. It was there that she had made the acquaintance of a boy named Pres Whiting whose family dealt in gravestones. When Whiting stumbles upon the body of a man dressed in a British soldier’s uniform from the Revolutionary War era Tim Quinn the Cambridge homicide detective teams up with Sweeney to investigate. But even as they work on the case, Quinn and Sweeney investigate a range of bizarre happenings. While Sweeney investigates the disappearance of a militia man in 1775 Quinn is busy investigating a missing persons case from today that has eerie similarities to the centuries old case. As they try to find out what links the two cases together, Quinn and Sweeney get too close to murder and to each other for comfort.

One Response to “Sarah Stewart Taylor”

1. Sarah: 8 months ago

   I read O’Artful Death.I enjoyed it so much I want read all your lovely books.Thank you!

   Reply