Cozy Capers

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Cozies are light mysteries, nearly always with an amateur detective in the lead. The amateur cozy sleuth is naturally nosy and gathers clues by listening to gossip. A professional or anyone else seldom takes them seriously, but sometimes best friends are supportive. The first murder is usually committed before the book begins or offstage, and the second is also usually offstage. Descriptions of the crime scene are toned down to avoid upsetting the reader's stomach. It is usually less graphic, usually a PG or PG-13 read.

Smoky Mountain Tracks
by Donna Ball
Raine Stockton returns reluctantly to Search and Rescue work, along with a young and inexperienced Golden Retriever named Cisco. As they search for a kidnapped mother and her 6-year-old girl, Stockton struggles to overcome her personal demons and learns to trust Cisco.

Death of a Scriptwriter
by M.C. Beaton
Lochdubh Constable Hamish Macbeth’s life becomes exciting when a group of filmmakers arrives in a nearby Scottish town. Bedlam erupts around their make-believe mystery, and culminates in the appearance of a very real corpse—Hamish must go behind the scene to figure out what has happened.

Death of a Maid
by M.C. Beaton
Hamish MacBeth’s quiet life is disrupted when he wins the maid services of Mrs. Gillespie, who has the reputation of being more likely to snoop and damage than clean. His former girlfriend is back in town, a TV crew is planning to make a documentary about him—and Mrs. Gillespie is found dead!

Death Under the Dryer
by Simon Brett
Carole Seddon retired to the English seaside village of Fethering resolved to exclude the unexpected from her life. So when she goes for a haircut at “Connie's Clip Joint,” Carole certainly doesn’t expect to find the scene of a murder.

Hurricane Homicide
by Nora Charles
Uncle Weatherwise, a popular TV weather forecaster, is found dead after inaccurately predicting a hurricane would bypass Palmetto Beach. As his niece, Kate Kennedy, looks into his suspicious death, it appears that clues lead back in time to the Cold War.

Blood Orange Brewing
by Laura Childs
When social darling Delaine Dish throws a lavish benefit for the restoration of a run-down Victorian home, Theodosia Browning donates tea and treats from her Indigo Tea Shop. But the grand unveiling of Theo's spread proves a gruesome scene when a beloved local politico falls dead with a jagged piece of metal in his neck.

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter
by Blaize Clement
With pooper-scooper in hand, smart and sassy Dixie Hemingway—Sarasota, Florida’s top amateur sleuth and professional pet-sitter—fearlessly faces schnauzers, greyhounds, tabbies and murder.

Half-Moon Investigations
by Eoin Colfer
Fletcher Moon is not like other kids. He suffers from the nickname “Half Moon” because he’s short and has a nose for sniffing out mysteries – a skill that’s not appreciated by many people. After graduating at the top of his Internet class, he is officially certified as the youngest detective in the world, with a badge to prove it. Everything is going along fine until a classmate hires him to solve a crime.

Married to the Mop
by Barbara Colley
Emily Rossi is hosting a huge bash for out-of-town guests, and just lost her maid to a family emergency. Charlotte answers her plea—but that doesn’t stop her from seeing the dysfunctional Rossi clan in all its glory. Charlotte’s beginning to think that the party is a cover for Robert’s illegal activities, when the man himself is found dead in the library. And there’s Emily, standing over her husband with a bloody knife in her hand. The case seems cut-and-dried—to anyone but Charlotte, that is.

Acts of Violets
by Kate Collins
Abby Knight, owner of Bloomer’s flower shop, has been dating Marco, an ex-cop. As the annual Pickle Fest begins, he disappears—then she’s stunned to discover that it looks like he may be involved in the murder of Snuggles the Clown.

Decaffeinated Corpse
by Cleo Coyle
At the “Village Blend,” Clare knows a good percentage of her customers prefer decaffeinated coffee, the neutered brew. So when an old friend of her ex-husband develops the world’s first botanically decaffeinated coffee bean and smuggles it into the country, Clare believes it’s a business opp she needs to investigate … at least until the first dead body shows up.

The Alpine Scandal
by Mary Daheim
Emma Lord runs a newspaper in an old logging town in the foothills of Washington’s Cascade Mountains. One morning, the staff receives a suspicious obituary, mailed by the subject himself! Emma works to get to the bottom of this mystery, as the sheriff is in the hospital.

Scots On the Rocks: a Bed-and-Breakfast Mystery
by Mary Daheim
Hoping to dispel the late winter gloom, innkeeper Judith McMonigle Flynn flies off for a much-needed vacation to Scotland. Instead, she and cousin Renie find themselves marooned in an ancient castle where an explosion rocks the castle, leaving a dead body for Judith to investigate.

Sweet Revenge
by Diane Mott Davidson
While catering a holiday breakfast feast, Goldy spots someone who’s supposed to be dead. In fact that person looks like the woman that killed Goldy’s “jerk” of a husband. Goldy’s suspicions mount when the body of a man is found in the library with a valuable map.

Death at Wentwater Court
by Carola Dunn (British)
No stranger to sprawling country estates, Daisy Dalrymple has traded in her silver spoon for a pen and camera to cover a story for “Town and Country” magazine. Bet her planned interviews with the inhabitants of Wentwater Court give way to interrogation when Daisy discovers the corpse of suave Lord Astwick on a skating pond.

Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse
by Lee Goldberg
Monk's house is being fumigated, and fortunately his assistant Natalie and her daughter are kind enough to welcome him into their home. Unfortunately, their home is not quite up to Monk's standards of cleanliness and order. While Monk attempts to arrange his surroundings, something else needs to be put straight. The death of a dog at the local firehouse, and much to his horror, he's going to have to dig through a lot of dirt to find the answer.

