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Sweeney St. George #4
Still as Death
ART HISTORY PROFESSOR SWEENEY ST. GEORGE is in the middle of putting together an exhibit on her specialty, "the art of death," for the university museum when she makes an unusual discovery: A valuable piece of Egyptian funerary jewelry that should be in the museum's collection seems to be missing. Searching for answers, Sweeney learns that a student intern at the museum was the last person to check out the piece, a young woman who died of an apparent suicide soon after she handled the piece, more than twenty-five years ago.
Going on with the exhibition without the intricately beaded Egyptian collar, Sweeney can't let it drop altogether. Nor can she forget the student, Karen Philips, who died just a few months after working with the piece. A little digging shows that Karen was working at the museum the night it was robbed, that same year, and Sweeney becomes even more curious. But her interest in mysteries past pales when a present-day murder brings Sweeney and her colleagues at the museum under the Cambridge Police Department spotlight in the person of Detective Tim Quinn, whom Sweeney has worked with before.
In the latest installment in this rich and fascinating series, Sweeney and Tim go after a killer, trying to resolve questions both immediate and decades-old before it's too late.
Going on with the exhibition without the intricately beaded Egyptian collar, Sweeney can't let it drop altogether. Nor can she forget the student, Karen Philips, who died just a few months after working with the piece. A little digging shows that Karen was working at the museum the night it was robbed, that same year, and Sweeney becomes even more curious. But her interest in mysteries past pales when a present-day murder brings Sweeney and her colleagues at the museum under the Cambridge Police Department spotlight in the person of Detective Tim Quinn, whom Sweeney has worked with before.
In the latest installment in this rich and fascinating series, Sweeney and Tim go after a killer, trying to resolve questions both immediate and decades-old before it's too late.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
11 people are currently reading
231 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Stewart Taylor
19 books754 followersSarah Stewart Taylor lives with her husband and three children on a farm in Vermont where they raise sheep and grow blueberries.
Sarah is the author of the Sweeney St. George series and the Maggie D'arcy series. The first Maggie D'arcy mystery, THE MOUNTAINS WILD, was nominated for the Dashiell Hammett Prize and was on numerous Best of 2020 lists. The new Maggie D'arcy novel, A STOLEN CHILD, is out now. AGONY HILL, the first installment in her new series set in Vermont in 1965, will be out in 2024.
Sarah is the author of the Sweeney St. George series and the Maggie D'arcy series. The first Maggie D'arcy mystery, THE MOUNTAINS WILD, was nominated for the Dashiell Hammett Prize and was on numerous Best of 2020 lists. The new Maggie D'arcy novel, A STOLEN CHILD, is out now. AGONY HILL, the first installment in her new series set in Vermont in 1965, will be out in 2024.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
December 26, 2020
3 1/2 stars, rounded down because of the ending, and because I'm tired Sweeney's romantic angst.
April 19, 2019
Sweeney, oh, Sweeney! How do you get yourself into these situations? Sarah Stewart Taylor’s Still As Death (Sweeney St. George #4) has Assistant Professor Sweeney St. George preparing an exhibition of ‘the art of death’ at the university museum to illustrate how people from “ancient Egypt to the modern-day” mourned lost loved ones. Sweeney located a picture of a mourning necklace from ancient Egypt which she wanted to include in her exhibition along with post-mortem photographs of the deceased taking in the 19th c. (Please refer to my review of Sleeping Beauty Memorial Photography in America, Stanley B. Burns, M.D.), funerary jewelry such as a jet broach containing a lock of hair of the lost loved one or piece of jewelry made from the hair of the deceased, and modern-day mourning items-memorial tattoos, car decals, and contemporary mourning jewelry. Finding the picture of the ancient Egyptian funerary necklace begins this involved mystery! Then there are the men - Ian from London, England, Tim from the Cambridge (MA) PD, and Toby, Sweeney’s best friend. My rating may well reflect my hobby of cemetery roaming as this is not in this book, but the mystery is quite involved! 3.75 stars.
