Since February is such a short month, I'm showcasing new cozy mysteries
that have come out in February, plus ones that are upcoming in March! There are
so many great reads to choose from – here are a few that caught my eye!
February Highlight Book of the Month:
Joanne Fluke takes her readers on a whirlwind of
mystery solving in her latest Hannah Swenson Mystery, RED VELVET CUPCAKE MURDER.
This time around, bakery shop owner/amateur sleuth Hannah solves not just one,
but two murder mysteries that have turned the small town of Lake Eden upside
down. Fast–paced and lively, this charming story has the intrigue of
mystery and the deliciousness of out–of–this–world recipes
that fans so look forward to each time. I'm a big fan of Joanne Fluke's writing
and always look forward to her creative storytelling, her personable
characters, and her thrilling intrigue in each of her books.
RED VELVET CUPCAKE
MURDER: A Hannah Swenson Mystery By Joanne Fluke Kensington
Books
It's a hot summer evening in Lake Eden, Minnesota – and the Grand
Opening of the refurbished Albion Hotel. Hannah Swensen's famous Red Velvet
cupcakes are being served in the new Red Velvet lounge. The party starts off
with a bang with the arrival of Doctor Bev, who left town in shame after she
two–timed her fiance. But the gossip comes to a screeching halt when
another partygoer takes a dive off the hotel's rooftop garden.
As the police investigate, the only one who isn't preoccupied with the case
is Doctor Bev. She's too busy trying to stir things up with her old flame
Norman, who's reunited with Hannah. Just as Hannah's patience with Bev runs
thin, her rival is found dead at the bottom of Miller's Pond. To everyone's
shock, Hannah is now the target of a murder investigation – and she's
feeling the heat in a way she never has before.
March Highlight Book of the Month:
Another one of my favorite cozy mystery authors, Laura
Childs, continues her delightful Tea Shop Mysteries with SWEET TEA REVENGE. Now, to
me, a cool glass of sweet tea and a charming cozy mystery makes for a wonderful
afternoon of reading, and Laura makes it even more fun with the addition of
luscious recipes and tea tips that she includes with every story. If you are
looking for Southern charm and spine–tingling mystery, this is the book,
and the series for you!
SWEET TEA REVENGE:
A Tea Shop Mystery #14 By Laura Childs Berkley Prime Crime
Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning may always be a bridesmaid, never
a bride, but this groom is never going to make it to the altar...
Theodosia Browning's dear friend, Delaine Dish, has asked her to be a
bridesmaid for her wedding. But when the big day arrives, everything seems to
be going wrong. First, a massive storm is brewing over Charleston. A bad omen?
Second, Delaine's maid of honor is late for the ceremony. And finally, the
groom not only has cold feet—his whole body is cold. A murderer has
crashed the wedding.
As Theodosia comforts a devastated Delaine, she needs to sort out the
suspects on the groom's side from the suspects on the bride's side. One thing
soon becomes apparent—revenge won't be the only dish served cold at this
wedding. And if Theodosia doesn't watch her step, a cold–blooded killer
may have a rude reception in store for her...
February Debut Novel of the Month:
BURIED IN A
BOG: A County Cork Mystery #1 By Sheila Connolly Berkley Prime Crime
National bestselling and Agatha Award–nominated author Sheila Connolly introduces a brand–new series set in a
small village in County Cork, Ireland, where buried secrets are about to rise
to the surface. Honoring the wish of her late grandmother, Maura Donovan visits
the small Irish village where her Gran was born—though she never expected
to get bogged down in a murder mystery. Nor had she planned to take a job in
one of the local pubs, but she finds herself excited to get to know the people
who knew her Gran.
In the pub, she's swamped with drink orders as everyone in town gathers to
talk about the recent discovery of a nearly
one–hundred–year–old body in a nearby bog. When Maura
realizes she may know something about the dead man—and that the body's
connected to another, more recent, death—she fears she's about to become
mired in a homicide investigation. After she discovers the death is connected
to another from almost a century earlier, Maura has a sinking feeling she may
really be getting in over her head.
March Debut Novel of the Month:
THE
CHRISTIE CURSE: A Book Collector Mystery #1 By Victoria Abbott Berkley Prime Crime
In 1926, Agatha Christie disappeared—making headlines across the
world—only to show up eleven days later at a spa under an assumed name.
