We’re just about at the end of June, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozies that we’ve 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 Harris’s Christine Bennett Holiday 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 June? 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 during June 2021 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?
Ellery Adams (aka J. B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): Secret, Book & Scone Society Mystery Series
Lorna Barrett(aka L. L. Bartlett & Lorraine Bartlett): Booktown Mystery Series
M. C. Beaton (aka Marion Chesney): Agatha Raisin Mystery Series AND Hamish Macbeth Mystery Series
Connie Berry: Kate Hamilton Mystery Series (first entry A Dream of Death)
Julia Buckley: Hungarian Tea House Mystery Series
Eve Calder: Cookie House Mystery Series
Sarah Fox: Pancake House Mystery Series
Tracy Gardner: Avery Ayers Mystery Series (first entry Ruby Red Herring)
Anna Gerard (aka Diane A.S. Stuckart and Ali Brandon): Georgia B&B Mystery Series
Darci Hannah: Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series (first entry Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop)
Ruth Hartzler: Amish Cupcake Cozy Mystery Series (first entry True Confections)
Lee Harris: Christine Bennett Holiday Mystery Series
Victoria Houston: Loon Lake Fishing Mystery Series
Dana Mentink: Shake Shop Mystery Series (first entry Pint of No Return)
Emily Organ: Churchill and Pemberly Mystery Series (first entry Tragedy at Piddleton Hotel)
Amy Pershing: Cape Cod Foodie Mystery Series (first entry A Side of Murder)
Samantha Price: Ettie Smith Amish Mystery Series (first entry Secrets Come Home)
Rosemary Simpson: Gilded Age Mystery Series (first entry What the Dead Leave Behind)
Sarah Stewart Taylor: Maggy D’Arcy Mystery Series
Ruth Ware: One by One
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.
Carol says
I recommend Murder at the Beacon Bookshop. This is my 5⭐️ review.
This fun book is the beginning of a what I think is going to be a wonderful new series. I really liked all the characters, even the murderer! The premise of a bake shop on a lighthouse is quite creative and makes for a great story and lots of excellent recipes. As I read through the book, I picked out lots of potential criminals, but didn’t come up with culprit until the end. The author does a fantastic job of describing the scenery and the characters. It’s easy to picture where the characters are and what they look like. I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a good mystery and/ or cozy mystery.
Christy says
Amish Cupcake Cozy Mystery series by Ruth Hartzler (Confection is Good for the Soul and Confections of a Partygoer)
Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries series by Samantha Price (An Amish Winter Murder Mystery and Amish Coverup
A Churchill and Pemberly Mystery series by Emily Organ (The Poisoned Peer)
All three excellent clean mysteries with no profanity! These mysteries highlight senior sleuths in a most excellent fun way!! I sure wish more authors would follow suit!!
Mary Starr says
I don’t know if you’ve mentioned this one before but our local paper wrote an article about a mystery writer in the area and my adult daughter said she is reading it and enjoying it! Not sure it’s a classic mystery or a cozy…
It is: A Dream of Death
by Connie Berry
Series: Kate Hamilton Mystery
Dawn Gurin says
I’ve been reading Lorna Barrett bookstore series with recipes included. It has really been growing on me, since it about a town of individual bookstore themes.
Cheryl M. Palmour says
Murder By Page One. This is the first in a new series. Set in Peach Coast, Georgia. Features a transplanted librarian whose best friend is the main suspect in a murder. Fun read!!!
Pam says
That is one that I want to read, too.
Mary Joy Webster says
Lee Harris was my first Cozy Mystery ever, years ago. It was the Valentine Day Murder and I went on to read the whole series, plus her Alphabet City series. Then I moved on to Valerie Wolzien, Jill Churchill, Leslie Meier, Jonnie Jacobs,Katherine Hall Page. IMO, those old cozies were the absolute best!!!!
B. West says
I am really enjoying the Agatha Raisin series by M.C. Beaton.
Mary S. says
I loved those!!!
