The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – October 2018

Well, October is ending, and an early happy Halloween to you all!

If you read a Cozy mystery this month and want to recommend it to the rest of us, be sure to post it here! For this month, I read Nancy Coco’s Candy Coated Mystery Series. For the reasons I want to recommend it, be sure to check out the blog entry!

So, what have you been reading that you can recommend in October? 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 October 2018 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:

Susan Wittig Albert: Darling Dahlias Mystery Series

Ellie Alexander (aka Kate Dyer-Seeley): Sloan Krause Mystery Series AND Sloan Krause Mystery Series

Mary Angela: Professor Prather Mystery Series (first entry An Act of Murder)

Winnie Archer (aka Melissa Bourbon & Misa Ramirez): Bread Shop Mystery Series

Peter Bartram: Deadline Murder Mystery Series (first entry The Tango School Mystery)

Janie Bolitho: Rose Trevelyan Mystery Series

Ginger Bolton (aka Janet Bolin): Deputy Donut Mystery Series

Julia Buckley: Undercover Dish Mystery Series

Kennedy Chase: Harley Hill Mystery Series (first entry Murder on the Hill)

Nancy Coco (aka Nancy J. Parra & Nell Hampton): Candy-Coated Mystery Series

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell): Victorian Village Mystery Series

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell & Tace Baker): Country Store Mystery Series

Barbara Early (aka Beverly Allen): Vintage Toy Shop Mystery Series

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

Victoria Gilbert: Blue Ridge Library Mystery Series

Jennifer David Hesse: Wiccan Wheel Mystery Series (first entry Midsummer Night’s Mischief)

Carol Dean James: Quilting Mystery Series (first entry Tie Died)

Kylie Logan  (aka Miranda Bliss & Casey Daniels): League of Literary Ladies Mystery Series

Colette London: Chocolate Whisperer Mystery Series

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

Louise Penny: Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Series

Dorothy St. James: Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery Series

Jacqueline Winspear: Maisie Dobbs Mystery Series

[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.

Nancy Coco: Candy-Coated Mystery Series

This month, as part of my on-going series highlighting the most popular and recommended Cozy mystery series, I’ll be discussing another relatively newer series, Nancy Coco‘s Candy-Coated Mystery Series. Specifically, I’ll be discussing the first book in the series, All Fudged Up.

As is so often the case in Cozies, the series begins with a girl coming home to her small town after getting fed up with big city living. Well… this time, it’s actually more like a long-planned return, as Allie McMurphy has been studying in the big city to earn both a cooking degree and a degree in hotel management so she can take over the old family business, in this case an old run down hotel and fudge shop in Mackinac Island, Michigan, in Lake Huron. Allie may not have been raised on the island, as her father wanted nothing to do with the old family business or small town living, but Allie had spent large parts of her childhood there and fallen in love with both the hotel and community.

Unfortunately, the return is a bittersweet one. She had originally planned to learn from her grandfather over the course of months if not years, as he relaxed in semi-retirement as she took over the business. However, just a few months after her arrival, he suffered from a fatal heart attack. Still, Allie is determined to stay on, despite most of the locals assuming that she’ll be running back to the mainland soon enough.

The book doesn’t start there, though. Instead, it does what more Cozies could probably stand to do, and begins right from the beginning with a dead body – in this case, the dead body of one of Allie’s rival hotel owners she locates in one of her storage rooms. The deceased was also a very beloved member of the community, and increasing questioning from the community if Allie had something to do with his death further increase Allie’s woes regarding her tight schedule to renovate the hotel before the beginning of the busy tourist season.

One interesting thing about All Fudged Up is that Allie doesn’t seem to consider solving the murder the first and foremost thing on her mind for most of the novel. Indeed, it often feels like she’s actually… assuming that the police will catch the killer! As a result, she does spend significantly less time sleuthing out the murder than is often the case in Cozies, and instead more of the novel seems to focus on her efforts to both deal with her hotel’s renovations as well as deal with the community of Mackinac. And as is usually the case in more modern Cozies, there are a number of potential romance interests involved in the case in one way or another.

Though this series may be the only mystery series under the name Nancy Coco, Coco also writes several others under different pseudonyms. Under the names Nancy J. Parra, she writes the Wine Country Mystery Series, starring the owner of a family winery in Sonoma, California, the Baker’s Treat Mystery Series, starring a gluten-free baker in Kansas, and the Perfect Proposals Mystery Series, starring an event planner specializing in proposals. She also writes the Kensington Palace Chef Mystery Series starring a personal chef to the royal family under the name Nell Hampton.

PS: For those who may be swayed by this sort of fact (and I know there are plenty of you out there!), this series does in fact include a number of recipes, all of them fudge in consideration of the novel’s theme.

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – September 2018

September is coming to an end, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozy Mysteries that we’ve read over the course of the 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! This month, I read Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery Series. If you want to know why I recommend that series, be sure to check out the blog entry I wrote on it!

