Book picks similar to
Hook, Line and Stinker by Maggie West


mystery
cozy-mystery
cozy-mysteries
fiction

Rosemary's Gravy


Melissa F. Miller - 2015
    But then, plans have a way of going out the window when a girl learns her parents have skipped town, leaving behind a half-million-dollar debt. Rosemary makes the best of her situation, putting up with her boss's diva antics and halfheartedly fending off the advances of the impossibly sexy stepson who comes with the high-paying gig. Then someone decides to kill the miserable movie star. It's bad news for any chef when a client dies from an allergic reaction after eating your cooking. It's even worse news for Rosemary because the police are determined to charge her with murder. To restore her reputation (and stay out of prison), Rosemary has to find the real murderer--and fast. Her short list of suspects includes a womanizing race car driver, a powerful music producer, Hollywood's hottest leading man, and, oh yeah, Felix, the dead woman's stepson--which gets a little awkward when Rosemary starts dating him. Unfortunately, everything Rosemary thought she knew is wrong--dead wrong. After a romantic dinner with Felix ends in food poisoning, she finds herself unattached, unemployed, and once again on the wrong side of the LAPD. She knows how to salvage an oversalted sauce, but can she salvage the disaster that is her life? And will the hunky homicide detective help her--or book her? ROSEMARY'S GRAVY is the first book in the We Sisters Three series, the new romantic comedic mystery series from Melissa F. Miller, the USA TODAY Bestselling Author of the Sasha McCandless legal thriller series and the Aroostine Higgins legal thriller series.

A Murderous Valentine (Admiral Shackleford Mystery #1)


Beverley Watts - 2021
    Having been instrumental in improving the lives of so many (his words - others might be inclined to call it something slightly different...), he was struggling to reignite the spark in his own love life with the feisty Mabel. Short on ideas, he decides to gatecrash his much put upon former Master At Arms and best friend Jimmy Noon's Valentine idea and ends up in the middle of a murder mystery weekend... where real murder is on someone else's script. Stranded in the middle of nowhere with a hotel full of potential murderers, the unstoppable duo embark on a series of blundering escapades in an attempt to uncover the Murderous Valentine... The Admiral and Jimmy may be more Laurel and Hardy than Holmes and Watson, but can they catch a murderer...? This humorous cozy mystery short read is the first in The Admiral Shackleford Mysteries.

An Appointment with Murder


Jennifer L. Jennings - 2011
    She checks her room. Everything is ready as she waits for her client Jeff Gardner to arrive. However, the night does not proceed as planned when Sarah discovers a shocking reality. A dead body. Terrified, Sarah finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation. But, who can she trust when it becomes apparent that the crime is not what it seems.

An Ace and A Pair


Blake Banner - 2017
    But he’s a dinosaur who belongs to another age. Detective Carmen Dehan has such a bad attitude that nobody at the precinct can stomach her. Captain Jennifer Cuevas wants them both out of the way and thinks they make a perfect pair. So she gives them the Cold Cases file – the cases nobody gives a damn about.She has no idea just how hot a cold case can get.Ten years back Nelson Hernandez and his four cousins were playing poker in a dive at Hunts Point. Somebody came in, blew them away and beheaded and castrated Nelson, leaving his head and his balls on the table. There was no shortage of suspects, the Jersey Mob, the Triads from Manhattan, or the 43rds own bent cop, Mick Harragan. But nobody was ever charged, and the night of the murder Mick Harragan went missing with Nelson’s wife, Maria.Now Stone and Dehan plan to find him – whatever the consequences…

Murder In Half Moon Bay


Nancy Jill Thames - 2010
    But a startling discovery draws Jillian and her garden club friends into solving a mystery that threatens her life and changes her future.The unlikely team helps the chief uncover a series of mysterious events that lead to solving several murders, both past and present. Could it be the mean spirited conference director? Perhaps it's the wealthy widow on the make for her next husband; or maybe the killer is the haughty business woman who shows no regard for her brow beaten husband.“Murder in Half Moon Bay,” Book 1 in The Jillian Bradley Mystery Series, introduces Jillian's little companion Teddy, a Yorkie who falls prey to danger but rises to become a sleuth dog in the next book.