Sylvia Mayfield says
Hiya! Can’t wait to see what others say! This month, I blew through the entire Pancake House Mystery Series by Sarah Fox. Couldn’t put them down! The characters were very likeable and soon I found myself attached to all of them. Isn’t it heartbreaking when you get to the end of a series and you “miss” the characters? LOL
Occasionally the narrator would blur some of the female voices and it was hard to tell them apart, but it wasn’t often and it didn’t hurt the story or anything.
Another series I’m reading is the Max Porter Paranormal Mysteries by Stuart Jaffe. The husband and wife amateur sleuths are helped by the ghost of a gritty and funny detective murdered in the building they are renting. He’s trapped there so the first book goes about breaking the curse that keeps him there. Max is a researcher and actually I don’t even remember what his wife’s occupation was, but she can see ghosts all the time, but Max can only see Marshall Drummond (the ghost) because Marshall lets him. It’s been great fun so far and I’m 5 books in. If you enjoy amateur sleuths and a slightly noir feel to the books, you’ll love these. I ‘read’ audiobooks while I knit and crochet, so I listened to the author narrating them and he was a PERFECT FIT to the stories. Anyone else read them?
Sylvia
MJ says
June Recommendations – 2021
Death on the Night of Lost Lizards – Julia Buckley
We all have different requirements as to what is a ‘good read’ to us. I think to most of us great characters tops the list. Their interactions and relationships make a story. I want the mystery to be intriguing – that is the point after all. However, what keeps me interested is also the side stories or subplots. To me, it’s critical to an enjoyable read. I like some heartwarming situations within the story that makes me smile.
This book has all that. The characters are fascinating and well developed with considerable depth. There’s background narratives. The side stories are intertwined with the characters, but not the mystery. It’s a HUGE dimension which I enjoy.
Hana owns a Hungarian Tea House with her mother and grandmother in the Chicago area. She is developing some psychic abilities. This is written into the story in an enjoyable way……not really any ‘woo-hoo’. Hana is dating a police detective who recognizes and respects these abilities.
The mystery plot has many twists and turns, but flows along nicely. This is the third book in the series, which is best read from the beginning to understand all the characters.
There are several series I enjoy, but I think this series also epitomizes this genre – cozy mystery.
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Ruby Red Herring – Tracy Gardner
This is the first book in a new series – also a new-to-me author.
Avery Ayers is an antique appraiser. Since her parents died in an accident a year earlier, she has taken over their business in NYC. The story centers around appraising a rare ruby. Avery lives with her sister and aunt in a NYC suburb.
That’s just the ‘background’ stuff. This book is SOOOO good. It’s a page turner and very difficult to put down. There’s a lot of ‘subterfuge’ involved in the story. It’s a complex mystery and the culprit not apparent until the final chapters. There’s a storyline that flows throughout the book which ends with a REAL surprise!
The main characters are quite enjoyable with great dynamics. I look forward to reading the next book.
Oftentimes other authors have quotes on the front or back covers. I usually don’t read them, but this time I saw that Paige Shelton commented on the front cover, “A real gem”. Yup, that about sums it up.
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A Side of Murder – Amy Pershing
This is another new book by a new-to-me author. It starts out with all the cozy prerequisites. You know, girl moves back to home town because of ex. In this case, Sam Barnes was a chef in NYC. She cut off the tip of her ex-husband’s finger in a fight because he was abusive. Well……….the scene went viral on youtube, so she was the one fired from her NYC head chef’s position.
This is set in Cape Cod. Sam has inherited her aunt’s home which is in disrepair. She doesn’t plan on moving back home permanently, but you know how that goes in most cozies! She reunites with friends from her past and they are a close group of people. Love the characters!! They create enjoyable subplots.
Sam has taken a position to write restaurant reviews in the local newspaper. She gets drawn into writing about other topics, too. She’s intrigued with investigating the murder. I like her strength and intelligence.
