~by Lori T.
Are you reading along with the Mystery Challenge? Grab your choice of a hot beverage, a warm throw, a good snack, and a cozy mystery. Cozy Mysteries are for people that prefer a mystery without graphic descriptions of blood and violence. These type of mysteries are books where the main character or someone close to them discovers the victim and proceeds to solve the crime before the police.
English Cottage Mysteries:
What do a retired English woman, an American transplant, and a missing cousin have in common? They are a few of characters found in the English Cottage Cozy subgenre.
Agatha Raisin, recently retired to the Cotswolds, makes her sleuthing debut in Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton. Aunt Dimity’s Death by Nancy Atherton, on the other hand, stars a recently bereaved transplant from Boston, who inherits a haunted cottage in Cornwall. And Jenn McKinlay moves the mystery to London, with a missing cousin, in Cloche and Dagger.
Food Cozy Mysteries:
Mysteries and food are a great combination for the next set of cozies. Keep a notebook handy to copy some of the delicious recipes.
Cookies! Your sweet tooth will thank you for reading the Hannah Swensen Mysteries by Joanne Fluke. Hannah owns a cookie shop in Minnesota which she runs when she is not solving mysteries, and the author has included recipes of the cookies mentioned in the shop. Start with the first Hannah Swensen Mystery: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.
Hot Soup and Murder! Can Lucky Jamieson handle double duty as the new owner of By the Spoonful and sleuth by finding a killer before the police charge her cook with murder? Check out A Spoonful of Murder by Connie Archer. Warm soup and not so warm body contained within the book.
At a gluten free bakery in the middle of Kansas, what could possibly go wrong? Find out in Gluten for Punishment by Nancy J. Parra.
Animal Sleuths
For one of the most well-known animal sleuth mysteries, look no further than the Cat Who series by Lillian Jackson Braun. Meet James Qwilleran and his two beloved Siamese, Koko and Yum Yum, in their first adventure: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards.
For a cat that actually speaks to you, meet Joe Grey, a black and white tom cat. Joe Grey witnesses a murder in a back alley and must solve the crime before he loses his own nine lives in Cat On The Edge by Shirley Rousseau Murphy.
If you’d prefer a talking dog, meet Pepe in Dial “C” for Chihuahua by Waverly Curtis. And two dogs and a cat work together, with a little help from their human postmistress, to solve murders in Wish You Were Here by Rita Mae Brown.
These are a few of the many subgenres of cozy mysteries. If you have a hobby or an interest, you can probably find a cozy mystery about it. Download and print out the checklist here and read along with our winter mystery series!
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