Hollywood Homicide : The First Detective by Day Humorous Mystery


Kellye Garrett - 2017
    All the semi-famous, mega-broke black actress wants is to help her parents keep their house. After witnessing a deadly hit-and-run, she figures pursuing the fifteen-grand reward isn’t the craziest thing a Hollywood actress has done for some cash.But what starts as simply trying to remember a speeding car soon blossoms into a full-on investigation. As Dayna digs deeper into the victim’s life, she wants more than just reward money. She’s determined to find the poor woman’s killer too. When she connects the accident to a notorious Hollywood crime spree, Dayna chases down leads at paparazzi hot spots, celeb homes and movie premieres. She loves every second—until someone tries to kill her.And there are no second takes in real life.

Picking Lemons


J.T. Toman - 2013
    When Professor Edmund de Beyer is found in his office strangled to death by his own PhD hood, the police don't have to look any further than his colleagues in the Economics Department for suspects. After all, Edmund was the most despised faculty member in the department. CJ Whitmore, the department's only tenured female (who also has a penchant for wearing pink-cowboy-boots to class), resolves to get to the bottom of the mystery using economic principles. Comparing tracking down murder suspects to selecting a used car, she attempts to discern the real deals from the "lemons." That is, which suspects are really telling the truth and which are lying to protect their guilt? Will CJ be able to pick the lemon before her clever adversary strike again?

Rear-View Murder


Willow Monroe - 2015
    The used car salesman he finds sells her more than a Honda, though, and now Gemma has a dead body in the trunk, a sneaking suspicion of murder, and an entire police force who thinks that the victim is just another hooker. Gemma knows better, and her search for answers takes her to the roughest part of town and inside the world of pimps, dirty senators, and one oddly threatening blues singer. Somebody murdered poor young Opal, and Gemma is determined to catch her killer.Genre: Cozy MysteryLength: 30,000 wordsRead the series in order:Rear-view MurderMall Santa MurderMansions can be MurderCupid’s Corpse

Dixie Divas


Virginia Brown - 2009
    "Where? Mexico? Paris? In Tupelo with a cocktail waitress?" "In your closet," I answered. "Dead." Break out the hoop skirts and the zinfandel. The Divas are on the case. Wine. Chocolate. Transvestite strippers. Just another good-time get-together for the Dixie Divas of historic Holly Springs, Mississippi, where moonlight and magnolias mingle with delicious small-town scandal. But Eureka "Trinket" Truevine, the newest Diva, gets more than she bargained for when she finds her best Diva girlfriend Bitty Hollandale's ex-husband in Bitty's hall closet. He's dead. Very dead. Now Trinket and the Divas have to help Bitty finger the murderer and clear her name. Virginia Brown is the nationally acclaimed, award-winning author of fifty novels.

Heart Raider


Sophia Knightly - 2013
    A scorching summer. Danger lurks... After a raging media storm nearly destroys him, financial whiz Nick Cameron finds himself isolated and laying low on a barrier island off the Florida coast, far away from the reporters and scandals that threaten him. But when little Ronnie Whitcomb shows up on his doorstep, all grown up and breathtakingly beautiful, he tries to deny his feelings for her. Fate intervenes when a hurricane strands them on the island together, and suddenly, keeping Ronnie at arm's length becomes almost impossible. But daredevil TV reporter Veronique Whitcomb has an agenda of her own -- an agenda that could quite possibly get her killed. Recalling the hunky boy who rescued her at summer camp, Ronnie knows there's more to Nick than the hot and juicy scandal he's embroiled in, and she is determined to get the exclusive interview with him that will expose the real criminal. Whether Nick likes it or not, Ronnie refuses to sit by while the world slanders the most honorable and decent man she's ever known...and loved.THE HEARTTHROB SERIES: Book 1: Heart Raider (Nick and Veronique) Book 2: Heart Melter (Ian and Natasha) Book 3: Heart Tamer (Alec and Kate) Book 4: Heart Hunter (Cameron and Evie) Book 5: Heart Tempter (Leo and Teddy)

