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Amish, Quaker, Shaker, & Mennonite Cozy Mystery Series

A Cozy Mystery reader recently wrote in a request to make a new sub-category for Amish themed Cozy Mysteries. I also decided to add Quaker, Shaker, and Mennonite themed mysteries to the list as well. Most of these are Amish themed – if I don’t say that it is Quaker, Shaker, or Mennonite >>> then it’s Amish. Here’s what we have so far, mostly provided by the requester. (Thank you, Ty, for this great Cozy Mystery theme idea!)

Amish, Quaker, Shaker, & Mennonite Cozy Mysteries:

Isabella Alan (aka Amanda Flower): Amish Quilt Shop Mystery Series

Susan Wittig Albert (aka 1/2 Robin Paige): Wormwood (book #17 of China Bayles Mystery Series) (Shaker)

Irene Allen: Elizabeth Elliot Mystery Series (book #1 Quaker Silence)

Madelyn Alt: Hex Marks the Spot (book #3 Bewitching Mystery Series

Annie’s Amish Inn Mystery Series

Tace Baker (aka Edith Maxwell & Maddie Day): Speaking of Mystery Mystery Series (Quaker Linguistics professor)

Laura Bradford (aka Elizabeth Lynn Casey): Amish Mystery Series

Linda Castillo: Kate Burkholder Series (book #1 Sworn to Silence) (thriller, not Cozy)

Vannetta Chapman: Amish Village Mystery Series AND Shipshewana Amish Quilt Shop Mystery Series

Mindy Starns Clark writes Amish non-mystery books and has written at least one Lancaster County mystery.

Hearse and Buggy by Laura BradfordJacqueline Fiedler: Amish Butter (story found in Unholy Orders: Mystery Stories with a Religious Twist anthology)

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Appleseed Creek Mystery Series

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Amish Matchmaker Mystery Series

P.L. Gaus: Ohio Amish Mystery Series

Shelley Shepard Gray: Secrets of Crittenden County Series (book #1 Missing)

Karen Ann Harper: Maplecreek Amish Trilogy & Home Valley Amish Mystery Series

Eleanor Kuhns: Will Rees Mystery Series (book #1 A Simple Murder & book #3 Cradle to Grave) (Shaker)

Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day & Tace Baker): Carriagetown Mystery Series  (Quaker)

Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day & Tace Baker): Quaker Midwife Mystery Series

Nancy Mehl: Harmony Mystery Series Trilogy & Road to Kingdom Mystery Series (Mennonite)

Emma Miller: Amish Mystery Series

Tamar Myers: Pennsylvania Dutch Inn Mystery Series (Mennonite)

Marta Perry: Three Sisters Inn Series (Amish)

Sugar Creek Amish Mysteries (Amish)

Murder, Plain and Simple by Isabella Alan (aka Amanda Flowers)Deborah Woodworth: Shaker Mystery Series (Shaker)

Barbara Workinger: Amish Country Mystery Series (book #1 In Dutch Again)

Ron Yeakley: Death Takes a Buggy Ride

Can you think of any Amish, Quaker, or Shaker themed Cozies to add to the list? Let me know in the comments below!

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦

Comments

  1. Another Quaker mystery series is/was by author Irene Allen; first three books have good reviews and readers enjoyed learning about the Quaker way of life; fourth in series apparently seems panned by fans of the series, as it is more an indictment against government and less of a mystery and less about established characters. I have the first 3 books. Dates are from my copies of the books; amazon concurs with order of books as I’ve listed.

    1 – Quaker Silence (1992)
    2 – Quaker Witness (1993)
    3- Quaker Testimony (1996)
    4 – Quaker Indictment (also referred to as Quaker Sojurn (possibly the original, pre-publication title).

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  2. I called Guideposts today and found out that the Secrets of Mary’s Bookshop ended with “Mixed Motives”. I enjoyed this series and am sad it has ended. Time to find another one.

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  4. I believe that one of Susan Wittig Albert ‘s China Bayle novels involves a Shaker community. I Forget the title, though.

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  5. As mentioned Amanda Flower’s Appleseed Creek Amish series is delightful. I immensely enjoy Tace Baker’s (aka Edith Maxwell) series (SPEAKING OF MURDER and BLUFFING IS MURDER) series featuring Quaker linguistics professor, Lauren Rousseau.

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  6. Does anyone know if there is a Catholic series? I mean besides the Father Brown mysteries. Any Cozies for Catholics? Maybe I’ll have to write one. Wishful thinking.

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  9. Danna – a new entry for your Catholic/nun/Religious Theme Mysteries lists: by author Camille Minichino, who used to be a nun herself/chemistry-physics researcher in real life: a new series of mysteries featuring Sister Francesca, a conservative young nun at the beginning of the post-Vatican II era. Initial book in series is Killer in the Cloister (2014). Camille Minichino is an intelligent author with several satisfying cozy mystery series in different areas of interest Minichino is the author of the Periodic Table Mysteries under her own name, and a series of miniatures/dollhouse mysteries; and under the pen name Ada Madison, she has a mystery series featuring Sophie Knowles, professor of mathematics at a small Midwestern college.

