31 books like Beaches, Bungalows & Burglaries

By Tonya Kappes,

Here are 31 books that Beaches, Bungalows & Burglaries fans have personally recommended if you like Beaches, Bungalows & Burglaries. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Yvonne Kjorlien Author Of Memoirs of a Reluctant Archaeologist

From my list on kick-ass women come from screwed up families.

Why am I passionate about this?

On the surface, my childhood was characterized by 1980s unsupervised country freedom in rural Alberta. Deeper in, my history involved emotional abuse and neglect. I wanted nothing more than to be seen and loved for my true self. The library was a refuge, but the fiction section allowed me to find the community I so greatly desired. I was seen and loved by the characters I read. They showed me it was possible to be myself–loudly and audaciously–and still be accepted. I read and now write books that delve into themes of identity, autonomy, and acceptance because I still struggle with these themes today. 

Yvonne's book list on kick-ass women come from screwed up families

Yvonne Kjorlien Why did Yvonne love this book?

I admit it: I underestimated Flavia de Luce.

She is 11 years old, self-schooled, and lives outside a small English town in the 1950s. She is overlooked and underestimated by everyone. Deep inside, I’m still 11 years old, underestimated, and overlooked. I had an insatiable desire to learn about my environment, and I often saw things others didn’t. Flavia also reminds me of my childhood living in the country in the 1980s. I ran unchecked, safe, and constantly delighted in discovering new things about my corner of the world. I wince at the de Luce family politics. I cheer Flavia’s investigations and her fearlessness. I want nothing more than to stay in Flavia’s 11-year-old world forever. She is the kick-ass kid I wanted to be. 

By Alan Bradley,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Meet Flavia: Mystery Solver. Master Poisoner. 11 Years Old.

England 1950. At Buckshaw, the crumbling country seat of the de Luce family, very-nearly-eleven-year-old Flavia is plotting revenge on her older sisters.

Then a dead bird is left on the doorstep, which has an extraordinary effect on Flavia's eccentric father, and a body is found in the garden. As the police descend on Buckshaw, Flavia decides to do some investigating of her own.

Praise for the historical Flavia de Luce mysteries:
'The Flavia de Luce novels are now a cult favourite' Mail on Sunday

'A cross between Dodie Smith's I Capture…


Book cover of The Thursday Murder Club

Molly MacRae Author Of Come Shell or High Water

From my list on mystery with sidesplitting sidekicks.

Why am I passionate about this?

I started reading mysteries as a way to avoid studying for final exams as an undergrad. Nemesis by Agatha Christie was my gateway mystery. That was fifty-plus years and many, many mysteries read ago. I managed an independent bookstore for several years and then worked in a public library for twenty more. I especially liked introducing readers to my favorite mysteries in the store and the library. Why mysteries in particular? Because they do something that doesn’t often happen in real life—they restore order. But the best mysteries, to my mind, are the ones that include humor. We need humor in our lives because it restores hope.  

Molly's book list on mystery with sidesplitting sidekicks

Molly MacRae Why did Molly love this book?

Now I’m torn. Agnes Sharp and her housemates are delightful, but a friend of mine tells me that I am Joyce in this book. This series is one of the best I’ve read in the past few years, and this book is one of the best ones in the series.

I’ll gladly join septuagenarians Elizabeth (could she have worked for Scotland Yard?), Ibrahim (a psychologist), Ron (a brawling socialist organizer), and Joyce (gentle and perhaps not as naïve as she seems) at their posh retirement village as they discuss unsolved crimes each Thursday. And I’m definitely there to solve the murder of that local developer. No way the villain will get away from this brilliant gang of sleuths. 

By Richard Osman,

Why should I read it?

26 authors picked The Thursday Murder Club as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment

"Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining." -Wall Street Journal

"Don't trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman's own laugh-out-loud whodunit." -Parade

Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to...
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club.

When a local developer is found dead…


Book cover of Louisiana Longshot

Rhonda Blackhurst Author Of Shear Deception

From my list on mysteries with strong flawed female protagonists.

Why am I passionate about this?

I retired from a district attorney’s office as a victim witness specialist and a paralegal, where I saw a disturbing side of humanity with too many female victims. There were rarely any winners on either side. Reading mysteries with strong female leads gave me hope. A dash of humor didn’t hurt, either. After a long day of vicarious trauma, it was a treat to hide behind my computer in the evenings and write cozy mysteries, where I tied up the end of the story with a pretty pink bow and where there was a winner. I’m hooked!