Maids of Misfortune


M. Louisa Locke - 2009
    Annie’s husband squandered her fortune before committing suicide five years earlier, and one of his creditors is now threatening to take the boardinghouse she owns to pay off a debt. Annie Fuller also has a secret. She supplements her income by giving domestic and business advice as Madam Sibyl, one of San Francisco’s most exclusive clairvoyants, and one of Madam Sibyl’s clients, Matthew Voss, has died. The police believe his death was suicide brought upon by bankruptcy, but Annie believes Voss has been murdered and that his assets have been stolen. Nate Dawson has a problem. As the Voss family lawyer, he would love to believe that Matthew Voss didn't leave his grieving family destitute. But that would mean working with Annie Fuller, a woman who alternatively attracts and infuriates him as she shatters every notion he ever had of proper ladylike behavior. Sparks fly as Anne and Nate pursue the truth about the murder of Matthew Voss in this light-hearted, cozy historical mystery set in the foggy gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco. Maids of Misfortune is the first book in M. Louisa Locke’s historical mystery series, see also, Uneasy Spirits, and Bloody Lessons, as well as the two short stories based on the characters from the novels, Dandy Detects, and The Misses Moffet Mend a Marriage.

Cutthroat Cupcakes


Cate Lawley - 2021
    Now, if only the wizard detective assigned to the case weren't such a distraction.Cutthroat Cupcakes is a magical witch culinary cozy with a touch of romance, the first of three books in the Cursed Candy Mysteries series!

Checkered Crime


Tonya Kappes - 2014
    Orphaned and with one heckuva checkered past, she’s grown street smart and no one is going to tell her different, even if it means getting tangled up with the wrong side of the law. After terrorizing Walnut Grove, Kentucky all her adolescent life, she’s back and she’s ready to go on the up and up. Make something of herself. Prove the citizens of Walnut Grove wrong and make them admit she’s somebody. But when mobster Trigger Finger Tony Cardozza jumps in the back of Laurel London’s car mistaking it for a taxi, she’s up to her ears in no good. Recently fired and checkbook in the red, when Trigger offers to pay Laurel large wads of cash to drive him where he needs to go and keep her mouth shut, she’s all in. That is, until FBI agent Jax Jackson jumps in the back of Laurel London’s car threatening to take her to jail for her past crimes if she doesn’t cooperate with the FBI by going undercover to help bring down the mob. Laurel finds herself battling the past and good vs evil and she’s not sure which is more deadly.

In Deep Shitake


Patricia Mason - 2012
    Take one devastatingly handsome movie star.Add one outrageously sexy female private eye with a penchant for food-word obscenities.Mix in a dose of mistaken identity and a handful of Russian mobsters...And they're all In Deep Shitake.

Rest In Pieces


Katie Graykowski - 2015
    She’s a feisty, single mom living in the small town of Lakeside, Texas where money does buy happiness and keeping up appearances is much more important than the truth. Six months ago on her thirtieth birthday, her husband decided that married life, fatherhood, and his job as the Lakeside Chief of Police weren’t as exciting as a permanent vacation to Grand Cayman with his mistress and a million dollars in diamonds he stole from the police evidence lockup. Mustang is a pariah in a Lakeside full of piranha. But she refuses to leave—this is her home, and she figures that if she can’t join them, then she’ll beat them at their own game. With a little luck, some intimidation, and the help of her good friends Monica and Haley, Mustang presides over her own little slice of Lakeside, the Bee Creek Elementary Parent Teacher Organization. All is quiet in Lakeside until Molly Miars, the kindergarten teacher, is found dead. According to the new police chief, she overdosed on heroin. That doesn’t explain why her head was the only body part to make it to her funeral. Mustang and her follow PTOers don’t buy the heroin overdose for a second. Vowing to do right by Molly, the PTO decides to investigate. Quickly they find that Lakeside isn’t the quiet, sleepy town it appears to be. There is a dark side—money laundering and drug trafficking. When Mustang’s name turns up on a contract killer’s hit list, things go from bad to worse. Can she and the PTO stay alive long enough to find out who killed Molly Miars?