New England Cozy

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” ...

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 ...

IN THE LAKE DISTRICT’s natural larder, deadly poisons lurk unseen. Pretty flowers and exotic fungi may flatter to deceive, and they should not be underestimated. Their toxins evolved in prehistoric times to deter great grazing beasts like bison and elk and the Ice Age aurochs. But in the modern fashion, rare plants and other wild fare – Grizedale venison, Arctic char, Herdwick lamb – are blended with traditional ingredients to make Cumbria a gourmet’s paradise. The rugged and beautiful county boasts more Michelin stars per head than any other part of the British Isles. And each year...

One dead garden coordinator. One routine herb pickup. And a crime someone is desperate to pass off as an accident. Fiona Firth stops by Seacliff Springs’ community garden every Tuesday morning for fresh herbs. Finding Clara Pemberton dead among the rosemary beds turns a familiar routine into a nightmare. The explanation is convenient. A fall. An accident. Case closed. But the garden tells a different story. Missing tools. Broken stems. Disturbed soil. And Clara’s final notes suggest she wasn’t just tending plants. She was closing in on someone who’d been stealing from the garden for...

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 ...

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...

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...

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, #17 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK BRITISH DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "MAD, BAD AND JUST A LITTLE BIT COZY." TWELVE CLOSE FRIENDS, ONE DEADLY ENEMY. A Ouija board spells out ‘MURDER’ and next morning wealthy widow Daisy Mills is found drowned at a Lakeland beauty spot. Was this a warning from beyond the grave, or an agent provocateur among the house party? Could the earlier death of successful businessman Simon Mills really be the accident it seemed? And was it by coincidence that the same clique of old school friends had met before each tragedy? Pitched into ...

In this heartwarming, feel-good novel, a snowstorm brings a cast of very different characters together at a sleepy New England inn, just in time for Christmas—and maybe even in time for a Christmas miracle. A New England inn seems like the picture-perfect place to spend the holidays. But when...

A forgotten legacy. A hidden secret. And a seaside mystery waiting to be solved. When Emilia inherits her Great-Aunt’s cottage at the remote Harbour’s End, she expects a dusty renovation project, not a mystery. The old house, standing lonely against the wind, has been forgotten by time—but it hasn't given up its secrets yet. As Emilia starts to peel back the layers of history, she discovers that her aunt left behind more than just a building. There are whispers in the village and a puzzle hidden within the walls of the cottage that leads to a truth no one on the island expected. With ...

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 ...

A stolen legacy. A desperate farmer. A murder that shatters a small-town harvest. Retired insurance investigator Hank Peavey and his sharp-eyed wife Flo are finishing their epic Route 1 journey when they arrive in Barren’s Edge, Maine—just as blueberry harvest ends and a beloved co-op manager turns up dead. What begins as a simple payment dispute unravels into systematic theft that’s devastated an entire community. Experience the satisfaction of following the money trail alongside this endearing couple as Hank’s financial expertise and Flo’s people-reading skills expose years of ...

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, #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...

One small town. One snowed-in night. One life-changing plus sign. Back home for the holidays, Nora Harper is braced for nosy questions and old ghosts—until a grocery aisle run-in with her high school almost-first-love turns into a quiet, irresistible second chance. Evan Holt stayed and built The Frosted Pine into the warm heart of the town. He pours cinnamon old fashioneds and offers Nora something she hasn’t felt in years: a soft place to land. When a whiteout strands them above the bar, honest talk and slow kisses turn into something deeper… and weeks later, two pink lines change ...

STAND-ALONE, #18 IN THE SERIES. MEET MAVERICK DETECTIVE DI SKELGILL... "A COMPELLING BRITISH CRIME MYSTERY." A BLIND EYE TURNED, AN INJUSTICE DONE. High in lonely Swinesdale, notorious burglars Jake and Boris Baddun perish in a burnt-out stolen Mercedes. Known associate Dale Spooner leaves his biological signature and the predatory DI Alec Smart moves in for the kill. Spooner is convicted, and now languishes in jail. A rumour reaches Skelgill: Spooner is innocent and can prove it – a cast-iron alibi, a video on a hidden mobile phone. But Spooner will not talk. At stake is the safety of ...

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 ...

The journey continues! Hank and Flo Peavey head north from Maryland to Maine, completing their epic Route 1 adventure. But their retirement dream meets reality when murder strikes in five more picturesque coastal towns. From Maryland’s Chesapeake charm to Maine’s rugged shoreline, this beloved detective duo proves that justice has no retirement age. Hank’s insurance fraud expertise and Flo’s photographic memory combine to solve mysteries that baffle local authorities, all while they savor New England’s beauty and hospitality. Experience the satisfying conclusion of their cross-...

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 ...