J S Borthwick Books In Order

Sarah Deane Books In Order

  1. The Case of the Hook-Billed Kites (1982)
  2. The Down East Murders (1985)
  3. The Student Body (1986)
  4. Bodies of Water (1990)
  5. Dude on Arrival (1991)
  6. The Bridled Groom (1994)
  7. Dolly is Dead (1995)
  8. The Garden Plot (1997)
  9. My Body Lies Over the Ocean (1999)
  10. Coup de Grace (2000)
  11. Murder in the Rough (2002)
  12. Intensive Scare Unit (2004)
  13. Foiled Again (2007)

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J S Borthwick Books Overview

The Case of the Hook-Billed Kites

Sarah Deane takes a break from graduate school and dreary mid March Boston and heads for sunny Southern Texas to join her boyfriend, Philip Lentz, on a birdwatching expedition. Philip’s rare sighting of a pair of hook billed kites gets things off to a great start. But when he ends up strangled by his binocular straps, the rest of the birders are both suspects and sitting ducks. Is the killer a member of the Hamburg Bird Club? Major ‘Big’ Foster, who claims he also saw the kites? Or the pair of spinsters who run Cactus Wren Tours? When precocious thirteen year old Jeff Goldsmith disappears, Sarah teams up with Dr. Alex McKenzie for a crash course in detecting, to track down the killer before someone else becomes the next victim.

The Down East Murders

Working on the Godding Museum’s annual local artist show is the perfect way for English teacher Sarah Deane to earn a few dollars, relax in the sun and sea air of coastal Maine, and spend the summer with her boyfriend, Dr. Alex McKenzie. But when Sarah and Alex discover the body of Nate Harwood, a cranky local artist, caught in an offshore fish trap, they know they’ll have no vacation from amateur detecting until they catch his killer. Could his death be related to the ‘accidental’ drowning of two elderly tourists shortly after they had brought a painting from Prior’s Gallery? Is one of the contestants in the museum show willing to go to any lengths to win? Or does someone have strong feelings against seascapes?Sarah and Alax canvass Weymouth Island trying to draw a clearer picture of the killer lurking among them before they find the next victim.

The Student Body

The campus of Maine’s Bowmouth College looks like a picture postcard of New England snow covered lawns, students in colorful ski parkas, icicles dangling on the ivied halls. Sarah Deane English Fellow with an honorary degree in sleuthing expects to spend a quiet term here taking some graduate courses and doing a little teaching. But then Sarah finds that someone’s organized an advanced course in murder. The first lesson comes when a woman student is found frozen into a prize winning snow sculpture during Carnival weekend. The second is served up with a cozy cup of poisoned cocoa. And when the clues point straight to an English department already rife with rivalries, Sarah realizes that a little learning can be a very dangerous thing…

Bodies of Water

Sarah Dean, self described ‘accident crime prone English teacher,’ and her boyfriend, Dr. Alex McKenzie, are longing for a vacation. No clas*ses, students or conferences for her no patients, beepers or night calls for Alex. The two week cruise aboard the Pilgrim, a luxury yacht owned by millionaire evangelist David Mallory, seems the perfect gateway…
until one of the passengers turns up murdered…
and those left on board are now both suspects and potential victims. Could the killer be the eccentric Mallory? His stern secretary Gracie also sister of the victim? The voluptuous chef, Andrea Elder? Ezra, the deckhand? Or even Sarah’s younger brother Tony, the other member of the crew? Sarah and Alex must find out quickly, or they could become the next victims…

Dude on Arrival

English teacher Sarah Deane and her boyfriend, Dr. Alex McKenzie, leave snowy Maine to join Sarah’s feisty Aunt Julia for Christmas at the exclusive Rancho del Gato Blanco resort in Arizona. But they soon realize there’s no place like home for the holidays when ranch guests become the prey of a prankster whose destructive acts are tallying up like a Yuletide carol:Garden hose a spraying…
Lounge chair collapsing…
Mud in the coffee…
Golf carts a stalling…
Rubber snake in bathtub…
Wagon wheel a flying…
The pranks take a murderous turn Christmas morning when one of the guests turns up dead among the gifts in Santa’s sack. Sarah and Alex are certain the killer lurks among them. Could it be quirky clerk Cookie Logan? Aging film star Maria Cornish? Her hot tempered beau Blue Feather Romero? Head wrangler Peter Doubler? Or someone in the entourage of U.S. Senator Leo J. Hopgood? The police even have eccentric Aunt Julia on their list of suspects but if Sarah and Alex don’t find the killer fast, they could all end up on the list of victims.

