October will be a really interesting month for Cozy Mystery releases by site authors – we’ll only have one new series, but many holiday-themed Cozy mysteries! So I’ve decided to discuss the new series and the non-Christmas holiday-themed Cozies in this post… Still deciding if I want to split up the Christmas Cozies into two posts or not, as there are a lot of them!

The new Cozy Mystery Series in October by a site author will be the Granny Reid Mystery Series, by G. A. McKevett, a spin-off of her Savannah Reid Mystery Series. The first novel will be titled Murder in Her Stocking, and will star Savannah’s grandmother, Stella, in a mystery set in the 1980s in sleepy McGill, Georgia…. not as “long long ago” as you might think when you consider that the Savannah Reid Mystery Series actually starts in the mid 1990s, but still definitely in “the past”! Also, this is actually also a holiday release, as it is set during Christmas in the 1980s… so I guess I’m discussing at least one Christmas themed Cozy today after all.

Next up will be a Mardi Gras themed Cozy Mystery, Mardi Gras Murder by Ellen Byron, part of her Cajun Country Mystery Series. Mardi Gras is always a big draw in a Louisiana plantation turned bed-and-breakfast like the one Maggie Crozat works at, so anything that could hurt business is going to be hard to deal with. When a flood deposits the body of an unknown stranger behind the Crozat Plantation B&B, Maggie will once again need to put on her sleuth hat to help figure out not only who the person is, but why they were killed – all while maintaining a busy Mardi Gras schedule for the B&B’s scheduled guests.

Surprise – there will be two Mardi Gras mysteries in October! The second will be Glitter Bomb, the 15th entry in Laura Childs & Terrie Farley Moran‘s Scrapbooking Mystery Series. A Mardi Gras float might seem like a strange thing to use as a murder weapon, but that seems to be the case when a member of a Mardi Gras krewe is killed by what first seems to be a freak accident. However, initial investigations start to turn up more and more reasons why the dead man might have been killed – and even Carmela’s best friend Ava’s ex-husband Shamus might be a suspect. Terrie Farley Moran is also the author of the Read ’em and Eat Mystery Series, while Laura Childs is likely best known for the Tea Shop Mystery Series and the Cackleberry Club Mystery Series.

Finally, Ellie Alexander will be releasing an Oktoberfest themed Cozy Mystery, The Pint of No Return, the second in her Sloan Krause Mystery series. When a movie star and his production crew turns up in Leavenworth, Washington, to film at the local Bavarian brewfest, no one expects him to turn up dead at the bar. Local brewmaster Sloan Krause will need to help get on the case to restore the communities reputation and revive the festivities. Ellie Alexander also writes the Bakeshop Mystery Series, as well as the Rose City Mystery Series and Pacific Northwest Mystery Series under the name Kate Dyer-Seeley.