Book picks similar to
Skeleton in a Dead Space by Judy Alter


mystery
fiction
first-in-a-series
mysteries

Must Love Murder


Etta Faire - 2016
    All men, she doesn't discriminate. So when she takes a job at her aunt's sketchy matchmaking club, she knows it's going to mean trouble. Love is a sham, after all. But she never thought she'd be solving a murder, especially not the murder of her aunt's horrible neighbor who calls women "hussies," thinks the matchmaking club is a brothel, and snoops where he shouldn't be snooping. The guy kind of had it coming.But when her aunt becomes the main suspect and the police don't seem to care that things aren't matching up like they should, Marcie is forced to become the perfect match for the evil man's puzzling murder.

Trouble Magnet


DelSheree Gladden - 2016
    That couldn’t be truer than when she moves into the most bizarre apartment building on the planet. Weekly required dinners with the landlord and assigned chores are bad enough, but the rules don’t end there. Top most on the list of requirements is NO physical violence against the others residents. There have been issues. In the past. The young manager, Sonya, claims that hasn’t been a problem recently, but Eliza comes home from her first day of culinary school to find a dead resident, her next door neighbor looking good for the crime, and a cop that seems more interested in harassing her than solving the case. All Eliza wanted was to escape her past and start over, completely anonymous in a big city. That’s not going to be so easy when the killer thinks she’s made off with a valuable piece of evidence everyone is trying to get their hands on. The ultimatum that she turn it over to save her own life creates a small problem. Eliza has no idea what the killer wants, or where the mysterious object might be. If she can’t uncover a decades old mystery in time, surviving culinary school will be the least of her problems.

Jack Be Nimble Jack Be Dead


Wendy Owens - 2017
     Five years ago, Penny Preston found herself divorced and alone in San Diego, CA. With only her Dachshund named Piper and the possessions she could fit in her beat up Chevy Malibu, Penny decided to take her Aunt up on her offer to move in with her in Wyoming, Ohio, and help her run her coffee shop. She never imagined her Aunt passing away or her leaving the shop to her, but that’s exactly what happened. Besides the occasional nosy community member creating a stir around unsubstantiated gossip, life was peaceful—that’s until Penny’s life got messy . . . as in red body messy. Jack Eggerton, the local dog catcher, is found dead in the back of the animal shelter Penny runs in her spare time. After a heated argument between her and Jack about a missing dog, it appears the finger is pointed directly at Penny Preston. Enlisting the help of her seamstress neighbor, Linda, and her chubby Dachshund, Piper, with whom she has a rather peculiar connection to, Penny sets out to unveil the killer before she is left paying for a crime she didn’t commit . . .

A Good Man Gone


A.W. Hartoin - 2013
    Louis and Mercy Watts is on vacation from her parents. The great detective and his nosy wife are on a cruise and Mercy thinks she’s off the hook for doing any investigating for them. But when a family friend has a fatal heart attack, Dad has one of his famous feelings and orders Mercy to look into it. Mercy tries not to get sucked in. She really does, but she’s her father’s daughter. Soon Gavin’s death leads to a more grisly one, the death of a bride on her wedding day. Can the two be connected? Was Gavin murdered? Now Mercy can’t stop. You do for family. That’s all there is to it.

Bed-Bugged


Susan J. Kroupa - 2010
    Sniffing out bed bugs? Easy as pie. Well, easier, actually, as getting pie can be a problem for a dog. Doodle finds best part of the new job is Molly, the boss’s ten-year old daughter, who slips Doodle extra treats when she’s not snapping photos with the camera she carries everywhere. But Molly has secrets of her own. And when she enlists Doodle’s help to solve a crime, his nose and her camera lead them straight into danger.Readers have called the Doodlebugged mysteries perfect of fans of Spencer Quinn’s popular Chet & Bernie mysteries, and best-selling author Virginia Smith called Bed-Bugged, "a first-rate mystery" and a "triumphant beginning to a series."

Quilt or Innocence


Elizabeth Spann Craig - 2012
    But with her recent move to Dapple Hills, North Carolina, she’s learning all sorts of new things—including how to solve a murder… As the newest member of the Village Quilters Guild, Beatrice has a lot of gossip to catch up on—especially with the Patchwork Cottage quilt shop about to close. It seems that Judith, the landlord everyone loves to hate, wants to raise the rent, despite being a quilter herself… But when Judith is found dead, the harmless gossip becomes an intricate patchwork of mischievous motives. And it’s up to Beatrice’s expert eye to decipher the pattern and catch the killer, before her life gets sewn up for good. Includes quilting tips!

