I don’t want to make this too long because I don’t want to interrupt this month’s Recommendations… but, since it only comes around once every four years, I wanted to just wish everyone a happy leap day! It doesn’t come around often, so make the most of this “extra day”!
Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – February 2020
We’re just about at the end of February, 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 Daryl Wood Gerber’s Cookbook Nook 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 February? 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 February 2020 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
Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity Mystery Series
Cynthia Baxter: Lickety Splits Ice Cream Shoppe Mystery Series
Kate Collins: Goddess of Green St. Mystery Mystery Series
Cleo Coyle (aka Alice Kimberly): Coffeehouse Mystery Series
Vicki Delany (aka Eva Gates): Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery Series
Jana DeLeon: Miss Fortune Mystery Series
Maria DiRico (aka Ellen Byron): Catering Hall Mystery Series
J.C. Eaton: Sophie Kimball Mystery Series
Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Amish Matchmaker Mystery Series
Sarah Fox: Pancake House Mystery Series
Eric Garcia: Dinosaur Mafia Mystery Series (first entry Anonymous Rex)
Eva Gates (aka Vicki Delany): Lighthouse Library Mystery Series
Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames): Cookbook Nook Mystery Series
Dorothy Gilman: Mrs. Pollifax Mysteries
Sally Goldenbaum: Seaside Knitters Society Mystery Series
Julia Henry: Garden Squad Mystery Series (first entry Pruning the Dead)
Tony & Anne Hillerman: Joe Leaphorn & Jim Chee Mystery Series
Jenn McKinlay (aka Josie Belle & Lucy Lawrence): Hat Shop Mystery Series
Holly Quinn: Handcrafted Mystery Series (first entry A Crafter Knits a Clue)
Clayton Rawson: Great Merlini Mystery Series (first entry Death from a Top Hat)
Sofie Ryan (aka Sofie Kelly & Darlene Ryan for Young Adult): Second Chance Cat Mystery Series
Paige Shelton: Thin Ice (Stand-Alone)
[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.
Daryl Wood Gerber: Cookbook Nook Mystery Series
This month, I read the first entry in the Cookbook Nook Mystery Series by Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames), titled Final Sentence. This is yet another entry in my (mostly) monthly series about the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series.
Marketing expert Jenna Hart has returned to her home town of Crystal Cove, a small coastal town in California known for both water sports like skiing and surfing as well as crafting stores for things like knitting, sewing, and embroidery, after the death of her husband left her with little desire to remain in San Francisco at her advertising job. Still, she’s going to be keeping her business skills busy enough, as she’s helping her Aunt Vera open a culinary themed bookshop and cafe.
To that end, she’s invited her old college roommate, celebrity chef Desiree Devine, to do a cookbook signing at the cafe’s grand opening. Unfortunately, Desiree brings more than just her autographing hand to the opening – she brings drama as well, in the form of her dodgy boyfriend/director, her jealous sister, and her self-absorbed masseur. Oh, and a potential motive for Jenna herself to take a sudden dislike Desiree, as the aforementioned jealous sister lets slip that Jenna’s deceased husband may or may not have had an affair with Desiree at some point.
With all that baggage, it’s hardly any surprise when Desiree turns up dead, concealed in a sand mermaid sculpture on the beach. Naturally, Jenna is both shocked and pained when she finds the body – though hurt by the thought that her friend may have had an affair with her husband, she never would have hurt her, and hadn’t even had a chance to clear the air on whether or not such an affair had even occurred yet. But the – a motive made more believable when the local police chief’s own mother indicates she saw Jenna and Desiree speaking on the very beach the corpse was found on.
Fortunately, Jenna has people in her corner as well. Her Aunt Vera, her father – a former FBI analyst – and even the local police chief, who was something of a protege of her father’s, all seem less than convinced that Jenna committed the crime. Still, that doesn’t make Jenna feel any more secure, and it isn’t long before she’s investigating herself – not only to find out who killer her friend, but also to see if her friend had had an affair with her husband.
Final Sentence may not exactly break the mold for modern Cozies, but it certainly does a good job of making a nice, pleasant setting for the characters to live in. At the same time, it gives enough attention to the murder and introduces new clues enough to keep the investigation element engaging. If you’re interested in a culinary-themed Cozy with a coastal setting and a decent mystery, this might be just what you’re looking for.
If you’d like to see other entries about some of the most recommended Cozy Mystery authors, be sure to check out the Most Popular and Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.
PS: For those who love recipes, this one does include a number of them at the end – deserts, in this case!
New Releases – February 24 to March 1, 2020
Here is the list of new releases for February 24 to March 1! Well, this is where all the February books have been hiding…
Julia Buckley: Death with a Dark Red Rose (This will be the 5th in the Writer’s Apprentice Mystery Series.)
Vivien Chien: Egg Drop Dead (This will be the 5th in the Noodle Shop Mystery Series.)
Maria DiRico (aka Ellen Byron): Here Comes the Body (This will be the 1st in the NEW Catering Hall Mystery Series.)
J.C. Eaton: Dressed Up 4 Murder (This will be the 6th in the Sophie Kimball Mystery Series.)
Joanne Fluke: Coconut Layer Cake Murder (This will be the 25th in the Hannah Swensen Mystery Series.)
Sarah Graves: Death by Chocolate Frosted Donut (This will be the 3rd in the Death by Chocolate Mystery Series.)
Tina Kashian: On the Lamb (This will be the 4th in the Kebab Kitchen Mystery Series.)
Susan Elia MacNeal: The King’s Justice (This will be the 10th in the Maggie Hope Mystery Series.)
Alyssa Maxwell: A Silent Stabbing (This will be the 5th in the Lady and Lady’s Maid Mystery Series.)
Leslie Meier: British Murder (This will include book #17 The English Tea Murder and book #23 The British Manor Murder of the Lucy Stone Mystery Series.)
Carlene O’Connor: Murder in an Irish Cottage (This will be the 5th in the Irish Village Mystery Series.)
Annelise Ryan (aka Allyson K. Abbott & Beth Amos): Dead Ringer (This will be the 11th in the Mattie Winston Mystery Series.)
Kirsten Weiss: Pies Before Guys (This will be the 4th in the Pie Town Mystery Series.)