Well, it’s that time again – time to once again highlight one of the most recommended Cozy Mysteries by you, the site readers. This month I’ll be reading Lauren Elliott‘s Murder By the Book, the first entry in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery Series. This is a fairly new series, starting in 2018, but already has 10 entries. So it’s definitely a fast-paced release schedule of a modern Cozy series – something I really appreciate considering how many series tend to fizzle out at around 3ish entries!

Anyway… this particular entry starts with Addison (Addie) Greyborne, starting a new chapter in her life, opening her new business – “Beyond the Page-Books & Curios.” As with so many Cozy sleuths, she’s retiring to a small town, (in this case, a small seaside New England town of Greyborne Harbor) from a series of disappointments in the big city (in this case, Boston). She’s had a string of deaths in her family – her fiance, killed in what appeared to be a robbery a year ago, her father, killed in a car crash six months ago, and her great-aunt three months ago. This last case was as much a blessing as a curse, as she hadn’t even known she had a great-aunt, but inherited enough money to retire from her job as assistant curator of acquisitions at the Boston Public Library to open up a small bookstore as a semi-retirement.

Unfortunately, her first day opening doesn’t go terribly well either – she almost gets hit by a car, then someone tries to break into the back room with a crowbar, only to be chased off by a neighboring shop owner, then while she’s distracted checking on the damage and cleaning up, some of her books are scattered on the floor, and an apparently low-value copy of Alice in Wonderland stolen. Additionally, the name of the town and Addie’s own last name isn’t a coincidence – the Greybornes founded the town, and most of the residents thought her aunt was the last Greyborne until she showed up for the inheritance, and some seem more welcoming than others. Even some of the more welcoming residents start mentioning things like ‘legacies’ when they learn she’s a Greyborne. When someone breaks into her home, it quickly becomes clear it isn’t a coincidence. When her first friend she made in town – one of her neighboring shopkeepers who helped her get through the string of bizarre occurrences – for the murder of another store owner, she feels that there both might be a connection and that she has to investigate.

As with most modern Cozy series, this one has a theme connected to it – the rather-universal theme that just about any Cozy readers should love, of books. It also has plenty of small-town charm and interactions between the local shopkeepers. If you’re looking for a solid modern Cozy with a light theming of books, then Murder By the Book is a solid choice.

As always, if you want to read more of these brief discussions of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page.

Yikes, I’ve really gotten behind! I believe I mentioned a few posts ago that my daughter and her family have visited recently… well, recovering from that sort of excitement is starting to get harder and harder, so the last few weeks have left both myself and my husband a little behind. I’ll try to get back ‘on track’ as quickly as possible!

Anyway… for ‘this month’ (ie last month, June), I’ll be discussing the first entry in Emmie Caldwell‘s Craft Fair Knitters Mystery Series, A Wicked Yarn. it’s worth mentioning that I don’t usually highlight an author’s other pseudonyms in the name of this sort of book highlight post, but in this case, Mary Ellen Hughes is simply significantly more recognizable than Emmie Caldwell. It’s really unfortunate when authors do this, since I think it really hurts their new series – not to mention makes it harder for readers to find new works by authors they like. This is a relatively new series by Caldwell/Hughes, starting in 2020, so it’s safe to say it’s a very modern Cozy by this site’s standards.

It’s Mother’s Day weekend, and relatively recently widowed Lia Geiger is enjoying herself at the Crandalsburg Craft Fair, including managing the stall where she sells both her own and friends’ knitting products, and checking up with her old friend, Belinda, the fair’s manager. Lia has relatively recently moved to Crandalsburg as part of moving on from memories of her deceased husband, though not particularly far- just from another nearby small town, York. Belinda seems a bit on edge, even more so than normal for a holiday fair opening.

It doesn’t take long for Belinda to explain the problem. The owner of the barn where the craft fair is run is being sold – and worse, to Belinda’s ex-husband Darren, who will certainly shut it down. Well… he would shut it down, but unsurprisingly, he turns up dead before he can do so… right after Belinda and her ex exchange ambiguous, vaguely threatening phrases in front of the entire craft fair.

Well, fortunately, Lia isn’t about to let little things like an obvious motive and menacing phrasing keep her from believing in her friend’s innocence. Even more fortunately, there seems to be no shortage of suspects for Darren’s death, as is so often the case.

As with so many modern Cozies, this is definitely the sort of series where you’re really going to enjoy the series more if you’re interested in the hobby that is integrated into it. There are significant portions of the book where the goes into specifics regarding knitting projects, her time with her knitting circle, the stock and management aspects of Lia’s booth, and other crafting elements. That said, it also does one thing that I know many site readers will know, and that’s get right to the murder. The amount of pre-crime content is exactly what I like to see in a Cozy – a few pre-murder scenes to set the tone and establish the setting, then the sleuth stumbling across the crime scene.

All in all, I would call A Wicked Yarn a very solid modern Cozy with a good mix of mystery and theme-specific elements. If you’re looking for a mystery involving knitters, this is definitely a great pickup for any modern Cozy fan.

As always, if you want to read more of these brief discussions of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page.

You may have noticed that April is indeed over, and that I haven’t yet done a review of one of the most popular recommended mystery series put forward by site readers. Well, there’s an answer to that… I was just finishing up a review of the first entry of Darci Hanna’s Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series when I realized that I had already written about it! And not even all that long time ago – 2022! It feels like these sort of ‘little errors’ are becoming more and more common… a sign of my age I suppose.

So, I had to pick something else to read. Fortunately, I always have plenty of great suggestions to follow, so it doesn’t take much time to pick out a new recommendation – this time, the first entry in Jacqueline Winspear‘s Maisie Dobbs Mystery Series, eponymously titled Maisie Dobbs.

As the book opens, Maisie Dobbs is opening up shop for herself as a private investigator after a life already filled with experience. It’s London, 1929, and Maisie has been a maid in service with a wealthy suffragette (now her patron) and served as a nurse during the Great War. Now, she’s starting a new chapter of her life, one where she is more the mistress of her own fate.

At the same time, part of her is still very much stuck in the past, as is often the case for anyone who goes through a traumatic experience such as war. Maisie’s first case, which at first seems a relatively unsurprising investigation into spousal infidelity, surprisingly opens up some of those old wounds – and when several cases seem to be leading to a working farm for ex-soldiers, Maisie is forced to revisit her own personal loss as well.

As with any good period piece, Maisie Dobbs does a great job of really highlighting the setting, discussing issues of the time and immersing the reader in the atmosphere of late 1920s London. Admittedly, considering the details included regarding the war and its grisly consequences, this isn’t as cheerful an outing as many historical pieces, but for those with an interest in the period, it’s definitely worth checking out for that alone.

If you’re interested in a mystery that includes a good deal of introspection and grief processing, I can certainly recommend Maisie Dobbs. It’s a bit heavier than most Cozies – but that’s certainly fine by me. Not every book needs to be about talking cats and quaint seaside bookshops – Maisie Dobbs does a good job of presenting a serious, melancholy mystery that reflects on themes of grief, war, and the difficulties of coming to terms with loss.

As always, if you want to read more of these brief discussions of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page.