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Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – July 2017

July is almost over, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozy Mysteries that we have read this month! If you read a Cozy mystery this month and want to recommend it to the rest of us, be sure to post it here! It’s definitely been a good month for me, as I’ve reread the first entries of both Elizabeth J. Duncan‘s Penny Brannigan Mystery Series and the Book Collector Mystery Series by Victoria Abbott!

If you’re interested in reading why I’m recommending these series, you can go to the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my Cozy-Mystery site for my full write-ups on each of these great Cozy series.

So, what have you been reading that you can recommend in July? Please be sure to tell us why you liked these Cozies so much. I know we’re all always on the lookout for more particularly good Cozy Mystery authors! (If you have a lot of Cozies you think are great, please post the ones you like the most at the top of the list.)

As always, please do not tell us about the Cozy Mysteries you did not like.

What really good Cozy Mystery did you read during July 2017 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

Here are the current recommended authors who some of you have read and recommended this past month:

Avery Aames (aka Daryl Wood Gerber): Cheese Shop Mystery Series

Allyson K. Abbott (aka Annelise Ryan & Beth Amos): Mack’s Bar Mystery Series

Victoria Abbott (writing duo Mary Jane Maffini & daughter Victoria Maffini): Book Collector Mystery Series

Ellery Adams (aka J. B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery Series

Susan Wittig Albert: China Bayles Mystery Series

Annie’s Attic Mystery Series (various authors)

Lorna Barrett (aka L. L. Bartlett & Lorraine Bartlett): Booktown Mystery Series

M. C. Beaton: Agatha Raisin Mystery Series

Susan M. Boyer: Liz Talbot Mystery Series

Laura Bradford (aka Elizabeth Lynn Casey): Tobi Tobias Mystery Series

Kathleen Bridge: Hamptons Home & Garden Mystery Series

Leslie Budewitz: Food Lovers’ Village Mystery Series

Kate Carlisle: Bibliophile Mystery Series

Laura Childs (aka Gerry Schmitt): Tea Shop Mysteries AND Cackleberry Club Mystery Series

Jill Churchill: Jane Jeffry Mystery Series

Edie Claire: Leigh Koslow “Never” Mystery Series

Cleo Coyle (aka Alice Kimberly)): Coffeehouse Mystery Series

Mary Daheim: Hillside Manor Bed & Breakfast Mystery Series

Krista Davis: Domestic Diva Mystery Series AND Paws and Claws Mystery Series

Vicky Delany (aka Eva Gates): Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery Series

Elizabeth J. Duncan: Penny Brannigan Mystery Series

J. C. Eaton: Sophie Kimball Mystery Series (first book Booked 4 Murder)

Janet Finsilver: Kelly Jackson Mystery Series

Agatha Frost: Peridale Cafe Cozy Mystery Series (first book Pancakes and Corpses)

Dorothy Gilman: The Tightrope Walker Stand Alone

Nell Goddin: Molly Sutton Mystery Series (first book The Third Girl)

Ellie Griffith: Ruth Galloway Mystery Series (not Cozy) (first book The Crossing Places)

Carolyn Haines: Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery Series

Lee Harris: Christine Bennett Mystery Series

B. B. Haywood: Candy Holliday Mystery Series

Julie Hyzy: Manor of Murder Mystery Series AND White House Chef Mystery Series

Madison Johns: Lake Forest Witches Mystery Series

Dolores Johnson: Manda Dyer Mystery Series

Sofie Kelly (aka Sofie Ryan & Darlene Ryan for Young Adult): Magical Cats Mystery Series

Cynthia Kuhn: Lila Maclean Academic Mystery Series (first book The Semester of Our Discontent)

Victoria Laurie: Psychic Eye Mystery Series

D. Lawdog: The Lawdog Files (true crime stories)

Laura Levine: Jaine Austen Mystery Series

Ruby Loren: Madigan Amos Zoo Mystery Series (first book Penguins and Mortal Peril)