Rhonda's book list on mysteries with strong flawed female protagonists

Rhonda Blackhurst Why did Rhonda love this book?

This book had me laughing out loud in the first chapter and several times thereafter. The female lead is a CIA assassin in hiding in Sinful, Louisiana, where she meets two older woman, Gertie and Ida Bell, who the town has dubbed the “Geritol Mafia” and who were in Viet Nam together.

The author creates characters—and relationships between those characters—that stayed in my mind long after reading the book. Again, I eagerly wait for each new release in the series so I can be part of Fortune, Gertie, and Ida Bell’s adventures. 

By Jana DeLeon,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Louisiana Longshot as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It was a hell of a long shot....


CIA assassin Fortune Redding is about to undertake her most difficult mission ever-in Sinful, Louisiana. With a leak at the CIA and a price placed on her head by one of the world's largest arms dealers, Fortune has to go off-grid, but she never expected to be this far out of her element. Posing as a former beauty queen turned librarian in a small bayou town seems worse than death to Fortune, but she's determined to fly below the radar until her boss finds the leak and puts the arms dealer out…


Book cover of Dogcatcher in the Rye

Kat Bellemore Author Of Dead Before Dinner

From my list on murder mysteries that leave you guessing until the end.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a New Mexican mystery writer who can’t get enough of a humorous whodunit. Of course, it can’t be just any mystery. It has to be smart, make me second guess myself, and make me laugh. I’ve seen every episode of Murder She Wrote, Psych, and Monk, to name just a few. I love reading authors like Agatha Christie and Richard Osman. Originally, I began as a romance author and my husband didn’t understand it, considering I didn’t even like reading or watching romances. I’m finally where I belong.

Kat's book list on murder mysteries that leave you guessing until the end

Kat Bellemore Why did Kat love this book?

Animal lovers everywhere will love this humorous mystery series, where Ivy Galloway leaves the big city and her stressful job to open her own farm-themed inn, alongside her rescue dog.

Of course, not knowing a thing about running a farm and then having a murder occur on her property right after moving in was likely more stressful than anything she’d experienced at her previous job. Dogcatcher in the Rye kept my attention and had me laughing the whole time.

As soon as I finished this book, I started reading the next in the series.

By Ellen Riggs,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dogcatcher in the Rye as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Turning a hobby farm into a quaint country inn is a piece of cake compared to solving a murder.

Ivy Galloway may not know an alpaca from a llama, but nothing’s going to stop her from pursuing her dream of opening a farm-themed inn in her hometown of Clover Grove. Not after what she went through to rescue Keats, her brilliant border collie, and flee the big city.

When Keats finds a body pushing up daisies in her rye field, however, the murder puts a blight on Ivy’s plans to welcome her first official guests in just three weeks. The…


Book cover of The Nothing Man

Rachael Tamayo Author Of Crazy Love

From my list on psychological thrillers to turn your head inside out.

Why am I passionate about this?

When it comes to dark and twisted books with jaw dropping twists, I can’t get enough. I love them. I crave darkly creative books that make you think. Anything but your standard, everyday domestic thriller with the traumatized alcoholic main character. As a child I watched Law and Order and Masterpiece Theater mysteries with my mother. I loved a good British thriller. I suppose I got it from her, it was always something we shared. I veered clear of darker reading growing up, you don’t want to freak your parents out, of course. But now as an adult, I love it. No gore, no graphic shock horror for me. Psychological thrillers all the way. 

Rachael's book list on psychological thrillers to turn your head inside out

Rachael Tamayo Why did Rachael love this book?

This book is so original. We follow an old man, a retired serial killer, on his journey to read his own newly published true crime story. He stumbles on the book while doing his security rounds and can't resist picking it up, and over the next week finds himself more and more obsessed with reading it, growing fears that he will be discovered after twenty years, and with the author, his only surviving victim- who was a child at the time and is now an adult twenty years later. 

I enjoyed this book, it's original in the sense that the killer is an ordinary, cranky old bastard that no one likes. He's just a guy, who doesn't stand out, hasn't been good at anything all his life, a mediocre man that falls into the crowd. The only thing he's ever been able to succeed at was being The Nothing Man,…

By Catherine Ryan Howard,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Nothing Man as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

· · THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER · ·

I was the girl who survived the Nothing Man.Now I am the woman who is going to catch him...