Sam finds a body in the water outside of a restaurant. It’s a person she worked with in the restaurant when she was a teenager – a person no one in the community liked, so there are plenty of possible culprits. I was totally surprised when it became apparent who the murderer was. No guesses even came close!
This is another book I really, really enjoyed and Could. Not. Put. It. Down.
Sally Fortney says
I read A Tale of Two Cookies by Eve Calder, which had Kate and friends looking for a missing person. Also set in Florida with turtles. Also read Murder at Morrington Hall and Murder at Blackwater Bend by Clara McKenna. These are kind of Downton Abbey solves mysteries featuring an American heiress set to marry an impoverished lord. One twist is that the lord’s father lost his money trying to find horse fossils. Stay safe and well.
Kathie Deviny says
Ellery Adams, The Secret Book and Scone Society, first in a series. A bookstore owner, disfigured by burns, is a bibliotherapist, recommending books to address customer problems.
Barb E says
A Pint of No Return by Dana Mentink. (A Shake Shop Mystery #1)
This is a new series and the author is new to me. Trinidad moves to small town Oregon to open her Shimmy and Shake Shop in a building her ex husband deeds over to her when he goes to prison for embezzlement. His other two ex wives also live in this town to make things interesting. It is a fun book with a good plot. I’m looking forward to the next entry.
Deborah Bayne says
I have two series that I started in June, both of which I have been obsessed with.
The first is Rosemary Simpson’s “A Guilded Age Mystery” series. The first book is “What the Dead Leave Behind”. They take place in the late 1880s and are well written and very descriptive. (5 books in the series so far)
The second is: Victoria Houston’s “Loon Lake” series. The first book is “Dead Angler”. They take place in northern Wisconsin in a small resort area. The characters remind me so much of people I grew up at the lake in northern Minnesota during the summers. I’ve only run into one or two crime scenes that make me cringe but, overall, they are really good. (19 books in the series so far)
Marianne says
I just finished Sarah Stewart Taylor’s latest book, A Distant Grave, which takes Maggie D’Arcy back to Ireland when an Irish aid worker is killed on Long Island. I loved Taylor’s previous series and this one, while a bit grittier, is just as involving.
Hanna says
I read Ruth Ware’s One by One. No, it is not like Christie’s “And then there were None.” Here a group of 10 hi tech startup is going on a working vacation at a ski resort. They all know each other. And as we can tell from the first chapter quoting a newspaper clip – four were killed. There is an avalanche that cut all power and then one person is missing, a second is murdered and things move from there. The author clearly has a good knowledge – or good researchers – to provide not just the jargon and the description of skiing, but also the confusion that a well known trail poses when it is no longer recognizable. Even when we know who the murderer is, the remaining chapters do keep one at the edge of their seats.
I continued with the fun stories of M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Mcbeth: Death of a Bore and Death of a Dreamer. And while in Death of a Bore Mcbeth formed his opinion and forced the murderer to admit, in the Death of a Dreamer he had to conclude that he has never before been so out of it, so far from the truth. His dog and cat offer a nice addition to his activities. The background of the Scotland Highland that attracts so many visitors and dreamers is an integral part of all the books.
Janice G says
I wholeheartedly agree with MJ’s recommendation of Death on the Night of Lost Lizards by Julia Buckley. I love this series and all of the characters and the immersion into the Hungarian community near Chicago offers a different background than many series.
Another book that I really enjoyed was Peaches and Schemes by Anna Gerard. Nina and Harry both have booths at a wedding expo in their small Georgia town. Nina is trying to expand her B&B’s availability as a wedding venue and out-of-work actor Harry is offering his services as a “plus one” for single females. When one of the organizers of the event, a friend of Nina, is found dead the two get involved in trying to solve the case. The solution may prove to be very dangerous as well as surprising to the reader.
Dayna says
Recommend the Constable Twitten series by Lynne Truss. Constable Twitten is the only intelligent police officer in 1950’s Brighton, Britain. Witty writing and interesting mystery.