Most Popular and Recommended Mystery Series

Karen Rose Smith: Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery Series

November 11, 2020

I recently finished reading Murder with Lemon Tea Cakes, the first in a series by Karen Rose Smith, Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery series. This is next in my list of most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series. This is the second series by Karen Rose Smith, following her Caprice De Luca Mystery Series.

Murder With Lemon Tea Cakes follows the life of Daisy Swanson, the owner of “Daisy’s Tea Garden”, a shop in Willow Creek, a semi-tourist small town in Amish country near Lancaster. Daisy is 37, a widow, and has two teenage daughters, one of whom has just left for college.

There was a tradition in Daisy’s family that all the women were given flower names. Her mother’s name was Rose, her aunt’s name was Iris, and Daisy’s sister’s name was Camellia. Daisy had named her daughters Violet and Jasmine. But Jazzi never used her full name. She preferred her nickname.

As it happens in Cozy Mysteries, the small-town charm of Willow Creek is soon marred by a murder — right in the middle of the garden of “Daisy’s Tea Garden”, no less. The small-town police of Willow Creek seem to have no business trying to solve the mystery of who is the murderer. They are even more incompetent than is normal and are soon grilling Daisy’s Aunt Iris as their chief suspect.

Luckily, Daisy and her new friend, the proprietor of the nearby furniture store, Jonas, who is, coincidentally, a very eligible bachelor and an ex-police detective, are available to try to solve the mystery and clear Iris from this cloud of suspicion.

There is a subplot involving Jazzi who has a mystery of her own to solve. (Jonas helps with that one too). And, the story contains a lot of information about tea and goodies served with tea. At the end of the book, there are several original recipes. (If I baked – other than boxed/prepared types of things, I’d be very tempted to try them.)

The small town of Willow Creek is a very comforting place to visit. I am very glad the series is already up to book six. I always enjoy finding a new series that is already established…

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Sofie Ryan: Second Chance Cat Mystery Series

September 16, 2020

It seems to me not very long ago (but I see now that it was more than four years >> March of 2016!), I wrote about Sofie Kelly’s Magical Cat Mystery Series as part of my series of posts talking about the first book in series that are among the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series. This month I decided to read another book by the same author (this time writing as Sofie Ryan), the first in another series with a cat in the title, the Second Chance Cat Mystery Series’ first book, The Whole Cat and Caboodle.

The series revolves around Sarah Grayson, who owns and runs “Second Chance, the Repurpose Shop” in a small coastal town in Maine called North Harbor. Second Chance isn’t exactly a thrift shop. As Sarah describes it:

Second Chance was a cross between an antique store and a thrift shop. We sold furniture and housewares—many things repurposed from their original use, like the tub chair that in its previous life had actually been a tub. As for the name, the business was sort of a second chance—for the cat and for me. We’d been open only a few months and I was amazed at how busy we already were.

In fact, at the beginning of the story, Sarah had only been in town for a few months. She had returned to a place she dearly loved from childhood visits — where her grandmother lived after her late-night syndicated radio show had been canceled. After only a few months, Sarah’s new store was already a success. And, Sarah had already acquired Elvis, a big black cat that, as a stray in the town, had acquired a large scar across his nose. Before long, one of Sarah’s grandmother’s friends is found sitting beside a dead man, and the friend, Maddie, is accused of murder.

In a refreshing change, Sarah is not eager to begin her detecting career. Maddie’s friends, who are mostly elderly ladies, are though. Sarah is, however, very interested in trying to keep Maddie’s and Sarah’s grandmother’s friends out of trouble. And, after failing to persuade them to let the police do their job, Sarah reluctantly begins to participate in the sleuthing to try to keep them safe.

Of course, as you could guess from the title of the series and the title of the book, Elvis, the cat, plays a pretty big role. Sarah is convinced that Elvis can understand everything that people say, although she also believes that sometimes Elvis just isn’t interested enough to be listening. Be that as it may, although Elvis is not overtly magical, he sure is smart and plays a part in almost every scene in the book.

Finally, there are several eligible men in town who will probably provide plenty of romantic interests in this series of books, although not much in that direction happens in this first book.

Sofie Ryan, aka Sofie Kelly, has a way of making me feel as though I too spent my summers in North Harbor, Maine. At least after having visited there in this book, I sort of wish I had! If you like your Cozy Mysteries with a lot of cat, a bit of second hand store, and a strong dash of New England charm, The Whole Cat and Caboodle should be high on your to be read (TBR) list!

P.S. As always, if you are interested in reading some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can find them at the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on the site.

Stephanie Blackmoore: Wedding Planner Mystery Series

August 27, 2020

This month, as part of my series of entries on the most popular and recommended mystery series for the site, I decided to read the first entry in Stephanie Blackmoore‘s Wedding Planner Mystery Series, Engaged in Death.

