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Samantha Sweet #0
The Woodcarver's Secret
On a summer day in 13th century Ireland, a simple Celtic woodworker takes a walk past a half-dead alder tree. Lightning strikes, nearly killing him. With the shattered tree lying all around, John Carver pulls himself up and decides to make the best of it—he takes the usable pieces to his workshop. From the shards of that dead tree John creates three boxes. Then the unexplained happens—shortly after handling one of them, John’s touch brings his young son back from the brink of death.When the second box demonstrates an opposite tendency, toward the dark side, Carver is terrified that witch-hunters will learn of the events. Eager to rid himself of the artifacts and desperate for money, he sells the three boxes. As they are each taken by very different buyers—a common Englishman, a worldly merchant, and a bishop—John feels a foreboding about the future.Through the centuries, the boxes travel the world, eventually drawing the attention of two rival organizations, each with very different motives and methods for gaining what they want. Reminiscent of The Red Violin in scope, this historical novel follows the three boxes to the 21st century and a deadly confrontation between the two factions.The Woodcarver’s Secret is the prequel and companion novel to Connie Shelton’s Samantha Sweet paranormal cozy mystery series (USA Today bestselling author). The Midwest Book Review “Connie Shelton gets better with every book she writes.”Praise for Connie’s “... delightfully complex mystery.” —Romantic Times“... always a good read...” —Southwest Book Views“The characters themselves are amazingly real. Bits of history are woven throughout the book. I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book as much as the Samantha Sweet series, but to my mind it is even better. It transcends the series and becomes a remarkable book in its own right.” –MossRose, 5 star review“I’m addicted to this series!” --Mollie W. 5 star review“Great series. Holds your interest and leaves you wanting more.” --Paula K. 5 stars“If you enjoy well-crafted, well researched and well written historical fiction, ‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ will capture your imagination.” –Skywriter, 5 star online review“… the more I read, the more eager I was to finish the book and learn as much as I could about Samantha's box. The book adds depth to the mystery of the box and its healing powers throughout the series. Each person who handled the box seemed to be a real person in the past. The intensity of the book left me slightly stunned--as though I witnessed all that happened first hand. Ms Shelton has out done herself with this book. I can only recommend that you read it for yourself and be swept away in this creative history lesson.”—Illinois reader, 5 stars, online reviewConnie Shelton is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 50 novels, including three international bestselling mystery series. She has also written several award-winning essays and was a contributor to Chicken Soup For the Writer’s Soul. When she’s not writing, she attempts to play the piano, loves to bake and try new recipes, and is a semi-decent knitter. She and her husband live in New Mexico with their dogs. Visit her website and sign up for her newsletter at connieshelton.com
412 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 14, 2015
104 people are currently reading
303 people want to read
About the author
Connie Shelton
94 books310 followersMy love of books started with weekly trips to the library as a child and from the moment I learned to read I can't remember a time that I didn't have at least one book going. For the past 25 years, that list has grown to include what I'm reading and what I'm writing at any given time.
I began writing my Charlie Parker series when my husband and I lived on Kauai, then continued them in my home state of New Mexico. Charlie lives in Albuquerque and manages to travel to a variety of locations, wherever her investigation business and her husband's helicopter business take them. My second series featuring Samantha Sweet, the 50-ish woman who breaks into houses for a living, is set in Taos, New Mexico.
In addition to reading and writing, I've traveled quite a lot, taught writing courses, and been a speaker at a whole lot of mystery conventions and writing conferences. In my spare time I also love to paint, draw, cook and spend time at the beach.
Series:
* Charlie Parker Mystery
I began writing my Charlie Parker series when my husband and I lived on Kauai, then continued them in my home state of New Mexico. Charlie lives in Albuquerque and manages to travel to a variety of locations, wherever her investigation business and her husband's helicopter business take them. My second series featuring Samantha Sweet, the 50-ish woman who breaks into houses for a living, is set in Taos, New Mexico.
In addition to reading and writing, I've traveled quite a lot, taught writing courses, and been a speaker at a whole lot of mystery conventions and writing conferences. In my spare time I also love to paint, draw, cook and spend time at the beach.