At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life.

Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man—the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family’s killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim’s…


Book cover of Speaking From Among the Bones

Kate Charles Author Of Desolate Places

From my list on murder and mayhem in English churches.

Why am I passionate about this?

One of my favourite reviews described my book as ‘a bloodstained version of the world of Barbara Pym.’ Perfect! I write crime novels set in the Church of England. I also read mysteries with churchy connections—lots of them. My shelves hold hundreds, featuring clerical sleuths (and even a few clerical murderers), books set in churches, cathedrals, and monasteries (past and present). I love to explore the questions I am so often asked when talking about the books I love: why is there such a plethora of them, and why does the Church, which represents ‘goodness,’ appear so often in novels which feature unspeakable crimes?

Kate's book list on murder and mayhem in English churches

Kate Charles Why did Kate love this book?

Flavia de Luce is surely one of the most originaland the most delightfuldetective characters ever written. The precocious eleven-year-old lives in a crumbling manor house in the English countryside, with her vague father, beastly older sisters, and faithful retainer Dogger. Her interest in chemistryand deathtend her get her into trouble on a regular basis. In this book, Flavia is on the scene when the body of the church organist turns up in the medieval tomb of St Tancred, the parish church’s patron saint. Predictably, she sets out to solve the murder, tearing about the village on her faithful bicycle Gladys. Alan Bradley evokes a worldrural England in the 1950sthat many of us would love to return to (in spite of the murders!) and has created an unforgettable heroine. If you enjoy mysteries that make you smile, rather than…

By Alan Bradley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Speaking From Among the Bones as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From award-winning author Alan Bradley comes the next cozy British mystery starring intrepid young sleuth Flavia de Luce, hailed by USA Today as “one of the most remarkable creations in recent literature.”
 
Eleven-year-old amateur detective and ardent chemist Flavia de Luce is used to digging up clues, whether they’re found among the potions in her laboratory or between the pages of her insufferable sisters’ diaries. What she is not accustomed to is digging up bodies. Upon the five-hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred’s death, the…


Book cover of A Study in Scarlet Women

Malka Older Author Of The Mimicking of Known Successes

From my list on Sherlock Holmes retellings.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve obviously read a lot of Holmes retellings. Part of the impetus behind my new novella was trying to figure out why I was so attracted to them. Part of it, I realized, is the neurodivergence aspect: fundamental to the Holmes story is the idea of someone who thinks differentlyand who finds a way to interact with the world that uses that as an asset. The other component I love is the Holmes-Watson dynamic. Whether it's romantic or not, the development of a relationship of affection between two people who think very differently is an emotional counterpoint to plot-driven mysteries. Those elements—along with stellar writing, gripping mysteries, and characters I love spending time with.

Malka's book list on Sherlock Holmes retellings

Malka Older Why did Malka love this book?

I just did a reread of this timed for the release of the seventh in the series, and every time I read it I’m blown away by the genius way Thomas deconstructs the Holmes mythology and then puts it back together again in a new, fascinating, plausible, entirely satisfying way.

In this retelling Holmes is not only a woman, but one who has been exiled from society forwell, behaving like Sherlock Holmes. The characterization—not only of Holmes, but also of her family, associates, and enemies—is rich and believable, and the mysteries are complex and gripping.

The whole series explores the fundamental injustice of women being treated differently from men, as well as the many ingenious ways women find to escape, avoid, and subvert that norm—and the price they pay.

By Sherry Thomas,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked A Study in Scarlet Women as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas turns the story of the renowned Sherlock Holmes upside down in the first novel in this Victorian mystery series....
 
With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London.
 
When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear…


Book cover of The Yard

Rachel Brimble Author Of A Widow's Vow

From my list on venture into the darker side of Victorian life.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am by no means an expert on the Victorian era, but I am most certainly passionate – I have written seven novels set in this period and have researched different aspects of the social, domestic, and gender-related issues for each of those books. The Victorian era is such a fascinating time – from the huge differences in money and class, to the beginnings of women starting to initiate (or maybe even demand) change with the first murmurings of women’s suffrage and, of course, the Married Women’s Property Act 1882. Rich in storytelling possibility and the opportunity to bring societal, gender, and sexual issues to the fore, I find writing in the Victorian period immensely exciting.

