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Curl-Up Cozy Mysteries I Can't Put Down
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items These are the cozy mystery authors I keep going back to when I need a good story and a little comfort. Expect small towns, nosy neighbors, a few ghosts and talking pets, and no gore. Most of them start a whole series, so if you like one, you've got p...
Sections
5
Small-Town Sheriffs & Coffee
Bakeries, Cats & Innkeepers
Cruises & History
Villages, Shops & Vegas
My Harmony Creek Mysteries
Small-Town Sheriffs & Coffee
Kentucky sheriffs, campgrounds, and a lakeside coffee shop. Hometown cozies with a porch-swing pace and no gore, my comfort reads when I want something warm.
Kenni Lowry is the sheriff of tiny Cottonwood, Kentucky, and it turns out her late grandpa's ghost has been helping her keep the peace. Southern sayings, small-town busybodies, and a case that gets complicated fast. Tonya Kappes writes the kind of ho...
A Sheriff, Her Poppa's Ghost & a Kentucky Hometown
Mae West loses her fancy New York life overnight. All she has left is a run-down campground called Happy Trails and an RV to live in. Watching a city girl learn to camp while solving a mystery is pure fun, and this long series is easy to binge.
From a Mansion to an RV Park in Normal, Kentucky
Roxy Bloom leaves big-city law for a lakeside coffeehouse in Honey Springs, Kentucky, and somehow still ends up with a body in the bookstore next door. Aunt Maxi is in the hot seat, the boardwalk gossip is hotter than the espresso, and there's a schn...
Coffee Shop, Small Town & a Bookstore Murder
Fortune Redding is a CIA assassin who has to disappear into Sinful, Louisiana, posing as a former beauty queen turned librarian. Her inherited dog digs up a human bone before she's even unpacked. Enter two sweet-looking old ladies the town calls the ...
CIA Assassin Hiding in a Louisiana Bayou Town
Bakeries, Cats & Innkeepers
Cupcakes, talking pets, mind-reading innkeepers, and a little Halloween chaos. Light and funny, with recipes or animals in almost every one.
Lottie Lemon bakes in sweet little Honey Hollow, Vermont, and she can see the dead, which makes murder a lot harder to ignore. It's light and funny, with a touch of romance and a recipe in the back. A great pick when you want something cheerful.
A Bakery, a Vermont Town & a Baker Who Sees Dead
It's set in Cider Cove, Maine, with an innkeeper who can read minds, a cozy lending library, and pets who help crack the case. If you love animals in your mysteries, this one will make you smile. It's silly in the best way.
Mind-Reading Innkeeper & Talking Pets Maine
Lottie Lemon's bakery grand opening should've been all cupcakes and confetti. Instead she spots a little ghost squirrel that only she can see, and it leads her straight to another Honey Hollow homicide. Spooky season, recipes in the back, and that sw...
Halloween Bakery Chaos in Honey Hollow
She's not really a psychic. Her predictions are gloriously wrong, but that never stops her from sticking her nose in. After ticking off the mob, the feds, and an ex, she starts over in Starry Falls with a new name, new hair, and the same talent for f...
Inaccurate Psychic, New Hair Color & a Mob Problem
Cruises & History
Shipboard sleuths, jazz-age ocean liners, and a country estate with Downton vibes. Clean mysteries you can almost smell the sea air in.
Rachel Prince, an off-duty police officer, takes a cruise to get over a broken heart and ends up keeping an eye on a passenger who seems to be in danger. The ship is described so well you'll want to book a trip. It also introduces Lady Marjorie, one ...
A Mediterranean Cruise With a Killer On Board
Lady Marjorie and her outspoken cousin-in-law Edna go on a trip to Romania, and an opera singer turns up dead. Four friends in their eighties end up chasing the killer. Proof that sleuthing has no age limit.
Feisty Octogenarians Solve a Murder at the Opera
Rachel's back on the Coral Queen for a quiet transatlantic trip to New York with her best friend Sarah, the ship's nurse. Quiet lasts about five minutes. A crewman turns up dead, another goes missing, and Rachel can't leave well enough alone even whe...
Another Coral Queen Cruise, Another Crew Mystery
It's 1923, and Ginger Gold is crossing the Atlantic when the ship's captain dies in a most curious way. She's stylish, sharp, and happier than she should be helping the handsome Chief Inspector Basil Reed. Short enough to finish with a cup of coffee,...
1920s Ocean Liner & a Fashionable War Widow Sleuth
Lady Eleanor Swift inherits a country estate she never expected and walks straight into a murder that would make Agatha Christie tip her hat. Quirky staff, village secrets, and a heroine who refuses to sit quietly in the drawing room.
1920s Lady Sleuth, Country Estate & a Very English Crime
Villages, Shops & Vegas
English cafes, gift shops, antique stores, and Las Vegas cupcakes. Small-town gossip or casino chaos, pick your flavor and binge.
Cindy York is a real estate agent with a house full of kids and a difficult mother-in-law. Then she finds her rival coworker dead and becomes the main suspect. It's funny and relatable, and you'll never look at an open house the same way again.
Real Estate Agent, Supermom & Accidental Sleuth
Cindy finds what looks like the perfect For Sale by Owner listing, but the seller just finished 20 years in prison for killing his wife. This one won the 2019 Daphne du Maurier Award for mystery and suspense, and it's my pick for the best book in the...
The Award-Winning Cindy York Mystery
Tiffany Black loves cupcakes, deals cards at a Las Vegas casino, and is one step away from getting her private investigator license. Add her poker-hustling Nanna and parents who want her married off, and you've got a laugh-out-loud cozy with lots of ...
Cupcakes, Casinos & a Croupier Who Wants to Be a PI
Tiffany works two cases at once, a missing Van Gogh and the murder of a Hollywood starlet, while a mysterious green-eyed man keeps showing up. Meanwhile Nanna has a much younger boyfriend. The series has over 35 books, so there's plenty more Vegas fu...
A Stolen Van Gogh & a Man With Green Eyes
Julia South runs a little cafe in the Cotswolds village of Peridale, loves her cats, and never planned on finding her most awkward customer dead. The new detective underestimates her, the village gossips fill in the rest, and Julia decides she'll fig...
English Village Cafe Owner & a Body Next Door
Stormy Day owns a gift shop in Misty Falls and somehow keeps stumbling into murder with her mischievous Russian Blue cat, Jeffrey, never far behind. Funny, twisty, and full of that small-town chaos where everybody knows your business.
Gift Shop, Russian Blue Cat & a Small-Town Winter Murder
Lacey Doyle leaves New York after a divorce, lands in the seaside town of Wilfordshire, and finally opens the antique shop she always dreamed about. Then her star customer turns up dead and every eye in town is on the new American.
Fresh Start in an English Seaside Town & an Antique Shop
My Harmony Creek Mysteries
These are my own three Harmony Creek books, Lake Mystery, Lily's Birthday, and Returning Home. Small-town heart, a gentle pace, and the kind of stories I love to write.
I wrote this one. It's the first Harmony Creek mystery, and it's where the whole series begins. Start here if you want the lake, the town, and the first questions.
Lake Mystery, Where Harmony Creek Starts
This is book two, and it's Lily's story moving forward. I wrote it as the middle of the Harmony Creek mysteries, so it makes the most sense after Lake Mystery.
Lily's Birthday, the Second Harmony Creek Mystery
I wrote the last one too. Lily goes back to Harmony Creek, and the quiet town is not as settled as she hoped. Read this one after the first two.
Returning Home to Harmony Creek