My degree in archaeology taught me life is a giant puzzle. People leave behind fragments, giving hints but never definitive answers. My deductive skills when piecing together broken pottery or looking at renderings of hominid skulls to determine how they lived, evolved my desire to write mysteries. One of the many things I love about cozy mysteries is that everything looks peaceful on the outside, but like real life, you barely need to scratch the surface before you discover dark deeds and secrets. And who doesn’t enjoy that?
With its stunning turrets and beautiful rose gardens, I always thought Audley Castle was perfect, set in the idyllic English village of Audley St. Mary. It’s a place I love to call home. But behind the trimmed hedgerows, stately gardens, and birdsong, a killer is waiting…
Cream Caramel and Murder is book one in a nine-book culinary mystery series set in an enchanting English paradise and featuring a corpse buried in the castle grounds! Each mystery features your baking sleuth, Holly Holmes, her cute clue-sniffing dog, Meatball, and a cast of quirky villagers.
This is a delightfully fun twisty mystery that fulfilled my fantasy of inheriting an amazing property in a beautiful small town and being involved in a wonderful community (with a few murderous intentions lurking beneath the surface!)
Ravenwood Cove is a fabulous town and the author does an amazing job of making you feel like you’re there, with vivid descriptions of the setting and lively, realistic characters with fascinating pasts.
A delightful giant of a series that’ll keep you entertained for weeks. And there are bonus recipes if you love to bake along as you discover whodunit!
Amanda Graham inherited a rundown bed and breakfast, a starving cat, and some dead guy who’s buried in her garden!What should’ve been a simple remodeling project and a new business in a small Oregon beach town winds up with her uncle named as the number one murder suspect, a slew of odd neighbors and problematic townspeople, and Amanda wanting to just sit down and eat her weight in chocolate pie. Sure, she could pack her bags and travel back to LA…or should she dig in, heal from her failed romance, and find a whole new set of friends and adventures…
If you’re a fan of Best British Bakeoff, this one’s for you! Patti Larsen writes fab, well-rounded, funny characters that’ll have you rooting for them and rolling your eyes.
In this book, your sleuth, Fiona, is helping her mother, Lucy, enter a televised baking show. But when the cupcakes come out funky and the head judge scolds her, Lucy is devastated and abandons her dream of being the next top cupcake queen.
Then the judge is murdered and all eyes turn to Lucy! Fiona is a loyal, supportive, and determined sleuth, letting nothing stand in her way of keeping her mother out of prison.
If you enjoy great world building, full, flawed, funny sleuths, enjoy a slice of mystery muffin with this great book.
Not to be indelicate about it, but if Mom made me eat one more bite of cake, I was going to throw up. I’d honestly ingested enough dessert in the last hour to sink a submarine with no end in sight.
Don’t get me wrong. I loved my mother’s baking. But a girl has her limits, and I had finally reached mine, groaning, burping softly around the chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, buttercream and banana that swam on the surface of a variety of other flavors I’d rather not taste again in reverse.
Cupcakes are nothing without the perfect drink, which is why this book is an ideal accompaniment to the cake cozies – and it’s set in the 1980s, so is chocked full of nostalgia for people of a certain age.
The setting may be festive but the mystery will leave you pondering whodunit until the end. And there are lots of lovely easter eggs (or should that be festive treats) hinting at more puzzles in future books.
If you've got a problem, Charlie Kingsley probably has a tea that’ll help make it right.
EXCEPT when it comes to love. She does NOT do love potions.
Not even for Courtney, her pregnant new client who showed up three weeks before Christmas seeking a love potion because her husband was cheating on her.
So, Courtney asked about poison, instead.
She said she was joking. That's what happens between wives and husbands. They get angry and talk about killing each other. They don't really mean it.
It seems to make sense ... until Courtney’s husband turns up dead on Christmas…
It’s not so common to have a male sleuth take the lead in cozy mysteries. And an older male sleuth with a retired (failed) police dog who has a few things to say during the investigation is a delight.
For me, Rex the dog is the star! I love a feisty, smart sidekick who comes with fur and an attitude.
This book is light-hearted, funny, with interesting twists along the way.
The characters make this book fabulous – the Old Biddies are a hoot with their less than subtle comments and snooping. And Gemma’s tea room is divine, set against a charming Oxford backdrop. And there’s a delightful, plump, adorable cat. Muesli is a fluffy angel with a naughty side.
Funny, clever, and the scenes in the café will have you craving a slice of dessert to go with your murder.
“They say you have to make sacrifices to follow your dreams. I just didn’t expect the sacrifices to involve an American tourist and a killer scone.” ~ Gemma ditches her high-flying job and returns to Oxford to pursue her dream of opening a traditional English tearoom. It means giving up her savings, moving back with her parents and coping with her bossy, matchmaking mother, but she’s sure it will all be worth it. In fact, business is already booming… that is, until she opens up shop and finds an American tourist murdered by one of her signature scones!
Palmer Lind, recovering from the sudden death of her husband, embarks on a bird-watching trek to the Gulf Coast of Florida. One hot day on Leffis Key, she comes upon—not the life bird she was hoping for—but a floating corpse. The handsome beach bum who appears on the scene at the same time seems to have even more secrets than the dead man.
His story begins to unravel as the pair search for answers to a growing pile of dead bodies. Spies, radical environmentalists, and wealthy businessmen circle around each other in a complex dance. Which one is lying? What…
Palmer Lind, recovering from the sudden death of her husband, embarks on a bird-watching trek to the Gulf Coast of Florida. One hot day on Leffis Key she comes upon-not the life bird she was hoping for-but a floating corpse. The handsome beach bum who appears on the scene seems to have even more secrets than the dead man. His story begins to unravel as the pair search for answers to a growing pile of dead bodies. Spies, radical environmentalists, and wealthy businessmen circle around each other in a complex dance. Which one is lying? What do a seemingly random…