December 3, 2023
Well-written and with some surprising twists (or one, at least), but I was a little bored by Sweeney's romantic tribulations and I hate the cliche of a murderer exclaiming, "You have to understand," and then proceeding to tell everything, for no rational reason. Over all, the solution to the murders could have been a little more believable. I was actually most interested in Sweeney's exhibit of funerary art, truth be told.
June 2, 2021
I would've given this 2.5 stars if it were possible. I *wanted* to like this book series, and it's not necessarily because technical shortcomings in the story structure. I think it's because of my impatience with the main protagonist character Sweeney. Or rather, aspects of her personality as Taylor continued trying to develop this character as the book series progressed. Although Sweeney starts out in the first book at 28 years old, by this fourth book she doesn't seem to be maturing in an adult way but keeps coming across as perennially stuck behaving like a college sophomore with an alcohol problem. But I guess some people are like that in real life; I don't have much patience with them either ;-)
In any event, Still As Death was published in 2006 and it looks as if Sweeney has gone off into the sunset. Taylor seems to have moved on to other projects.
In any event, Still As Death was published in 2006 and it looks as if Sweeney has gone off into the sunset. Taylor seems to have moved on to other projects.
August 11, 2020
STILL AS DEATH by Sarah Stewart Taylor is Book #4 in the Sweeney St. George Mystery series.
Our prologue is dated 1979.
Karen Phillips, an intern at the University’s Hapner Museum of Art, is studying an ancient piece of Egyptian funeral jewelry in the storerooms, when she is interrupted by a robbery and horrifying experience.
Fast forward and we find Sweeney looking for the same exact piece of jewelry, so as to include it in the museum’s upcoming exhibit. Sweeney, art historian and interested in all things funereal, is organizing and developing the exhibit. The Egyptian jewelry would make a perfect addition. Funerary art fascinates Sweeney “because it danced on the subtle line between form and function.”
Once again, this series instructs as well as entertains. We become interested in museum protocols and exhibits; security systems; the thievery and distribution of ancient artifacts; Egyptian artifacts; art lust; and, of course, murder investigations.
We glimpse quite a bit of Sweeney’s personal life as Ian, Toby and Homicide Detective Timothy Quinn all figure in her ‘love life.’
The characters, the plot, the locations all add to this title’s five star rating. *****
Our prologue is dated 1979.
Karen Phillips, an intern at the University’s Hapner Museum of Art, is studying an ancient piece of Egyptian funeral jewelry in the storerooms, when she is interrupted by a robbery and horrifying experience.
Fast forward and we find Sweeney looking for the same exact piece of jewelry, so as to include it in the museum’s upcoming exhibit. Sweeney, art historian and interested in all things funereal, is organizing and developing the exhibit. The Egyptian jewelry would make a perfect addition. Funerary art fascinates Sweeney “because it danced on the subtle line between form and function.”
Once again, this series instructs as well as entertains. We become interested in museum protocols and exhibits; security systems; the thievery and distribution of ancient artifacts; Egyptian artifacts; art lust; and, of course, murder investigations.
We glimpse quite a bit of Sweeney’s personal life as Ian, Toby and Homicide Detective Timothy Quinn all figure in her ‘love life.’
The characters, the plot, the locations all add to this title’s five star rating. *****
July 6, 2023
Sweeney St. George, art history professor, is preparing an exhibit of "the art of death". It is taking most of her time. Wanting to make it as good as it can get, she seeks out death jewelry in the museum and discovers information about an Egyptian collar that does not appear to be from the period the papers say it is. But she is unable to find the piece itself.
The search for this jewelry leads Sweeney to the discovery of a robbery that took place about 20 years before, and from that she learns that a young intern died soon after the robbery. That intern had been studying the collar.
