The best cozy mystery novels for readers who love culinary crimes

Valerie Burns has quickly become a staple in the cozy mystery world having penned three successful series in less than five years. She’s recently created a fourth with the Baker Street Mysteries, which focuses on former social media influencer, Maddy Montgomery. In Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder, we find Maddy humiliated after she gets dumped during a live stream of her wedding. Fortunately, fate intervenes with an inheritance, which stipulates that she must operate her family’s bakery for a year before she’s entitled to any money. Due to her circumstances, Maddy accepts the challenge only to become the target of an unruly businessman who is later found dead on the premises. Determined not to fail, Maddy endeavors to uncover whodunit to clear her name and protect her new business.

If you love creamy desserts, downhome recipes, and close-knit communities, you’ll love the first entry in Abby Collette’s Ice Cream Parlor Mystery Series. Like all of the protagonists on this list, the story centers on a woman who has inherited a family eatery. In this instance, recent MBA grad Bronwyn Crewse isn’t able to get her new business off the ground when an early snow and a deadly confrontation with a family adversary put her plans in cold storage and her life in jeopardy.

As winner of the 2021 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, you can’t deny that Arsenic and Adobo is a perfect read for anyone who wants a heaping helping of mystery, a cup of family conflict, and a liberal dash of comedy. Join protagonist Lila Macapagal as she moves back home after a disastrous breakup. While there, she’s enlisted by her aunts to help with the family restaurant only to be almost immediately saddled with the death of an obnoxious food critic, who just happens to be her ex-boyfriend! The atrocity puts the business in further jeopardy and leads the landlord to threaten the Macapagals with eviction. Determined to take charge of her life, Lila starts an investigation to clear her family name.

Unlike some of the more male-dominated genres, cozies have become more diverse in recent years. So if you’re interested in sampling something new, I highly recommend the first installment in the new L.A. Night Market Mysteries Series, Death by Bubble Tea. Author Jennifer J. Chow does an amazing job of providing mouth-watering descriptions of Cantonese and Taiwanese foods while at the same time delivering a twisty murder investigation as undertaken by cousins Yale Yee and Celine, whose family runs a food stand in Los Angeles’s Eastwood Village Night Market. You can’t go wrong with any of Chow’s books, but this one is a delightful departure for those who only know her for her feline-centric stories.

In the early entries of Vivien Chien’s beloved Noodle Shop Mysteries, the focus is on protagonist’s Lana Lee’s failed love life, her mother’s determination to find her a husband, the family restaurant, and murder, of course. But Hot and Sour Suspects focuses more on the dating trials and tribulations of Lana’s friend and local shop owner, Rina Su, who attends a speed dating contest at Lana’s Ho-Lee Noodle House. It isn’t long before Rina’s date is found murdered and Lana takes up the responsibility of uncovering the truth before the situation and subsequent deaths threaten to sour the reputations and businesses of her fellow restaurant owners.