Most read Cozy Mystery books

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly to discuss unsolved crimes. But when a real murder occurs on their doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club finds themselves in the middle of their first live case. With their unique skills and sharp wits, this group of septuagenarians sets out to catch a killer, proving that age is just a number when it comes to solving mysteries.

• found family
• multiple povs
• epistolary

Molly Gray is a hotel maid at the Regency Grand, and she loves her work: the trolley stocked just so, the satisfying return of a messy room to a state of perfection, the quiet dignity of a job done well. Molly sees the world a little differently from other people — she takes language literally, misses social cues, and has relied since childhood on her late Gran's rules to navigate a world she finds bafflingly complicated. As long as everything is in its proper place, she is content. Then Molly lets herself into the suite of the wealthy, frequently unpleasant Mr. Black and finds him dead in his bed. Because she behaves nothing like people expect a witness to behave, and because she knows more about the hotel's guests and staff than she lets on, Molly quickly becomes the police's prime suspect. To clear her name, she will have to accept help from an unlikely group of allies and learn to tell the difference between the people who mean her well and those who don't. Nita Prose's debut is a warm, twisty contemporary mystery with the comfort of a cozy and a genuinely original narrator. The Maid is as much a story about being underestimated and finally seen as it is a whodunit, balancing a hotel full of secrets with real tenderness toward its heroine.

• found family
• unreliable narrator
• betrayal
• workplace romance

The Thursday Murder Club is enjoying a quiet retirement at Coopers Chase — until an old friend of Elizabeth's from her intelligence days arrives asking for help. He has stolen twenty million pounds in diamonds from some very dangerous people, and he needs Elizabeth to keep him alive. Soon Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim are chasing leads on international criminals and missing jewels, and a body turns up before they've even started. The second Thursday Murder Club mystery blends twisty plotting with the warmth and humour that made the series a phenomenon.

• found family

Vera Wong is a lonely tea shop owner in San Francisco who finds a dead body in her store and decides she is better equipped to solve the crime than the police. After swiping a flash drive from the scene, she begins investigating her new customers to find the killer. Instead of a murderer, she finds a group of people who desperately need her motherly care and a good cup of tea.

• found family
• mystery box
• mentor figure

The Thursday Murder Club finds themselves embroiled in another mystery when a decade-old cold case resurfaces, involving a local news legend and a murder without a body. Simultaneously, Elizabeth faces a deadly ultimatum: kill or be killed. As the stakes rise, the club must race against time, chasing clues and navigating dangerous threats to solve the mystery and protect one of their own.

• found family

The Thursday Murder Club faces their most personal case yet when an old friend is killed and a dangerous package goes missing. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron must navigate the world of art forgery and drug dealers to find a killer before the killer finds them. It is a race against time that tests the limits of their friendship and their wits.

• found family

The Thursday Murder Club finds their quiet year interrupted by a wedding, but festivities quickly turn sinister when a guest fears for their life. Elizabeth's encounter ignites a new investigation as a ruthless villain seeks an uncrackable code. The gang must race against time to solve a complex puzzle and prevent a murder.

• found family

In the sleepy English village of St Mary Mead, where the most pressing concerns are usually parish gossip and garden fences, the Reverend Leonard Clement remarks that anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe would be doing the world a service.

• betrayal
• forbidden love
• morally grey
• mystery box

Frances Adams always said she would be murdered, and she was. Her great-niece Annie arrives in Castle Knoll to find the killer among the villagers, and to stay alive long enough to inherit more than a fortune.

• dual timeline
• mystery box
• betrayal

The morning routine at Gossington Hall shatters when a maid discovers the body of an unknown young woman sprawled on the library floor.

• mystery box

When a famous mystery writer dies in the tea room of the Regency Grand Hotel, Head Maid Molly Gray has the body, the rumours and a secret to deal with. She knew the man long ago, and the past she has buried is now in play.

• locked room

The first in a stunning new series introducing the Marlow Murder Club! 'A hugely enjoyable murder mystery written with wonderful verve, humour and compassion. Utterly delightful' Robert Webb 'I love Robert Thorogood's writing' Peter James From the creator of the BBC One hit TV series, Death in Paradise To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible hero... Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there's no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper. One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don't believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar. Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club. When another body turns up, they realise they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape... READERS LOVE THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB series 'Wonderful escapism!' 5 Amazon Review 'A wonderful piece of escapism. Absolutely loved it!' 5 Amazon Review 'My favourite book of the year!' 5 Amazon Review 'I had an absolute blast reading this book' 5 Amazon Review 'So enjoyable, I laughed out loud !' 5* Amazon Review

• found family
• witty banter

When a professor's wife dies of poison at a dinner party, suspicion lands on Saffron Everleigh's mentor. A new botany research assistant in 1923 London, she must trace a rare plant to the killer before another victim falls.