Kylie Logan (aka Miranda Bliss & Casey Daniels): Ethnic Eats Mystery Series

Virginia Lowell: Cookie Cutter Shop Mystery Series

Meg Macy: Teddy Bear Mystery Series

Mary Marks: Martha Rose Quilting Mystery Series

Carrie Marsh: Morhollow Sweet Tooth Murder Mystery Series (first book The Deadly Jellybean Affair)

Francine Mathews (aka Stephanie Barron): Merry Folger Nantucket Mystery Series

Alyssa Maxwell: Gilded Newport Mystery Series

Alexander McCall Smith: No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series

Jenn McKinlay (aka Josie Belle & Lucy Lawrence): Library Lover’s Mystery Series

Emma Miller: Amish Mystery Series

Marcia Muller: Sharon McCone Mystery Series

Nadine Nettman: Sommelier Mystery Series (first book Decanting a  Murder)

Wendy Roberts: Bodies of Evidence Mystery Series

David Rosenfelt: Andy Carpenter Mystery Series

Sara Rosett: Ellie Avery Mystery Series

Paige Shelton: Scottish Bookshop Mystery Series

Denise Grover Swank: Rose Gardner Investigations (first book Family Jewels)

Denise Swanson: Devereaux’s Dime Store Mystery Series

Victoria Thompson: Gaslight Mystery Series

Linda Wiken (aka Erika Chase): Dinner Club Mystery Series

Diana Xarissa: Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Series (first book Arrivals and Arrests)

[If you click on the author’s name (blue) link, it will take you to his/her page on the Cozy Mystery site. The pages have all of the authors’ books listed chronologically.]

I will list the authors and series that have been recommended, but I urge you to read the comments below so you can see the reasons other Cozy Mystery readers thought these were their best reads of the month.

♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦

P.S. I usually don’t comment on your recommendations since they speak for themselves.

Four New-to-the-Site Cozy Authors

I’m adding four more new authors to the site. As usual, these are authors I’ve heard of from visitors to the site, either through comments or by email.

 Alison Golden was born in Bedfordshire, England, though she now splits her time between London and San Francisco, California. She coauthors most of her works, writing the Reverend Annabelle Dixon Mystery Series with Jamie Vougeot, starring a vicar in Cornwall, the Inspector David Graham Cozy Mystery Series with Grace Dagnall, starring an investigator on the island of Jersey, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of the United Kingdom, and the Diana Hunter suspense mystery series with Gabriella Zinnas.

Though she now spends most of her time in California, Leslie Karst has lived in areas as varied as Ohio, South America, Mexico, and Oxford, England. An attorney for twenty years, she also has a degree in culinary arts. She writes the Sally Solari Mystery Series, starring the manager of the front of an old-style Italian eatery owned by her family, and likewise an ex-lawyer, living in Santa Cruz, California.

Gigi Pandian graduated with honors from Pitzer College and spent time working on a PhD at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of Bath in England. She decided she preferred art to academics before completing it, and instead pursued an education at art school. She is the author of the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery Series, starring an archaeologist/historian/adventurer, and the Accidental Alchemist Mystery Series, starring an alchemist in Portland, Oregon.

 Linda Reilly has a degree in Criminal Justice, and has had a career as a real estate agent. She was born in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, and now lives in New Hampshire. She is the author of the Deep Fried Mystery Series, which stars Talia Marby, a worker at a family owned fish and chips shop in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.

New Releases – July 24 to July 30, 2017

Here is the list of new release for July 24 to July 30!

Allyson K. Abbott (aka Annelise Ryan & Beth Amos): A Toast to Murder (This will be the 5th in the Mack’s Bar Mystery Series. This is a New Year’s Eve mystery.)

Laurie Cass (aka Laura Alden): Wrong Side of the Paw (This will be the 6th in the Bookmobile Cat Mystery Series.)

