Book picks similar to
The Locked Room Murder by Nancy McGovern
cozy-mystery
mystery
cozy-mysteries
first-in-series
Resort to Homicide: A Merrifield Mystery Novella
Christine Chianti - 2016
Giving in to her brother's request, she goes to visit his new island resort during a special weekend for the investors. Spending time at Rim Runners should have been the perfect prescription to help rebuild her life, but the mood at the resort is like the weather-stormy. As hurricane Anna cuts them off from the mainland, tempers flare resulting in threats and sabotage. When the body of one of the guests is found, Laura is forced to rely on her training to find the killer before the storm lets up and they can slip away.
Happiness is a Smoking Gun
Alaine Allister - 2016
An eccentric aunt. An unsolved murder.Out of work reporter Clarissa Spencer is being stalked by a stray cat. She can't cook to save her life, her garden is an overgrown mess and her chocolate chip cookie addiction is out of control. Then to top it all off, she gets struck by lightning.Clarissa thinks she has it bad - until she learns the town mayor has been murdered. Okay, so it could be worse...Clarissa makes it her mission to expose the true killer before her arch nemesis - an infuriatingly handsome reporter from the city newspaper - can. Unfortunately, solving a murder is easier said than done...especially with the lunacy in Clarissa's life!
Trudy, Madly, Deeply
Wendy Delaney - 2013
With no physical evidence of foul play, Char's on the case, much to the irritation of Detective Steve Sixkiller, who doesn't want her to stick her pretty nose for trouble in his investigation. But she's a woman on a mission to uncover the truth, and she'd better keep her eyes open or the next body on the way to the morgue could be hers....
Murder in the Manor
Fiona Grace - 2019
She needs to quit her job, leave her horrendous boss and New York City, and walk away from the fast life. Making good on her childhood promise to herself, she decides to walk away from it all, and to relive a beloved childhood vacation in the quaint English seaside town of Wilfordshire.Wilfordshire is exactly as Lacey remembers it, with its ageless architecture, cobblestone streets, and with nature at its doorstep. Lacey doesn’t want to go back home—and spontaneously, she decides to stay, and to give her childhood dream a try: she will open her own antique shop.Lacey finally feels that her life is taking a step in the right direction—until her new star customer turns up dead.As the newcomer in town, all eyes are on Lacey, and it’s up to her to clear her own name.With a business to run, a next-door neighbor turned nemesis, a flirty baker across the street, and a crime to solve – is this new life all that Lacey thought it would be?
A Murder in Hope's Crossing
Brooke Shelby - 2019
Relocating to the idyllic New England town of Hope’s Crossing, where her family has settled since its founding, should be a welcome refresh. Aunt Clara is eager to retire and hand Maggie the keys to her store. And her new home might even help Maggie awaken her family’s rumored witchy powers. Maggie’s plans have all the makings of a spell for success—until the sorcery turns sour. Not long after the move, Aunt Clara is murdered in retaliation for an act of charity. Since Maggie inherits Clara’s small fortune, shop, and home, all eyes turn to her. With no witnesses and no suspects with an obvious motive, Maggie is framed as the perfect killer. Proving her own innocence is an uphill battle, especially when other descendants of Salem Witch Trial survivors like her are under constant threat and persecution in the pious town. To clear her name, Maggie will have to draw on the kindness of a few quirky residents, her aunt’s crafty cat, and her own blossoming supernatural powers. With a deadly criminal on the loose, the newest witch in town might be the best chance Hope’s Crossing has to defeat murder with magic…
Quiet the Dead
Morgan James - 2011