Dolly is Dead

Everybody loves Dolly Beaugard…
At least that’s what Maine college professor and amateur sleuth Sarah Deane always though. But when Dolly’s bloated body washes ashore on the same spot as the drunken Gattling brothers the day before, the police rule homicide. Unfortunately for Sarah, she and her doctor husband Alex have a local reputation for sharp eyed detection, so Dolly’s sister Alice, who doesn’t trust the police, insists they get involved. Sarah and Alex begin to discover that the connection between the reviled Gattlings and the reputable Beaugards is surprisingly close. And even though her family all depended on Dolly to keep their finances in order, some things just don’t add up. Sarah and Alex’s only hope is to find out who knew Dolly’s secrets and who might be next on the killer’s hit list.

The Garden Plot

Sarah Deane dirties her hands in a transatlantic murder investigation, as a European garden tour turns deadly…
Much to her dismay, Sarah has been roped into accompanying her abrasive Aunt Julia on a tour of Europe’s most famous gardens. The trip takes a bad turn when the tour’s leader, garden expert Ellen Trevino, fails to meet the group for their departure. That and the strange behavior of her fellow tour members plant seeds of suspicion in Sarah’s mind. but her bi continental investigating with the help of husband Alex at home in Maine could have Sarah herself pushing up the daisies…

My Body Lies Over the Ocean

New England English teacher Sarah Deane, with husband Alex and feisty Aunt Julia in tow, is getting ready to board the Queen Victoria for a luxurious transatlantic cruise. But before they even set sail, two passengers are killed both members of the British American trade commission. Now Sarah must wade through a sea of peculiar passengers and quirky crew members to find a killer aboard Vicky and drop anchor on the seafaring scoundrel…

Coup de Grace

With ready wit and lethal plot, acclaimed author J. S. Borthwick offers up her tenth irresistible Sarah Deane mystery, a heady brew of academic backstabbing and murder at a bucolic New England girls’ boarding school. Freshly minted Ph.D. Sarah Deane is hired to teach English at Miss Merritt’s, only to land in the epicenter of legendary French professor Grace ‘Mme. Guillotine’ Carpentier’s reign of terror. Mme.’s peckish passion for excellence has inspired universal fear and loathing. A student discovers Mme.’s cloaked hanging effigy. Then Sarah finds a bludgeoned body wearing Mme’s trademark cape. But the victim is not Mme. Is it a case of mistaken identity? It’s up to Sarah, aided by her husband Alex, to find the killer before he strikes again while the prime suspects, three fractious students, and three furtive professors, follow her every move…
AUTHORBIO: J.S. BORTHWICK lives with her family on the Maine coast, where many of her mysteries are set.

Murder in the Rough

After weeks of relentless rain and fog, summer graces the Maine coast. Sarah Deane wants only to help her in laws adjust to living in Ocean Tide, an ‘architect designed home town community,’ and enjoy the warm weather before she returns to teaching in the fall. She absolutely does not want to become embroiled in another murder investigation. Even when police find the body of an 18 year old on Ocean Tide’s golf course, Sarah vows not to let it sidetrack her from an agenda of rest and relaxation. But after a frightened boy causes her to discover a second murder victim, her curiosity and protective impulses toward a child who may have seen too much overpower her better judgment. Tiptoeing into territory better left to the authorities, Sarah unearths disturbing family ties and a lethal secret hidden just beneath Ocean Tide’s veneer of squeaky clean community values…

Foiled Again

The Drama School at Bowmouth College is staging its annual Halloween masquerade, known for being a little unusual. This year it’s Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with a twist—Romiette and Julio instead. English professor and sometime amateur sleuth Sarah Deane has been recruited to assist backstage with the complicated costume changes.
Drama students are known for being mischievous and high-strung, but this year things are a little more serious: During rehearsals a couple of the student actors pass the time by taking whacks at each other with the stage props, and their horseplay leaves Todd Mancuso, the brilliant actor playing Mercutio, wounded. And when Sarah stumbles upon a badly injured student hidden away in a stockroom on Halloween night, events take a turn for the worse. By the time the production is finally staged, a member of the faculty has been badly injured and a student has been killed. Talk about drama!
Sarah gets involved, of course, to sort out a mess that involves academic politics, angry actors, and student activities gone horribly wrong.

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