Sweet and Deadly
by Charlaine Harris
Harris’ debut novel is available again. Catherine Linton has returned to her hometown of Lowfield, Mississippi, unconvinced that the death of her parents in a car crash six months earlier was an accident. Her suspicions are confirmed when she stumbles on the body of her father’s long-time nurse.

The Refuge
by Sue Henry
Sixty-something Maxie McNabb flies to Hawaii to help her friend Karen Bailey. Within hours of arrival, a prowler tries to break in and someone sabotages the plumbing. Then Maxie hears Karen whispering into the phone “Don’t call here…I’ll call you when it’s safe, when she’s…” Maxie suspects Karen is hiding something.

Glossed and Found: a Bath and Body Mystery
by India Ink
One bath-and-body spa employee knows that murder isn't pretty. When police suspect that Venus Envy's new makeup artist has drowned, Persia Vanderbilt knows there's more to it than meets the eye.

Pressed to Kill
by Dolores Johnson
Mandy Dyer notices the new and improved appearance of her customer Ardith Brewster. The young woman has met a new but mysterious boyfriend at Dyer Cleaners open house party. But when Ardith turns up dead a couple of days later, Mandy suspects the worst. The only clue she has to go on is a mention of the unknown boyfriends sharp sense of style and ironed jeans. Mandy isn’t sure who to trust. And thats when the killer turns his attention to her...

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Choir
by Sharon Kahn
Resident busybody Essie Sue thinks that hiring Bitsy, an aging peroxide-blond tart of a party planner, will solve the temples money problems. Ruby disagrees, as Bitsy just spends more money on a pathetic Chanukah concert. To make matters worse, the star soprano collapses right before her number – and dies.

Getting Old Is Criminal
by Rita Lakin
Gladdy Gold, Florida’s self-proclaimed oldest living private eye, is hot on the trail of a Peeping Tom and a retirement-home Romeo whose paramours keep expiring under suspicious circumstances.

Jacob’s Ladder
by Jackie Lynn
Rose has lived at the Shady Gove campsite for six months now. Life since she solved the murder of Lawrence Franklin has been quiet, but when she discovers a mysterious visitor dead in his camper, Rose finds herself in the middle of another investigation.

Died In the Wool
by Rett MacPherson
When the old Kendall house goes up for sale, Torie decides to see if it might make a nice textile museum, but the more she learns about the house, the more her investigation draws her into dark places. Why did three siblings in their 20s commit suicide in that house in the 1920s?

Faux Finished: an Interior Design Mystery
by Peg Marberg
Two fatalities in one week have aroused Jean’s curiosity – and her instincts for discovering deadly patterns. Who would want to kill her latest client – one of the worst clients a designer could ever have?

The Careful Use of Compliments
by Alexander McCall Smith
Isabel Dalhousie has a newborn son, doting father Jamie presents her with a marriage proposal, and she receives a letter announcing that she has been ousted as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. She then attends an art auction where she finds 2 unusual paintings attributed to the same artist that may be forgeries. She becomes curious, and begins an investigation.

Bake Sale Murder
by Leslie Meier
Ever since local developer Fred Stanton and his wife, Mimi, built five modular homes next door to Lucy Stone's farmhouse, life just hasn't been the same. With Mimi complaining about everything from the state of Lucy's lawn to another neighbor's loveable dog, quaint Tinker's Cove, Maine, is now entangled in cul-de-sac politics and backstabbing. When Mimi doesn't show up for her shift at The Hat and Mitten Fund bake sale, Lucy finds Mimi face down on her kitchen floor with a knife in her back.

Hell Hath No Curry
by Tamar Myers
Three days before he’s due to tie the knot with his fiancée, Cornelius Weaver suffers a massive heart attack – in another womans bed! Then the citizens of Hernia, Pennsylvania get another shock when foul play is suspected.  As the mystery heats up, Mennonite innkeeper Magdelena Yoder begins to see why “a woman scorned” can be a lot of trouble!

Knock Off
by Rhonda Pollero
From 9 to 5, Finley is an assistant at a West Palm Beach law firm. For a bargain hunter and underachiever extraordinaire, she serves her firm well when they give her the fact-finding job in a murder case. Trouble is, she finds a pattern that involves three murders and she could be number four!

A Hole in Juan
by Gillian Roberts
With Halloween and the annual Mischief Night party only days away, the hope is that nothing more than old-fashioned vandalism and pranks will take place. No such luck. Trouble erupts long before the witching hour, as the school is plagued by a series of mishaps ranging from the trivial to the potentially deadly–and most of which seem to center on a group of popular seniors.

A Killer Stitch
by Maggie Sefton
In the midst of overflowing bins of sumptuous yarn, unexpected winter romance buzzes in chorus with the spindles of shy new spinning instructor Lucy Adair. But when an alpaca sheep rancher is found dead, avid knitter and sometime-sleuth Kelly Flynn puts these pastimes aside. Kelly finds herself linked to the prime suspect – a former lover of the playboy rancher.

Fit to Die
by J. B. Stanley
Between dieting, caring for his cranky father and struggling with his growing affection for Lucy, James’s plate is full. Then the Flab Five poke around in an arson case that turns into a murder investigation, and discover that they may have bitten off more than they can chew.

Three Bags Full: a Sheep Detective Story
by Leonie Swann
On a hillside near the cozy Irish village of Glennkill, a flock of sheep gather around their shepherd, George, whose body was pinned to the ground with a spade. Beloved George read to them every night since they were lambs, so the sheep are savvier than other sheep. Together they set out to find the killer.

