The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Mystery Books that Take Place in Massachusetts:

Here are some Fun Massachusetts Facts:

State Motto: “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”
Massachusetts’ name means “at or about the great hill.”
State Flower is the Mayflower.
Capital is Boston.
State Bird is the Chickadee.
Harvard was the first North American college, founded in 1636. Every December 16, there is a reenactment of the Boston Tea Party at the Boston harbor.

Authors who are found on the Cozy Mystery Site and who feature Massachusetts locations in their books:

Annie’s Quilted Mystery Series 

Judith Arnold: Lainie Lovett Still Kicking Mystery Series

Linda Barnes: Carlotta Carlyle Mystery Series AND Michael Spraggue Mystery Series

Nero Blanc (aka Cordelia Frances Biddle & Steve Zettler): Crossword Mystery Series

Anne Canadeo: Black Sheep Knitting Mystery Series

Susan Conant: Dog Lover’s Mystery Series, Cat Lover’s Mystery Series, & Gourmet Girls Series (with her daughter Jessica Conant-Park)

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell): Orchard Mystery Series

Sharon Love Cook: Rose McNichols Mystery Series

Philip R. Craig: Martha’s Vineyard Mystery Series

Dicey Deere: Torrey Tunet Mystery Series (Boston native in Ireland)

Joanne Dobson: Karen Pelletier Mystery Series

Patricia Driscoll: Grace Oliver Mystery Series (Cape Cod)

G.H. Ephron (aka Hallie Ephron & Donald A. Davidoff): Peter Zak Mystery Series

Janet Evanovich: Unmentionables / Diesel Mystery Series

Cynthia Gallant-Simpson:  Deadly Mystery Series AND Nantucket Mystery Series

Sally Goldenbaum: Seaside Knitters Mystery Series

Sally Gunning: Peter Bartholomew Mystery Series

Barbara Hamilton: Abigail Adams Mystery Series

Sherry Harris: Sarah Winston Garage Mystery Series

Julianne Holmes: Clock Shop Mystery Series

Toni L.P. Kelner: Where Are They Now? Mystery Series

Harry Kemelman: Rabbi Small Mystery Series

Kathryn Lasky Knight: Calista Jacobs Mystery Series

Mary Kruger: Knitting Mystery Series

Jane Langton: Homer Kelly Mystery Series

Anna Maclean (aka Jeanne MacKin): Lousia May Alcott Mystery Series

Charlotte MacLeod (aka Alisa Craig): Sarah Kelling & Max Bittersohn Mystery Series AND Peter Shandy & Helen Shandy Mystery Series

Ada Madison (aka Camille Minichino & Margaret Grace): Sophie Knowles Mystery Series

Francine Mathews (aka Stephanie Barron):  Nantucket Mystery Series

Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day & Tace Baker): Local Foods Mystery Series

Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day & Tace Baker): Carriagetown Mystery Series

Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day & Tace Baker): Quaker Midwife Mystery Series

Margaret Miles: Bracebridge Mystery Series

Camille Minichino (aka Margaret Grace): Periodic Table Mystery Series

Katherine Hall Page: Faith Fairchild Mystery Series

Robert B. Parker: Jesse Stone Mystery Series, Spenser (for Hire) Mystery Series, AND Sunny Randall Mystery Series

Cynthia Peale: Beacon Hill Mystery Series

Carol J. Perry: Witch City Mystery Series

Nancy Pickard: Jenny Cain Mystery Series

Suzanne Price: Grime Solvers Mystery Series

Cynthia Riggs: Martha’s Vineyard Mystery Series

Hank Phillippi Ryan: Charlotte McNally Mystery Series

Hank Phillippi Ryan: Jane Ryland & Jake Brogan Mystery Series

P.B. Ryan: Gilded Age Mystery Series

Secrets of Mary’s Bookshop – a Guidepost mystery series

Clea Simon: Theda Krakow Mystery Series

Winona Sullivan: Sister Cecile Mystery Series

Sarah Stewart Taylor: Sweeney St. George Series

Heather Webber: Lucy Valentine Mystery Series

Eugenia Lovett West: Emma Streat Mystery Series

Leslie Wheeler: Living History Mystery Series

Lauren Willig: Pink Carnation Mystery Series

Please feel free to contact me if you see an author from the Cozy Mystery Site who belongs on this list, or if you have any comments.

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦

Comments

  8. Hi,
    I’m looking for series from years back that featured a small town newspaper. They played in a chamber orchestra and she drove a mustard colored Honda civic. One of the books took place in Tanglewood. Any ideas?

