Book picks similar to
Wedding Cake Wipe Out by Donna Doyle


mystery-cozy
first-in-series
mystery
fiction

In for a Penny


Kelsey Browning - 2013
    Desperate to keep up the family name and give the man a decent burial, penniless Lil cooks up a shady deal that lands her smack-dab in the slammer.Burdened by her shameful secret and a crumbling family estate, Lil entrusts Summer Haven’s care to her best friend, Maggie, who recruits two more over-fifty ladies to help. But when Maggie discovers that Lil’s restitution is ten times the amount she “borrowed” from the federal government, she’s convinced Lil has taken the fall for someone else’s crime.Will these gals be able to get some vigilante justice for Lil, or will the swindler get away with hoodwinking a sweet little old lady?Recipes included!(Originally published as In for a Penny in the Granny/G Team series)

Dream Stalker


Amy Hopkins - 2016
    He's targeting half-bloods, people with limited magical ability. People just like Emma. The police are baffled by the long string of deaths, but they're not willing to put in the legwork to make an arrest. After all, magic users can take care of themselves, right? Except, those with real power don't give a damn about half-bloods. So, when Emma wakes from a strange dream that nearly gets her killed in the waking world, she knows she has to deal with it herself. With only her boggart shop-assistant and the two strange men who have offered to help, can she thwart the killer and make the city safe again?

Murder Under Construction


Maddie Cochere - 2014
    She wants two things in life - a new career as a private investigator, and to lose the sixty pounds she packed on after her divorce.When she crashes her bike in a construction site, she lands on a girl with a large knife in her chest. Jo enlists her sister, Pepper, and their journalist friend, Jackie, to help solve the dead girl's murder. Things become creepy for Jo when the murdered girl appears in her dreams to offer unusual clues to her death.Murder Under Construction is a humorous mystery with Jo's family adding to the antics of the three women. Mama caterwauls, Jackie's two children offer sleuthing assistance, and her brother, Hank, laughs at all of them from the sidelines. Murder Under Construction is light, easy-breezy reading from Maddie Cochere.

Secrets Come Home


Samantha Price - 2020
    During building repairs, the dreadful discovery is made.When it comes to light that the former owner of the home and the victim were once engaged to marry, the police piece together a scenario where Ettie's friend is the killer.Ettie knows her friend is innocent and sets out to prove it.Could an old key found in the house change everything?Secrets Come Home is the first book in the Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries series. A series full of quirky characters that has delighted lovers of clean, light-hearted mysteries for years.

Murder in Starry Cove


Lucinda Harrison - 2021
    Will this be the new beginning she so desperately wants, or will the mysteries and secrets of this small town bring it all crashing down?After Poppy unexpectedly inherits her uncle’s Victorian mansion in Starry Cove, she makes grand plans to open a bed-and-breakfast. But when the local handyman winds up dead and the bodies start to pile up, Poppy’s recent arrival in the town raises eyebrows and sets tongues wagging. To make matters worse, she soon discovers the mansion has hidden secrets of its own that threaten her very safety.With the help of two faithful new friends, Poppy hatches a plan to track down the killer and clear her name. But can she nab the murderer before one of them becomes the next victim?

French Vanilla & Felonies


Erin Huss - 2018
    She's got a nice home for her daughter, a steady source of income, and the cute maintenance guy is certainly a nice perk! But her luck takes a bad turn again when a dead body turns up, a crime spree takes over the community, and Cambria finds her complex squarely at the center of it all! With her dream job suddenly on the line, Cambria dons her detective hat to get to the truth—after all, she's watched enough crime shows on TV to know how to catch a perp! Or so she hopes as she wades through a streaker in apartment 40, an ex-con with a shady agenda, an overly frisky retired couple, and the suspiciously sneaky dealings of the dentist in apartment 36. But will Cambria be able to catch a killer... or will she get caught up in his game and lose it all?

Seven Lives to Kill


K.M. Waller - 2020
    But when her eccentric Aunt Ginger passes away, she leaves Loretta her prized cat sanctuary. Her aunt's dying wish is that the seven remaining felines are allowed to live out the rest of their days in comfort on the little farm.Recently widowed and ready for a change, Loretta relocates to the town of Saint Wales, Florida to honor her aunt's wishes thinking how hard can it be to look after a few cats.Only, the neighbors aren't exactly hospitable and several have been trying to shut down the sanctuary for years. Worse, someone is out to sabotage the farm by any possible means putting the cats and Loretta in danger. Not only that, a close friend of her aunt's doesn't believe Aunt Ginger died of natural causes.Can Loretta settle into her new role as cat mom and protector while fending off the cat haters and a possible murderer?

Risky Relics


E.Z. Pennington - 2017
    The strange thing is that Pauline had been gone for years, simply disappearing from the face of the earth. Then one day, Becky received a letter via her aunt's lawyer, telling her she'd inherited an antique shop. She wasn't a very impulsive person, but Becky took up the offer, packed up her life and moved to Rose Hollow. Rose Hollow was a tiny town in Maine, wildly wealthy and full of strange residents: there was always something going on. An uncomfortable chill runs just below the surface, belying a community that plays for keeps but plays it closer to the chest. The residents are nice, but nosy and Becky feels sort of out of place after she moves in and re-opens the store that that been closed for years. Then, after one late night, a dead body turns up in Becky's store, and it is up to her to find out who did it or risk losing her store and the new life she's just begun! This Cozy Mystery Novel is packed with quirky characters, rousing romps and a whodunnit that wraps up cleanly. No cliffhangers, no curse words and no obscenity.