Sweeney's exhibit opening is marred by a horrific event. She finds connections yet again to that collar and then there is another event.
Sweeney's sleuthing skills are taxed and her relationship with her English lover is thrown. Does she really love him? She knows he loves her. All this complicated by the appearance of Detective Quinn, investigating the events at the museum.
The search for this jewelry leads Sweeney to the discovery of a robbery that took place about 20 years before, and from that she learns that a young intern died soon after the robbery. That intern had been studying the collar.
Sweeney's exhibit opening is marred by a horrific event. She finds connections yet again to that collar and then there is another event.
Sweeney's sleuthing skills are taxed and her relationship with her English lover is thrown. Does she really love him? She knows he loves her. All this complicated by the appearance of Detective Quinn, investigating the events at the museum.
December 17, 2018
Sweeney St. George leads one very complicated life...of her own making. This one in the series expands upon the preceding one--Sweeney and Ian's relationship has become more formal. Ian is in Cambridge living with Sweeney as he sets up an American subsidiary of his London business. Sweeney's three-year work on curating an exhibit of funerary art is debuting at her university's art museum. What could go wrong?? A murder. A missing Egyptian funeral collar. A suicide related to that collar twenty-five years ago. Detective Tim Quinn assigned to investigate the murder. Another murder. Sweeney's drinking. Sweeney's perception that the tenure track isn't open to her. And, so it goes south.
Honestly, I did not see the ending coming.
Honestly, I did not see the ending coming.
August 2, 2023
While interesting, at times I wanted to shake Sweeney, since she can't seem to make decisions about her personal life, instead just "going with the flow." The title of the book is also the title of an exhibition she is curating at the university museum. Twenty five years earlier a robbery occurred there, and an intern, who was researching there at the time, later hanged herself. When another murder occurs at the opening of the exhibition, Sweeney can't help but wonder if they might be related, so she begins to look into the background of the deceased girl.
May 22, 2021
Another fascinating story. I’m sorry this is the last one of the series. It’s chock full of interesting information about museums, Egyptian art, art theft, and academic life. Combined with complex relationships, the stories keep you going....
December 30, 2024
This book was just fine. It was hard for me to like Sweeney but I really liked Quinn. I enjoyed the sub plot about Karen Phillips but honestly there were so many characters I found it hard to keep track
September 9, 2025
I really do like art heist themes, and stuck through this mystery in spite of multiple pov’s in the beginning and multiple romance-y sections and trysts. Then the body count started piling up - huh? Not a satisfactory ending… and so much existential romantic angst.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2021
Not sure why I didn't review this earlier, as I know I at least skimmed it. But again, I was disappointed. This author is hit-and-miss for me, so for now I won't pick her up again.
June 30, 2022
Didn’t like the ending. 3.5 stars
September 22, 2023
How many endings did she write? And she chose this one?
February 25, 2009
Sweeney St. George is in the middle of putting together an exhibit on her specialty, "the art of death," for the university museum when she makes an unusual discovery: A valuable piece of Egyptian funerary jewelry that should be in the museum's collection seems to be missing. Searching for answers, Sweeney learns that a student intern at the museum was the last person to check out the piece, a young woman who died of an apparent suicide soon after she handled the piece, more than twenty-five years ago.
Going on with the exhibition without the intricately beaded Egyptian collar, Sweeney can't let it drop altogether. Nor can she forget the student, Karen Philips, who died just a few months after working with the piece. A little digging shows that Karen was working at the museum the night it was robbed, that same year, and Sweeney becomes even more curious. But her interest in mysteries past pales when a present-day murder brings Sweeney and her colleagues at the museum under the Cambridge Police Department spotlight in the person of Detective Tim Quinn, whom Sweeney has worked with before.
