We’re just about at the end of November, 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 Jacqueline Frost’s Christmas Tree Farm 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 November? 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 November 2019 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?
Ellie Alexander (aka Kate Dyer-Seeley): Sloan Krause Mystery Series
Donna Andrews: Meg Langslow Mystery Series
Mary Angela Professor: Prather Mystery Series (first entry An Act of Murder)
Tessa Arlen: Woman of WWII Mystery Series
Jessica Beck (aka Elizabeth Bright, Casey Mayes, Melissa Glazer, Chris Cavender, Tim Myers, & D.B. Morgan): Donut Shop Mystery Series
Stephanie Blackmoore: Wedding Planner Mystery Series
Eileen Brady: Kate Turner, DVM Mystery Series (first entry Muzzled)
Emily Brightwell: Mrs. Jeffries Mystery Series
Ellen Byron: Cajun Country Mystery Series
Kate Carlisle: Fixer-Upper Mystery Series
Vannetta Chapman: Amish Bishop Mystery Series
Laura Childs (aka Gerry Schmitt): Cackleberry Club Mystery Series AND Scrapbooking Mystery Series
Peg Cochran (aka Meg London): Murder, She Reported Mystery Series
Elizabeth Craig (aka Riley Adams & Elizabeth Spann Craig): Southern Quilting Mystery Series
Elizabeth Daly: Henry Gamadge Mystery Series
Jacqueline Frost: Christmas Tree Farm Mystery Series
Yasmine Galenorn (aka India Ink): Chintz ‘n China Mystery Series
Eva Gates (aka Vicki Delany): Lighthouse Library Mystery Series
Anna Gerard: Georgia B&B Mystery Series (first entry Peach Clobbered)
Sherry Harris: Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery Series
Cornelia Kidd (aka Lea Wait): Mainely Murder Mystery Series
Faith Martin: Hillary Greene Mystery Series (first entry A Narrow Escape)
G. A. McKevett: Savannah Reid Mystery Series
Alexis Morgan: Abbey McCree Mystery Series (first entry Death by Committee)
Patricia Moyes: Henry Tibbett Mystery Series
Hannah Reed (aka Deb Baker): Scottish Highlands Mystery Series
David Rosenfelt: Andy Carpenter Mystery Series
Ann B. Ross: Miss Julia Mystery Series
The Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library Mystery Series
[If you click on the author’s name (blue) link, it will take you to his/her page on the Cozy Mystery site. The pages have all of the authors’ books listed chronologically.]
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.
janie says
Murder She Uncovered, by Peg Cochran. This is the second in the series, which is set in the pre-WWII era. First book is Murder She Reported with a 3rd one coming out in December. I highly recommend them.
Susy S says
For the past two months, I have been binge reading Donna Andrews. This month I read five, including two Christmas themed books, “Duck the Halls” and “The Nightingale Before Christmas”. As I mentioned last, part of the reason I like this series is that her family is crazier than mine. This month, many of them have been ‘growing up’ and becoming slightly more rational, though still a little crazy.
I read “Shot Through the Hearth” by Kate Carlisle. This series is another fun one. In this one Shannon’s new friend is a billionaire inventor with a passion for fighting climate change. Very timely and fun.
I have also been binge reading Jessica Beck’s Donut House mysteries. Our heroine and her friends and husband are once agian liking for murderers all over town and sometimes finding that really nice people can be murderers.
I also read the latest Jenn McKinlay (not a mystery), Joanna Carl and my fist G.A.McKevetts and Liz Mugavero books. Both of which have now been added to my Buy/hoard list.
Rita Ingersoll says
I started the “ A Flamingo Realty” mystery series. Have finished the first one and have started the second by Ceecee James. Great series. Also read two by Laura Child’s, Gliter Bomb, and Eggs on Ice. Love all her books. They are written with a little humor, friendships, romance and mystery.
Rickee D says
I read a lot of David Rosenfelt cozies, with his dog friend Tara. They’re set in NJ, he’s a lawyer, runs a dog rescue foundation. His ‘clients’ seem to be on the ‘outskirts’ of society and need help, sometimes mob help! I have enjoyed a few ‘Miss Julia’ cozies by Ann B. Ross. They are about a Southern, church-going older lady who seems to get involved in issues in her small town. Not necessarily murders, sometimes community concerns. The variety of characters are very interesting.
Rickee D says
I forgot to mention, I think, that I read a fairly new book, The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan. I love English mysteries set in WWII, since my mom was English. This one was really good, with a bossy, but repentant mother, her daughter whose life is mysterious, and some other interesting characters. The first book in the series, The Chillbury Ladies Choir is next on my list!