Aunt Dimity Goes West
by Nancy Atherton [paranormal]
As soon as Lori arrived in Bluebird Colorado, things start to go amiss. Someone has disappeared, and the whole town is hiding a dark secret. With Aunt Dimity's help, Lori sets out to solve a 100-yr old mystery.

Murder 101
by Maggie Barbieri
For English professor Alison Bergeron, a small college in NY isn't as serene as it looks. Two NYPD detectives drop by her office to tell her they found her beat-up Volvo, but with the body of one of her students in the trunk.

Death of a Macho Man
by M. C. Beaton
Everybody in Lockdubh knew about the Macho Man, a mean bully who left a trail of hatred and fear in his wake. When he challenged policeman Hamish Macbeth, everyone expected Hamish to take a pounding. No one expected a murder.

Love, Lies and Liquor
by M. C. Beaton
Agatha Raisin thinks she's in for a treat when her ex-husband, James, invites her on vacation. When a woman staying in the same hotel is murdered, Agatha's notoriously prickly demeanor soon gets her into trouble: she's pegged as the prime suspect.

Retirement Homes are Murder
by Mike Befeler
Imagine waking up in a retirement home not remembering anything from the day before and being accused of murder! When crotchety octogenarian Paul Jacobson discovers a body wedged in a trash chute, he must sleuth around to clear his name while struggling with short-term memory loss.

Underdog
by Laurien Berenson
Melanie signs up for a breeding class at Connecticut's classiest obedience school -- only to have her education cut short by sudden death. Melanie, with her unerring nose for detection, smells murder. In this dog-eat-dog world where winning is everything, she discovers that more than one suspect had a bone to pick with the victim.

The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell
by Lilian Jackson Braun
When a young man comes to visit his wealthy relatives, Koko plummets straight onto his head! Meanwhile, a hurricane is brewing, and the visitor's family members soon fall deathly ill. The town of Pickax is about to be hit by a bombshell.

Puss'n Cahoots
by Rita Mae Brown
Soon after their arrival at the Kentucky horse show, events veer murderously off course. As Harry searches for clues, her four-legged detective friends are already on the case. But is animal instinct any match for human depravity?

Motif For Murder
by Laura Childs
In the terrible wake of Hurricane Katrina, scrapbooking shop owner Carmela is trying to get her business and her family reconciled. When Uncle Henrey is found with a bullet through his forehead, she puts together a sentimental book of memories and keepsakes. Trouble is her book holds a clue to the killer, and when the murderer finds out she's on to him, he's going to try to close the book on her once and for all.

Fear of Frying
by Jill Churchill

Scrub-a-Dub Dead
by Barbara Colley
Maid-for-a-Day Charlotte LaRue has a strange run-in with one of her clients who is ranting and raving that Charlotte ignored the Do-Not-Disturb sign. The next day, Charlotte learns the lady has been murdered.

Saks & Violins
by Mary Daheim

Murder Over Easy: a Trailer Park Mystery
by Jimmie Ruth Evans
Evans has created a refreshingly original heroine in Wanda Nell Culpepper, a woman who has known plenty of hardship and pain in her life. And when she's trying to clear the good name of an innocent person, Wanda becomes a dynamo.

French Fried
by Nancy Fairbanks
When food writer Carolyn Blue's husband, Jason, is invited to lecture in Lyon, France, it seems the perfect excuse to indulge in one of the culinary capitals of the world. But along with picturesque street scenes and exquisite meals, the couple is met with incomprehensible traffic, pushy locals, and a thoroughly unpleasant attempt on their lives.

Mr. Monk Goes to Hawaii
by Lee Goldberg
Tv's obsessive, compulsive detective, Monk knows that danger -- like dirt -- is everywhere, even in paradise. Even though police say the rich tourist was killed by a coconut falling from a tree, Monk suspects otherwise.

Definitely Dead
by Charlaine Harris [vampire]
As a person with so few living relatives, Louisiana cocktail waitree Sookie Stackhouse really hated to lose one. She'd never guess that she'd lose her cousin Hadley -- a consort of the Vampire Queen of New Orleans. Now, Sookie is heir to Hadley's estate, and someone doesn't want her looking too deeply into Hadley's past.

Grave Surprise
by Charlaine Harris
Anthropology professor Dr. Clyde Nunley invites Harper Connelly and her stepbrother, Tolliver, to Memphis to demonstrate Harper's unique talent: she can find dead people. When Harper stand atop an old grave and senses two bodies beneath her, one of a centuries-dead man and the other of a young girl, recently departed, she is proven correct.

G'Day to Die
by Maddy Hunter
When Emily Andrew lands in Oz (Australia), she and her hearty group of seniors know they're not in Iowa anymore. As Emily is preoccupied calming the group's jitters about the outback's killers, from sunstroke to snakebite, a fellow traveler turns up dead. Emily fears something far more toxic has struck.

Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom
by Julie Kenner
Lots of women put their careers aside once the kids come along. Kate Connor gave up demon hunting until one crashed into her house, intent on killing her. Now she has to clean up the mess to pull together a dinner party to get her husband elected County Attorney -- all without arousing her family's suspicion. Worse yet, the demon didn't come along. It's time for Kate to go back to work!

An Unmentionable Murder
by Kate Kingsbury
In World War II England, Elizabeth Hartleigh Compton helps the village of Sitting Marsh sort out everything from food rations, gossip to solving the occasional murder.

