Best of 2010 Cozy Mysteries

Here we are nearing the end of 2010, and I, for one, am amazed at how fast the
year has flown by! It’s been a great year for reading, and a wonderful year
for cozy mysteries in particular! There have been bright new authors
introduced along with charming new series, while old favorite authors have
continued to delight us with the further antics of their delightful characters.

Here are a few books that really stood out for me this year as being some of
the best cozy mysteries to be published. These are in no particular order.

Apples, cooking, and murder are the theme of Sheila Connolly’s Orchard Series, and her book, RED DELICIOUS DEATH finds heroine Meg Corey knee-deep in mystery- solving when a group of new chefs come to the little town of Granford to open an organic restaurant.

When one of the chefs ends up dead in a pig wallow, it’s up to Meg to figure
out who killed the cook. When she unearthed some old town secrets, Meg
discovers the killer might be a homegrown culprit.

Connolly includes recipes featured in the story, which is a thrilling, suspense
filled romp through the orchard. Very tasty indeed.

Another "food: themed mystery can be found with Jenn McKinlay’s debut novel SPRINKLE WITH MURDER: A Cupcake Bakery Mystery. (yummm...cupcakes...opps, sorry!) Friends Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura are the proud owners of Fairy Tale Cupcakes and their first big order is a doozy. They are to make a cupcake wedding cake for a bride from... well, a bridezilla who insists on all the cupcakes to be original.

When Melanie finds the bride-to-be dead with a cupcake in her hand, she becomes
the prime suspect in the murder. It’s up to the girls to clear Mel’s name and
find the real killer before their cupcake business falls flat as a pancake.

A cute mystery, but the absolute best part of the book is the fabulous recipes for cupcakes with names like Blonde Bombshells, Tinkerbelles, and Death By Chocolate that clenched my vote for newest favorite mystery series. I can’t wait for BUTTERCREAM BUMP OFF to come out next January, 2011. One of my favorite authors, Laura Childs, had the latest in her Tea Shop Mystery series, THE TEABERRY STRANGLER, out this year, and it is just terrific!

Theodosia Browning and her crew at the Indigo Tea Shop have just wound up a
successful Alley Crawl, an fun event where all the shop owners throw open their
back doors along the cobble-stoned alleys for customers and Theodosia is
thrilled at the turnout, especially since the event was her idea.
On her way to celebrate the end of the night with her friend Daria, owner of
the Antiquarian Map Shop, Theo is shocked to find her dear friend in a struggle
for her life in the alleyway. But the time Theo reaches Daria, the woman is
dead, having been strangled to death and the culprit dashes away before Theo
can get a good look at him.

Her friend’s death comes as a great shock to Theo, but she is further alarmed
when Detective Tidwell informs her that she might have actually been the target
of the killer, since both woman looked very similar. Theodosia dives into the
murder investigation, using her canny powers of reasoning and deduction to
figure out who the real killer is, but will Theo finger the murderer before her
own life is targeted?

With her characters who are familiar and endearing as beloved family members,
Laura Childs always brings her readers thrilling excitement in her Tea Shop
Mysteries, as well as a whole new batch of delicious recipes.

I love a good Farmer’s Market, and was thrilled to find FARM FRESH MURDER: A Farmer’s Market Mystery by Paige Shelton. The first in Shelton’s series, readers will be introduced to Becca Robins, a young gal who is a whiz at making jellies and jams to sell at the Bailey Farmer’s Market. When Matt Simonsen, a fellow vendor who sold peaches, is killed, and the clues point to Abner Justen as the prime suspect, Becca jumps in to find out who killed the peach farmer, and why her buddy was being framed for his murder. Set in South Carolina, FARM FRESH MURDER is a breath of summer freshness that is an absolute delight to read and savor. Add in the recipes for Strawberry Jam and Lemon Meringue Pie, to name a couple, and you have a feast of a mystery to enjoy. Shelton’s next book is due out in the Spring of 2011. Author Elizabeth Lynn Casey continued her charming stories of the lives and activities of the good folks of Sweet Briar, South Carolina in her second Southern Sewing Circle Mystery, DEATH THREADS.

Casey deftly crafts a thrilling mystery along with a charming story of
friendship and small town life to create a fun, fast-paced novel that will keep
cozy mystery lovers thoroughly entertained. Casey’s characters are unique and
endearing – the shy but handsome schoolteacher Milo who is sweet on Tori, the
feisty Leona Elkin, Tori’s self appointed Southern manners and charm teacher,
Leona’s loveable sister Margaret Louise, and the sassy, bright Tori Sinclair
herself – all folks you would want to meet and become close friends with.

Casey also includes helpful sewing tips and a pattern for a cute fabric gift bag project that is mentioned throughout the story. (Casey also had a second book in this series, PINNED FOR MURDER, published this year and it was also a great treat to read!)

Popular husband and wife mystery writing team Jim and Joyce Lavene, authors of
the “Peggy Lee Garden Mysteries,” the “Renaissance Faire Mysteries,” and
the “Sharyn Howard Mysteries,” have a new mystery series that features Dae
O’Donnell, a woman with a gift for locating lost things and attracting murder.

