Book picks similar to
Melted Memories by Constance Barker


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Prawn of the Dead


Dakota Cassidy - 2017
    I live in the tiny tourist town of Fig Harbor, Washington with my adorably neurotic best friend, Coco Belinski, my a-little-left- of-center (read totally out there) mom, May, and my troublemaking pet monkey, Jessica Fletcher.Oh, and last but certainly not least, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool amateur sleuth. Yep. I'm literally incapable of resisting a good mystery. No matter how great or small, I love to stick my nose into...er, help solve a crime. From the mysterious disappearance of Ho Hos in my store, to a lost piece of jewelry, I'm always ready to put on my Sherlock Holmes cap (I really do have one. Got it when I was eight).When I find my mother's ex-boyfriend murdered in our convenience store bathroom with a piece of his skull missing, and my mom's a suspect in a murder investigation, my mystery solving goes from zero to a hundred. To really make matters worse, the town's local conspiracy theorist and official doomsday prepper, Cappie somehow finds out the victim isn't just missing a piece of his skull--he's missing a piece of his brain!And that's when off the wall Cappie starts spreading word the zombie apocalypse has officially arrived in our tiny burg. Total chaos ensues and I have to pick my way through everything from weekend warrior zombie hunters to medical mysteries in order to catch a killer!"This contemporary cozy mystery has it all, from the local doomsday prepper to an out of control pet monkey, a mother who would drive a saint to drink, and of course a dead body in the bathroom. Prawn of the Dead is a laugh-out-loud thrill ride that will keep you guessing from start to finish.

The Diva Runs Out of Thyme


Krista Davis - 2008
    Natasha may have stolen the spotlight, and Sophie's husband, but Sophie is determined to rob her of the prize for the Stupendous Stuffing Shakedown. She just needs the right ingredient.But Sophie's search for the perfect turkey takes a basting when she stumbles across a corpse. And when the police find her name and photo inside the victim's car, Sophie will have to set her trussing aside to solve the murder, or she'll be serving up prison grub.

Fowl Play


P. Bodi - 2016
    All of her customers and their pets are like family. It had been a typical day at Pet Palace. Leah was going to meet some friends for dinner where she suddenly finds out one her customers had been found dead at home. Was it from natural causes or could it have been murder?

Sewing Suspicion: A Quilting Cozy Mystery (Quilting Cozy Mysteries Book 1)


Kathryn Mykel - 2021
    

Pushing Up Daisies


Katherine Hayton - 2018
    Instead, she ends up with a dead body on her doorstep! When the murder victim is revealed as her 'kind-of' boyfriend, the finger of blame points squarely at Willow. To avoid a murder charge, she needs to track down the real killer. Believing that the local Aniseed Valley sheriff is unequal to the challenge, Willow sets about clearing her name. She must also decide the fate of a gifted Maine Coon kitten, who's set her allergies ablaze. As the net tightens, Willow draws on the book-smarts of best friend Harmony and conspiracy-laden facts from second-best friend Reg to help solve the crime. And, of course, she can always rely on handy hints from her favorite TV show of all time - Miss Walsham Investigates! Tea Shop Cozy Mysteries are quick 1-2 hour reads, perfect for filling in time waiting for appointments, commuting to work, or when your significant other insists on watching a TV show that makes you roll your eyes! These books contain no swearing, no gore, no cliffhangers, and no graphic scenes.

Death by Dumpling


Vivien Chien - 2018
    . .The last place Lana Lee thought she would ever end up is back at her family’s restaurant. But after a brutal break-up and a dramatic workplace walk-out, she figures that a return to the Cleveland area to help wait tables is her best option for putting her life back together. Even if that means having to put up with her mother, who is dead-set on finding her a husband.Lana’s love life soon becomes yesterday’s news once the restaurant’s property manager, Mr. Feng, turns up dead―after a delivery of shrimp dumplings from Ho-Lee. But how could this have happened when everyone on staff knew about Mr. Feng’s severe, life-threatening shellfish allergy? Now, with the whole restaurant under suspicion for murder and the local media in a feeding frenzy―to say nothing of the gorgeous police detective who keeps turning up for take-out―it’s up to Lana to find out who is behind Feng’s killer order. . . before her own number is up.

Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse


Maddie Day - 2019
    Was it something in Robbie's hot cocoa that killed Jed, or was it Cocoa the dog? As the suspects pile as high as her holiday tree, Robbie attempts to get to the bottom of the sickly-sweet murder...

