The Cozy Mystery List Blog

I am the first to admit that Cozy Mysteries are deeply rooted in fantasy. Even Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple was living a life just a bit too good to be true. With her perfect little cottage and flower garden, her perfect little village of St Mary Mead where she knew everyone and nearly everyone was her friend and confidante. And where her nephew, Raymond, supplied the cash she needed to go on her Caribbean adventure, Miss Marple lived in stories that were just far enough from reality to be really fun to read.

However, Lindsey Bakewell’s life (yes her friends give her a hard time about her name given her talent for baking), far exceeds anything in Agatha Christie’s characters or for that matter most characters in most books in the fantasy department. Lindsey is the daughter of a fashion model mom and a Wall Street hedge fund manager. Luckily for Lindsey, she inherited the best characteristics from both of her parents. Lindsey says of herself:

Thank goodness I’d gotten my light green eyes, high cheekbones, and ash-blond hair from Mom and Dad’s affinity for numbers.

Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop is the first in the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery series by Darci Hannah, and this is the next in my continuing effort to write about the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series. 

Anyway and needless to say, Lindsey is a 30-something beauty who is wealthy and smart. At the beginning of the story, we learn that she just recently quit her Wall Street investment banking job where she had earned a boatload of money and had bought a run-down lighthouse on the coast of Lake Michigan which she proceeds to turn into a bakeshop and cafe. Baking is Lindsey’s true passion and she is very, very good at it. Lindsey’s baking skill, plus having her best friend who is a social media influencer with over 10 million followers, virtually guarantees that the bakeshop will be an instant hit.

She is also quite good at attracting handsome men. Having just dumped her fiancé (a celebrity chef in New York City) who she had caught cheating on her, Lindsey finds that her lighthouse, although no longer a working beacon for ships on the lake, is now a beacon for handsome and fit men. Nearly the first person she meets is her neighbor, Rory, a former Navy Seal who is her closest neighbor and who is working on writing a book. 

Soon enough, a murder happens and Lindsey gets involved in the sleuthing. She is naturally involved because the murder was a poisoning that happened at the bakeshop on its opening day. 

Murder at the Beacon Bakeshop is a fun read. If you are looking for a Cozy that will put you in a truly enchanting setting (there is even a ghost involved),  and want to follow a character who has lived what for most people would be considered a truly charmed life. this book should be one of your first choices.

I almost forgot to mention the delicious-looking recipes included at the end of the book!

If you’re interested in seeing other most recommended or popular Cozy Mystery authors/series, please visit the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my Cozy Mystery site.