February is over (and sort of got away from me a bit, hence the lateness of this post…), 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 Rhys Bowen’s Royal Spyness 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 January? 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 February 2025 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?
Rhys Bowen: Her Royal Spyness Mystery Series
Elizabeth Craig (aka Riley Adams & Elizabeth Spann Craig): Southern Quilting Mystery Series
Krista Davis: Paws & Claws Mystery Series
Jana DeLeon: Miss Fortune Mystery Series
Joanne Fluke: Hannah Swensen Mystery Series
Lena Gregory: Coffee & Cream Cafe Mystery Series
Traci Hall: Scottish Shire Mystery Series (first entry Murder in a Scottish Shire)
Betty Hechtman: Crochet and Crumpets Mystery Series
Julie Mulhern: Country Club Murder (first entry The Deep End)
Carol J. Perry: Witch City Mystery Series
Annelise Ryan (aka Allyson K. Abbott & Beth Amos): Monster Hunter Mystery Series
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.
MJ says
February 2025 recommendations
Death Among the Stitches — Betty Hechtman
This is the first book in a new series. “Crochet and Crumpets Mystery” by this author. I loved this book. Loooong time ago, Danna mentioned she liked stories to be around 200 pages.
Well, this one is 197 pages – right up your ally, Danna! AND, it’s focus is on yarn crafts.
Annie Sara Hart is working in LA as an assistant to the daughter (Gray) of a famous star. From an uncle, Annie inherits a yarn shop in IN. She goes to IN to see this shop with the intention to sell it.
Gray joins Annie Sara to help her get the shop ready to sell. They discovered the previous owner (before her uncle bought it) was murdered. They feel a need to get this murder solved before they can sell it.
This is a creative and well written book by this talented author. The characters are well developed and varied. The parent(s) of both Annie Sara and Gray are somewhat obnoxious in their techniques trying to get their daughters to return to CA, both caring more about themselves than their daughters. UGH!
The story is well plotted, well-paced, and a quick read with some ‘humor’ thrown in to keep it an enjoyable page turner. There’s a budding romance for both of these characters. I read it in one day –
hard to put down.
I am REALLY looking forward to the next book. I didn’t want this story to end, just wanting it to continue. That’s an indication of a good read.
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Death in Door County, Death in the Dark Woods — Annelise Ryan
This first book had me when I saw “Door County” in the title. This is a beautiful location. And, if you ever go, don’t leave the area without feasting on their “fish boils”. Sooooo good.
I’m not sure this series is for everyone because it has a weird premise. Morgan Carter is a cryptozoologist who hunts cryptids. Yea — I didn’t understand it, either!! They’re creatures like
Big Foot.
Normally I might have stopped reading it at this point. BUT, I was very impressed with this author’s extensive research. She must have spent days, exploring and presenting the premise.
I stuck with the story and found it terrific, even captivating, although the ‘subject matter’ didn’t interest me very much. Several bodies turn up around lake Michigan and Morgan is asked for her ‘expertise’ to help find a solution.
There is so much depth and emotion to the characters. You’ll find them very endearing – not only Morgan Carter, but the other main characters as well. There are numerous twists and turns to the plot. The complexities of the story drew me in. Perhaps it will you, too.
I put off doing other things (like sleep) so I could continually read this book. 🙂
When I finished this book, I got the second book. It is equally enthralling. Again, I couldn’t put it down.
I won’t go into all the details with this second book, except to say it’s as good as the first one.
My suggestion and recommendation is to give this series a try………and stick with it. I think you’ll be pleased you did, even though it’s an unusual premise for a cozy (or, maybe because of it!!).
The third book was released recently. I’m looking forward to it.
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The Wagtail Murder Club — Krista Davis
This is the 10th book in the Paws and Claws series. I believe I’ve recommended each and every one of them. Of Davis’s three series, this is my favorited one — even more so than the popular
Diva series.
Holly Miller helps her grandmother with a B&B in Wagtail — a community that caters to pets.
Holly’s former boyfriend (Ben) is a lawyer and works with a DC law firm. Several of the lawyers come to this community to explore an option to open a office. They are staying at the B&B. One of the
lawyers dies from a fall. It’s ‘suspicious’, thus Holly, her grandmother, mother, etc. set out to look for a killer.
An important aspect of the story is “Squish”, a dog Holly has found on the side of the road. You’ll enjoy this side story.
All stories in this series are enjoyable, and this one equally so. It’s a fun read, filled with the wit this author uses so effectively. I feel it’s important to read the books in order in this series to get a grasp of the characters and their interactions.
Definitely a thumbs up!!
Mary Jo Davis says
This is definitely one of my favorite authors. I love this series and wait with anticipation for the next release.
MJ says
OOPS! I forgot to add a fun tidbit about the Wagtail Murder Club book.
Holly calls Sophie! :). It occurs in the last half of the book.
The conversation is a few paragraphs.
Only Krista Davis fans will know what I’m talking about. Sophie is the lead character in Davis’s Diva series.
