First off, Happy New Year!

December is over, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozies that we 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! For this month, I read the first entry of Lee Hollis’s Hailey Powell Msytery 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 December? 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 December 2024 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

C. J. Archer: Glass Library Mystery Series (first entry The Librarian of Crooked Lane)

Simon Brett: Mrs. Pargeter Mystery Series

Laurie Cass (aka Laura Alden): Bookmobile Cat Mystery Series

Julie Chase (aka Jacqueline Frost, Julie Anne Lindsey, & Bree Baker): Kitty Couture Mystery Series

Agatha Christie: Midwinter Murder short story compilation

Lucy Connelly: Scottish Isle Mystery Series

Peggy Ehrhart: Knit and Nibble Mystery Series

Sarah Fox: True Confections Mystery Series

Dorothy Gilman: Mrs. Pollifax Mystery Series

Sally Goldenbaum: Seaside Knitters Society Mystery Series

Lee Hollis: Hailey Powell Mystery Series

Jennie Marts: Bee Keeping Mystery Series (first entry Take the Honey and Run)

Katharine Schellman: Lily Adler Mystery Series (first entry The Body in the Garden)

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.

Hello – this is Tech Support, aka the Cozy Mystery Lady’s son. We’ve had a few technical issues over the last couple of days, which may have meant you couldn’t visit the site and likely got an error messages about security if you tried to do so.

There was no actual security issue – a bug in the system was sending out an inaccurate error message.

At this point, we think that’s all resolved, but you might still get an error message at the top of your bar about security for a bit longer – this should expire in a day or so, or you can clear your cookies and that should get rid of it faster.

My husband and I recently came across another mystery series on Acorn that I definitely think is worth a look, especially if you like mysteries with a strong dash of interpersonal drama among the recurring characters.

Whitstable Pearl is a 2021 British crime series based on a novel series by Julie Wassmer. The main star of the show is Pearl Nolan (played by Kerry Godliman), the owner of a seafood restaurant and part time detective in the small, beautiful coastal town of Whitstable (UK). The other main sleuth is DCI Mike McGuire (Howard Charles), a gruff police detective who moves to Whitstable from London, despite his professed dislike of small towns.

Pearl is a single mother of a teen age boy who employs her own mother (played by Frances Barber) as the cook in her restaurant. The two actresses are terrific portraying the mother/daughter relationship… (I looked forward to their interactions!)

The first episode starts with Pearl stumbling across the drowned corpse of an old friend. Most of the other episodes start from a crime being investigated by Mike, usually murder, and Mike using Pearl as a source of local knowledge. Some instead focus on Pearl investigating something as a private detective, though nothing as obviously serious as murder.

Whitstable Pearl has a lot of family (character) drama mixed in with the mysteries. Each character seems to have personal issues they need to deal with — however, don’t most of us? (I will say that my husband and I just started season two and I was a little surprised at the changes in the two main characters. Of course, we’ve only watched the first episode so maybe they get back to “normal” as the season progresses.)

Each of the two seasons consists of 6 episodes, and each episode is around 45-50 minutes total, each consisting of a single mystery. Both seasons are currently available on Acorn.

As a side note, I’ve had a lot of spam coming into the comments over the last few days… easily 10 times as much as I normally get. I’ve been manually tagging them, so it’s possible that I tagged a “good” message or two accidentally. If you have a comment that doesn’t get posted over a few days, please repost it! I probably deleted it by accident.

Anyway… Here is the list of new releases for 27 to April 2!

Lynn Cahoon: Four Charming Spells (4th in Kitchen Witch Mysteries)

Cate Conte (aka Liz Mugavero): Witch Way Out (3rd in Full Moon Mysteries)

Maria DiRico (aka Ellen Byron): Four Parties and a Funeral (4th in Catering Hall Mystery Series)