Denise W says
Read Murder and a Cup of Chowder by Cornelia Kidd ( Lea Wait). Set in Maine with a interesting story and great characters. Sadly this is the only book in the series due to her death. As with her other series a great read.
Robin Jarrad says
Danna: I recently went back and revisited ELizabeth Craig’s Shear Trouble, her Southern Quilting mystery series and even though I am not a quilter, I know three people that are. So I did enjoy it and promptly request 4 more from her series from the library. Also the newest Mrs Jeffries’ Alms of the Angel Inspector Witherspoon mystery which I purchased, as I want to keep it. Would thoroughly recommend either series. I’ve read many of Anne Perry’s WIlliam Monk and THomas and Charlotte Pitt books as well as her Christmas Novellas and I can completely recommend those as well.
Jo Anne Yerkes says
Reading G.A. Mc Kevett’s Bitter Brew now. Good to check in on Savannah, Gran, Tammy and Dirk again.
Sally Fortney says
I read Unleashed and Chained by Eileen Brady. The heroine is a veterinarian who gets drawn into murders. One book starts with her attending a marriage of pigs, and there are other amusing stories of her treating animals.
Marie Lawlor says
I am currently reading Faith Martin’s DI Hillary Greene mysteries and enjoying them. I’m on the 3rd one.
Janice G says
I read too many good books this month to mention them all so I’ll list just a few. A new book by Hannah Reed was released, Be Still My Bleating Heart, the latest in the Scottish Highlands series. I thought the series had ended since it has been years between releases. A meeting of the Sir Walter Scott Society ends in murder and romance writer Eden is eager to get involved in the case though her status as a volunteer constable, an actual position in the Scottish police. The characters in this book are always enjoyable and I’m happy to have a return of this series.
I would also recommend Coming Up Murder by Mary Angela, the newest book in the Professor Prather Series, set at a small college in South Dakota where Emmaline Prather is an English Professor. This book takes place during a symposium on Shakespeare where a student causes quite a stir by announcing that he has genetic proof that someone else wrote all of the works attributed to Shakespeare. This leads to a murder and Em becomes a target when she investigates the crime.
I also enjoyed Shot Through the Hearth by Kate Carlisle; Silent Night, Deadly Night by Vicki Delany; Read and Buried by Eva Gates; and Molded 4 Murder by J.C. Eaton.
Cheryl Palmour says
I have read Read and Buried by Eva Gates, Mumbai Gumbo Murder by Laura Childs and Fatal Christmas Festival by Ellen Byron. I enjoyed all three. They have interesting characters, humor and I like the locations of the stories.
Bonnie E. says
I’ve been reading the series Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library. I’ve read the first 11 books in the series and I’m happy to say each book can stand alone and the story plots are all different! The common thread is the librarian, Faith Newberry and her crime solving tuxedo kitty, Watson!
Bek says
Well, she isn’t quite cozy, but I read the Yasmine Galenorn “Chintz n China” series. Not quite cozy because there is a little bad language, and a little less than “G” rated subject matter, but not much at all. Not enough to jerk me out of “cozy mystery feel good don’t bother me” mode, at any rate. I love paranormal cozies, and this series was right up my alley! AND at the back of each book, there’s a little charm! And yes, they’d work. With proper intent and focus, they’d work.
Michelle says
I enjoyed Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders by Tessa Arlen. The setting–an English village during WW II–first drew me to the book and did not disappoint. The character of Poppy was engaging as well.
Barb E says
Just going to mention my favorite of the month. I read the 5th book in the Wedding Planner Mysteries series by Stephanie Blackmoore. Like the previous 4 in the series, it is a very enjoyable cozy book.
KG says
One of the books I read was Let’s Fake A Deal by Sherry Harris. It is the 7th book in the Garage Sale Mysteries. I have read every book in the series and enjoyed them all, but you could start with this book and not be bewildered. I found the plot to be believable and modern. The heroine is a former military wife and a professional garage sale organizer. In this story, she organizes a garage sale for a couple who misrepresent themselves and scam her.
Hanna says
I recently discovered Elizabeth Daly and really like her books. Her Henry Gamadge, who is not a detective but a scholar with sharp eyes for human behavior, is now recognized by the citizens of the 1930s New York as someone who could help while sparing the wealthy from any hint of any scandal. In “Murder in Volume II” we meet an old family where, 100 years ago, a governess disappeared, without her belongings not “even a hat” on her way to the garden while carrying Volume II of the Byron collection. The family kept it a secret only, 100 years later, for the young woman – so believe the current descendant – to reappear, from the garden and with a new Volume II. Is she after the family money eagerly awaited by other family members? They want to know and ask Gamadge for help.