So, what have you been reading that you can recommend in September? 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 September 2018 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:

Susan Wittig Albert: China Bayles Herbal Mystery Series

Donna Andrews: Meg Langslow Mystery Series

Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity Mystery Series

Bree Baker: Seaside Cafe Mystery Series (first entry Live and Let Chai)

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

M. C. Beaton: Hamish Macbeth Mystery Series

Ginger Bolton (aka Janet Bolin): Deputy Donut Mystery Series

Susan M. Boyer: Liz Talbot Mystery Series

Simon Brett: Mrs. Pargeter Mystery Series

Allison Brook (aka Marilyn Levinson): Haunted Library Mystery Series

Kate Carlisle: Bibliophile Mystery Series

Vivien Chien: Noodle Shop Mystery Series

Sheila Connolly  (aka Sarah Atwell): Ocrchard Mystery Series AND County Cork Mystery Series

Cleo Coyle (aka Alice Kimberly)

Mary Daheim: Emma Lord Mystery Series AND Hillside Manor Bed & Breakfast Mystery Series

Carolyn F. Dean: Ravenwood Cove Mystery Series (first entry Bed, Breakfast, and Bones)

Charles Finch: Charles Lenox Mystery Series

Joanne Fluke: Hannah Swensen Mystery Series

Darci Hannah: Very Cherry Mystery Series (first entry Cherry Pies and Deadly Lies)

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

Cornelia Kidd (aka Lea Wait): Maine Murder Mystery Series

Libby Klein: Poppy McAllister Mystery Series (first entry Class Reunions are Murder)

M L Hamilton: Zion Sawyer Mystery Series (first entry Cappuchino)

Charlotte MacLeod (aka Alisa Craig): Sarah Kelling & Max Bittersohn Mystery Series

Faith Martin: Hillary Greene Mystery Series (first entry Murder on the Oxford Canal)

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

Louise Penny: Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Series

Rebecca Raisin: Little Paris Mystery Series (first entry The Little Bookshop on the Seine)

Dorothy L. Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery Series

Denise Swanson

Ashley Weaver: Amory Ames Mystery Series

[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.

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – August 2018

August is coming to an end, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozy Mysteries that we’ve read over the course of the 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! This month, I read Lynn Cahoon‘s Tourist Trap Mystery Series. If you want to know why I recommend that series, be sure to check out the blog entry I wrote on it!

So, what have you been reading that you can recommend in August? 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 August2018 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:

Mildred Abbott: Cozy Corgi Mystery Series (first entry Cruel Candy)

Ellery Adams (aka J. B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): The Supper Club Mystery Series

Donna Andrews: Meg Langslow Mystery Series

Christy Barritt: Squeaky Clean Mystery Series

Maymee Bell (aka Tonya Kappes): Southern Cake Baker Mystery Series

Laurien Berenson: Melanie Travis Mystery Series

Heather Blake (aka Heather Webber): Wishcraft Mystery Series

Rhys Bowen: Royal Spyness Mystery Series

Julia Buckley: Writer’s Apprentice Mystery Series

Leslie Budewitz: Food Lovers’ Village Mystery Series

Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib): Key West Food Critic Mystery Series

Lynn Cahoon: Tourist Trap Mystery Series AND Farm-to-Fork Mystery Series

Kate Carlisle: Bibliophile Mystery Series

Andrea Carter: Inishowen Mystery Series (first entry Death at Whitewater Church)

Bailey Cattrell (aka Bailey Cates  & Cricket McRae): Enchanted Garden Mystery Series

Chris Cavender (aka Tim Myers, Elizabeth Bright, Melissa Glazer, Casey Myers, Jessica Beck, & D.B. Morgan): Pizza Lover’s Mystery Series

Vivien Chien: Noodle Shop Mystery Series

Laura Childs (aka Gerry Schmitt): Tea Shop Mystery Series

Kate Collins: Flower Shop Mystery Series

Hy Conrad: Mr. Monk Mystery Series

E.J. Copperman (aka Jeffrey Cohen): Agent to the Paws Mystery Series

Cleo Coyle (aka Alice Kimberly): Coffeehouse Mystery Series

Jeanne M. Dams: Dorothy Martin Mystery Series

Krista Davis: Domestic Diva Mystery Series

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell & Tace Baker): Country Store Mystery Series

Connie di Marco (aka Connie Archer): Zodiac Mystery Series

Carole Nelson Douglas: Midnight Louie & Temple Barr Mystery Series

Elizabeth J. Duncan: Penny Brannigan Mystery Series

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

Joanne Fluke: Hannah Swensen Mystery Series

Dianne Freeman: Countess of Harleigh Mystery Series (first entry A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder)

Lee Goldberg: Mr. Monk Mystery Series

Carolyn Haines: Sarah Booth Delaney Series

Lee Hollis: Desert Flowers Mystery Series

Abigail Keam: Josiah Reynolds, Beekeeper Mystery Series

Libby Klein: Poppy McAllister Mystery Series (first entry Class Reunions Are Murder)

Kathy Krevat (aka Kathy Aarons): Gourmet Cat Mystery Series

Amanda Lee (aka Gayle Trent & Gayle Leeson): Embroidery Mystery Series

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

Molly MacRae: Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery Series

Olivia Matthews: Sister Lou Mystery Series (first entry Mayhem & Mass)

G. A. McKevett: Savannah Reid Mystery Series

Julie Mulhern: Country Club Murders (first entry The Deep End)

Nora Page (aka Ann Myers): Bookmobile Mystery Series

Ellis Peters: Brother Cadfael Mystery Series

Shari Randall: Lobster Shack Mystery Series

Paige Shelton: Scottish Bookshop Mystery Series

Kay Dew Shostak: Chancey Books Mystery Series (first entry Next Stop, Chancey)

Rex Stout: Nero Wolfe Mystery Series

Lea Wait (aka Cornelia Kidd): Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series

[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.

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