During those eleven days, did she have time to write a play?
Jordan Kelly needs a new job and a new place to live. She's back in
Harrison Falls, New York, living with her not so law–abiding uncles, in
debt thanks to a credit card–stealing ex and pending grad school loans.
Enter the perfect job, a research position that includes room and board,
which will allow her to spend her days hunting down rare mysteries for an avid
book collector. There's just one problem: her employer, Vera Van Alst—the
most hated citizen of Harrison Falls.
Jordan's first assignment is to track down a rumored Agatha Christie play.
It seems easy enough, but Jordan soon finds out that her predecessor was killed
while looking for it, and there is still someone out there willing to murder to
keep the play out of Vera's hands. Jordan's new job is good...but is it worth
her life?
Other February Titles That You Might Enjoy:
OUT OF
CIRCULATION: A Cat In The Stacks Mystery #4 by Miranda James Berkley Prime Crime
Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the librarian with a
rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel. He's returned to his hometown to immerse
himself in books, but when a feud erupts between the town's richest ladies, the
writing on the wall spells murder.
The Ducote sisters are in a tiff with Vera Cassity over the location of
this year's library fundraising gala, and Charlie would rather curl up in a
corner than get into the fray. It seems everyone—even his housekeeper
Azalea—has it in for Vera. And at the gala, she gives them good reason,
with a public display of rancor aimed at anyone who gets in her way.
But those bitter words wind up being her last. When Charlie discovers
Azalea standing over Vera's dead body, it's up to him—with a little help
from Diesel— to clear Azalea's name, and catch a killer before his last
chapter is finished.
KNOT WHAT IT
SEAMS: A Southern Quilting Mystery #2 By Elizabeth Craig Obsidian Books
When former folk art curator Beatrice Coleman retired to Dappled Hills,
North Carolina, for peace and quiet and quilting, she never expected that
murder would disturb the peace.
Dwindling membership has the Village Quilters hanging by a thread, and
group leader Meadow Downey is desperate to recruit some new folks. With
Beatrice's blessing, she attempts to weave frequent quilt show judge Jo Paxton
into their fold. As the town's irascible mail carrier, Jo delivers trouble
wherever she goes. And with all that mail at her fingertips, she knows
everyone's business. Soon Beatrice wonders if they've made the right choice.
After a car accident sends Jo to meet her Maker, it's discovered someone
tampered with her brakes. Meadow believes someone's out to eradicate the
Village Quilters, but Beatrice isn't so sure. Now she and her fellow quilters
will have to piece together the clues, or a deadly killer might strike again.
TO BRIE
OR NOT TO BRIE: A Cheese Shop Mystery #4 By Avery
Aames Berkley Prime Crime
Murder, revenge, and secrets: Shakespeare has arrived in Providence,
Ohio... Charlotte Bessette—owner of Fromagerie Bessette, known by locals
as The Cheese Shop—has a lot on her plate: setting a date with her
fiancé, feeding the actors in her grandmother's production of Hamlet, and
planning the menu for her best friend and cousin's upcoming wedding. At least
her new creation—sinfully delicious Brie blueberry ice cream—has
turned out perfectly.
Just days before the wedding, a stranger turns up dead in the Igloo Ice
Cream Parlor's freezer, his head bashed with a container of Charlotte's
signature ice cream. But this stranger turns out to be more than he seems, and
his death threatens to unravel all that Charlotte has worked for. She has no
choice but to add one more thing to her to–do list: find the killer
before the villain destroys all that she loves.
CHANCE OF A
GHOST: A Haunted Guesthouse Mystery #4 By E.
J. Copperman Berkley Prime Crime
Alison Kerby's guesthouse is haunted all year round. Surviving the dead of
winter, though? That's a spooky proposition.
Even with a blizzard bearing down on New Jersey, Alison can count on at
least two guests—Paul and Maxie, the stubborn ghosts who share her shore
town inn. Then there's her widowed mother, who hasn't just been seeing ghosts,
she's been secretly dating one: Alison's father. But when he stands her up
three times in a row, something's wrong. Is he a lost soul...or a missing
apparition?
