June is almost 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 Laura Bradford’s A Friend For Hire 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 June 2023 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?
Donna Andrews: Meg Langslow Mystery Series
James P Blaylock: Pennies From Heaven
Laura Bradford: A Friend For Hire Mystery Series
Kate Dyer-Seeley (aka Ellie Alexander ): Pacific Northwest Mystery Series
J.C. Eaton: Sophie Kimball Mystery Series
Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Amish Candy Shop Mystery Series
H.Y. Hanna: Oxford Tearoom Mystery Series (first entry A Scone To Die For)
Callie Hutton: A Victorian Book Club Mystery Series (first entry A Study in Murder)
Alyssa Maxwell: A Lady and Lady’s Maid Mystery Series
Ian Moore: Follet Valley Mystery Series (first entry Death and Croissants)
Sara Rosett: Murder on Location Mystery Series
Lee Strauss: Ginger Gold Mystery Series (first entry Murder on the SS Rosa)
Amy Vansant: Pineapple Port Mystery Series (first entry Pineapple Lies)
Ashley Weaver: Amory Ames Mystery Series AND Electra McDonnell Mystery Series
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.
Linda Shore says
I read the 8th book in Alyssa Maxwell’s “A Lady and a Lady’s Maid” series and really hope there will be more!
sue s says
I really enjoy the Ginger Gold mysteries by Lee Strauss. They take place in the 1920s. Ginger is a high class lady and her love interest is Chief Inspector Basil Reed. Not only is there a murder to solve, but there are always a lot of background events happening in Ginger’s home life. Each book moves forward in time so it helps to start at the beginning. The author also has a website where she writes “Ginger’s Journal”. The novels are funny, fanciful, and entertaining. I just finished the latest: Murder at Madame Tussauds.
Barbara Koenig says
I just finished the most recent Pineapple Port mystery, Pineapple Trivia by Amy Vansant. This series is so much fun. The main characters, Charlotte and Declan are fairly “normal” for two young people living in a retirement village. The supporting “cast” of characters, Mariska, Darla, Frank, Bob, Seamus, and Blade provide the humorous antics. It is laugh out loud funny. For those who need cheer, this is the series for you.
Rita McDonnell says
I binge read the first 4 books in Callie Hutton’s A Victorian Book Club Mystery Series. Loved them. They are set in Bath, England in 1890. Lady Amy Lowell is a mystery writer whose Father will not allow her to publish under her name. She is engaged but breaks the engagement and the mystery follows.
Pam D says
Pennies from Heaven by James P Blaylock
Jerry and Jane find something very unusual in the basement of their old town home. Jerry, don’t keep secrets from your wife!
Esther Catherine Strauch says
I read the first two and loved them. When is number three coming out?
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Esther, I haven’t heard anything about a third yet in this series, but the second was only out last year, so there’s still a decent shot this could continue.
Fortney, Sally says
I always recommend Donna Andrews as I love how Meg and her family and friends are presented as quirky but not silly. The Twelve Jays of Christmas was the one I read this month.
Strike Out 4 Murder by J.C. Eaton balances Phee, her husband, and her boss against her mother and her friends and pets, who are often over the top, but funny.
Blueberry Blunder by Amanda Flower has Amish and non-Amish characters, and Jethro the pig! Murder with Earl Grey Tea also has an Amish connection. I love that Daisy actually goes to a therapist to find out why she called to solve mysteries.
sue s says
I also enjoy Donna Andrews’ books. They are entertaining and her extended family always get into solving the murder. Quirky indeed!
Patty Bax says
I have been reading two cozy mystery series by author Ashley Weaver.
“An Amory Ames and An Electra McDonnell mystery’s “. And can’t seem to be able to put down till I’ve read the whole book!
MendoGirl says
Death and Croissants by Ian Moore.
This is by far one of the funniest books I have read in a while. It had me from the first paragraph that described mornings.
Richard is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a B&B in the fictional Val de Follet in the Loire Valley. Nothing ever happens and that’s how he likes it.
Then one day one of his guests disappears, leaving behind a bloody handprint on the wall that his no nonsense house keeper is none too pleased about. Another guest, Valérie, whose first appearance on the staircase with her Louis Vuitton bag that houses her very pampered chihuahua Passepartout made me laugh out loud, persuades Richard to investigate.
This is a fantastic mystery in a wonderful setting, with all kinds of characters, each with secrets of their own.
The author’s blurb says that Ian Moore is a stand-up comedian and conference host in the U.K. It shows in his writing.
This is a first in a series, the next will be call Death and Fromage – I am looking forward to it!
Ellen says
H. Y. Hanna’s Oxford Tearoom series. Interesting details about Oxford, characters who are a wide range of ages. Mostly believable characters except the clueless mother. Great bedtime read.
Hanna says
I enjoyed Kate Dyer-Seeley’s Scene of the Climb. This is mostly a love story for Oregon Columbia River Gorge and interesting sites along it.
Meg Reed, a recent journalism graduate, has secured a position with a magazine dedicated to extreme sport and her first assignment is covering a race – “Survivor” style – across different states. She has no experience in climbing the sheer rocks and we follow her each step. Yes, one of the participants dies. Is it an accident or a murder? We are also introduced to friends and family members representing unique characters of Portland residents.
Barb E. says
I’ve read Sara Rosett’s Murder on Location series. The main character is a film location scout. They revolve around a small English village. I read one of her other series – Ellie Avery – as the books were published and enjoyed it so I’m not sure how I missed this series. Right now I am reading the 2nd entry in The Sunflower Cafe series by Amy Lillard. Sissy is a secret newspaper advice columnist who temporarily relocates to a small town in Kansas to help out her Amish aunt. I seem to gravitate towards cozies with Amish characters. The author Danna recommended this month has a good series with Amish too.
Pat says
I Love Ellery Adams books, Have read her Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries. So I thought I would try her Book Retreat Mysteries. Very glad I did really loved the story line, a little different then most of the Mysteries, where they all start out with a murder right away. You get a story line first.
I cannot wait to read more.
Fran McPoland says
I just read the book by M.A. Monnin entitled “Death in the Aegean”. It was a wonderful book, filled with very interesting characters. It meant a lot to me since I was supposed to travel to Greece last year before a cancer diagnosis ended that plan. However, my friends, who did travel, took pictures everywhere they went. The pictures all included stick figures of my husband and I, which they sent to me every day I was in the hospital. So it felt like we were with them. This book brought that all back.