Cozy New England Mystery

In the picturesque coastal town of Sunrise Harbor, Maine, where salty ocean breezes mingle with the scent of freshly caught lobsters, a chilling mystery unfolds. When a supposedly idyllic lobstering cruise takes an unexpected turn, steamy romance author, baker and amateur sleuth, Tabitha Clive, finds herself accused of murdering her husband’s former sister-in-law, Ethel Brownville. As whispers of her guilt spread through the town, Tabitha's closest friends refuse to let her face the weight of false accusations alone. In The Women Sleuths Club Murder, a vibrant group of “mature” ...

""The Award begins as a wryly funny satire of thwarted literary ambition, but it quickly evolves into something darker and more disturbing. Matthew Pearl’s addictive and propulsive novel has the twisted nightmare logic of a Patricia Highsmith thriller.""—Tom Perrotta, New York...

Three Clever Mysteries. One Charming Town. Zero Escape for Killers. When former Portland detective Eliza Prescott traded her badge for a bookstore in the quaint coastal town of Ashford Creek, she thought she'd found peace. But in a town where everyone knows everyone's secrets, murder has a way of finding her. Armed with her detective instincts, her loyal retired K-9 partner Bruno, and an uncanny knack for noticing what others miss, Eliza can't help but investigate when suspicious deaths disrupt her quiet New England haven. From poisoned dinner parties to deadly cottage encounters, each ...

A brand new Miss Marple novel from Lucy Foley, the #1 bestselling author of The Guest List and The Midnight Feast. On a rare holiday abroad, Miss Marple is enjoying the refined luxury of the Grand Alpine Hotel: a stunning winter playground, high in the Swiss Alps. But when someone is found dead...

When snobby candle maker Darcy Bloom ends up dead outside Junie Carmichael's bookshop, all signs point to local antiques dealer Walter Fitch. But Junie knows he's not the one with a guilty heir. Junie came to Thistleberry Point to pack up her late aunt's bookstore-not stumble over a dead body during the Midsummer Market. Darcy Bloom had a fake lineage, a real brooch, and a knack for making enemies. Now she's dead, and Walter Fitch is the prime suspect. But Junie isn't buying it. With her chatty parrot Edgar, her aunt's spirited best friend Flo, and a stong cup of local gossip, Junie digs ...

A fresh start, a quirky bookstore, and one very nosy schnauzer... what could possibly go wrong? After a rough divorce, Agatha Royale packs up her vintage Ford Falcon and heads for Bristol Lake, a postcard-perfect town where she inherits her late stepmother’s old bookstore. She plans quiet days filled with coffee, mystery novels, and her loyal dog, Mike. But peace doesn’t last long. When Mike digs up a skeleton in the garden, Agatha’s dream life turns into a real-life whodunit. Between gossiping neighbors, secretive townsfolk, and a detective who thinks she knows too much, Agatha ...

Murder on the Menu: A Bakery Cozy Mystery (Sugar & Spice Mystery Series Book 1) When baker Daphne Whittaker caters a Halloween murder mystery dinner in small-town Autumnboro, she expects fake blood and theatrical deaths—not a real corpse face-down in her chocolate mousse. Now she's the prime suspect in a deadly game where the killer is still on the loose. With her reputation and bakery business on the line, Daphne must sift through a town full of secrets to find the real murderer. Between a mysterious employee with a hidden identity, threatening notes slipped under doors, and a corrupt ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #16 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." NOBODY SAW HER. NOBODY CAN FIND HER. When 37-year-old Lisa Jackson sets out for work one Friday morning she is in high spirits. Things are going well with her new boyfriend. But when she does not reach her desk, or answer her mobile phone, her colleagues and family raise the alarm. Suspicion immediately falls on co-worker Ray Piper. A married man, he and Lisa have recently ended an affair. But steely-eyed Piper denies any knowledge of Lisa’s ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #13 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."MURDER ON THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS? When the exclusive London-to-Edinburgh sleeper plunges into a snowdrift deep in the Cumbrian fells, DI Skelgill awakes to discover one fellow passenger dead and another missing. Through a blinding blizzard Skelgill leads a daring evacuation – but even before they reach the sanctuary of an isolated coaching inn, a third traveller suffers a life-threatening mishap. As suspicion pervades the elite group of apparent strangers, ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #14 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."‘A KILLER IN OUR MIDST?’ cried a newspaper headline to commemorate the disappearance of Mary Wilson. It is two decades since Britain’s first mass DNA sweep failed to incriminate a single local male. Mary was listed merely as a missing person. Now archaeologists have unearthed human remains in Cummacatta Wood. The forensics match – age, sex, fragments of clothing... and dental records. But the murder hunt has only just begun when an outsider, a convicted...