fourth in the Sweeney St. George series
Going on with the exhibition without the intricately beaded Egyptian collar, Sweeney can't let it drop altogether. Nor can she forget the student, Karen Philips, who died just a few months after working with the piece. A little digging shows that Karen was working at the museum the night it was robbed, that same year, and Sweeney becomes even more curious. But her interest in mysteries past pales when a present-day murder brings Sweeney and her colleagues at the museum under the Cambridge Police Department spotlight in the person of Detective Tim Quinn, whom Sweeney has worked with before.
fourth in the Sweeney St. George series
July 29, 2011
Professor Sweeney St. George is putting together an exhibit at the university's Hapner Museum of Art, "Still as Death: The Art of the End of Life". However, the Harvard University art history professor realizes as she catalogues the display that a priceless Egyptian funerary jewelry collar is missing. Making inquiries she learns that the last person known to have had the artifact was back in 1979, student intern Karen Philips who apparently committed suicide soon afterward. Sweeney continues preparation for the show, but also digs deeper into the Philips affair. She finds out that Karen was working at the Hapner the night it was robbed in 1979 and other tidbits that fail to add up. However, her fascination with a mystery over twenty-five years old changes to a modern murder mystery when someone kills Olga, working on the exhibit. Cambridge Police Department Detective Tim Quinn looks at the Art Department for a suspect while Sweeney begins to tie the current homicide back to the 1979 tragedy.
July 15, 2011
My first book by this author. Enjoyed the story on the whole, but am frustrated (already) by the miss-communication between the lead character, Sweeney St. George, and what I perceive to be the hero, the police detective, Tim Quinn. You read about the building attraction between the two (which appears to have started in a previous book) and while you, the reader seems to understand what is transpiring, the two characters totally miss-read each other.
While I understand the miss-reading of each other's intentions, signals, etc., happens in real life, I find I have little patience for it in books or movies. I read to relax, escape, enjoy - I don't want these real life problems intruding on me. Not very open or patience, I know. That's just the way I am right now.
Since on the whole I enjoyed the story and the development of the characters, I will try to circle back and see if I enjoy the characters in the beginning (If Tim Quinn is event there - I don't even know).
While I understand the miss-reading of each other's intentions, signals, etc., happens in real life, I find I have little patience for it in books or movies. I read to relax, escape, enjoy - I don't want these real life problems intruding on me. Not very open or patience, I know. That's just the way I am right now.
Since on the whole I enjoyed the story and the development of the characters, I will try to circle back and see if I enjoy the characters in the beginning (If Tim Quinn is event there - I don't even know).
November 22, 2011
It was an ok read. The heroine struck me as flighty and unfocused much of the time. Sweeney St. George is the protagonist. She puts together an art exhibition by the same name as the book with death ritualistic art commemorating those who died to remember those who left the living behind. Two murders have been committed in the gallery where her exhibit is being shown and puzzle the authorities. Sweeney and her policeman friend, Tim Quinn, believe that these murders are connected to the early suicide of a young intern. It is but not the way they think it might be. The author attempts to add interest to the novel by including Sweeney's personal love life. Sweeney says she is in love with a British citizen named Ian but is unable to commit to marriage and moving to London. To further complicate this situation she is attracted to Tim.
December 8, 2016
More like a 3.5. I like SST's writing style and was quickly caught up in the story. What's not to like. Museums, exhibits, Egyptian artifacts, robbery, suicide.
I have not read the 3 books in the series that precede this one. Maybe that created part of my problem with this book. In the first third, Sweeney seemed grounded and sensible. Then, with announcement of Ian's desire to move to London, she suddenly drinks more to cope with the pressure of personal decisions. Then, the last third she is investigating and making wild accusations. I began to dislike her.
The book needed to be tighter. The ending went on forever and was a bit hard to believe. Was everyone in the museum guilty of something?? And the final scene makes more sense since I now know there were no more books in this series.
All in all, the book was worth reading.
