Book picks similar to
The Handyman Homicide (Reckless Camper Cozy Mysteries Book 1) by Libby Howard
cozy-mystery
mystery
fiction
cozy-mysteries
Murder at Pawprint Creek
Cindy Bell - 2018
It can be read at any time during the series. It was part of the Summer Snoops and Cozy Crimes: 12 Mysteries for the Dog Days of Summer anthology. A dog-loving sleuth. A baffling murder. To catch the killer, she’ll have to follow her nose. Nikki Green wouldn’t trade her job as a dog walker and pet sitter for anything. But even she needs an occasional break from the tangled leashes of her daily routes. When she’s asked to pet sit a pair of adorable pugs in a quaint farm town, she thinks she’s found her perfect vacation. But the grass isn’t greener in Pawprint Creek. The crops are as dead as one of the town’s residents. Surrounded by suspects who all seem to be relieved that the victim is dead, Nikki can’t bear to sit around while the killer walks free. Along with her new canine companions, Sunny and Stormy, she searches for clues, but when everyone seems to have a motive, she finds that she might have bitten off more than she can chew. In a town where gossip spreads like wildfire, she’d better catch the killer fast before she becomes the next victim.
Murder By Design: ...a young girl dreams of topping haute couture!
Mary Jane Forbes - 2011
Lack of money is a high hurdle. Living with her grandfather, and working as a casino barmaid, she saves her tips to take classes in Seattle. With her eye to one day having her own clothing label, the redhead, keeps her eye on the prize, leaving men smitten with her beauty in her wake—a preacher, an American Indian law student, and a NY fashion designer. It isn’t until a newspaper reporter appears on her door step that she pauses to take a second look. But reporter Skip Hunter has no time for women. He is driven to become a N.Y. Times best-selling mystery writer using his reporting of crime on the streets of Seattle as fodder. Will the New York designer who borrows Gillianne’s sketches end her dream? Will a heist of a billion dollars worth of gold bullion give the reporter his big break? Will the intersection of their lives drive the pair into each other’s arms? Or, will their life plans, force them apart?
Peace on Earth: An Irma Saves Christmas Novella
Maia Ross - 2019
Surrounded by seasonal joy - and way too many stuffed Yuletide beavers - at the island house her family has owned for generations, she's all set for the perfect holiday.But when a young friend asks for help with figuring out a financial snafu, her perfect day is in jeopardy. Can Irma - a woman with a yen for strong tea, cardio, and a well-oiled gun - find a thief before the festive season kicks off, or will Christmas be ruined?Peace on Earth is a 30,000 word holiday novella, and is the first book in the forthcoming Beaver Island Mystery series.
Desert Heat (Victor Loshak #4)
L.T. Vargus - 2022
A human body draped over the limbs of a cactus. Sand scouring the naked flesh every time the wind blows.A shocking death launches Special Agent Victor Loshak on a new investigation with an ominous message: They know everything. He heads to Tucson, Arizona, where a recent murder spree seems to be linked to the human trafficking conspiracy he's been working in secret for months.Loshak still has dreams about the Kansas City case. Nightmares about the team of techs peeling up the floorboards in a suburban home. Finding the rotting bodies face down in the muddy earth of the crawlspace. A grisly discovery that ultimately led to more questions than answers.Now he may be closer than ever to solving the puzzle.If you follow the conspiracy rabbit hole all the way down, you eventually reach the bottom.The task force working the desert murders seems oblivious to the conspiracy link, and Loshak must tread lightly. He doesn't know who to trust, what information to share.The tendrils of the human trafficking ring lead in all directions outward from that Kansas City crawlspace. Their influence reaches the highest levels of government and law enforcement. They have eyes and ears everywhere.Even with the complications, the Tucson case slowly unravels the web of connections behind the crimes, both the murders and the conspiracy.Questions get answered. Names and faces are laid bare. Puzzle pieces snapping into place at long last.But the revelations bring about the gravest danger yet.
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.
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.
Baker's Dozen
Lori R. Taylor - 2021
But when she's scared, she can't help defending herself, even from the people who want to help her.Dumped by her cheating fiancé and mourning the loss of her mother to cancer, Maeve dreams of opening a bakery. But the only way she can afford that is to win a baking contest. Too bad her high school nemesis has entered too, and is using her rich daddy's money to stack the deck against Maeve.When Maeve stops by Pretty Paws, Baker chooses the best batch of pastries with her super sensitive nose. It's not exactly love at first site, but when Maeve learns that time is almost up on Baker's stay at the shelter, she agrees to take her home for a couple of weeks, to reset the clock.Can Maeve and Baker learn to trust each other, or will life find a way to crush their hopes for a fresh start?Baker's Dozen is the first book in The Soul Mutts Series, heartwarming stories of lost dogs finding new homes with the humans they were born to heal.
