A Gift of Bones is a good small town private investigator cozy mystery. Eve is days away from giving birth when she disappears. A ransom demand is sent to her cousin. Private investigator, Sarah Booth Delaney, and her partner, Tinkie, are hired to find the missing woman. The missing woman’sContinue Reading
A multitude of suspects fills Nantucket Counterfeit, an enjoyable merging of a cozy setting with a police procedural. Horst Refn is the Artistic Director of the Nantucket Theater Lab. He is a ladies man and a possible blackmailer. Worse, he is found face down in his basement’s chest freezer—frostbitten andContinue Reading
In Be Our Ghost, Kate and her grandmother, Liza, run a bed and breakfast in coastal Oregon. When a local businessman is found dead, they investigate to exonerate a local business owner. Soon they are uncovering oodles of secrets in this fine cozy mystery. Norman wants to open a largeContinue Reading
Light and easy cozy mystery set in the world of talent agent, Kay, who provides animal actors to television and film productions. Bird, Bath and Beyond is a nice afternoon’s entertainment with no graphic violence or language. Celebrity parrot, Barney, is the sole witness to the death of television star,Continue Reading
Dead Ringer is another perfect cozy mystery featuring Agatha Raisin! A group of eight bell ringers is planning a song to welcome the handsome and single bishop to their small village, Thirk Magna. The village church is full of secrets. Bishop Peter’s girlfriend disappeared without a trace a few yearsContinue Reading
The Christmas Cake Murder turns the clock back to before Hannah opened her bakery, The Cookie Jar. In a short prequel set before the rest of the books in the series, Hannah returns home from college to attend her father’s funeral. Her mother, Delores, is understandably depressed so she isContinue Reading
Another murder for Bailey to solve in the excellent cozy mystery, Premeditated Peppermint, the third entry in the Amish Candy Shop series. Bailey works with her Amish grandmother and cousin in her deceased grandfather’s candy shop, Swissmen Sweets in rural Ohio. When Bailey’s NYC ex-boyfriend hits town, he asks herContinue Reading
There are two mysteries in the Silver Anniversary Murder. The first is the death of Lucy’s old friend Beth. Beth’s jump from her penthouse’s balcony is ruled a suicide. But Lucy, a reporter in small town Maine, doesn’t believe it. After all, Beth has three ex-husbands and one almost exContinue Reading
“Your eyes are bigger than a hooch hound at a hop joint” says Jack in the Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller. That perfectly describes my feelings when I saw this delightful series return after a ten year long Big Sleep. Penelope runs a bookstore with her aunt Sadie in Quindicott,Continue Reading
In Die Me a River, the small rural town of Scumble River is still recovering from the tornado in the last book in this cozy mystery series. The town is abuzz with complaints about the shady practices of Homestead Insurance. Claims are being reduced, denied and seldom paid timely. WhenContinue Reading
A Deadly Habit plops Charles Paris in a West End play where a real murderer is afoot. Charles Paris “spent a great deal more time out of work than in”. But things are looking up when his lackluster agent Maurice finds him a three-month job playing a monk in TheContinue Reading
Toucan Keep a Secret about a thirty-year-old robbery and murder. By all accounts, Junius Hagley was not a nice man. Frustrated by the paperwork to disintern his wife’s cremated remains, he took matters, and a crowbar, into his own hands to rectify the situation. When someone interrupts, and then murdersContinue Reading
The second Lobster Shack mystery, after Curses, Boiled Again (reviewed here), is as good as the first! Against the Claw starts with Allie pulling lobster traps with Bertha. The last trap also pulls up a dead girl. With Aunt Gully’s Lobster Shack expected to host a huge number of customersContinue Reading
Midnight Snacks are Murder is a good humorous cozy with a wonderful setting and characters. The addition of gluten-free recipes makes this series unique. Poppy is opening a bed and breakfast with her Aunt Ginny. Her contractor, Smitty, is incompetent. Worse, her investor and former mother-in-law, Georgina, has come toContinue Reading
Amy and Richard stumble upon another body in the second novel in the Blue Ridge Library series, Shelved Under Murder. Amy is the head librarian and Sunny is her assistant at the perpetually underfunded Blue Ridge library. Sunny convinces a local artist to donate three paintings to the library. WhileContinue Reading
Flaxborough is crying Blue Murder in the 10th mystery in the excellent British small town police procedural. A writer for a London tabloid is sent to find a porno supposedly filmed with the town’s citizens. Mayor Hockley challenges the writer to a duel. Several mysterious deaths are investigated by theContinue Reading