Their only lead is an overdramatic spirit—stage name Lawrence
Laurentz—who doesn't take direction well and won't talk until they find
his killer. Alison will reluctantly play the part of PI, but when the clues
take a sinister turn, the writing is on the wall: If Alison can't keep a level
head, this will be her father's final act—and maybe her own.
ONE HOT
MURDER: A Victoria Square Mystery #3 By Lorraine Bartlett Berkley Prime Crime
Katie Bonner, the reluctant manager of Artisans Alley in the quaint
shopping district of Victoria Square, is no stranger to ambivalence. Things
have been going hot and heavy with pizza maker Andy Rust—so much so that
Katie has moved in over his pizza parlor. But now that summer's ushered in a
heat wave, an apartment above pizza ovens without an air conditioner is making
Katie hot and bothered.
At the height of the heat wave, a tragic fire strikes Victoria Square. Wood
U, a small store selling wooden gifts and small furniture, is destroyed. But
the fire may just be a smoke screen—for murder. A body is found among the
charred wreckage, and the victim didn't die from smoke inhalation. He was shot.
Now— despite making Detective Ray Davenport hot under the
collar—Katie is determined to smoke out a coldhearted killer...
SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES: A Flavia de Luca Mystery By Alan
Bradley Delacorte Press
Eleven–year–old amateur detective and ardent chemist Flavia de
Luce is used to digging up clues, whether they're found among the potions in
her laboratory or between the pages of her insufferable sisters' diaries. What
she is not accustomed to is digging up bodies.
Upon the five–hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred's death, the
English hamlet of Bishop's Lacey is busily preparing to open its patron saint's
tomb. Nobody is more excited to peek inside the crypt than Flavia, yet what she
finds will halt the proceedings dead in their tracks: the body of Mr.
Collicutt, the church organist, his face grotesquely and inexplicably masked.
Who held a vendetta against Mr. Collicutt, and why would they hide him in
such a sacred resting place? The irrepressible Flavia decides to find out. And
what she unearths will prove there's never such thing as an
open–and–shut case.
THE
SOUND OF BROKEN GLASS: A Kincaid and James Mystery By Deborah Crombie William Morrow
In the past . . .
On a blisteringly hot August afternoon in Crystal Palace, once home to the
tragically destroyed Great Exhibition, a solitary thirteen–year–old
boy meets his next–door neighbor, a recently widowed young teacher hoping
to make a new start in the tight–knit South London community. Drawn
together by loneliness, the unlikely pair forms a deep connection that ends in
a shattering act of betrayal.
In the present . . .
On a cold January morning in London, Detective Inspector Gemma James is
back on the job now that her husband, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid,
is at home to care for their three–year–old foster daughter.
Assigned to lead a Murder Investigation Team in South London, she's assisted by
her trusted colleague, newly promoted Detective Sergeant Melody Talbot. Their
first case: a crime scene at a seedy hotel in Crystal Palace. The victim: a
well–respected barrister, found naked, trussed, and apparently strangled.
Is it an unsavory accident or murder? In either case, he was not alone, and
Gemma's team must find his companion—a search that takes them into
unexpected corners and forces them to contemplate unsettling truths about the
weaknesses and passions that lead to murder. Ultimately, they will begin to
question everything they think they know about their world and those they trust
most.
March Titles To Look Forward To:
ASSAULTED
PRETZEL: An Amish Mystery #2 By Laura Bradford Berkley Prime Crime
Claire Weatherly found the simple life she always wanted when she opened a
gift shop in Heavenly, Pennsylvania—a small town in the heart of Amish
country. But when murder disrupts her Heavenly home, it's up to Claire and
Detective Jakob Fisher to find the not–so–simple truth.
The quiet town of Heavenly is buzzing with excitement over the latest
guests at the local inn, Sleep Heavenly. Toy manufacturer Rob Karble is in town
to meet the members of the Amish community who will soon be crafting a new toy
line for his company. But when word gets out that Karble intends to use the
Amish designs without employing the Amish to make them, someone sends the
interloper to his final reward.
No one wants to believe anyone from the Amish community could commit such
an act, but as Claire and Detective Fisher have learned, no one is above
sin—or suspicion.