I find it quite amusing when authors do some of these crossovers. 🙂 A few authors have done this (although rarely), including Jenn McKinlay.
Jeannie H says
I love this series. I’ve read every single one of them and I look forward to the next one in the series.
Georgeann says
I started reading the Jana DeLeon series, Miss Fortune. I love that there are septuagenarian main characters as well as the bayous of Louisiana. Not my usual series read, I nevertheless laugh out loud.
Fortney, Sally says
I read Pink Lemonade Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke. It had some good recipes and a shift in the relationships, with Norman being closer to Hannah, and Mike being burned out and not there much.
Death Scene by Carol J. Perry had more changes in the characters’ lives and a little supernatural elements. It is set in Salem the Witch City.
Soft Serve Sleighing by Lena Gregory was enjoyable with the main cast dealing with the death of an influencer.
MJ says
Congrats, Sally, on your “Stick-to-itiveness”. If I don’t like the direction of the romance angle of a series, I stop reading it. It has nothing to do with the quality of mystery itself. It’s just my own personal opinion. The author writes the story she/he wants to write and others probably enjoy it. I stopped reading this when Hannah was returning to a previous relationship and got engaged.
I guess I’ll have to ‘tune in” again. I really like Norman.
And, yes, I know I’m just weird this way (in my likes and dislikes of these side storylines). I’d list the various series I’ve stopped reading because of this. But Danna would delete my post as not being ‘appropriate’ (ha!).
Thanks for the heads up on Soft Serve Sleighing. I missed that release.
Fortney, Sally says
MJ, the romantic trials of the sleuth is usually not my sticking point if I otherwise like the series. I have abandoned series for not having having a mystery in them, killing off favorite characters, or being too silly. At my age and with many books to choose from, I have no time to waste on so so ones.
We seem to agree on a lot of books but you do better reviews than I do.
Lori T says
I have been really stressed and found my usual reading difficult. Then I discovered Julie Mulhern’s Country Club mysteries. So far I have read 14!
Hanna says
I continues with Katharine Schellman’s Lily Adler series. The stories take place in Regency London. Lily Adler is a young widow who decided to move to London and ending up solving murders with her sense of observation and listening to people.
In Silence in the Library she came to visit the new wife of her father’s old friend to find out that the friend had an accident while falling in the library. She found out that it was no accident. In Death in the Manor she visited her aunt in the country, went to visit a neighbor whose house was claimed to be haunted by a ghost to find out that she was murdered inside a locked room. And in Murder in Midnight she went back to the place of her former in laws – who still love her – and a snow storm during a Christmas party forced many to stay the night. In the morning one of the guest is found murdered. As she observed, many have secrets that not necessarily relate to the murder.
Interesting character and easy reading.
Rob Jarrad says
Danna et all:
I’ve recently finished one book and plan to read the rest, of Traci Hall’s Murder in a Scottish Social club’s mystery with a fun cast of characters and want to read the Murder in a Scottish Castle, Wedding, Garden and a few other Murder in a Scottish themes. When I discover a new author, I try to scoop up everything they’ve written. I’ve also revisited the Southern Quilters series written by Elizabeth Spahn Craig so I’ve been busy. I also work at H & R Block as a receptionist.
The new series is fun and I look forward to reading more of them. Like the heroine and her DI “friend” Mack Jeffers. He’s gruff but handsome so looking forward to some possible romance between the two.
Lynne M. says
This is a terrific series – fun, good twists and lots of great and eccentric characters. I’ve loved them all so far!!
joanne says
I am wondering how to tell if a book is written by AI. When an author has four or five books in the same year and I haven’t found them before it makes me wonder, how can we tell?
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Joanne, I know nothing about AI, so unfortunately I am not the person to ask!
That said, I do know that there are some authors who are incredibly prolific, both now and in the past… too far in the past for it to be AI. Sometimes this is due to an author having a backlog before actually managing to attract a publisher, so they had five or six ‘ready to go’ before even getting the first in a series published… I think this is less likely now due to the low barrier for self-publishing. Other times, I have heard unsubstantiated rumors of overseas ghost writers who work for low cost, so five or six people are actually being paid to write for each series. But other people have the same drive to write as people like Stephen King, who has written as much as 1000+ pages per year for multiple years in a row! It’s always going to be difficult to tell, I’m afraid.
Joanne says
Thank you for your insight. I would like to think of honesty in writing. That is why I read and reread some of my old favorites, Christie, Sayers, Brown. Jance, Hart, etc. I am so anxious to hear about new authors also. Keep up the good work.
CPines says
I’m excited to say that I loved Lisa Howeler’s first book–Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing. I really appreciated that it wasn’t overly thematic–that is, it didn’t spend pages and pages describing all the facets of the protagonist’s new endeavor/hobby/career. I much prefer entertaining mysteries that are tightly woven. It’s not a requirement for them to also be long. Her characters are lovable and witty, and there isn’t an instant romantic attachment to the grumpy detective. I really appreciated the author’s storytelling!