• slow burn
• workplace romance
• mentor figure

Returning from a Christmas shopping trip, Elspeth McGillicuddy glances out of her first-class carriage as another train draws level on a parallel track.

• mystery box

"The last place Lana Lee thought she would ever end up is back at her family's restaurant. But after a brutal break-up and a dramatic workplace walk-out, she figures that helping wait tables is her best option for putting her life back together. Even if that means having to put up with her mother, who is dead-set on finding her a husband. Lana's love life soon becomes yesterday's news once the restaurant's property manager, Mr. Feng, turns up dead--after a delivery of shrimp dumplings from Ho-Lee. But how could this have happened when everyone on staff knew about Mr. Feng's severe, life-threatening shellfish allergy? Now, with the whole restaurant under suspicion for murder and the local media in a feeding frenzy--to say nothing of the gorgeous police detective who keeps turning up for take-out--it's up to Lana to find out who is behind Feng's killer order ... before her own number is up."--Adapted from back cover.

Hannah already has her hands full trying to dodge her mother's attempts to marry her off while running The Cookie Jar, Lake Eden's most popular bakery. But once Ron LaSalle, the beloved delivery man from the Cozy Cow Dairy, is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah's famous Chocolate Chip Crunchies scattered around him, her life just can't get any worse. Determined not to let her cookies get a bad reputation, she sets out to track down a killer. But if she doesn't watch her back, Hannah's sweet life may get burned to a crisp.

• slow burn
• small town

"Lana Lee is a dutiful daughter, waiting tables at her family's Chinese restaurant even though she'd rather be doing just about anything else. Then, just when she has a chance for a "real" job, her parents take off to Taiwan, leaving Lana in charge. Surprising everyone--including herself--she turns out to be quite capable of running the place. Unfortunately, the newlyweds who just opened the souvenir store next door to Ho-Lee have turned up dead. . .and soon Lana finds herself in the midst of an Asia Village mystery." --

• fish out of water
• found family

The third Noodle Shop Mystery. Now managing her family's Cleveland restaurant, Lana Lee enters Ho-Lee in the city's Best Noodle Contest — until a food critic is found dead, face-down in a bowl of lo mein.

"A delight." -THE WALL STREET JOURNAL "A must read for any mystery lover." - DEANNA RAYBOURN, New York Times bestselling author of KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE An abandoned English manor. A peculiar missing portrait. A cozy, deviously clever murder mystery, perfect for fans of Richard Osman and Anthony Horowitz. Jo Jones has always had a little trouble fitting in. As a neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor and divorced New Yorker transplanted into the English countryside, Jo doesn't know what stands out more: her Americanisms or her autism. After losing her job, her mother, and her marriage all in one year, she couldn't be happier to take possession of a possibly haunted (and clearly unwanted) family estate in North Yorkshire. But when the body of the moody town groundskeeper turns up on her rug with three bullets in his back, Jo finds herself in potential danger--and she's also a potential suspect. At the same time, a peculiar family portrait vanishes from a secret room in the manor, bearing a strange connection to both the dead body and Jo's mysterious family history. With the aid of a Welsh antiques dealer, the morose local detective, and the Irish innkeeper's wife, Jo embarks on a mission to clear herself of blame and find the missing painting, unearthing a slew of secrets about the town--and herself--along the way. And she'll have to do it all before the killer strikes again...

A holiday novella following Molly Gray of the Regency Grand Hotel. A Secret Santa exchange among the hotel staff raises questions about who Molly can trust, testing her relationship with her boyfriend Juan Manuel just as she wants the season to be perfect.

A dying man found on a golf course leaves behind only one cryptic question: "Why didn't they ask Evans?" When his identity and the meaning of that phrase are lost to time, Bobby Jones and Lady Frances Derwent set out across England chasing clues through old photographs, forgotten addresses, and tangled family secrets. What begins as an amateur sleuth's curiosity spirals into a dangerous game involving blackmail, hidden identities, and a murder investigation that neither detective can let go.

• mystery box
• multiple povs