Dead and Berried
by Karen MacInerney
Ruthless developers, annoying guests, a new ghost, and an old fiance are stirring things up on Cranberry Island. Then there's the cold-blooded murderer on the loose. Between baking bars and finding bodies, innkeeper Natalie Barnes has her hands full.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
by Alexander McCall Smith [bestseller]
In the latest No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Mma Ramotswe is experiencing staffing difficulties. Juggling the workload in the office is stressful of late. Can a man in the office handle a case involving an errant husband better than herself?

Love Her to Death
by Linda Palmer
Daytime drama writer Morgan Tyler has been promoted to co-executive producer of Love of My Life. As the actresses begin showing up dead, no man is above suspicion. She had better find out who is the most dangerous before someone else is written out of the picture.

A Wrinkle in Crime
by T. Dawn Richard
Senior Citizen May List finds herself staring into the facts of yet another case involving the sibling of her friends, the Peach sisters. May partners with local cop Mike Murphy and rides along only to get herself into more trouble.

Murder By the Glass
by Michele Scott
Nikki asks her friend Isabel to cater her boss' wedding. As Nikki brings the bride a glass of wine, she finds the obnoxious Susan dead on the floor. Isabel is blamed, not only because she catered, but because she was the winemaker's secret lover. Nikki finds that there is no shortage of suspects and seeks to clear her friend's name.

Pardonable Lies
by Jacqueline Winspear
Fans of Miss Marple and Precious Ramotswe are sure to embrace Maisie Dobbs. Maisie faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful WWI memories to resolve the mystery of a pilot's death.

Death of a Charming Man
by M. C. Beaton
A posh English man moves into the village of Drim and soon has the town's matrons giggling like teens as they ogle him. When Hamish's own romantic ties are affected, he pays the man a visit. Trouble is the corpse he finds is not the man he expected.

The Librarian
by Larry Beinhart
How did university librarian David Goldberg end up hunted by Homeland Security and on a Ten Most Wanted list? It turns out that knowledge is a dangerous thing, and the men with the guns want to kill the fellow indexing the archives.

Less Than Frank
by Lynn Bulock [christian]
Gracie Lee is in the business of recovering dead bodies. First it was her husband, and this time it's Frank, the no-good contractor renovating her apartment. Frank was "less-than-frank" with his customers - and someone has made sure he's less than alive.

Manor of Death
by Leslie Caine
Erin, as an interior decorator, is paid to bring spaces to new life -- not to uncover murder. While working in a Victorian manor, things get totally out of her control. A ghost and hidden space is discovered. Then comes the shocking death of a beautiful young woman.

The Christmas Thief
by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark [Christmas]
Alvirah and Regan get in the middle of a case involving a beautiful 80-ft blue spruce destined for Rockefeller Center. The folks who picked the tree don't have a clue that it has priceless diamonds hidden in the branches, and the convict who stashed them has just been released from prison and is coming for the tree.

Steamed
by Jessica Conant-Park and Susan Conant
Chloe, known as GourmetGirl on the Internet, is on a quest for the perfect meal and the perfect man. Trouble is her first date is murdered in the men's room and her second date is the murder suspect. Chloe plunges into the cutthroat world of killer competition and stormy love affairs.

Bookmarked to Die
by Jo Dereske
Waking up on the morning of her 42 birthday, Miss Zukas finds her ordely life crumbling. A collection of books has ignited a dangerous firestorm of jealousy and anger in Bellehaven, WA, and left 2 book group participants dead.

Nail Biter
by Sarah Graves
Buying a fixer-upper to lease to the tourist crowd seemed like a good idea to Jake and her friend, Ellie, but working with a bunch of wannabe witches isn't what they had in mind... stumbling on a dead body doesn't help either.

The Tooth of Time
by Sue Henry
Maxie, zigzagging through the country in her "Minnie Winni" (Winnebago) may be on vacation, but she's determined to help the sad woman who was tossed aside by her husband for a sexier model.

Have Your Cake and Kill Him Too
by Nancy Martin
The Blackbird sisters, Nora, Libby and Emma, are impoverished heiresses whose delightful adventures take place in the world of Philadelphia's high society. They sure keep the society tongues wagging with a wicked sense of humor.

The Right Attitude to Rain
by Alexander McCall Smith [Isabel Dalhousie, Scottish sleuth]
When Mimi, Isabel's cousin from Dallas, arrives in Edinburgh with her husband, Joe several confounding situations unfurl. Their visit poses such irresistible philosophical issues that Isabel can't resist sleuthing -- especially when the problems involve matters of the heart.

The Cane Mutiny: a Den of Antiquity Mystery
by Tamar Myers
When Abigail struck gold at auction when her bid won a priceless collection of antique walking sticks, she didn't bargain on finding a human skull in the mix. Abby is forced to go deeper into the oddly dangerous and frightening world of collectible canes, and gets mixed up with a ring of smugglers.

Red Hot Murder
by Joanne Pence
Angie leaps at the chance to spend some time alone with her fiance in the Arizona desert, but it doesn't take long to realize they're in a hotbed of deadly secrets.

Dead Man's Bones
by Susan Wittig Albert
China Bayles has her hands full balancing her job, family and her friend's romantic entanglements. Then her teenage son finds some skeletal remains during a local cave dig -- remains from a not-so-distant, not-so-accidental death.

Owls Well That Ends Well
by Donna Andrews
Meg and Michael have bought a house from the Queen of the Packrats. Her family avoided the job of cleaning up by selling the place "as is." Trouble comes when a body is discovered in an old trunk, and Meg is stuck proving someone's innocence.