Rachel's book list on venture into the darker side of Victorian life

Rachel Brimble Why did Rachel love this book?

I stumbled across this book while browsing through a charity shop – a murder/mystery set in Whitechapel when Jack the Ripper is still roaming free. I am by no means a follower of Ripper stories, legend or myth, despite recommending this book, but there is something about Victorian London in the 1880s that fascinates me.

The Yard is the first in a series that I have devoured over the last few years. I love Alex Grecian’s easy writing style and the main character, Detective Inspector Walter Day is one I wish I had created myself. He has a brilliant mind, a quick and quiet humour, and a soul that is truly good. Of course, he does have his faults, but they are all forgivable…at least for me!

By Alex Grecian,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Yard as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

If you were fascinated by The Five, you'll love this gripping and atmospheric historical thriller set in Victorian London in the wake of Jack the Ripper.

A killer is haunting London's streets . . .

A year after Jack the Ripper claimed his last victim, London is in the grip of a wave of terror. The newly formed Murder Squad of Scotland Yard battles in vain against the tide of horror.

When the body of a detective is found in a suitcase, his lips sewn together and his eyes sewn shut, it becomes clear that no one is safe from…


Book cover of Hidden Treasure

Trish Esden Author Of The Art Of The Decoy

From my list on mysteries featuring antique dealers, plus a bonus.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve dealt in antiques my entire life to one degree or another. I'm currently a full time antique dealer, after retiring from owning a florist shop that also sold antiques, books, plants, and giftware. My love for dealing antiques is only matched by my passion for writing, museums, and country living. 

Trish's book list on mysteries featuring antique dealers, plus a bonus

Trish Esden Why did Trish love this book?

Hidden Treasure is the thirteenth novel in the long-running Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries series.

This novel is a great addition to the series that features not only an antique dealing main character but shows her business growing and transforming. I specifically enjoyed this novel because the mystery is centered on an older woman who has a zest for life despite her age—and I like how Josie encourages and helps her.

The novel’s fast-paced and twisty, including one particularly surprising and fun detail near the end. I highly recommended this series to lovers of cozy as well as traditional mysteries with an antique dealer as the main character. 

By Jane K. Cleland,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Hidden Treasure as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The discovery of a mysterious antique trunk leads to a disappearance—and murder—in the latest in this beloved cozy series set on the rugged New Hampshire coast, Jane K. Cleland's Hidden Treasure.

When antiques expert Josie Prescott finds a mysterious trunk, no one thinks it could lead to murder. Josie, the owner of Prescott’s Antiques & Auctions, and her new husband, Ty, have finally found their dream home, a Victorian beauty on the beach known in the town of Rocky Point as the “Gingerbread House.” It was recently vacated by Maudie Wilson, an aging widow, whose concerned nieces have moved her…


Book cover of Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

Sarah Fox Author Of Six Sweets Under

From my list on culinary cozy mystery to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a cozy mystery lover with a sweet tooth, I devour dozens of mystery novels every year (many featuring food) and I love to sample new series while also following my long-time favorites. I have also written and published more than 15 cozy mysteries of my own, many of which have a culinary theme. Although I grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, I now live in a small town and I have a particular fondness for cozy small-town mysteries set by the ocean, as well as those featuring scrumptious treats.

Sarah's book list on culinary cozy mystery to satisfy your sweet tooth

Sarah Fox Why did Sarah love this book?

As a chocoholic, I had to check out the Death by Chocolate Mysteries by Sarah Graves, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed.

Protagonist Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and her best friend sell their delectable chocolate creations from their shop, the Chocolate Moose, in Eastport, Maine, while solving local mysteries.

Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake is sprinkled with intense, page-turning scenes and plenty of chocolate, making this a fun and delicious cozy mystery.

By Sarah Graves,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Life just got a little sweeter in the island fishing village of Eastport, Maine. Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and her best friend Ellie are opening a waterfront bake shop, The Chocolate Moose, where their tasty treats pair perfectly with the salty ocean breeze. But while Jake has moved on from fixing up houses, she still can't resist the urge to snoop into the occasional murder. 
 
Jake and Ellie have been through a lot together, from home repair to homicide investigation. So when they decide to open a chocolate-themed bakery, they figure it’ll be a piece of cake. With Ellie’s old family…


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