Series:
* Charlie Parker Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 23, 2015
Here we have a historical novel about three characters named Virtu, Facinor & Manichee, and their wonderful adventures through the crises, wars, social upheavals and human progress of five centuries. Of course no humans live through five centuries, but then these three characters aren’t human: they’re wood boxes carved from the same Alder tree by an Irishman named, what else, John Carver sometime prior to the Spanish Inquisition. Readers are given a not so subtle hint at the power these three boxes contain through their origin. John Carver acquires the wood for them after lightning shatters a certain tree. This atavistic, dendritic heritage carries through the remainder of the book, revealing itself even at the end through sophisticated scientific analysis. Each box has its own subtle powers: Virtu (from Latin for good) delivers good things; Facinor (from Latin Facere, to do evil) brings bad things; Manichee (Referring to a dualistic quasi-religious concept) acts as the chameleon-like reflector of the box owner’s intentions, either good or bad. Labeled so, each box launches on its own particular voyage doing what it does best. Virtu heals ailments and injuries; Facinor creates havoc; Manichee becomes an intermediary, a facilitator. The book takes us on a journey all over the world, each box coming into the hands of people who seem always to know just what power they hold.
‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ is an ambitious, well-researched, engaging novel that departs quite a bit from Connie Shelton’s usual fare. Not to say Ms Shelton’s past efforts have been unsatisfying, far from it, she writes very well, and clearly keeps her faithful readership awaiting the next Samantha Sweet or Charlie Parker mystery. But ‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ is a radical departure from those books. It marks a level of writing that may send Connie Shelton into a different plane, putting her books on a different shelf.
Reminiscent of Annie Proulx’ s ‘Accordion Crimes,’ or Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel ‘The Natural,’ ‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ traces objects from Ireland, to Inquisition Spain and its Conversos to a fellow named Rodrigo who spies for the Spanish king prior to the Armada invasion of England in 1588. From Seville the boxes separate, one vanishing into the Vatican, another off to Mexico and the third? It vanishes altogether for centuries.
Mixed in with the travels (and travails) attached to each box are the people who come in contact with them. Historical figures give readers a taste and a feel for the great events of history: the Spanish conquest of Mexico, ‘Texian’ Independence,’ the peripatetic life of a painter and his family—indeed of two painter’s families two oceans and two hundred years apart. One box finds its way into the hands of, gasp, Adolph Hitler! We even travel with one box by balloon over the Gulf of Mexico. This is a Connie Shelton book, after all, and it’s clever how she installed her balloon in the tale.
We gain insights into personal stories from the Panama Canal, World War 1, class struggle after the great war and on and on. We find satisfying, if possibly a bit precious, tie-ups for certain boxes. Bertha bequeaths Virtu to a woman named Samantha Sweet, a title character from other Shelton offerings. And Manichee hides behind a hastily built brick wall along with priceless wine belonging to a German family wishing to hide their product from the Nazis. Of course the youngster returns thirty years on to see the wall come down, a possible reference to the Berlin wall, and finds his beloved box still nestling there, along with the family heritage, several cases of Bernkasteler Kabinett which, by the way, is a real premium German wine. Ms Shelton has done her homework.
‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ is not without minor flaws. Yes, the chronology does become obvious, but establishing a start date would have been useful. The book dwells on Virtu, the ‘good box,’ somewhat to the exclusion of the other two, though this device may have been necessary in such an ambitious work. It’s not easy to keep track of the human characters, but many are peripheral, and the transience of humans may amplify the role of the main characters, the boxes.
The book comes to center on the historical struggle between science and superstition, between the Catholic Church and an agency called ‘The Vongraf Foundation’ dedicated to objective analysis of mysterious, inexplicable phenomena. Using the age-old struggle between religion and science, ‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ explores this challenge through its detective story framework, the book’s climax defined by the clash of these two entities.
After many years, all three boxes meet again, the mystery not quite solved but then that leaves room for sequels, of course. No secrets revealed in this review, you’ll have to read the book. If you enjoy well-crafted, well researched and well written historical fiction, ‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ will capture your imagination.
Byron Edgington author of Waiting for Willie Pete.
‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ is an ambitious, well-researched, engaging novel that departs quite a bit from Connie Shelton’s usual fare. Not to say Ms Shelton’s past efforts have been unsatisfying, far from it, she writes very well, and clearly keeps her faithful readership awaiting the next Samantha Sweet or Charlie Parker mystery. But ‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ is a radical departure from those books. It marks a level of writing that may send Connie Shelton into a different plane, putting her books on a different shelf.
Reminiscent of Annie Proulx’ s ‘Accordion Crimes,’ or Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel ‘The Natural,’ ‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ traces objects from Ireland, to Inquisition Spain and its Conversos to a fellow named Rodrigo who spies for the Spanish king prior to the Armada invasion of England in 1588. From Seville the boxes separate, one vanishing into the Vatican, another off to Mexico and the third? It vanishes altogether for centuries.
Mixed in with the travels (and travails) attached to each box are the people who come in contact with them. Historical figures give readers a taste and a feel for the great events of history: the Spanish conquest of Mexico, ‘Texian’ Independence,’ the peripatetic life of a painter and his family—indeed of two painter’s families two oceans and two hundred years apart. One box finds its way into the hands of, gasp, Adolph Hitler! We even travel with one box by balloon over the Gulf of Mexico. This is a Connie Shelton book, after all, and it’s clever how she installed her balloon in the tale.
We gain insights into personal stories from the Panama Canal, World War 1, class struggle after the great war and on and on. We find satisfying, if possibly a bit precious, tie-ups for certain boxes. Bertha bequeaths Virtu to a woman named Samantha Sweet, a title character from other Shelton offerings. And Manichee hides behind a hastily built brick wall along with priceless wine belonging to a German family wishing to hide their product from the Nazis. Of course the youngster returns thirty years on to see the wall come down, a possible reference to the Berlin wall, and finds his beloved box still nestling there, along with the family heritage, several cases of Bernkasteler Kabinett which, by the way, is a real premium German wine. Ms Shelton has done her homework.
‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ is not without minor flaws. Yes, the chronology does become obvious, but establishing a start date would have been useful. The book dwells on Virtu, the ‘good box,’ somewhat to the exclusion of the other two, though this device may have been necessary in such an ambitious work. It’s not easy to keep track of the human characters, but many are peripheral, and the transience of humans may amplify the role of the main characters, the boxes.
The book comes to center on the historical struggle between science and superstition, between the Catholic Church and an agency called ‘The Vongraf Foundation’ dedicated to objective analysis of mysterious, inexplicable phenomena. Using the age-old struggle between religion and science, ‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ explores this challenge through its detective story framework, the book’s climax defined by the clash of these two entities.
After many years, all three boxes meet again, the mystery not quite solved but then that leaves room for sequels, of course. No secrets revealed in this review, you’ll have to read the book. If you enjoy well-crafted, well researched and well written historical fiction, ‘The Woodcarver’s Secret’ will capture your imagination.
Byron Edgington author of Waiting for Willie Pete.
November 14, 2016
I really wanted to like this book but I just thought that it was too bland. Some parts were pretty exciting but most of the time this book didn't grab my attention. I understand that this is more of a companion book to give you a better background about the boxes but I just didn't find it that great.
January 14, 2024
Okay, yes, this is my own book. I'm posting a review to share a little extra info because fans have asked a lot about my Samantha Sweet series and wondered where the magical wooden box came from. I had written several books in the series when I began to wonder the same thing. Surely the box had a history ... So I began tracing it backward through time, from the woman who gave Sam the box (part of the story in Sweet Masterpiece), and finally to the explanation of how the box came to have special powers.
No spoilers here, but I will let you know that the history spans centuries, and there are actually more boxes than this one. It has 'siblings' if that's possible for an object. For the rest ... well, it's more than I can tell here. For anyone who would like to know more about the backstory, this is where you'll find it. And I offer a huge thanks to everyone who helped plant the seeds in my mind to get this story out there!
No spoilers here, but I will let you know that the history spans centuries, and there are actually more boxes than this one. It has 'siblings' if that's possible for an object. For the rest ... well, it's more than I can tell here. For anyone who would like to know more about the backstory, this is where you'll find it. And I offer a huge thanks to everyone who helped plant the seeds in my mind to get this story out there!