Pineapple Lies


Amy Vansant - 2015
    Golf cart racing with her surrogate mothers Mariska and Darla was about as nutty as life got...until she found the hot pawnbroker's mom buried in her backyard. Talk about making a lousy first impression. Armed with nothing but her wits, Pineapple Port's questionable cast of characters and a growing crush, Charlotte is determined to solve the mystery of Declan's mother's murder. Hey, at least this guy's skeletons aren't in his closet.

Come Hell or Highball


Maia Chance - 2015
    As it turns out, all she inherits from Alfie is a big pile of debt. Pretty soon, Lola and her stalwart Swedish cook, Berta, are reduced to hiding out in the secret love nest Alfie kept in New York City. But when rent comes due, Lola and Berta have no choice but to accept an offer made by one of Alfie’s girls-on-the-side at his funeral: in exchange for a handsome sum of money, the girl wants Lola to retrieve a mysterious reel of film for her. It sounds like an easy enough way to earn the rent money. But Lola and Berta realize they’re in way over their heads when, before they can retrieve it, the man currently in possession of the film reel is murdered, and the reel disappears. On a quest to retrieve the reel and solve the murder before the killer comes after them next, Lola and Berta find themselves navigating one wacky situation after another in high style and low company.Charming, witty, often laugh-out-loud funny, Maia Chance's Come Hell or Highball introduces a sparkling new voice in crime fiction.

A Dark and Stormy Murder


Julia Buckley - 2016
    Not only will she help her idol craft an enchanting new mystery, she’ll get to live rent-free in Camilla’s gorgeous Victorian home in the quaint town of Blue Lake, Indiana.   But Lena’s fortune soon changes for the worse. First, she lands in the center of small town gossip for befriending the local recluse. Then, she stumbles across one thing that a Camilla Graham novel is never without—a dead body, found on her new boss’s lakefront property.   Now Lena must take a page out of one of Camilla’s books to hunt down clues in a real crime that seems to be connected to the novelist’s mysterious estate—before the killer writes them both out of the story for good...

Death by Pink Flamingo


Elisabeth Crabtree - 2014
    Everyone in Hatter’s Cove is talking about her. They’re convinced she knocked off her sweet and kindly old uncle for her inheritance and if that weren’t bad enough, one person seems determined to make her pay for her supposed crime. Sylvia Sutton, her business partner and the other co-owner of the hotel, will stop at nothing to prove Anna’s guilt. Despite Anna’s love and affection for her Uncle Max, Sylvia’s convinced that Anna is a cold blooded murderer and has made it quite clear to anyone that will listen that she will put Anna behind bars if it’s the last thing she does. So, when Anna stumbles upon Sylvia’s dead body in the middle of the night and accidentally puts her fingerprints all over the murder weapon, there seems to be only one logical thing to do . . . bury the body and pretend she didn’t see anything. At least, that’s what her ex-boyfriend thinks. The same ex she’s loved since grade school. The same ex who left without saying good bye nine years ago. The same ex who suddenly reappeared that day. And the same ex who seems awfully anxious to get rid of the body.

Clammed Up


Barbara Ross - 2013
    But that was before a catered wedding on picturesque Morrow Island turned into a reception for murder. When the best man’s corpse is found hanging from the grand staircase in the Snowden family mansion, Julia must put the chowder pot on the back burner and join the search for the killer. And with suspicion falling on her old crush, Chris Durand, the recipe for saving her business and salvaging her love life might be one and the same.

Little Bookshop of Murder


Maggie Blackburn - 2020
    Academic life at her Virginia university is a viper's pit, so Summer spends her summer in England, researching a scholarly paper that, with any luck, will finally get her published, impress the Dean, and save her job. But her English idyll ends when her mother, Hildy, shuffles off her mortal coil from an apparent heart attack. Returning to Brigid's Island, NC, for the funeral, Summer is impatient to settle the estate, sell her mom's embarrassingly romance-themed bookstore, Beach Reads, and go home. But as she drops by Beach Reads, Summer finds threatening notes addressed to Hildy: "Sell the bookstore or die."Clearly, something is rotten on Brigid's Island. What method is behind the madness? Was Hildy murdered? The police insist there's not enough evidence to launch a murder investigation. Instead, Summer and her Aunt Agatha screw their courage to the sticking place and start sleuthing, with the help of Hildy's beloved book club. But there are more suspects on Brigid's Island than are dreamt of in the Bard's darkest philosophizing. And if Summer can't find the villain, the town will be littered with a Shakespearean tragedy's worth of corpses--including her own.