Peppermint Fudge and Fears


Patti Benning - 2019
    Candy shop owner, Candice Rothberg, formerly Candice Darling, is excited for Christmas. It’s hard not to be, in a town as festive as Lake Marion, Michigan. When Candice learns that a local bakery is hosting a gingerbread house building contest, she eagerly dives right in. With her background in candy and all things delicious, she plans to rock the contest, whether she wins it or not. What starts out to be a fun and delicious contest, ends up being a holiday horror, when one of the competitors dies, under suspicious circumstances, leaving behind a mysterious candy wrapper and more questions than answers. When the killer targets a second victim, Candice realizes all of the mystery and intrigue, oddly, has something to do with her. Will she figure out who the culprit is, before it’s too late? Or will this be a season of suffering for Lake Marion? Find out in this delectably action-packed Cozy Mystery!

Mum's the Word


Kate Collins - 2004
    She's determined to track down the driver, but when the trail turns deadly, the next flower arrangement might be for her own funeral.

Lowcountry Boil


Susan M. Boyer - 2012
    She carries her Sig 9 in her Kate Spade handbag, and her golden retriever, Rhett, rides shotgun in her hybrid Escape. When her grandmother is murdered, Liz high-tails it back to her South Carolina island home to find the killer. But when her police-chief brother shuts her out of the investigation, she opens her own. Then her long-dead best friend pops in and things really get complicated. As more folks turn up dead, Liz must use more than just her wits and charm to keep her family safe, chase down clues from the hereafter, and catch a psychopath before he catches her.

Invisible


Lorena McCourtney - 2004
    So when vandals romp through the local cemetery, she takes advantage of her newfound anonymity and its unforeseen advantages as she launches her own unofficial investigation.Despite her oddball humor and unconventional snooping, Ivy soon becomes discouraged by her failure to turn up any solid clues. And after Ivy witnesses something ominous and unexplained, she can't resist putting her investigative powers to work again. Even the authorities' attempts to keep Ivy out of danger and her nosy neighbor's match-making schemes can't slow her down. But will the determination that fuels this persistent, quirky sleuth threaten her very safety?

Mind Over Murder


Allison Kingsley - 2011
    But they have no idea it's the psychically-gifted Clara who's reading them...The bookstore has made an enemy of the town crier, Ana Jordon, who claims that the store's occult collection is "poisoning" the town's youth. Meanwhile, the store's number-one employee, Molly, has made no secret of her anger over Ana's antics. So when Ana is found dead, killed by the bust of Edgar Allen Poe sculpted by Molly, the evidence is stacked against her. And Clara must rely on her gift to make sense of this senseless murder...

Take the Monkeys and Run


Karen Cantwell - 2010
    Typical, that is until she sets out to find the missing link between a bizarre monkey sighting in her yard and the bone chilling middle-of-the-night fright fest at the strangely vacant house next door. When Barb talks her two friends into some seemingly innocent Charlie’s Angels-like sleuthing, they stumble upon way more than they bargained for and uncover a piece of neighborhood history that certain people would kill to keep on the cutting room floor.Enter sexy PI Colt Baron, Barb’s ex-boyfriend who would love to be cast as new leading man, filling the role just vacated by her recently estranged husband, Howard. When Colt flies in from out of town to help Barb, events careen out of control and suddenly this mini-van driving mother of three becomes a major player in a treacherous and potentially deadly FBI undercover operation. It’s up to her now. With little time to spare, she and she alone, must summon the inner strength necessary to become a true action heroine and save the lives of those she loves. The question is can she get them out alive before the credits roll?

The Hydrogen Murder


Camille Minichino - 1997
    Gloria uncovers scientific fraud, solves a murder, and engages in her first physical combat, all in the same week.

Knit One, Kill Two


Maggie Sefton - 2005
    Now, in the first in a brand-new series, she learns how to knit one, purl two, and untangle the mystery behind her aunt's murder. — Kelly Flynn would be the first to admit her life in Washington, D.C., is a little on the dull side. But coming back to Colorado for her beloved aunt’s funeral wasn’t the kind of excitement she was seeking. The police are convinced that her Aunt Helen’s death was the result of a burglary gone bad, but for the accountant in Kelly, things just aren’t adding up. After all, why would her sensible, sixty-eight-year-old aunt borrow $20,000 just days before her death? With the help of the knitting regulars at House of Lambspun, Kelly’s about to get a few lessons in cranking out a sumptuously colored scarf -- and in luring a killer out of hiding...

Stiff in the Sand


Winnie Reed - 2019
    She's got a new job blogging about food and she's super-thrilled to be traveling to a new resort to sample the fare and meet local celebrities. One of who is First-Kiss-Robbie. The first boy to kiss her, he's a famous chef now.She finds out her photographer is a hot guy with a major chip on his shoulder. More like an iceberg, considering the way Deke treats her.She's not so thrilled when she discovers a body in the sand dunes. One with a knife sticking out of him. A chef knife. Robbie's chef knife.She's even less thrilled when she makes the mistake of handling the knife.Now, she's under suspicion and Detective McHottie's got his eye on her--and not in a good way.Can she find the real killer before she becomes his target?