This first novel in the series doesn’t start with the sleuth giving up her big-time job in the big-time city to go to live in the scenic countryside, though name of the series does give a strong clue that this is going to be her eventual destination. Instead, it begins a little bit before most Cozies do – the protagonist, Mallory Shepard, is still living her life pre-Cozy-fication, going through her job as a lawyer, and engaged to a no-good-fiance (Keith) with an unpleasant family (Keith’s controlling mother, Helene). That said, this part of the novel passes fairly quickly, with the inevitable and unsurprising discovery that the no-good-fiance is in fact no good.

At the same time, Mallory suddenly inherits a piece of property, though the source is a bit less conventional than in many Cozies – she inherits it not from her own favorite aunt/grandma, but from her no-good-fiance’s grandmother Sylvia, who obviously didn’t exactly care for Keith or Helene but was surprisingly close with Mallory. So, Mallory goes down to take ownership of the property, joined by her unreliable little sister, Rachel, who has uncharacteristically come to offer support – possibly because she is at loose ends after having more characteristically dropped out of college again.

The bad news is that the piece of property, in this case a run-down but still impressive mansion named Thistle Park, is located in Port Quincy, Pennsylvania – the same town that Hellene lives in. As a result, Mallory isn’t exactly sure what to do with the house – she doesn’t want to live there, as it is too far from her work in Pittsburgh, besides being located uncomfortably close to her almost-mother-in-law.

Fortunately, the property does have some people interested in it, even in its current dilapidated condition – a gas company thinks that they can make a lot of money fracking, and are willing to pay top dollar for the land alone, uninterested in the house currently on it. Still, Mallory is reluctant because she knows that Sylvia loved the house and wanted to keep it intact, so she initially turns down the offer, shoving the unpleasant salesman when he refuses to leave initially. Mallory decides to sleep on the offer – but unfortunately, the salesman comes back at some point in the night, and even more unfortunately for him, someone murders him on the lawn of Thistle Park. Naturally, Mallory and her sister Rachel seem like prime suspects, so they’ll need to solve the crime while trying to decide what to do with the property and their lives from here on out (and again, spoiler in the series title).

All told, Engaged in Death is a well-done example of a conventional modern Cozy. There are a lot of enjoyable elements of the genre that fans are sure to be able to latch onto. It may not do much particularly new in the spot, but it certainly does a good enough job of presenting an enjoyable mystery in an interesting, likable area.

P.S. If you are interested in reading some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on the site.

Eva Gates: Lighthouse Library Mysteries

July 14, 2020

This time around, I decided to read a multi-themed Cozy as part of my series about the most popular and recommended mystery series. This book incorporates no less than three Cozy mystery themes – librarians, lighthouses, and cats! Two of these, librarians and cats are among the most popular of all the themes.

I read By Book or by Crook, the first in the Lighthouse Library Mystery Series by Eva Gates. Eva Gates, you may already know, also writes several popular series as Vicki Delany. (It still mystifies me why such a popular author needs to write under two names — oh well, it is lucky for us that the world is full of mysteries!)

The story follows Lucy Richardson, the new assistant librarian at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library. (By the way, in an “Author’s Note” at the beginning of the book, we learn that although the lighthouse actually exists, it is not big enough in real life for a library or much else that the book’s lighthouse contains.)

Lucy has newly arrived from Boston. She has arrived just in time for a very special exhibit — a complete set of Jane Austen’s first editions on loan for a few months. In celebration of the arrival of these special books, the library hosts a small party for staff and board members to see the books for the first time. During the party, as is often the case in Cozy Mysteries, a murder occurs.

Of course, the person murdered as disliked and/or hated by quite of few of the library staff and board members. So, it is a real mystery that must be solved. Lucy is especially interested in discovering the culprit since one of the prime suspects is Bertie, the head librarian who recently hired Lucy.

Besides the usual long list of suspects, the small town also includes several other characters, including two different men who are interested in Lucy as well as the murder. The first, Connor McNeil, is the mayor of the town and an old acquaintance of Lucy who first met Connor during one of the summer vacations that her family had spent in the area. The second, Butch Greenblatt, a police officer. Before the party is over, both Connor and Butch have asked Lucy out of for a date at the new seafood restaurant in town. (I must have been doing something wrong when I was single. When I moved to a new town, this never happened to me!!)

I forgot to mention another important character, the cat, Charles (Dickens), who spends his time in the library and ends up living with Lucy in the small apartment inside the lighthouse above the library.

The book is a charming delight of a read. I zoomed through the pages trying to solve the mystery before the plucky Lucy could do so. Fun and light (in the good sense of the word), By Book or by Crook is a delightful start to a Cozy series that hits all the right notes.

P.S. If you are interested in reading some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on the site.

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