Jane and his Lordship's Legacy
by Stephanie Barron [historical]
Jane is recovering from the death of her beloved Lord Trowbridge. Trowbridge left Jane a Bengal chest filled with his private papers, but before she can begin piecing his intimate papers together for his biography, she discovers a body in the cellar of her cottage.

Death of a Dustman
by M. C. Beaton [set in England]
Local sanitation engineer and drunk, Fergus Macleod's life improves when Councilwoman Freda Fleming sets up an elaborate recycling center. It's only a matter of time when power corrupts Fergus, and he's found in the rubbish bin.

The Missing Hydrangeas
by Eileen M. Berger [Christian]
Something awful has happened in Willow Bend. The finest hydrangeas at homes in town have been cut and stolen. Gracie suspects this is more than just a prank. She sets out to solve the mystery ... encountering danger and some unsuspected secrets along the way.

Cat's Eyewitness
by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown
Best friend's take a much-needed time-out at the monastery of Mount Carmel. But worldly worries are soon overshadowed when they see the statue of the Virgin Mary cry tears of blood. If the so-called miracle is leaked, the monastery could turn into a circus.

Never Tease a Siamese
by Edie Claire
When a wealthy eccentric dies, her estate is to be split among some lucky and unlikely recipients: her beloved Siamese cats and an unnamed, unknown heir. The woman's son is livid as well as the felines' caretaker. What happens next is much more than the work of a simple cat burglar.

Hair Raiser
by Nancy J. Cohen
Beauty shop owner and amateur sleuth Marla Shore is not just your average South Florida beachcomber. She likes to comb through murder when it happens in her town.

Death Tidies Up
by Barbara Colley
The historic Devilier house is being transformed into luxury apartments, and Charlotte's "Maid-for-a-Day" is in charge of the cleanup. Easy enough until she finds a barely-cold corpse in one of the closets! This job will truly involve some dirty work...

Wiped Out
by Barbara Colley
Maid-for-a-Day, Charlotte LaRue, soon has a new client. 40-something gardening enthusiast, Mimi Adams, wants Charlotte at the next Horticulture Society meeting. Unsuspecting Charlotte, sees not only the claws out, but things get down and dirty. A few days later, Mimi's dead -- poisoned.

Scratch the Surface: a Cat Lover's Mystery
by Susan Conant [cat]
Felicity Pride, author of a series of popular cat mysteries, has just entered the vestibule of her apartment and discovered a very dead gentleman, and snuggled against the body is a gorgeous gray Chartreux.

File M for Murder: a Cornelia Upshaw and Fancy Mystery
by India Edghill
Cornelia is working as a temp at a Wall Street financial house, reading murder mysteries on her lunch break. Now, it looks like someone has killed for a corner office, and Cornelia -- having done light typing in front of the victim's office -- is made a suspect.

Killer Wedding: a Madeline Bean Culinary Mystery
by Jerrilyn Farmer
Something's not quite right at this glittering wedding at the Nature Museum Hall of Dinosaurs. The groom is on time. The bride is beautiful, but a corpse wearing a Cartier bracelet is dangling from the triceratops skeleton.

The Flaming Luau of Deathh
by Jerrilyn Farmer
When her beloved assistant Holly Nichols sets her wedding date, caterer extraordinaire Madeline Bean throws the biggest bachelorette luau ever. What could go wrong? A dead man floating in the surf.

Mumbo Gumbo
by Jerrilyn Farmer
The studio had decided to film one more episode of the TV hit, a gourmet cook-off game show Food Freak ... and the head writer has mysteriously disappeared.

Murder, She Wrote: Murder in a Minor Key
by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain
Unfortunately, Jessica's jazz festival in New Orleans is cut short when her old friend turns up dead next to the grave of an old voodoo queen.

Death of the Party: a Death on Demand Mystery
by Carolyn Hart
Annie Darling is thrilled to visit the private island of wealthy Jeremiah Addison with her hubby, Max. Unfortunately, Addison's sister-in-law is inviting back everyone who was in attendance during Jeremiah's last weekend and asking Max to uncover the killer.

Death on a Silver Platter
by Ellen Hart
When restaurant reviewer Sophie Greenway stumbles upon an old diary, she has no idea it will toss her like a salad into the center of the tragedies unfolding at Prairie Lodge. For a recipe that calls for murder and sibling rivalry, Sophie finds herself the main ingredient.

Without a Trace
by Carolyn Keene
Nancy Drew's got two cases to crack. A Faberge egg has been stolen from a new family in town, and someone's running through gardens stomping on all the zucchinis. Could the same person squishing the squash have stolen the egg?

Berried Alive
by Kate Kingsbury [set in WWII England]
Elizabeth Hartleigh Compton is the respected guardian of Sitting Marsh Manor House. While most of the village harbors resentment against the Yanks, she's entertaining impure thoughts about Major Earl Monroe. But she's soon distracted as red-haired American servicemen are being mysteriously poisoned.

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
by Alexander McCall Smith [set in Botswana]
Detective Precious Ramotswe is busier than usual at the agency. Then more interruptions: an intruder enters her house, a pumpkin mysteriously appears, and a recent visit forces her to confront a secret from her past.

Murder a la Mode: a Savannah Reid Mystery
by G. A. McKevett
As a birthday treat, Savannah's friends have arranged for her to compete for Lance Roman's affections on a reality TV show called "Man of My Dreams." She and four other women will live in a medieval "castle," out-flirting each other... until things turn sour.

