February and March Cozy Mystries

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!