The Secret Staircase by Sheila Connolly

Trying to resurrect her hometown, Kate Hamilton is really feeling the weight of her own expectations. They have the Barton house and a chunk of money to refurbish it, but how will she find contractors? Will it be enough? 

She finds a contractor, Morgan, who seems like he will be good at the job but the day that he's inspecting the house, they find a body, more of a skeleton really, walled up in the kitchen of the Barton house. He obviously died in the 1800s so it's not of great concern but it is still curious. 

Katie is also dealing with Steve, one of Morgan's contractors who seems to have an ulterior motive for working on the house, as well as balancing her burgeoning relationship with Joshua, who seems to be distancing himself somewhat.

Then, another body is found in the house and this time it's someone that Kate knows. Of course, being a cozy, it is someone who totally deserves it. But that doesn't mean that it isn't disconcerting. And a little worrying.

The mystery in this one is not quite as tight as previous books in the series. Also, the ending was a bit abrupt, especially with a time jump that didn't make sense to me.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out August 24th, 2021
Follows Killer in the Carriage House
ARC kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Killer in the Carriage House by Sheila Connolly

In the first book of the series, Kate Hamilton returned to Asheboro, Maryland at her friend's request. Asheboro is a dying town and Kate's friend thought she might be able to help. She got a boost when she and a visiting historian found letters from Clara Barton.
Now, she's trying to convince the town to go along with her plan to set it up similar to Williamsburg but more early 1900s. That's when the town was built and a lot of the stores on Main Street still have their fixtures underneath all of the updates.
Along with that, she and the history professor are working with an archivist to move all of the papers from the local manor into the town's library. The library that has been closed since the librarian was found to have been... well, not keeping it up correctly in the last book. A young man interrupts her work one day looking for his relatives. The next morning, he's discovered dead after having broken into the library. Suddenly, Kate is in the middle of another mystery.
Unfortunately, the mystery is a little thin. There is more about the set up for the town and papers than anything else which is good because that's more interesting than the killing. We don't get to know the victim at all, the reason for the killing isn't shown until the last quarter of the book, and the killer are barely involved in the story.

Three stars
This book came out July 9th
Follows Murder at the Mansion

Followed by The Secret Staircase 
ARC kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Murder at the Mansion by Sheila Connolly

Katherine Hamilton is a damn good hospitality manager at a large hotel in Boston. When a friend of hers from high school asks her to return to their hometown to help see if she can use the old house just outside town to revitalize the now failing town. Katherine decides to give her opinion but is going to leave it at that... until her job is suddenly made redundant. As she starts to think more about what saving the Barton mansion could mean for her town, she gets more and more excited. Too bad her high school nemesis is still in town. And doubly too bad same nemesis is found dead on the front porch of the mansion.
I liked the world building in this book though there was a somewhat forced effort to cross paths with Connolly's other series. The ending though was... less than satisfying. I mean, the reason for the murder, really? We haven't seen this is in SO MANY books in the past. It's a sad, overworn stereotype. It dropped the book a full star for me.
Regular Sheila Connolly readers probably won't be disappointed.

Two and a half stars
This book comes out June 26
Followed by Killer in the Carriage House
ARC Kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own