Star Spangled Murder
by Leslie Meier
It seems everyone is in the doghouse of Lucy's neighbor Mrs. Prudence Pratt. Then the 4th of July fireworks are canceled, and the whole town is in an uproar. But the biggest story occurs right next door! Mrs. Pratt is the victim of a hit-and-run, and Lucy is among the suspects.

Tippy Toe Murder
by Leslie Meier
An afternoon walk for a retired ballet instructor turns into a missing persons case. Then a local storeowner takes a deathblow to the head. Devoted mother and sleuth, Lucy Stone, knows she should prepare for the murderer's encore performance.

Assault and Pepper: a Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes
by Tamar Myers
Just when the congregation sat down for the annual chili supper cook-off, the beloved Reverend Schrock fell facedown into a super, "spiced" pot. As Magdalena Yoder agrees to investigate, she finds that Schrock wasn't as well liked as she thought.

At Wick's End
by Tim Myers
Upon his Great-Aunt Belle's death, Harrison Black inherits "At Wick's End," her candle shop. Harrison suspects that there was foul play, and since the police are satisfied that her death was accidental, he takes it upon himself to investigate.

Snuffed Out
by Tim Myers
Harrison Black finds pottery shop owner Aaron Gaston dead from what looks like an electrocution. Trouble is... Harrison knows that Aaron never used the electric potter's wheel, and he'll have to burn the candle at both ends to catch a clever killer.

The Body in the Moonlight
by Katherine Hall Page
Minister's wife Faith Fairchild is excited about catering her church's restoration campaign kick-off, but moments after finishing dessert a young woman dies. She puts on her amateur sleuthing skills when a second body is found in the moonlight... carrying a warning: "You're next!"

The Paperwhite Narcissus: a Martha's Vineyard Mystery
by Cynthia Riggs
After 92-yr old Victoria is fired as a correspondent at the "Island Enquirer," she's called back by the narcissistic editor to find out who's naming him as the deceased in bogus obituaries.

Till the End of Tom: an Amanda Pepper Mystery
by Gillian Roberts
English teacher Amanda Pepper thinks her only problem is keeping her well-meaning family from hijacking her wedding, until she discovers Tomas Severin dying at the foot of the school's stairs. Hired by his family to investigate, she finds that many lives would be improved if Tom's had ended.

Death in the Cards: a Stain-busting Mystery
by Sharon Short
Laundromat owner Josie Toadfern knows her tiny town's dirty clothes and most of its dirty little secrets. But the upcoming "Psychic Fair" has stirred up more dirt on the citizens of Paradise, Ohio, and Josie stumbles on one of the bodies.

A Midsummer Night's Scream
by Jill Churchill
Jane Jeffry has a new hobby as a stage-hand. As the plot takes a darker turn when a rebellious young performer exits stage left permanently, she picks up the clues.

Double Shot
by Diane Mott Davidson
The governor of Colorado has commuted the prison sentence of Goldy Schulz's ultra-handsome, ultra-charming, ultra-wealthy, ultra-venal ex-husband, aka "The Jerk." Soon afterwards, Goldy becomes the victim of threats, rumors and violence.

Which Big Giver Stole the Chopped Liver? A Ruby, The Rabbi's Wife Mystery
by Sharon Kahn Essie
Sue is organizing a reunion for the "Big Givers" in Eternal, Texas, and to save money has molded chopped liver in the shape of Texas. Imagine the shock when the mold is replaced by a body on ice! Ruby's soon on the trail of a killer who's no chopped liver.

Appetite for Murder
by Cecile Lamalle
Foraging for fungi in his secret spot, Chef Charly unearths more than mushrooms. Someone buried a Hermes scarf with a woman still attached. If the police intend to put the case on the back burner, they'll have to reckon with the the chubby French chef.

Glutton for Punishment
by Cecile Lamalle
After finding a local antiques dealer dead in his meat freezer, Chef Charly knows it's time to get out of the kitchen and serve another plate full of justice.

Prepared for Murder
by Cecile Lamalle
Chef Charly knows he should be slicing instead of sleuthing, but when he gets a taste of some fishy shrimp, he leaves his cozy kitchen to face the heat of a killer's ire.

Blood Relations
by Rett MacPherson
After the old wreckage of a riverboat is revealed by lowering waters of the mighty Mississippi, it's not long before treasure seekers flock to town in search of the rumored cache of diamonds on board. Problem starts when they strike to eliminate some of the competition.

A Misty Mourning
by Rett MacPherson
Torie O'Shea puts her genealogy skills to work to determine what secrets worth killing for may be hiding in the dilapidated boarding house, before it's too late.

A Veiled Antiquity
by Rett MacPherson
Torie O'Shea knows that the deceased Marie Dijon had a family tree with royal roots, so finding the hidden key and old documents prove too tempting for her sleuthing genealogy mind. Trouble is... now she knows too much to live.

Dead Girls Don't Wear Diamonds
by Nancy Martin
When a high society jewel thief winds up drowned in a pool with a garden gnome tied to her ankles, ex-debutante Nora swings into action to save her old flame from a murder charge.

The Serpent on the Crown
by Elizabeth Peters
A widow's strange story of a curse that killed her husband intrigues Amelia Peabody to try to uncover the secrets of the statue at fault.

A Dilly of a Death
by Susan Wittig Albert
China Bayles is in a pickle. The daughter of her best friend, Ruby, has turned up on her doorstep and the Pickle Queen of Pecan Springs' Picklefest has disappeared.

We'll Always Have Parrots
by Donna Andrews
Meg Langslow travels with her fiance, Michael, to a fan convention for a cheesy cult TV show in which he has a minor role. As the dictatorial star of the show is found murdered, the police have plenty of suspects. Trouble is... will they arrest the right one.