Kathi Daley: Camp Carter (This will be the 25th in the Zoe Donovan Mystery Series.)

Linda Fairstein: Deadfall (This will be the 19th in the non-Cozy Alexandra Cooper Series.)

Jean Flowers (aka Camille Minichino, Margaret Grace, & Ada Madison): Addressed to Kill (This will be the 3rd in the Postmistress Mystery Series.) (This will be a Valentine’s Day mystery.)

Victoria Hamilton (aka Amanda Cooper & Donna Lea Simpson): Muffin to Fear (This will be the in the Merry Muffin Mystery Series.)

Joan Hess (aka Joan Hadley) & Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Michaels & Barbara Mertz) & : The Painted Queen(This will be the 20th in the Amelia Peabody Mystery Series.)

Mary Marks: Knot What You Think (This will be the 5th in the Martha Rose Quilting Mystery Series.)

Alyssa Maxwell: Murder at Chateau sur Mer (This will be the 5th in the Gilded Newport Mystery Series.)

Elizabeth Peters (aka Barbara Michaels & Barbara Mertz) & Joan Hess (aka Joan Hadley): The Painted Queen(This will be the 20th in the Amelia Peabody Mystery Series.)

Peter Tremayne: Penance of the Damned (This will be the 27th in the Mystery of Ancient Ireland Mystery Series.)

Elaine Viets: Fire and Ashes (This will be the 2nd in the non-Cozy Death Investigator Mystery Series.)

Elizabeth J. Duncan: Penny Brannigan Mystery Series

The Cold Light of Mourning: A Penny Brannigan Mystery The next book that I have read in my effort to read (or reread) the most popular and recommended Cozy Mysteries that are listed on the site is “The Cold Light of Mourning“, the first in the Penny Brannigan Mystery Series by Elizabeth J. Duncan.

In this, the first of eight books in the series (so far), we are introduced to Penny Brannigan and her new friend, Victoria Hopkirk. Penny and her friend live in a small town in North Wales, Llanelen. Penny is a 50 something Canadian who stopped in Llanelen while backpacking across Wales when in her 20s. She found the town so welcoming and picturesque, that she stopped there for the night and never left. Penny is a manicurist and a part time artist (thus the beautiful Welsh town and countryside are especially attractive to her.) Victoria is a harpist who recently relocated from London after a divorce. Both of the (amateur) sleuths are in their early 50s.

The mystery opens with the death of Emma Teasdale, the elderly friend of Penny who Penny first encountered on that fateful day when Penny was looking for a place to stay for one night. Emma was a long-time school teacher, and she and Penny became great friends during  the 25 years or so after Penny arrived in Llanelen.

At the same time as Emma’s funeral is being planned, anticipation runs high in the small town for the imminent wedding of the local rich landowner’s son, Emyr, to a self-made beauty, Meg Wynne. When Meg Wynne goes missing on the day of her wedding, the mystery really begins.

Of course, there are several people who had a reason to wish Meg Wynne dead. And, Penny gets involved in the case because she was apparently the last person to see Meg Wynne before she disappeared. Also, Penny notices something wrong at her friend Emma’s funeral.

The police inspector in charge of the case is in his 50s and is also single – as is Penny. (Hmmm… Does this mean there will be an almost inevitable romance?) Victoria, of course, helps solve the case. More surprisingly, Emma also helps solve the case (I won’t give away the details of how except to mention that the mystery does not contain paranormal elements.)

This book is a great start to the mystery series. I can understand why this book was nominated for the Agatha Award for best best first novel. Penny, Victoria, Chief Inspector Gareth Davies and his Sergeant, Bethan Morgan, are all terrific Cozy Mystery characters. The small town setting is extremely well suited to the Cozy Mystery genre. And the mystery plays out in a very enjoyable way. After reading “The Cold Light of Mourning”, I felt as though I had found new friends to visit when I feel in the mood for a new Cozy!

Click here to read more posts about the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series.

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