Miss Sylvia's Stolen Bible
Harper Harris - 2018
You’ll have a dog gone good time… and some delicious Southern treats! Kari Jacobs has driven cross country from San Francisco and is one hour away from starting a new life and job at a law firm in Appleton, North Carolina, when her car breaks down near the Red Rivers Plantation. She was only looking for a tow, but found a mystery. Ms. Sylvia, her sister-in-law Delilah and her butler Henry live at Red Rivers Plantation and they all seem to be stuck in the past. Kari can get their help, as long as she walks their two Great Danes and solves the mystery of the stolen Winters’ family bible. But theirs is a world of polite etiquette and stately manners, and Kari has a hard time getting them to talk so that she can figure out the answers they so desperately seek. But at least their cooking is scrumptious! Sylvia thinks the Bible was stolen by her bitter rival who owns the next plantation over, but she isn’t even sure when, and no one can explain why. Questions multiply and Kari can’t help but be drawn into a feud that reaches back into the last century. It's Kari's first introduction to the South, their customs are strange, and she has far more questions than answers. Such as, will she ever get her car fixed so she can get to Appleton, and will she be rewarded for her patience by being able to meet the Great Danes’ litter of puppies before leaving town? * INCLUDES MISS DELILAH’S SUCCULENT SOUTHERN PEACH PIE RECIPE! *
The Memory Bell
Kat FlanneryKat Flannery - 2021
Gifted the memory bell, a family heirloom, from her grandfather’s will, Grace’s excitement is soon squashed when the bell gets broken right after she receives it. While gluing the pieces back in place, she discovers three are still missing. Determined to find them, she is halted when the new detective, Bennet James, investigates her family. Grace is intent on showing the detective her family isn’t capable of murder, but as the investigation deepens, and pieces of the bell show up with ominous notes, Grace soon realizes the Penners are not what they seem. Amidst the tightly knit family; dark secrets, deception, and possibly even murder unfold. Will Grace be able to save the family she loves more than anything without losing herself forever?
Tail Wagging Trouble
Leona Fox - 2016
Now, Ellen is fully invested in finding the murderer. With handsome police chief Andy, her precocious friend Kelly, and Scampy the dog by her side, Ellen is determined to find the killer before he or she goes free.
The Inconvenient Corpse (A Maggie & Jasper Caper Book 1)
Barbara Cool Lee - 2021
Treasure Borrowed and Blue
S.W. Hubbard - 2018
She knows first-hand that funerals are family events that bring out the worst in people.Now Audrey is just six weeks away from a joyful family event--her wedding. The band has been hired, the invitations mailed.Wedded bliss is right around the corner.Then a thief strikes and destroys Audrey's happiness. As she narrows the list of possible culprits,her suspicion falls on the family she's about to join.Will catching the thief ruin Audrey's shot at the ideal family she's always dreamed of?When the crime is solved with one final twist, Audrey learns a lesson about the bonds that tie families together and the expectations that can drive them apart.A note from the author: In the chronology of Audrey's life, this short mystery novella fits between the events in This Bitter Treasure (which ended with Audrey's engagement) and Treasure in Exile (which begins with Audrey already married).Loyal readers let me know that they wanted to see Audrey's wedding. So I wrote Treasure Borrowed and Blue because I want to keep my readers happy! Nothing ever goes quite as planned for our Audrey, so the tale of her wedding takes quite a few twists and turns (but no murders!).
Murdered by Words
Dianne Harman - 2016
Kat is the one who finds her murdered editor and she and several others are worried that she'll be the next one to be murdered. She has to find the murderer to save her reputation and her life, but who did it? Was it her editor's husband? Was it the woman who had become obsessed with any book she considered to be morally objectionable? Or was it the "trophy wife" of the local banker?
Dachshund Through the Snow
Rosie A. Point - 2021
Or hanging out at her best friend’s pet cafe. And the first day of Christmas is no exception to the routine.Until she arrives at her first client’s home to pick up an adorable Dachshund named Dixie and finds a corpse instead. The owner has been murdered! And, as the last person who saw her, Holly’s got a bright red target on her back. She’s got to figure out whodunit before Christmas is ruined.