Aunt Dimity: Snowbound
by Nancy Atherton
Lori Shepherd has been overtaken by the blizzard of the century. Fortunately, she's soon safe or is she in Ladythorne Abbey. In the abbey's cloisters and passages there still lingers the haunting presence of Lucasta. Sounds like a job for Aunt Dimity!

The Cat Who Talked Turkey
by Lilian Jackson Braun
As the town of Pickax is preparing for the opening of a new bookstore, no one is prepared to find the body of a man shot execution style on the same day of the grand opening.

4 new titles in Outreach
by Susan Conant

Dog lovers will cheer Kimi and Rowdy, Alaskan Malamutes, as they help expose killers. Even those not partial to canines will want to bark with pleasure at a good animal mystery in which the animals aren't portrayed as humans with fur.

The Alpine Gamble: an Emma Lord Mystery
by Mary Daheim
Newspaper editor and publisher, Emma, lines up her biggest, blackest headlines and goes hunting -- for a brilliant killer and the strange story behind an almost perfect crime.

Hocus Croakus: a Bed-and-Breakfast Mystery
by Mary Daheim
Judith and husband Joe are gambling away their woes at the Stillasnowamish Casino when the Reaper gets into the act. Someone is causing murderous confusion that is no illusion.


Just Desserts
by Mary Daheim
Innkeeper Judith McMonigle's guests are up to no good. When a soothsayer-for-hire drops dead after someone douses her tea leaves with bug killer, harried hostess Judith and cousin Renie are left to clean up the mess.

Major Vices
by Mary Daheim
Judith and cousin Renie are at it again. Someone slew Uncle Boo... but who? A plethora of last wills makes virtually every nut on the twisted family tree a suspect, including the investigating duo.

Murder, My Suite
by Mary Daheim
Judith and cousin Renie seem almost haunted by gossip columnist guest and her yappy dog when they meet at a Ski Resort on vacation. Could the rumormonger be even more poisonous than her pen?

Miss Zukas and the Library Murders
by Jo Dereske
When a dead body turns up right in the middle of the fiction stacks, the police are baffled. Helma Zukas and her not-so-proper best friend, Ruth, start a hot pursuit of the truth on their own.

Multetrain to Maggody: an Arly Hanks Mystery
by Joan Hess
Once word gets out that two saddlebags of Confederate gold were hidden in local caves and never recovered, almost everyone in town has a plan to get their hands on the lost gold.

Tiles and Tribulations
by Tamar Myers
As Abby and best friend C.J. attend a seance, Madame Woo-Woo is forced over to the other side prematurely. The friends exorcise a flesh-and-blood killer before Woo-Woo gets company.

Death at the Spring Plant Sale: a Gardening Mystery
by Ann Ripley
Club president Catherine Freeman is shot pointblank in her own driveway. When the police become convinced that the true target was Catherine's husband, Louise begins her own investigation.

The Cat Who Wasn't a Dog
by Marion Babson
Finding the taxidermist dead on the floor of his office was the first shock, finding the shop suddenly enveloped in flames was the next, but the final blow to Dame Cecile was discovering that instead of rescuing the remains of Fleur de Lys, Trixie snatched up a very much alive Japanese bobtail cat named Cho Cho San.

Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House
by M.C. Beaton
When her handsome new neighbor, Paul Chatterton, shows up on her doorstep, she tries her best to ignore his charms, but his sparkling black eyes and the promise of adventure soon lure her into another investigation.

Poppy Done to Death: an Aurora Teagarden Mystery
by Charlaine Harris
On the way to a meeting with her "Uppity Women" book discussion group, librarian "Roe" is shocked to find her sister-in-law, Poppy, lying dead right outside her own back door. Poppy had her flaws, but she didn't deserve to be brutally murdered.

Cat Seeing Double: a Joe Grey Mystery
by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Whatever hateful force has descended on the village has now interrupted the chief of police's wedding, and 3 cats are soon paw-deep in a tangle of jealousy, greed, and carefully planned retribution.

Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
by Donna Andrews
Artist Meg Lanslow's road to contentment is more rutted and filled with potholes than seems fair, thanks to a succession of crises brought on by the wellmeaning but utterly wacky demands of her friends and family.

Agatha Raisin and the Case of the Curious Curate
by M.C. Beaton
Tristan, the beautiful new curate who is attracting more than a few of his female congregants, has taken a special interest in Agatha. But despite his charms, he's an odd duck. When he is found dead in the vicar's study, it's up to Agatha and John to investigate.

Death of a Village
by M. C. Beaton
During the eerie half-light of a far north summer night, a crime spree from scams to burglary strikes the Highlands. Suddenly Hamish Macbeth has more police work than he desires.

Evan Only Knows
by Rhys Bowen
When Constable Evan Evans and his new fiance travel to visit his mother in Swansea, they're not expecting to hear that the young thug convicted of murdering Evan's father has murdered once again.

The Tail of the Tip-Off
by Rita Mae & Sneaky Pie Brown
Mrs. Murphy begins poking her not-so-human nose into a dangerous situation yet again as mistress "Harry" becomes suspicious about the death of a local contractor with a roving eye.

Shades of Earl Grey: a Tea Shop Mystery
by Laura Childs
Trouble is brewing in Charleston, but when shop owner Theodosia goes to the authorities, they treat her like she's been reading tea leaves and that's the surest way to put Theo's kettle on the boil...

