Sandra has been honored with the following awards for her debut Mystery in Maine novel, Deadly Trespass:

• Women's Fiction Writers Association “Rising Star” Contest: National Finalist

• Mystery Writers of America McCloy Award

• SPR Book Awards: 2017 National Finalist

• Maine Literary Awards: 2018 Finalist

“I am creating a series of murder mysteries about the murder of the natural world … stories that are compelling, intimate field trips into a world at risk of disappearing.” —Sandra Neily

Sandra . . . in her Own Words

Growing up in East Boothbay, I learned that the natural world is a disappearing world. Over the years, the woods and waters around me disappeared under bulldozers or behind gated driveways. These losses are the core experiences of my childhood and my conservation career, and they are the marrow of my fiction.

My resume includes being chased by moose, river otters, and mad mother partridges. I forgive them all, as I am often out there hiking, paddling, or skiing where they live. My seriously unsupervised childhood exploring clam flats, deep forests, and secret streams grew into my Mystery In Maine series with my first award-winning novel, Deadly Trespass and most recently, Deadly Turn.

Deadly Trespass has received the national Mystery Writers of America McCloy award and was named a national finalist in the Women's Fiction Writers Association "Rising Star" contest, a fiction finalist In Maine’s Literary Awards competition, and a finalist in the international Mslexia novel competition. 

Deadly Turn (published in July, 2020) is already receiving praise as a page-turning adventure from some of Maine's most accomplished outdoor professionals and advocates.

My novels are infused with the drama and laughter of various outdoor careers, the sadness of loss, and close encounters with dogs and wildlife. I've been a whitewater river outfitter, licensed Maine Guide, and co-founder of a coalition to protect the Penobscot River from a dam. I am the author/editor of "Valuing the Nature of Maine," and 'Watching Out for Maine's Wildlife" (reports that document nature's economic value).

My love of and concern for Maine’s woods and waters has led to various appointments including the Maine Economic Growth Council, the Northern Forest Sustainability Initiative Steering Committee, the Citizen’s Advisory Committee to the Northern Forest Lands Council, and the Maine Department of Conservation Public Advisory Committee. These efforts however, often shared in the company of people who care deeply, have not eliminated threats to the largest intact, temperate forest in North America.

I’ve spent most of my adult life working in the conservation field, sometimes in paid communications positions, sometimes as a citizen activist. I’ve been recognized for my work to illuminate the economic value of our resources. I’ve authored reams of op-eds, legislative testimony, articles, and newsletters that usually find audiences predisposed to care.

I’ve been recognized for my work to save the Penobscot River from its nineteenth dam—a dam that would have drowned the river’s last remaining gorge and its rapids, wild salmon, and mist covered rare plants.

But times have changed. Many of us are trapped in information silos that shelter us from the knowledge and compassion we need to secure a future for our world.

My goal is to create stories that are compelling, intimate field trips into a world at risk, using the magic of mystery and Maine’s north woods to engage readers into knowing and caring. Fiction can reveal truths which are otherwise obscured. I take Edward Abby seriously: “. . . since we cannot expect truth from our institutions, we must expect it from our writers . . .”

I live on Moosehead Lake with my husband and rescued Lab, and would rather be fly fishing, skiing, paddling, looking for salamanders with my ‘granddaughters, or just generally "out there"-—unless I'm writing stories that draw readers into disappearing worlds.