It is a pleasure to follow Gamadge’s activities and deductions for the final solving of the mystery.
I also continued with Patrician Moyes, “Seasons of snow and sin.” The Tibbets are back in the Swiss Alps where we first met them in “Dead Men Don’t Ski.” No, not the same place, not the same people but by now they can ski. A tourist town where a British sculptress is making her home in a rundown chalet that a friend provides. Hired to sculpt a nymph she meets a beautiful young waitresses, an orphan and hires her as a model. The woman, Jane, quickly becomes involved in the life of the town and at some point invites the Tibbets to spend some time with her. We later follow the interactions and tensions between the locals and the rich tourist for whom the locals are also toys. When a philanderer ski instructor is murdered and his wife is found guilty, Henry Tibbett is starting to find holes in the proceedings. Eventually solve it while exposing hidden secrets of the rich and famous.
Bonnie E. says
I’ve been reading the series Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library. I’ve read the first 11 books in the series and I’m happy to say each book can stand alone and the story plots are all different! The common thread is the librarian, Faith Newberry and her crime solving tuxedo kitty, Watson!
MJ says
These past weeks have been quite busy, so I hadn’t kept up with entering a book as I read it for this recommendation blog. I only had entered the first one. Sorry I didn’t get this added to the blog until now. I just remembered this morning!!
November Recommendations – 2019
Beyond a Reasonable Stout – Ellie Alexander
I like this author and enjoy this series. She does get into extensive detail about beer and the process. Since that aspect doesn’t interest me very much I skip those paragraphs (makes for a faster read!).
But she always writes a good mystery with plot twists, surprises, and good pacing. The diverse characters have depth and internal complications, thus making them quite appealing. Sloan Kraus is the protagonist with much savvy and smarts. She’s in the process of divorcing her husband (philanderer, of course!). She left their family brewery and is working at a new start up brewery.
The victim is a councilman running for mayor on a platform that no one in the community wants. The culprit is easily identified, but the story has so many threads that it is enjoyed until the last page.
Sometimes this author (Kate Dyer-Seeley) runs a thread through a series that isn’t answered until the last book, as she did in her Northwest Pacific series. She’s developed an ongoing mystery thread in this series, too.
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I’ll BRIEFLY discuss two more books, mainly because they are new series which are worth mentioning. I know I’ll recommend a book when I’m looking forward to the next book (as I am in both of these series).
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Death by Committee – Alexis Morgan
This is the first book in a new series by this author. It’s also set in the Northwest (Washington). Abby McCree moved to this small community when her aunt died and left her a home. Abby recently divorced her husband (a cheating husband, of course — a common criteria for a cozy!).
A body is discovered buried in her backyard. It happens to be her aunt’s nemesis.
I had this mystery figured out by page 144. But the characters and their interactions are so entertaining, that one continues to enjoy it until the last page.
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Peach Clobbered — Anna Gerard
Well…….you can tell by the title that this story is set in Georgia! Nina Fleet bought a vintage home with a B&B in mind for a future business. She bought it from an estate. But a nephew claims he has rights to this home. Legally, I doubt this would ever fly. But it is fiction after all…….so one is forced to stretch one’s imagination and dismiss ‘believability’.
Nina, too, is divorced (yep……you guessed it! Another cheating husband! It fits the cozy ‘criteria’.)
This involves a group of nuns moving into the Nina’s home after they lost their property to an unsavory developer. The developer is murdered (of course).
These characters (including the nuns) are fantastic. It really is a fun read…………written with wit, depth, and surprises.
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I’d also like to add that I really like Jacqueline Frost’s Christmas Tree Farm series which Danna recommended. It’s worth reading this holiday season!
I’ve got ‘Apple Cider Slaying’ (pseudonym Julie Ann Lindsay) on my shelf waiting to be read. Soon, I hope!!
T.J. says
Just finished “The Bishop Needs an Alibi” by Vannetta Chapman. Very good! Had some unusual surprises. This is the second book in “The Amish Bishop Mysteries” series. The first one was also good, and I look forward to #3.
Ginger Griffin says
I am helping in our ar contest. The kids have to beat me. Right now the second grade is beating me. I have read 49 books to date and must read 90 by January 21, 2020. I have been rereading some of my cozies. Eva Gates, Mary Ellen Hughes, Victoria Hamilton’s Merry Muffin series, and westerns. This is helping my to read list. I know this not what the post should be about but I wanted to let yall know at least I am reading. I have to read 5 books week. I am helping kids read.