    Reply

  10. William Tapply wrote about Brady Coyne, a Boston lawyer whose clients involve him in all sorts of interesting situations. Mr. Tapply was a personal friend of Philip Craig, and their respective characters were friends also. Mr. Tapply and Mr. Craig (both now regrettably deceased) co-wrote a couple of books featuring both characters working together. If you like one of these two authors, I’ll bet you like the other as well.

    Reply

  12. i JUST STARTED THE ORCHARD SERIES BY SHEILA CONNOLLY SET IN THE SAME WESTERN MASS PIONEER VALLEY WHERE MY GRANDFATHER AND FATHER HAD APPLE ORCHARDS!

    Reply

  14. A few months ago I saw a mystery book at my local Costco ….. I went back and cannot find it there. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the author nor the title. I do remember there a map of Boston on the inside cover. It showed the Boston Garden area. The main character lived on Arlington Street near Katherine Gibbs School. I would love to read this book. Is this enough information to give me the title/author?

    Reply

  20. Thank you, Connie, I am going to go add Sally Goldenbaum and Heather Webber to the mysteries in Massachusetts theme.

    Reply

  21. I read a couple of books that took place in Boston – a lawyer – I thought the author’s name was Rose -there were two books

    Reply

  22. Two of my favorite authors are no longer with us … Philip Craig and William Tappley ….their books have made me a BIG fan of Boston/Martha Vineyard’s … fortunately I have a board meeting in Boston in a couple of weeks .. won’t make it to the Vineyard this trip … will make it before I go to Heaven, I hope!

    Reply

    • Sue, if you have time in the Boston area, there is a place I’m sorry I didn’t take my husband to see when we were out there two years ago. I visited my daughter when she was in school in the Boston area, and I am so glad we went to see the Glass Flower exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Leopold Blaschka and his son, Rudolph, created the most phenomenal glass flowers. They are absolutely astounding.

      Reply

  24. I read a book years ago that I want to have a friend read since she loves MA based mysteries, but I can’t remember the name of it. it was a murder mystery fiction set around the fenway park area… they even mentioned red sox players in the book. I believe parts of the book involved finding a body in the “muddy waters”. any help would be appreciated.

    Reply

    • I remember reading a whole series of mysteries, each with the word “water” in the title, like “Muddy water,” Icey Water.” “Hot Water,” etc. I think one of main character’s name was Pete. Wish I could recall author. They were wonderful.

      Reply

      • I searched and found the series I was suggesting. Its the Peter Bartholomew mysteries by Sally Cabot Gunning. 10 books staring with Hot Water and ending with Fire Water. Every title has the word Water with an adjective before it. Takes place in fictional Cape Cod town, Nastoba. Very enjoyable.

        Reply

        • Thanks Linda. Yes, I figured it out after I searched on Google. Now I’m trying to recall another series with excellent writing about a couple. I think the husband is either a professor or possibly a very scholarly detective. A woman wrote them. Most of them are set somewhere like on Cape Cod, but in one they go to Venice. In another a corpulent music professor is trapped under a building. Ring any bells?

          Reply

  25. Years ago I read and enjoyed… Doris Disney,mystery author
    Wrote many book located on the South Shore in MA
    THE SETTING WAS IN AND AROUND Abington.

    Reply

  26. I’m trying to find a book that takes place in Boston. It starts off with the discovery of an abandoned baby inside Fenway Park, maybe in the players’ clubhouse (?), as a game is about to start. I think it was written about 2009. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

    Reply

    • David, I don’t think I know that one. I do know there are a couple of Cozies that at least partially take place in Fenway Park – Crabbe Evers’s Fear in Fenway and Troy Soos’s Murder at Fenway Park, both of which can be found on my Baseball Theme Page. However I don’t think either involves an abandoned baby, and both were written well before 2009. Hopefully someone else can help you out!

      Reply

  27. Hi, a couple years back I was perusing the Brewster Country Store and bought a 3 new paperback book mystery series by a female Cape Cod author. I think the premise might have been a murder. I can’t locate the books in my library any longer so I must have donated them to my local library. Of course, now I’d like to re-read them and can’t locate. Any ideas??

    Reply

  29. Hi, I have been looking all over and can’t remember a series I have read. The main character is a female detective (maybe a PI) who lives in Cambridge MA on or around Brattle Street in a carriage house.

    Reply

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