Rainbow Goldman's Jimmy Choos have barely touched the quaint cobblestones of Maine's charming-est coastal town, Van Kills Cove, before she stumbles over a dead body. And here she thought losing her fiancé and her job in one fell swoop was as low as she could go. The 30-something former beauty queen and good-news TV talk show host hopped the first train out of Manhattan headed to Maine to help out her granddad, and hopefully catch a little R&R. But when an old friend turns into the main suspect in the suspicious death of the town's beloved toymaker, Rainbow pulls out all the investigative ...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #15 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." VIRILE; HANDSOME; RUTHLESS. When gamekeeper Lawrence Melling takes over at traditional Lakeland sporting estate Shuteham Hall he soon ruffles the feathers of not only elderly Lord Edward Bullingdon and his younger model wife Miranda, but also their adult offspring and fellow estate workers. Meanwhile local conservationists perceive an existential threat to rare hen harriers nesting on nearby Over Moor. And when Miranda’s jewellery worth a six-figure sum goes...

NEW FOR 2022 – STAND-ALONE, #19 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY." EVIL LIES UNDETECTED. When shepherd Jud Hope finds an American passport in a fox’s earth, a connection is made to an unidentified fatality – an elderly female walker who fell to her death in a treacherous rocky gill near Ambleside. Meanwhile, a spate of ‘nighthawker’ incidents sees ancient monuments desecrated under cover of darkness. The spotlight falls upon Derek Shaw, a museum curator exploring Cumbria’s Roman heritage. Onto this stage emerges a ...

Theft, extortion, homicide — there’s no end to the talents of the new men in photographer Sonny Littlefield’s life. Ever since she moved to the strawberry and sheep farm that she inherited from her biological father, her problems have been piling up: her cousins keep robbing her house, she’s rapidly going broke, and she hasn’t had a date in months. Her top priority is figuring out who left a skeleton hand and threatening note in her ramshackle barn. Somebody in Gracious, Maine, is turning human remains into playthings, and it’s all Sonny can do to keep from ending up a pile of ...

NEW FOR 2024 – STAND-ALONE, #23 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY." LAKELAND’S MOST FAMOUS 24-hour fell running feat was accomplished by local man Bob Graham, who in June 1932 scaled 42 peaks over a distance of 66 miles, with an attendant height gain just a little shy of Mount Everest – arriving back at Keswick Moot Hall with 21 minutes to spare. ‘The Bob Graham Round’, as this route came to be known, is etched into Cumbrian folklore, not least because the 42-year-old Keswick B&B owner ran in tennis shoes, long shorts...

STAND-ALONE MURDER MYSTERY, #12 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY."WHEN DI SKELGILL TAKES under his wing a talented fell-runner – his underprivileged cousin, Jess – little does he realise in what jeopardy he places her. For Cumbria is being targeted by the infamous ‘county lines’ drug gangs. As turf wars break out, Jess inadvertently finds herself in the crossfire – but family ties blind her to the danger of her association with Skelgill. As the body count increases, Skelgill finally recognises the threat to his ...

NEW FOR 2024 – STAND-ALONE, #22 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY." DRIFTING ABSENTLY in The Doghouse on Bassenthwaite Lake, Skelgill has a feeling that he is being watched. From a wheelchair in the adjoining grounds of Duck Hall Nursing Home an elderly man looks on. They exchange a wave; it becomes a regular occurrence. And when later Skelgill engages with his bankside supporter he learns of his tragic circumstances. The helpless man has surely fallen prey to unscrupulous next of kin. As Father Time looms, there ensues a ...

A museum gala. A forged antiquity. Tea and treachery. When Fiona Firth's bistro caters Seacliff Springs’ most elegant event, she expects excellent reviews, not a body. But when the town's sharp-tongued curator drops dead mid-toast, Fiona's signature tea service becomes the prime evidence. The official ruling: natural causes. Fiona's intuition: murder dressed in ceremony. With her restaurant's reputation on the line and the real killer still walking free, Fiona does what any bistro owner with a talent for observation would do: she starts asking questions. Aided by her loyal staff, a too-...

It's the grand opening of Daybreak Island's cat cafe, where customers can get cozy with an assortment of friendly felines - and maybe even take one or a few home. Co-owner Maddie James is purring with excitement over her new warm-and-fuzzy venture, until she becomes entangled in a petty drama between one of her volunteers and a wealthy woman who insists on adopting a calico kitty. The catfight that ensues is bad enough for business. But when the snubbed socialite is found dead with a tell-tale catnip toy on the scene, suspicion lands squarely on Maddie's staffer.

THE LAST WOMAN TO BE TRANSPORTED FROM CUMBRIA BARELY OF AGE, eighteen-year-old Flora Mary Graham was found guilty by a jury of twelve good Kendal men and true of the murder in his prime of the Seventh Earl of Fellside, by striking him about the head and sending him to his death in Blind Beck, the town’s stream running in violent spate on the stormy night of Halloween, 1852. Apprehended at the scene bearing a babe in arms, the child swaddled and soaked, three gold sovereigns were found in Flora’s possession, half a year’s wages for a servant girl such as she. The motive ascribed was ...