PEACH
PIES AND ALIBIS: A Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery #2 By Ellery
Adams Berkley Prime Crime
Ella Mae LeFaye's Charmed Pie Shoppe is wildly popular in Havenwood,
Georgia— which is not surprising since Ella Mae can lace her baked goods
with enchantments. The shop's extraordinary success seems destined to continue
when Ella Mae meets an engaged couple who hire her to handle the dessert buffet
at their wedding.
But Ella Mae has a lot on her plate. She is also searching for the origin
of her magical powers—and hoping to determine if the spark of attraction
she feels for the handsome Hugh Dylan is authentic or just her new abilities
gone awry.
Then Ella Mae discovers a high–standing member of the community dead,
and a wedding guest becomes seriously ill at the event she's catering. Now
she'll have to use all her sleuthing skills and culinary talents to prove her
pies don't contain a killer ingredient.
TROUBLE
IN THE TAROT: A Fortune Teller Mystery #3 By Kari Lee Townsend Berkley Prime Crime
For psychic Sunshine Meadows, sometimes fortunes can be deceiving.
Lately Sunny has been experiencing a period of big opportunity: her
business in Divinity, New York, is thriving, and Detective Mitch Stone has
finally agreed to take Sunny on a date. But thanks to her clairvoyant
abilities, Sunny knows better than anyone that life deals out bad cards along
with the good.
When Sunny agrees to read tarot cards at the annual Summer Solstice
Carnival, she meets her Granny Gert's "arch nemesis" Fiona Atwater, and is
overcome by a vision of Fiona in a violent argument. Sunny knows trouble is
brewing when Granny and Fiona start having squabbles all over town. But the
fighting comes to a head when a local baker gets run over by a big white
Cadillac—and Granny and Fiona are found at the crime scene. Sunny knows
she should step aside and let Mitch handle the investigating, but she's not
about to ignore her visions and leave her granny's life in fate's hands.
WAVE
GOOD–BYE: A Southern Beauty Shop Mystery #4 By Lila Dare
Berkley Prime Crime
St. Elizabeth, Georgia, offers charm, Southern hospitality—and the
occasional murder. This time, when a new hair salon tries to steal business,
it's someone's life that gets cut short.
Violetta's salon is up in arms. Business is dead. Snippets, a big box
haircutting chain, has opened in St. Elizabeth, undercutting prices and luring
away loyal customers. Violetta's daughter, hairdresser Grace Terhune, is
shocked to discover that it's her old high school rival Lisa Butterworth who's
behind the big sweep—and Grace isn't going to take this sitting down.
Snippets' cold–blooded prized employee is doing wonders with Violetta's
client list. According to Lisa, it's just business—until a bitter
confrontation leaves Grace more than frustrated, and Lisa less than alive. Now
Grace is the prime suspect in her rival's murder. And only her friends at
Violetta's can save her—before the charge proves permanent.
THE FAMILY
WAY: A Molly Murphy Mystery #12 By Rhys Bowen Minotaur Books
Molly Murphy—now Molly Sullivan—is a year into her marriage,
expecting her first child, and confined to the life of a housewife. She's
restless and irritable in the enforced idleness of pregnancy and the heat of a
New York summer in 1905. So when a trip to the post office brings a letter
addressed to her old detective agency asking her to locate a missing Irish
serving maid, Molly figures it couldn't hurt to at least ask around, despite
her promise to Daniel to give up her old career as a detective. On the same
day, Molly learns that five babies have been kidnapped in the past month.
Refusing to let Molly help with the kidnapping investigation, Daniel sends
her away to spend the summer with his mother. But even in the quiet, leafy
suburbs, Molly's own pending motherhood makes her unable to ignore these
missing children. What she uncovers will lead her on a terrifying journey
through all levels of society, putting her life—and that of her
baby—in danger.
The Family Way, the
latest entry in Rhys Bowen's bestselling Molly Murphy series, will delight fans
and win over newcomers with its elegantly plotted mystery, atmospheric
historical detail, and vivid characters.
I hope that you find something among these titles to keep you busy reading
during these last days of winter and the beginning of spring! Happy cozy
reading, ya'll!
No comments posted.