AND PSYCHIC CLUES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE...Promise McNeal is startled awake one night by a jarring dream: she sees a beautiful woman, hanging over a shallow creek, strangled to death with a red scarf. An unsettling image to say the least for a woman who recently left her lucrative job as a psychologist in bustling Atlanta for the mountains of North Carolina, hoping for some peace and quiet. Promise begins to dig into the mystery surrounding the woman’s murder…until a brand new murder occurs. And Promise’s hoped-for peace and quiet flies right out the window. Promise has always been a little psychic, and a little embarrassed about it. But here in the mountains, the effect seems magnified. Now making her living as a struggling country-store owner, she has to rely on her psychologist’s knowledge of what makes people tick to make her way through the thicket of intrigue within the family of the dead woman. Along the way, she makes a surprising art world find, and starts to fall in love (maybe, just a little…) with a very attractive new man...Her tentative relationship with Daniel, the father of Susan, her semi-Goth, twenty-something employee, is one of the major delights of this slightly psychic cozy mystery. Both Daniel and Susan are renowned bluegrass musicians and, well…characters. Despite what's right in front of her nose (and what Susan tells her), Promise’s psychic abilities fail her when it comes to mountain men—because Daniel is most definitely “sweet on her,” as Susan attests. And, true to form, opposites attract here—alien as he may seem to this city girl, something deeper’s responding.Meanwhile, there’s that murder mystery. Daniel, despite his endearing overprotectiveness, is able to help out there too, and so is Susan. Meanwhile, Promise’s amusingly sexist friend, Garland Wang, provides just the right dash of humor.The fiftyish Promise is an attractive new female sleuth who’s sure to appeal to fans of cozies, especially those by Julia Spencer-Fleming and Louise Penny, and those with a light sprinkling of psychic suspense; admirers of amateur sleuths and their close sisters female private investigators; readers of supernatural suspense and psychic detective fiction of all sorts; and especially to fans of other great North Carolina mystery authors like Margaret Maron, Barbara Neely, Elizabeth Daniels Squire, and Vicki Lane.
Then There Were Nun
Dakota Cassidy - 2018
Okay, that’s a lot to swallow at once. But it’s true I was booted from the convent after doing something unspeakable. Something I had no control over. Something that lives inside me to this day, exploding out like that chestburster in Alien when I least suspect it. But I have help. My amazing friend Coop—the demon who saved me from an ugly end—remains by my side, loyal and true. She was Hell’s best tattoo artist back in the day, and together with my designs, we’re opening Inkerbelle’s Tattoos and Piercings, right in the heart of Portland’s most darling district, Cobbler Cove. Of course, our bid to fit in would be a little less rocky if I could help Coop assimilate with humans, keep a lid on our sassy talking owl, Livingston…oh, and if someone hadn’t killed our landlord on day one—in our shop. This mystery-loving, bumbling ex-nun and her trusty demon sidekick are on the case! If I don’t bumble my way right into my own demise first… This new cozy mystery series from USA Today bestselling cozy mystery author Dakota Cassidy is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat as Trixie and Coop hunt for a killer. Then There Were Nun is book 1 in the all new, Nun of Your Business series.
The Witching on the Wall
Constance Barker - 2016
The celebrity grew up in the town near the Seven Caves and was about to reveal the secret writings on their walls. But something murderous lurks within the Caves and Bailey is about to discover that she is one part of that secret. Find out what happens as Bailey and her friends, Avery and Piper, discover that even a small town has a treasure trove of secrets, and some of them are magical, while others are sinister.
A Pie to Die for
Stacey Alabaster - 2016
When the police doubt her story of innocence, she has no choice but to find the real killer. With carefree best friend, Pippa, Rachael sets out on a mission to save her bakery, but it could ultimately cost her and her best friend everything. This is the first installment in the Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery series. Each book is a stand alone story, but your enjoyment of each story will be increased if you read them all. A Pie to Die For Donuts, Antiques and Murder Death by Chocolate Cake
A Dead End
Keeley Bates - 2015
Blackballed by the producers of her hit TV show, she returns home to the affluent town of Westdale, chock full of Mayflower descendants, to enroll in college and lead a quiet life...until she discovers a skeleton in her house. Kit quickly finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation led by the handsome detective, Romeo Moretti. With the help of her new neighbors, Kit channels her former character, hotshot detective Ellie Gold, in order to solve the murder so she can get back to renovating her house and avoiding the Mayflower Madam, who also happens to be her hypercritical, gin-swilling mother. Saints & Strangers cozy mystery series: Book 1: A Dead End Book 2: The Deep End Book 3: The Bitter End
Witch on Ice
Cat Larson - 2019
And you thought you had problems.Hi, my name is Sammara Eve Hain and I don’t admit that to just anyone.Especially the witch part.If it were up to me, I would’ve been born into a nice, normal family. One that went camping on weekends and played board games and watched television.Not one that spent their Saturday nights cackling around a cauldron and turning people into frogs.Okay, that’s an exaggeration. They don’t cackle.But they’re definitely not normal. And the frog thing?May I introduce my fiancé, Fernando? Mr. Short, Green, and Bewitched. Courtesy of my sister.All I ever wanted when I left my small town of Bigfoot Bay thirteen years ago was to disappear into the big city and lead an ordinary life.I never expected to return.And when I stumbled upon my childhood nemesis frozen solid inside a wall of ice, I never expected I’d be forced to stay.With my betrothed frog at my side and no sister in sight.** Witch on Ice is the first in a new humorous cozy mystery series. Suitable for all ages. **
Flea Market Fatal
Brianna Bates - 2016
Too bad she also just found the owner of said cabinet dead in his house. She hasn’t seen her high school sweetheart, Tyler Brock, in years, and under normal circumstances she’d be excited to reconnect with him. But these aren’t normal circumstances because Missy is the prime suspect in the town’s first murder in years. Now with the help of her best friend, Noreen, and her mother (assuming Mom will actually share everything with her), Missy must prove her innocence and find the killer. But as she delves deeper into the investigation she uncovers some shocking secrets about the town, and her own family. Can this big, beautiful woman find the killer in time…and still be ready for the Flea Market? Flea Market Fatal is the first in the new Missy DeMeanor cozy mystery series. Look for Book Club Bloodshed, Diet Club Death, and Scrapbooking Slaying also.
A Veiled Deception
Annette Blair - 2009
At the engagement party, the ‘Jezebel’ trying to steal Sherry’s fiancé is found strangled with a bridal veil, making Sherry the prime suspect. Besides seeking the real killer, Maddie alters Sherry’s vintage wedding gown, worn by generations of the groom’s family, and something odd happens. The gown gives Maddie visions, clues to the past . . . and the murder? Maddie learns she’s psychometric, a psychic gift she inherited from her late mother, who was a broom-carrying witch, it turns out. What other gifts did she inherit? When not sleuthing, Maddie acquires the old Underhill Funeral Chapel Carriage House, including Dante Underhill, a chatty debonair ghost in tux and top hat, who can’t seem to leave the building. Watch out Mystic, Connecticut! Here comes Vintage Magic, a shop for vintage couture and designer originals, featuring a psychic sleuth, a hunk of a ghost, with a sprinkle of magic thrown in for ‘charm.’
Red Picket Fences
Daphne McLean - 2019
As a stay-at-home mom, the only danger she comes across is in the true-crime novels she devours at night.But when a house fire results in the death of her two neighbors, Jennifer discovers that things are not always what they seem.By poking her nose in where it doesn’t belong, she puts herself up against a local police chief eager to close the case, a husband desperate to keep her safe, and a killer who wants her out of the way.This cozy mystery begs the question, “How well do you know your neighbors?”Get your copy today!Book One: Red Picket FencesBook Two: Body in the BegoniasBook Three: Death at a Dinner PartyBook Four: Death on Rugosa Bay
Mattress Mart Murder
Kayla Michelle - 2015
Thirty-four year old cosmetics saleswoman Chloe Cook is busy searching for a love that lasts in the tourist town of Cape Cod when a murder strikes.The victim is Marty Diamond, a mattress mogul known for his high pressure sales tactics and schlocky TV ads.Unfortunately, the local police detective suspects that Chloe's good friend Kristina Miller is the killer.To prove Kristina's innocence, Chloe has to take matters into her own hands and find the real killer herself.Books In The Chloe Cook Series:Book 1 -- Mattress Mart MurderBook 2 -- Reunions Can Be DeadlyBook 3 -- Killer Finale