It’s once again time to discuss one of the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series as suggested by site readers, and this time I’ll be talking about the first in Nancy Coco‘s Oregon Honeycomb Mystery Series, Death Bee Comes Her.

Wren Johnson is the owner of Let It Bee, a specialty boutique focusing on all things honey in Oceanview, a small seaside tourist town in Oregon. One of her main sources of exercise is walking her Havana Brown cat, Everett, a very social cat that appears to tolerate a leash much more than any other cat I have ever personally encountered!

It’s on one of these walks down to the beach that Wren and Everett stumble across the body of a local curmudgeonly crafter and a rival of Wren’s Aunt Eloise, Agnes Snow – and she’s clutching a label of Wren’s lip balm, both of which make Wren seem like something of a suspect. Of course, as the mystery proceeds, it quickly becomes obvious that there were quite a few people who might have had various reasons to with harm on Agnes Snow.

Naturally, the cast includes a number of eccentric and interesting locals, such as Aunt Eloise, various owners of shops close to the Let It Bee, and the local police representative, hunky Officer Jim Hampton.

I definitely will say that I appreciate how quickly the corpse is stumbled upon. I like setting the scene of a mystery as much as the next Cozy fan, but finding the body in the first chapter goes a long way toward establishing that this is a mystery with Cozy elements, and not a discussion on a specific Cozy hobby with a bit of a mystery stuck in at the back.

All in all, I quite enjoyed my time reading Death Bee Comes Her. The biggest problem is that this particular series unfortunately doesn’t have much more to it – there is a second entry, but that was released in early 2022 and there hasn’t been any mention of another coming out that I have heard of. Still, perhaps we’ll be lucky and see more mysteries starring Wren and highlighting the Oregon coast.

This might be the first time I’ve written about this particular mystery series, but it isn’t the first time I’ve highlighted Nancy Coco – I have already done another entry on this series for her main mystery series, the Candy-Coated Mystery Series. She also writes a number of other series under two other names – the Kensington Chef Mystery Series under the name Nell Hampton, and the Wine Country Mystery Series, Baker’s Treat Mystery Series, and the Perfect Proposals Mystery Series under the name Nancy J. Parra.

For those who are interested in that sort of thing, this does also include some wax and honey related recipes and tips, though unlike most similar recipes, these are scattered at the end of specific chapters, not collected at the end.

I’m back again to talk about a book that I have recently read that is definitely one of the Most Popular and Recommended Cozy Mystery Series. The next book that I read to be part of that series of posts is the first of the Antique Bookshop Mystery Series, Laura Gail Black’s For Whom the Book Tolls.

In what seems to be a trend in modern cozies (For Whom the Book Tolls was published in 2020), the story is written from the first person perspective of our sleuth, Jenna Quinn. In the beginning of the story, Jenna is arriving from Charlotte, North Carolina to the small town of Hokes Folly to work for her Uncle Paul who runs his antique book shop. Her intention is to stay with him for a while to try to escape from the nightmare that was her life in Charlotte.

In literally a very few pages, she finds her life upside down again because she discovers her uncle dead at the bottom of the staircase that leads to the bookstore.  (Where the crime happened is depicted pretty well on the cover of the book.) So, before Jenna has met anybody in Hokes Folly, Jenna is caught up in a murder investigation.

Because Uncle Paul has generously left Jenna with most of his possessions, including the antique books shop, Jenna is naturally considered a strong suspect by the police detectives, Frank Sutter and Keith Logan. Jenna’s past in Charlotte also lends support to her being a prime suspect. Sutter and Logan, the two detectives, provide quite a contrast. Sutter, the senior detective is overweight and wears ill fitting suits. He jumps to conclusions easily and is ready to arrest Jenna almost right after meeting her. Logan is tall and very good looking. He is a good listener and it is apparent that he is reluctant to settle on Jenna as the perpetrator. Jenna is 26 years old and apparently quite attractive. (One point for guessing who Jenna ends up in a relationship with!) Ok, that one was too easy.

At any rate, before long Jenna decides that she needs to engage in a bit of sleuthing in order to clear her name. And Jenna soon meets her neighbor, Rita, who is eager to help.

For Whom the Book Tolls is set in an interesting small Southern town. It has interesting and not too quirky secondary characters. Laura Gail Black, the author, apparently has a longstanding interest in antique books, so one of the first rules of writing is met easily — write about things you know. Thus, the bookstore seems to have the ring of authenticity that is so important to bring the story to life.

The series is up to three books now, with the latest in 2022. Click here to see the page on the cozy site that lists the books. Here’s hoping there are going to be many more books in the series!

If you’d like to see other entries about some of the most recommended Cozy Mystery authors, be sure to check out the Most Popular and Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.