I have not read the 3 books in the series that precede this one. Maybe that created part of my problem with this book. In the first third, Sweeney seemed grounded and sensible. Then, with announcement of Ian's desire to move to London, she suddenly drinks more to cope with the pressure of personal decisions. Then, the last third she is investigating and making wild accusations. I began to dislike her.
The book needed to be tighter. The ending went on forever and was a bit hard to believe. Was everyone in the museum guilty of something?? And the final scene makes more sense since I now know there were no more books in this series.
All in all, the book was worth reading.
February 1, 2008
Sweeney St. George, an art historian concerned with the art of death (anything from Egyptian funerary art to the memorial displays of flowers and teddy bears that people put up at crash sites), has curated an exhibit at the museum associated with her university. During the opening a woman is killed and a precious Egyptian artifact is almost -- but not quite -- stolen. There seems to be a connection to a previous museum robbery that was 20 years earlier. Sweeney investigates on her own and also with police detective Tim Quinn, whom we've met in earlier books. She also has unresolved issues in her private life. This is a very good series and I hope there will be many more books in it.
September 23, 2009
This is the best offering yet in the Sweeney St. George series, from young author Sarah Stewart Taylor. While the previous 3 books focus a lot on Ms. St. George's scholarly interest in funerary art (which can become tiresome, not to mention morbid), this one emerges from that interest into a more general world with which most of us can identify. Particularly strong is the character development of both Sweeney St. George and her policeman friend, Detective Tim Quinn. Now I'm looking forward to reading more of the series, but unfortunately the next instalment hasn't yet been published. Hopefully soon!
February 15, 2012
I did not like this as much as the others but it was still really good. Sweeney finally gets to launch her own exhibit and murder victims pile up one after the other. Amidst all of this is the "should I/shouldn't I move to England with Ian" and "I kind of have the hots for Tim Quinn" stuff going on, but the myster is solid and the characters are still great fun. I just wish it wasn't so long between books ... even the author's blog/website hasn't been updated since 2010....so I guess I'm going to have to wait awhile longer.
January 26, 2016
the last (so far) of the sweeney st. george books. i must admit, she/the series did grow on me a lot and i think this is probably the strongest of the lot. it's not without it's problems - i still find the romance between sweeney and quinn really contrived - but i think going for something a little less esoteric here really helped the story and i do hope that taylor keeps writing because i'd love to see more of these characters.
June 26, 2014
Book has a good plot, characters and story, but I think the editing was not the best in this 4th of the series. There are too many places where Sweeney does something, goes on to something else, and either ends up re-doing the first activity, or continuing it. Difficult to keep interested in because of the lack of continuity. I really enjoyed the 2nd book, though. Have to read the 1st and 3rd now.
March 19, 2014
An exhibit on funeral art over the centuries leads Sweeney to a mystery from 25 years ago. Meanwhile, the museum's housekeeper is killed. A strong final (unfortunately) entry in the series.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
August 9, 2009
Parts of this series I really like, but her romantic relationships, on again/off again with this one and that one, get on my nerves. I suppose the confusion is supposed to be gritty and "real" but I find it very distracting from the fun of learning about funerary art and the mystery storyline.
July 29, 2009
The latest in the Sweeney St. George mysteries. Not a bad story, though I enjoyed the earlier books more. The resolution of the murders in this one felt almost tacked on as an excuse to keep exploring the lives of Sweeney and her associates.
August 29, 2009
This is a very readable and somewhat compelling story. The good guys have depth but the bad guys are mostly unidimensional. The main character is still looking for Mister Right and can not make up her mind. The sexual tension in this book is limited but there.
August 3, 2012
Not bad, but I think it was a little 'jumpy' the way the story went....I mean, I could see where she was going with the story, but there was too much of "what else" is going on rather than the plot itself. Good anyway.
September 15, 2011
Interesting twists & turns in the long-term plot from the beginning of the series. I wish there was another book to read to see where things have or are going. Great mystery too - I learn more about art and history each time I read one of these stories.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews