cozy mystery

"In for a penny, in for a pound."

I've read a variety of mystery novels over the years, but never a cozy mystery. Which is strange because I generally prefer lighter, brighter stories to grim and gritty, and I'm not big on gore. And I love puns, and a lot of cozy mysteries have punny titles. I decided to try my first cozy mystery and chose English Tea Murder by Leslie Meier at random. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting from the genre (no punny title, for one thing) but to cut to the big reveal, I liked it.

Having never read a cozy mystery, especially one by Leslie Meier, here's what

In Dead Dancing Women, Emily Kincaid has moved to northern Michigan to get a fresh start and some distance from her ex-husband. Emily is a freelance journalist who dreams of writing mystery novels. The trouble starts when she goes for a walk and finds the head of an old woman in her trash can. How did it get there? Who would do such a thing in this small town? Emily teams up with Deputy Dolly so she can write for the newspaper about the current event and help solve the mystery before someone else is murdered.

This is the first book in the Emily Kincaid series, and Emily gets a cute sidekick

Night of the Living Deed, is the first in a new cozy mystery series by E. J. Copperman. Alison Kirby wanted a new start. After breaking with her daughter’s father, “…hereafter known as The Swine,” Alison pins all of her hopes (and savings) on renovating an old Victorian beach house on the Jersey Shore. Things are proceeding moderately well but why do unexplainable mishaps always seem to occur just after she leaves a room? When a large tub of joint compound comes down on her head, Alison awakens with the unwanted ability to see ghosts and the knowledge that they won’t leave her alone until

Sixteenth in the Puzzle Lady series, Hall’s Puzzled Indemnity is still as funny as ever! Cora Felton, the famous puzzle lady has a secret; she can’t solve crossword puzzles. But she can solve a mystery. Cora is just your typical grouchy lady trying to quit smoking without help, and she’s got too many ex-husbands to count.

Cora is asked to protect Brittney from a husband who wants to kill her for the insurance money, but it’s his car that blows up in front of the police station. Right in front of Cora and Brittney, leaving them with too many unanswered questions. Was he in the car? How did the

Maisie Dobbs' first case as a private detective is not what she expected nor wanted. But in the spring of 1929 in her new London office her first client walks through her door and asks for her assistance with a love triangle. Maisie, who was born into a working class family, is aware of her status and sex and is trying to make her mark in the detective world and so takes on the case as professionally as she possibly can. She has an inherent intuition about people and situations as well as a skill for attention to detail which she honed through years of reading, attending university and finally

Lori Shepherd knows everything about the town of Finch, the small English village where she lives. Recently, the big news is that recluse Hector Huggins has passed away, and everyone in the village attends the funeral. A stranger arrives at the funeral who, it happens, is Hector's nephew, Jack MacBride from Australia, who is in Finch to finish his uncle's affairs.

When Jack starts to clean up Hector's overgrown garden, he discovers a wishing well, and the mystery begins. The wishing well is where the residents of Finch sneak to at night to make wishes. When those wishes come true, Lori asks

Fans of cozy mysteries will enjoy Murder at the Altar, by Veronica Heley. The story actually begins with the climactic moment when the murderer is advancing towards Ellie. Suddenly: “Too late… The murderer took a step forward.” (p. 1)

 Back in time we go. Newly widowed Ellie Quicke is finding life sad, confusing and almost more than she can bear. For years, she waited on her husband and his elderly aunt, meekly accepting their dictates and their opinion that she was unfit for any other role. With Frank’s death, Ellie is forced to find her own place in the world. Her grief-fogged existence is

When you work in a library, how can you not pick up a book titled Killer Librarian?

Small-town librarian and mystery fan, Karen Nash, has just been dumped by her boyfriend. To make matters worse, it is just hours before their trip to London. Rather than lose out on her two week vacation and all of her careful planning, Karen goes to England on her own.

Of course, things don’t go according to plan. First, there is the company of her ex and his new girl on her flight to London. Then, there is the dead body she finds at her B&B. And lastly, there is the possibility that she engaged an assassin

The setting is Stoneham, N. H., where bookstores line the street. This cozy mystery is about Tricia, who owns a bookstore called Haven’t Got a Clue, and she stumbles upon a body when staying a free night at the new Sheer Comfort Inn owned by Pippa and Jon.  The list of murder suspects contains locals and a few new residents, but they all have a motive for murder.  Can Tricia clear her name from the list of suspects before another person is murdered?

(Murder on the Half Shelf is the sixth title in Lorna Barrett’s Booktown Mysteries series which begins with Murder Is Binding.)

La – short for Lavender – must deal with a broken heart and World War II in a quiet Suffolk village. She quickly realizes she needs more to do than gardening and helping to care for a neighbor’s chickens. Believing that music is soothing to the soul, La forms an orchestra, made up of local residents and military personnel from a nearby base. Rehearsals can only be held monthly, but participants soon find the time spent in playing together to be a highlight in their often tedious lives. Like many of his books, this one does not come close to the quality of McCall Smith’s “Number 1 Ladies’