July 4, 2018
A fascinating journey following the history of three wooden boxes from their creation by a woodcarver in the 12th century to the present. One of the boxes is obtained by Samantha Sweet in book #1 of the mystery series of the same name and is featured in each of the ten books in the series. Samantha's box is named Virtu and only does good. The 2nd is Facinor, the evil box. The 3rd is Manachee at one time in the possession of Samantha's uncle in Ireland that can do good or evil depending on the owner's inclinations. The story is deftly told through snippets of people's lives who come into contact with the boxes over nine centuries. The author clearly did extensive historical research to give a strong sense of truth to the stories even though fictional. The book was a prequel to the series but best read at the end (as #1 through #10 are best read in order).
November 21, 2024
This will tell you all you ever wanted to know about the magical boxes in Ms. Shelton's Samantha Sweet series. Maybe even a bit more than you wanted to know. From 1500s Ireland to the present day USA this is the full history of what happened to the boxes and the people who used them. Lots of history here. I think you could still read the mysteries without all the background and I don't think any questions were answered, but I liked it.
May 23, 2017
Great book. Complete story of the beginning of the boxes. She traced he making of the boxescand their travel through the ages from 1700s up to current time. Such a fascinating series of travel! You will be entranced!
April 23, 2019
A mystery with many tales
Each of the many tales in this book brings characters and emotions to life. The mystery keeps evolving. I savored every story within the overall story. What a great read!
Each of the many tales in this book brings characters and emotions to life. The mystery keeps evolving. I savored every story within the overall story. What a great read!
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February 5, 2023She teases through the entire series about the origins of the box that she has. This book traces the history of the 3 boxes.
She winds actual history through the whole book - the Inquisition, the Holocaust, both World Wars.
She winds actual history through the whole book - the Inquisition, the Holocaust, both World Wars.
August 29, 2018
I enjoyed following the box's journey throughout history.
September 23, 2018
So much time from 1300 hundreds til the present. So many characters told about and dropped.
July 24, 2021
I have read several of Connie Shelton's books and have loved every one of them. I have completed the Samantha Sweet series and I'm several books into the Charlie Parker series. Good reading!
June 12, 2025
not my favorite, didn't really hold my attention. I listened to some of the other books in the series and they were much better.
December 4, 2025
I tried my hardest to get into the book. I made it to chapter 7 and had to give up. This isn't my type of book. It couldn't keep my attention
November 15, 2016
I found this book really hard to read. I got the start and that there were three boxes but i felt the story jumped all over the place obviously following the boxes but i never knew of which box i was reading about. I felt the book rather dry and because of this it took me an age to read. While the book was well thought out and it was to help you understand where the boxes came from and how they traveled through the centuries it still never really explained what powers the boxes contained. I got good and evil but damned if i can think what the other box was. Cant wait to get back to samantha sweet instead x
December 18, 2015
This book is more of a companion book to the Samantha Sweet series than an actual part of the series. It is the back history on the box she owns and two others that were made to accompany it. That the three boxes are now separated and each has its own story and meaning becomes clear through the telling of this tale. An interesting work, and one that could stand alone, away from the series and still be a compelling tale. It adds so much to the series however, that if you love the series, you really should read this one as well...
August 5, 2015
A trip through the centuries
Connie Shelton has found a wonderful way to explain where the box Samantha Sweet received in the first book of the series came from and that there are actually two other boxes.
While she takes some literary license with some historic events, the story is so fascinating that you just don't care.
Connie Shelton has found a wonderful way to explain where the box Samantha Sweet received in the first book of the series came from and that there are actually two other boxes.
While she takes some literary license with some historic events, the story is so fascinating that you just don't care.
September 20, 2016
Good read.
This book was very interesting in giving the facts about each box and where it came from. At times I felt the author got bogged down in telling the story but overall a good read
This book was very interesting in giving the facts about each box and where it came from. At times I felt the author got bogged down in telling the story but overall a good read
October 8, 2017
I just finished The Woodcarver's Secret. This is an amazingly well-written book! I think this is perhaps one of the best books I have ever read! Great job of incorporating real and not real events into one book thru the centuries!
March 8, 2017
It was odd yet charming and the tale of the magic in the boxes was intriguing. It was tied together well and left me wanting to read more of Samantha Sweet.
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May 30, 2018Love this series
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews