Book picks similar to
Begonia Means Beware by Lyndsey Cole


mystery
cozy-mystery
cozy-mysteries
ebook

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?

Murder at Stake


Constance Barker - 2017
    One of the regulars at the Old School Diner is found with a stake to the heart. Is the stake from his collapsed barn, or as a couple of conspiracy theorists from the diner speculate...that the dear departed was indeed a vampire and there is a vampire hunter among them. Find out what happens in this new hilarious mystery series where the owner, Mercy, has her hands full with a colorful cast of characters.

Christmas Corpse


Mona Marple - 2020
    When her car skids into a snow bank, she's rescued by a sweet old lady who promises her name is Mrs Claus. Holly is taken to Candy Cane Hollow to recover, and finds herself in a genuine winter wonderland. As Christmas Day approaches, the grouchy medical receptionist appears to have been poisoned by a mince pie.And to Holly's surprise, Mrs Claus is the prime suspect. With Mrs Claus under suspicion, Holly vows to return the woman's generosity by clearing her name.Maybe it will impress Mrs Claus' dimpled dish of a son, too?

Smugglers & Scones


Morgan C. Talbot - 2017
    Raymond Moore. Guests come there to write their own crime novels. When a real-life murder takes a local’s life and washes a handsome boat pilot into her arms, Pippa is yanked into a deadly plot of her own. A tangle of secrets crashes past into present, and Pippa must uncover clues dating back to Seacrest’s Prohibition days, including a secret Moore himself hid from the world.Juggling her book-writing guests, small-town intrigues, secret club agendas, and a possibly fatal attraction, Pippa must sort fact from fiction to know who to trust before a desperate killer claims a final revenge nearly a century in the making.

Blueberry Cupcake Mystery


Naomi Miller - 2016
    Katie Chupp spends her days at The Sweet Shop, taking care of customers and baking delicious treats . . . not exactly a profession where one expects to be thrown into the midst of mysteries and mayhem.But when the bakery is broken into, someone has to find the thief . . . besides finding another place to do the baking and get the orders to the customers.Is this a random theft, or is the thief trying to ruin the town's Independence Day celebration?Book 1 of the Sweet Shop Mysteries seriesAnd watch for book 2 - Christmas Cookie Mystery - COMING SOON!

A View to Die For


Richard Houston - 2012
    The sleuth is not a detective, private eye, or lawyer. He's an ordinary guy with an extraordinary dog.Jacob Martin is trying to make the best of a divorce and mid-life crisis when he gets a call at two o’clock Sunday morning from his mother. His sister has been arrested for the murder of her fourth husband, and his father is near death. Thus begins an adventure that takes Jake and his golden retriever from their Colorado retreat to a backwater town in the Missouri Ozarks where they search for cold-blooded killers, a cache of gold coins buried by Jesse James, and the love of a beautiful nurse.

A Scone Killer


Josephine Wiggle - 2015
    Emma, who has never left her hometown, is coping with a recent divorce, and Alex is reeling from the breakdown of his small business—and the smear campaign his former business partner is running. When he mentions his dreams for opening a small tea shop (dreams that have been shattered by his lost business), Emma and Laura pile one, keen to go in on the project. However, on the day of the opening, the body of Alex’s former business partner is discovered…and Alex is now the prime target. Out of loyalty to her friend, and a burgeoning romance, Laura resolves to find the killer—but can Alex be trusted?

Treated as Murder


Noreen Wainwright - 2014
    Her brother is suspected of murdering an elderly wealthy widow, and sins of the past have echoes in her life and the lives of those close to her.

Mercury Rising


Jerusha Jones - 2016
     Combine the resulting murder investigation with mysterious nighttime kayak trips, politicians run amok, nosy neighbors, and culinary lessons for her blue-haired teenage tagalong, Willow Ratliff, and Eva has her hands full. It doesn’t help that the police detective on the case is handsome, annoying, and more than willing to match her snide remarks with witticisms of his own. Soon, Eva is a walking repository of other people’s secrets. It’s not a role she ever asked for, and it just might prove lethal.

Strictly Murder


Lynda Wilcox - 2012
    What they failed to mention was the dead celebrity in the master bedroom. Personal assistant Verity Long's house hunt is about to turn into a hunt for a killer. It will take some fancy footwork to navigate the bitchy world of dance shows, television studios, and dangerously gorgeous male co-stars. When Verity looks like the killer's next tango partner, she discovers that this dance is ... Strictly Murder.

Escape From Danger (Escape from Reality Cozy Mystery, #1)


Courtney McFarlin - 2020
    She never thought she’d discover something shocking about her own past. She never dreamed she’d have an opportunity to fall in love. She never expected she’d soon be fighting for her life after getting too close to the truth.After the unexpected death of her father, Shay moves back home and discovers her father left her a legacy to live out her dreams. Her new business is set to open in just a few weeks, and she needs to figure out why there’s a dead guy in one of the newest escape rooms. Join Shay as she reconnects with her best friends from childhood, tries to solve a murder, and locks horns with the attractive detective assigned to the case. Sparks fly and danger lurks where Shay least expects it.

If You Can't Stand the Heat


Robin Allen - 2011
    Poppy's not sure if her dad will ever forgive her for leaving the family business to become a public health inspector-the most reviled figure in the restaurant industry-but when he asks her back into the kitchen to help out during the restaurant's grand re-opening, she can't refuse. Chaos ensues when the guest of honor, Michelin-rated chef Évariste Bontecou, is found stabbed to death with Ursula's knife. Sacrebleu!Sorting through everyone who had it in for the hot-headed, philandering French chef is worse than deboning a Coho salmon. Could it be the bad-boy sous chef eyeing his chance at the top or the conniving waitress rumored to be Évariste's paramour du jour? The closer Poppy gets to solving the mystery, the hotter things get. And as everyone knows: if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

A Crafty Crime


Eryn Scott - 2018
    When a cat-sitting job turns into a murder investigation, life no longer seems so perfect.Her twin brother, a deputy sheriff, is on the case but they've always done everything together and she can't help but get involved. Following a trail of crafty clues, the James twins learn that their sleepy town might be harboring more darkness than they could've imagined.

Sprinkled


Gina LaManna - 2014
    She just never expected the lows to be so… sparkly. After falling on her face during an attempt to follow in her recently-deceased mother’s stripper-boots, Lacey realizes she’s not cut out for life on stage. She sets out on a year-long investigation to find her true family, never expecting she’ll find it with a capital “F.” With a rumbling stomach, a need for money (check engine lights don’t fix themselves!), and a conscience that operates at 78% on a good day, Lacey is sucked into a whirlwind of Family secrets, hard-as-cement cookies, and mysterious, sexy men who unfortunately shoot guns, sometimes aimed at her face. The long-lost-granddaughter of Carlos Luzzi, the Godfather of the Italian Mafia, Lacey accepts her first assignment for the mob: finding fifteen million dollars of ‘the good stuff.’ Even after she enlists the help of her mouthy best-friend and her cousin, a technical genius and social disaster, she finds that going toe-to-toe with the rival Russian mob is more dangerous than expected. No one chooses their Family, but Lacey Luzzi will be lucky if she can survive hers. ** ** Lacey Luzzi: Sprinkled, is a full-length, laugh-out-loud, humorous cozy mystery with a strong female protagonist in the spirit of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, albeit one working for the wrong side of the law…

Murder, Curlers, and Cream


Arlene McFarlane - 2016
    Not only has she got a meddling mother, a wacky staff, and a dying business, but now she’s got a dead client who was strangled while awaiting her facial.With business the way it is, combing through this mystery may be the only way to save her salon. Until a second murder, an explosion, a kidnapping, death threats, and the hard-nosed Detective Romero complicate things. But Valentine will do anything to untangle the crime. That’s if she can keep her tools of the trade in her bag, keep herself alive, and avoid falling for the tough detective.In the end, how hard can that be?