Lemon Meringue Pie Murder: a Hannah Swenson Mystery
by Joanne Fluke
Hannah thought she'd finally discovered the recipe for a perfect life, but this new mystery forces her to turn up the heat ... in her own kitchen.

Sunshine and Shadow
by Earlene Fowler
One of Benni Harper's favorite mystery writers is coming to San Celina. Problem is ... the sunshine visit gets overshadowed by a real-life murder mystery.

A Cat On The Bus: an Alice Nestleton Mystery
by Lydia Adamson
The NYPD begs the "Cat Woman," Alice Nestleton, to return as a consultant in the case of a senseless multiple homicide, perpetuated by a bizarre killer who leaves a cat behind.

Indigo Dying
by Susan Wittig Albert
Coming to the town of Indigo to teach a "Colors to Dye For" workshop, herbalist China Bayles thinks she's bringing Indigo back to life. Problem is...a longtime resident winds up dead and China begins her own investigation.

Aunt Dimity Takes a Holiday
by Nancy Atherton
Lori Shepherd calls yet again on phantom Aunt Dimity to help identify the culprit who wants to torch Earl Elstyn's country estate.

A Cat Named Brat: an Alice Nestleton Mystery
by Lydia Adamson
Louis Montag calls on friend Alice Nestleton to catsit the cat Brat that won't let him get any work done. On Alice's first day, she gets knocked out as Montag is strangled and Brat sneaks out. Nothing is simple in Alice's life!

Biggie and the Devil Diet
by Nancy Bell
A ranch converted to a retreat for overweight teenage girls, a lot of good eating (including a recipe for Willie Mae's King Ranch Casserole) and murder all contribute to the fun.

Hotspur
by Rita Mae Brown
Sister Jane may be in her seventies, but she is not easily duped. When the skeleton of Noal Bancroft is unearthed, still wearing an exquisite sapphire ring, Sister Jane is on the case.

Gunpowder Green
by Laura Childs
Tea shop owner Theodosia Browning knows that something's brewing in the high society of Charleston, something other than her newest tea.

House of Seven Mabels: a Jane Jeffry Mystery
by Jill Churchill
A series of mean-spirited pranks, strange odors and mysterious electrical shorts, leave one of the workers lying lifeless at the foot of a staircase.

Out On a Limb: A Claire Malloy Mystery
by Joan Hess
When a local developer tries to level a bunch of trees, a protester chains herself to one of them-while the developer's daughter apparently abandons her baby on bookseller-sleuth Claire Malloy's doorstep.

A Cat With No Clue: an Alice Nestleton Mystery
by Lydia Adamson
Alice caters-in the perfect gift for her newlywed friends, Alex and Lila. For better or worse, they eat every bite and die from food poisoning. The only witnesses are the couples two little kittens.

Bloodroot: a China Bayles Mystery
by Susan Wittig Albert
China knows something has gone desperately wrong on the banks of the Bloodroot River. As she unearths those secrets, she finds that they should stay buried in the very land that created them.

Smugglers Moon: a Sir John Fielding Mystery
by Bruce Alexander
Sir John Fielding, a blind, 18th-century London judge and his orphan accomplice, Jeremy, visit a smuggler's haven to check on a supposedly crooked magistrate. The pair find murder and more in this lively eighth addition to a popular series.

Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos
by Donna Andrews
Everyone has some quarrel with Benson. When his body is discovered with Megs dagger ornamently displayed in his back, Megs father presents himself as the killer. Laughs-a-plenty in this mystery!

Aunt Dimity: Detective
by Nancy Atherton
The supernatural skills of Aunt Dimity lead Lori to unravel the mystery of the dead Pruneface Prunella.

The Cat Next Door
by Marian Babson
Returning from England to New York, Margot finds her family in disarray. Even the beloved cat Tikki has gone to live with the neighbors!

Agatha Raisin and the Love From Hell
by M.C. Beaton
Recently married Agatha finds herself the prime suspect in the disappearance of her new husband.

Death of a Celebrity
by M.C. Beaton [Marion Chesney's pseudonym]
Glamorous BBC reporter Crystal French turns up dead in Lochdubh village. Her apparent suicide quickly turns to murder, with the entire village as suspects, including Constable Macbeth.

Rebeccas Tale
by Sally Beauman
Beauman has taken Daphne du Mauriers celebrated 20th-Century classic, Rebecca, and crafted a compelling companion for the 21st-Century.

The Cat Who Smelled a Rat
by Lilian Jackson Braun
Koko, Siamese cat extraordinaire, helps his owner-journalist James Qwilleran to trap the human rat behind the recent killing in Moose County.

The Cat Who Went Up The Creek
by Lilian Jackson Braun
The tranquility of Qwilleran's vacation is broken when a body of one of the guest's floats down the creek.

Catch As Cat Can
by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown
A simple case of stolen hubcaps rapidly turns complicated when the suspected thief is found hanged. As Mrs. Murphy, Tucker, and Pewter puzzle over whodunit, two more murders take place.

Someone To Watch Over Me: A Grace & Favor Mystery
by Jill Churchill
Lily and Robert Brewster were carefree, rich siblings until the market crash of 1929. Now they live in Grace and Favor Cottage, stumbling into corpse after corpse.

The Hearse You Came In On
by Tim Cockey
Mortician Hitchcock Sewell enjoys life chaperoning the dead into their graves when Carolyn James appears to inquire how much her own burial would cost. Then Carolyn shows upsuicide by asphyxiation.

Chopping Spree
by Diane Mott Davidson
Goldy's business is skyrocketing yet her next booking proves catastrophic from the start. Julian is the prime suspect in an old friend's stabbing.