The debut book from Joyce and Jim Lavene, A TIMELY VISION: A Missing Pieces Mystery,” finds Dae, the Mayor of Duck, North Carolina and owner of the thrift store, Missing Pieces, searching for a missing watch belonging to Miss Mildred, the town matriarch. But when their search leads to a murder, Dae must find the real killer before Miss Mildred is hauled off to jail! Maybe with the help of newcomer and retired FBI agent Kevin Brickman, Dae can piece the puzzle together in time.

Once again the Lavenes have crafted a well-written, lively mystery that is sure
to join their other popular series as a sought-after title.

In TRESSED TO KILL: A Southern Beauty Shop Mystery, debut author Lila Dare taps into the sassy and brassy attributes of the Southern belles of St. Elizabeth, and these gals don’t let a little thing like murder stop them from looking good.

Life in a small Southern town like St. Elizabeth, Georgia can be slow and lazy
as a summer breeze, but it can also be as hot and exciting as a summer storm
when a murderer is on the loose!

Grace Tenhune has returned home to work in her mother’s beauty shop, just when
the town diva Constance Dubois is threatening to close Violetta’s down. All
over a tiny little thing like bright orange highlights. But when Constance is
found stabbed to death, the police seem to think Grace’s momma is the culprit.

Well, Grace ain’t having none of that, and with the help of her co-workers at
the salon, and handsome Georgia Bureau of Investigation detective John Dillon,
she soon begins to trim the list of suspects like a good shag haircut.

Lila Dare’s TRESSED TO KILL is a full of Southern charm and spunk, and is a delight for cozy mystery fans to enjoy. I adored Annette Blair’s previous two novels in her Vintage Magic Series, A VEILED DECEPTION and LARCENY AND LACE, so I was thrilled to learn she had a new installment in this exciting series.

Vintage clothing expert Maddie Cutler loves her Vintage Magic boutique, but
sometimes her gift of receiving visions from the garments she handles is a
little tough, but never tougher than when she receives a package from her
friend Dominique Delong after the actresses’ death. Dominique seems to be
trying to tell Maddie her death wasn’t an accident and she needs her to help
find her killer, and the diamonds that she was to wearing to her off-Broadway
show’s premiere.

Annette Blair ’s flair for giving her readers the thrilling intrigue and well- crafted story stands in full stead in her latest book. She also includes a short lesson on how to recognize a fake designer handbag. If you enjoy a ghostly, otherworldish type of mystery, DEATH BY DIAMONDS will be right up your alley! Pull out the grill and be prepared to be inspired by the debut novel, DELICIOUS AND SUSPICIOUS by Riley Adams.

Rebecca Adrian is in Memphis to scout out the best local BBQ restaurant for the
Cooking Channel. And she is delighted to find Aunt Pat’s, an establishment run
by Lulu Turner and her family, that fits all the requirements of a great BBQ
joint – great food and lots of it. But when Rebecca dies after eating at Aunt
Pat’s after rubbing the Turner’s and their customers the wrong way, the entire
Turner family comes under suspicion of murder. It’s up to Lulu to find the real
killer in order to clear the family name and get the restaurant back up and
running and the crowds coming back in again.

Riley Adams had penned a mouthwatering mystery that includes a whole rack of delicious sounding recipes that will have the reader’s taste buds a’tingling. The Memphis BBQ Mysteries promises to be a decadent, fully-satisfying series to look forward to in the future. A brand new book-themed series from author Miranda James debuts this month, and promises to be a delightful addition to the cozy mystery family. MURDER PAST DUE: A Cat In The Stacks Mystery features widower Charlie Harris, the librarian of Athena, Mississippi’s library, who loves book and cats with equal passion. When a former classmate, the famous author Godfrey Priest, returns to town and ends up dead, it’s up to Charlie to find out just who in town hated Godfrey enough to kill him. And the job was going to take a while, because the author had a whole lot of enemies lined up with a grudge.

In an unusual twist, James uses a male main character for this cozy series in
what is usually a female dominated genre. It was a refreshing change of pace,
and I look forward to more stories about the gentle librarian and his Maine
Coon cat, Diesel.

2011 looks to be a promising year with loads of new mysteries coming out each
month, and I shall endeavor to bring you the best of the best each month.
Here’s wishing a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each of you, and
as always, Happy and Cozy Reading, Ya’ll!

Sharon Chance has been a freelance entertainment journalist for the past fourteen years. As a regular contributor to the Wichita Falls Times Record News, she has written well over 1,600 articles covering everything from concert and movie reviews to museum openings to interviewing some of the top musicians performing today, including members of Bon Jovi and Guns and Roses.

But her true love lies in the world of books. A voracious reader from a young
age, Sharon began reviewing books at the urging of her sister-in-law, who was a
big fan of the Oprah Winfrey Book Club. What began as a simple fun attempt at
sharing her views of books she enjoyed has developed into a work of passion for
Sharon. In addition to being a senior book reviewer for the Times Record News,
Sharon is also a regular guest contributor for the Las Vegas Review Journal’s
Book Nook, as well as having written for several other publications.

A distant relative of the great Edgar Allan Poe, Sharon has a fondness for
mysteries, especially those of the cozy kind. In her new column, Sharon’s Cozy
Corner, Sharon hopes to bring news of the latest in the cozy mystery genre, as
well as insightful interviews with the authors who write them.