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  10. Possibly way off topic but some of my very favorite mysteries, by Anne Emery, feature an enigmatic witty and very erudite priest in Halifax Nova Scotia. The viewpoint character is a lawyer and amateur musician who’s divorced … and the priest, of course, who cares deeply for both parties, does what he can to remedy that situation. For choral music fans there are wonderful descriptions of music and directing. And the mysteries, besides featuring complex, likeable characters, are superb. Start with “Sign of the Cross. “

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      • Danna … I don’t know how in the world I forgot Father Burke’s and Monty Collins’ s names! They are standout characters in my reading of the last few years!

        What can I say … I’ve read a lot of mysteries and am finding the “lumber room” of memory (as the esteemed Sherlock Holmes put it) increasingly full and a bit more challenging to navigate! Thank heaven for sites like yours and the Internet in general!

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  11. There’s Karen Harper’s Home Valley Amish trilogy- “Fall From Pride”, “Return to Grace”, and “Finding Mercy”, plus a Home Valley Amish Christmas themed stand-alone mystery, “Upon a Winter’s Night”.

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    • I tend to fall asleep to audio books. Good for solitary walks, but if I’m lying down or sitting in a comfy chair the Zzzs come. I find I can’t drive and really listen to a book. I guess my attention is on traffic, so I find I don’t listen that we’ll.

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      • If i sit down listening to an audio book I fall asleep soon, too.
        But i like audiobooks while ironing. This work does works fine with listening.

        Danna- i just found your website- I love it!
        But you remind me to go back to my lists of owned and read books, because of the different media and sources (paper book, audio book, ebook, book from friends, the library the e- library, books in german, in english) I sometimes spent valuable freetime in investigating whether I have the book already and if it is the next book in the series or if there is a book of the series to read before..

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        • Judith.k, welcome to the Cozy Mystery site! I am so glad you found us!

          I guess my obsessive disorder came in handy when I had my Cozies in a bookshelf! I would alphabetize all of the authors and then I would put their books in the correct chronological order. Sometimes I had stacks behind stacks. It was sometimes pretty hectic trying to find a book in a stack behind a stack.

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  13. “Hex Marks the Spot” by Madelyn Alt (Bk 3 of the ‘Bewitching Mysteries’) also involves the Amish.
    An Amish craftsman from a local community is murdered, and it’s up to the series protagonist to find out ‘whodunnit’…

    I’ve been trying to remember what this was, for days – ever since this post went up, and I’ve finally remembered it! Lol! (I think I’m getting old!)

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  14. Back in the late 90s, I greatly enjoyed Deborah Woodworth’s Sister Rose Callahan series which was set in a Depression era Shaker community.

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  15. “A Simple Murder” by Eleanor Kuhns is set in 1795 in a Shaker village in Maine. It is the first in a mystery series with Will Rees, a traveling weaver. The third book in the series, “Cradle to Grave”, is set in 1797 in a Shaker village in New York. The second book in the series”Death of a Dyer” does not have a Shaker setting.

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  16. I’m so excited to find your site! Definitely bookmarking it. I’m a writer who just published her first mystery novel, working on the second of the series, and naturally I read a lot of mysteries. I wanted to branch out in my reading more; find new writers, new series, etc., and have a better handle on what’s out there now. Wow, this is a goldmine you have here. Thank you so much for sharing all of this information. I’m diving back in as soon as I submit this comment so I can make myself a nice big juicy list before heading over to the library. Thanks again!

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  17. I’m a beginner to the cozy mystery scene and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for any cozies with eccentric characters and small village or town. Maybe a touch of humor and preferably a clean read. Thank you for any suggestions. Christy

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  18. I think I have another cozy mystery which fits in this category: the Sister Fidelma books of Peter Tremayne. It plays in ancient Ireland 600 a.d. And sister fidelma is not a nun as we know it, because the rules were different. She is kind of nun and kind of advocate. I read the whole series several years ago and I really liked it. I would say its cozy mystery perhaps you like it too?

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  19. Annie’s Attic has a new series out. Annie’s Amish Inn Mysteries. The first book is Secrets of the Amish Diary. I don’t know what books come after that.

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  20. Danna…

    Check your email…I just sent you the flyer showing the first three books in this series.

    As I said, there will probably be twelve books in the series as that seems to be the magic number for all of the series except the first one and then one that had thirteen books in it.

    Secrets of the Amish Diary. Rachael Phillips
    Plain Deception. Tara Randel
    Simple Lies. Jan Fields

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  22. I read a book in the Love Inspired suspense collection called Amish Country Amnesia by Meghan Carver. Very tense and action packed but nestled in the Amish community.

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  23. I recommend the Amish Bishop Mysteries by Vannetta Chapman. They are wonderful and offer a male sleuth in the cozy for a change. It is sort of like a Father Dowling / McInerny character but in an Amish community. I love the series.

    Reply

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