The Wickenham Murders


Amy Myers - 2004
    This is the premise on which Peter Marsh – a former policeman invalided out of the force – and his daughter, Georgia, base their investigations into unsolved past murders. In 1929, in the village of Wickenham, Kent, Davy Todd was charged with murdering Amy Proctor, middle-aged daughter of the local doctor. As Marsh & Daughter begin their investigations, a skeleton is found in the woods of Wickenham Manor Hotel. Two seemingly unconnected events – yet Georgia and her father feel intuitively that there must be a link, and together, they set out to find it . . . ‘Fascinating subject matter, cozy characters, and tempting prose highly recommend this first title in an intriguing new British series.’ – Library Journal AMY MYERS has been a full-time writer since 1988, and has written a wide range of novels from historical sagas and contemporary romance to crime. She is married to an American and lives in Kent. Many of her novels have been published under the name of Harriet Hudson. Amy is also the author of the successful Tom Wasp murder mystery series.

Give Me Chocolate


Annie Hansen - 2013
    She accepts her sister's generous offer to live in the apartment above Chocolate Love, her sister's specialty dessert shop in the Historic District of Geneva. Kelly's life starts to turn around when she reconnects with an old flame. Just when it looks like she's getting her life back on track, she stumbles over a dead body. The suspicious death sends her hopes for a better future plummeting. Has her violent past and the danger she faced in California followed her home to Geneva?

All I Got Was The Headache


Anne Avery - 2016
    Literally. Life, for Maxie, has never been the same since. Amelia has rotten taste in clothes, a fondness for single malt scotch, and an annoying penchant for meddling where she’s not wanted. As far as Maxie’s concerned, her fairy godmother’s “assistance” isn’t wanted anywhere, at any time, for any reason whatsoever. Unfortunately for Maxie, when it comes to heeding hints (not to mention demands and outright threats), Amelia has the hide of a rhinoceros—nothing gets through! Maxie is the owner and sole employee of Maxie Peterson Investigations. When she discovers her newest, richest, and (sadly) only client dead on her office floor with her letter opener through his heart, she isn’t surprised to find Amelia’s already on the job—Amelia can always be counted on to be in the middle of things, making them worse. What Maxie isn’t prepared for is the hunky new detective in charge of the case. Ben Trueblood is as hard-nosed as Maxie, and just as determined to find the killer, but he’s got a major advantage—he doesn’t have a fairy godmother making a mess of everything before he even gets started!

True Blue Murder


Elise M. Stone - 2016
    The former librarian has developed her first hybrid, a plant with unusual deep blue flowers, and hopes to win a first place ribbon. Maybe even best in show. But her excitement turns to dread when the aggravating Bette Tesselink, her fiercest rival, turns up dead, and she becomes the logical suspect. There’s never been a murder in the village of Rainbow Ranch, and it soon becomes apparent that the young Chief of Police is in over his head. Under pressure from the mayor, Lilliana is afraid he’ll arrest her in order to close the case. Her only option is to begin her own investigation and find the murderer before she winds up in jail. The first in a new cozy mystery series sure to engage you with its fascinating characters and twisty plot.

New Beginnings & Murder


Lori Woods - 2019
     During a block party in their soon-to-be neighborhood, Marionette and Thomas meet a number of unsavory characters, including an elderly woman referred to by everyone as Na-Na, whose notorious anti-immigrant attitude leaves Marionette feeling frightfully unwelcome. When Na-Na is murdered on their property, Marionette sets out to discover if the killer was really targeting Na-Na or if they had potentially failed in laying a trap for Marionette and Thomas! New Beginnings & Murder is a new spin off series from the Sweet Treats mysteries, which now follows Marionette - Molly Jenn's shop-neighbor, the feisty doll-maker!

Murder & Spice and Everything Nice


Caryn Thomas Mitchell - 2017
    Baby books in the nursery, entertaining books in the dining room and romance reads in the ladies boudoir. It looked like it would work out great right up until the moment that the leader of a local religious cult turned up dead in the driveway. Soon his wife is dead as well.Through no fault of her own, Ivy feels she has to meddle...uh help, investigate. It's not at all because the lead investigator is her high school crush. It's because her livelihood is at stake. After all, who wants to shop at a bookstore where people keep dying? This is a novella, the perfect length to read in an afternoon in your favorite cozy chair.

Murder in the Aisle


Kris Pearson - 2019
    That’s until Vicar Paul and I find Isobel Crombie lying dead in a sea of flowers in the aisle of Saint Agatha’s church. Who’d kill a harmless old girl like her?In no time flat I’ve scored a house-and-pet sitting gig – Isobel’s remote seaside cottage and her two darling dogs. It comes complete with hollyhocks and seagulls and a SEAL from California who looks a lot like a younger Jon Bon Jovi. He's certainly cute, but aren’t his questions about Isobel's house a bit – well, suspicious? Then I find a secret office stuffed with alarming files about car thefts and Black Ops assassins. Maybe Isobel wasn't as harmless as we all thought? Sleuthing’s more fun than I’ve had in ages, but how safe am I on my own now things are unraveling? Little white Bichons are hopeless attack dogs.