Book picks similar to
Social Medium by Patti Larsen
mystery
paranormal
cozy-mystery
fiction
The Whistle Blower
Robin Merrill - 2019
So, why's she so bored?When a referee drops dead during her son's soccer game, and a short man claiming to be an angel asks her to help investigate--suddenly, her life's not so boring anymore.The angel (is he really an angel?) tells her to go undercover as a soccer referee, which, of course, is ridiculous. She hasn't run anywhere since high school.But Sandra will find out she is still capable of far more than she thought--with a little help from above.
A Friend In Knead
Judith Jackson - 2018
It is springtime in Vermont, and Harriet’s life is finally on a roll. The Bluebell Café, her pride and joy, is a success, and someday soon it may even be solvent. In her scant free time she ghost writes her gran’s wildly popular advice column and tends to her beloved one-eyed, cross dressing, English Bulldog. But then Sevenoaks experiences its first murder in as long as anyone can remember, and the police investigation hits way too close to home. In order to save her café, Harriet and her best friend, Claire, are forced to conduct their own search for the killer. To further complicate matters, Harriet’s long-ago boyfriend – the love of her life – has moved back to town, and if her legs would just stop wobbling every time the two of them are together it would be easier to pretend she’s completely over him. A Friend in Knead is a cozy mystery full of tasty food, lots of laughs and a hit of romance. Includes some of The Bluebell Café’s most-loved recipes.
Death on the Diversion
Patricia McLinn - 2018
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Sheila Mackey has a secret. To the world, she’s author of a blockbuster book. Her wily great-aunt, the actual author, orchestrated this mutually beneficial masquerade. Now the aunt’s retiring and Sheila must draft Act Two of her own life. This cruise is supposed to be the perfect time to do that. Crossing the Atlantic on the Diversion, Sheila finds a dead body on deck. She realizes she knows a whole lot more about the interactions of the victim and suspects than the ship’s officials do. She’s drawn into sleuthing, but finds herself hampered by a well-meaning but overprotective would-be Dr. Watson. This murder mystery with humor is the first book in a new series, Secret Sleuth. In later books, amateur sleuth Sheila returns to dry land in the Midwest, where mysteries abound in her new small-town home. If you like mysteries about the inner world of writers, set among the insular cruise ship community, where even the sleuth has secrets she’s hiding (and a dog to come in book two), then you’ll love award-winning Patricia McLinn’s newest whodunit with humor.
Get on board to sail away with crime, clues and memorable characters.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ On the spectrum of McLinn's mysteries, the Caught Dead in Wyoming cozy mysteries are in the middle, Proof of Innocence is a edgier (and has more romance), and Secret Sleuth is a bit less edgy.
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?
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…
Publishable By Death
A.C.F. Bookens - 2019
Quiet St. Marin’s has just gotten a little more lively . . . and a little less alive.All Harvey Beckett wants to do is read books, help the residents of St. Marin’s find the perfect book for that moment, and snuggle with her hound dog Mayhem. But when the small, waterside town’s newest resident discovers the body of the community’s persnickety reporter in her bookshop storeroom on opening day, Harvey finds herself bound and determined to figure out the crime. Her task won’t be easy, though, since the town is flooded with visitors for the first annual Harriet Tubman Festival to honor the community’s most famous resident. Plus, a quiet but charming mechanic named Daniel isn’t helping with her concentration at all.Publishable By Death is the first book in the St. Marin’s Cozy Mystery Series by ACF. Bookens.
Killer Apple Pie
Carolyn Q. Hunter - 2017
HUNTER!!!Bertha Hannah’s two passions in life are books and piping hot homemade pies, and when an opportunity arises for her to open her own pie and book shop, she jumps in headfirst, only to find that preparing to open her own shop isn’t exactly a piece of cake.In the midst of getting organized and putting the pieces in place for her grand opening, tragedy strikes, far too close for comfort. All the while mourning the untimely death of an old friend, Bertha finds herself having to deal with pompous detectives, money-grubbing investors and unruly customers, which truly threatens to upset her apple cart.Will she be able to unravel the mystery which has presented itself at the worst of times? Or, will her dream business be finished before it even starts?
Scent of a Killer
Lisbeth Reade - 2015
Which turns out to be a nice surprise, after all.But just as she’s getting to know her eccentric Aunts and learn to harness her newfound magic, a shocking murder threatens the entire world she’s just uncovered. Her mother’s best friend is found dead, with her Aunts’ fingerprints all over the murder weapon, and Ella must act to save her family.Combining forces with Rory, the cute mailman she’s been crushing on, Ella uses her skills of scent and sense to track the killer. But when clues cross social classes, Ella realizes that catching the killer could alienate Rory.Will Ella catch the killer and still get her man?
A Lime to Kill
Summer Prescott - 2015
Bad becomes worse when the shop owner's daughter is suspected.
A Case of Murder by Monte Carlo
Becki Willis - 2019
She may be petite, but she’ll take on anyone who threatens her patients’ safety and well-being. That feisty protectiveness creates problems when a hit and run victim lands in the ER and Police Detective Cade Resnick arrives to investigate. There’s no denying the sparks between these two, but their professions put them at odds. As Cade zeroes in on his suspect, Laurel won’t make it easy for him, not while the suspect is under her care. More than once, these two clash when Cade’s quest for justice collides with Laurel’s concern for her patients. Come along on the start of a new series and meet the staff and professionals who give Texas General Hospital its heart. There’s never a dull moment in the ER, or in the lively college town of College Station, Texas! From the best-selling author of The Sisters, Texas Mystery Series, Mirrors Don't Lie Series, and The Spirits of Texas Cozy Mysteries, enjoy a fresh approach to quick cozy reads, some dedicated to mystery, some to romance. Welcome to Texas General Cozy Cases!
Raina Sun Mysteries: Books 1-3
Anne R. Tan - 2016
For readers who like cozy mysteries, quirky characters, a dash of humor, and Chinese-American culture. Raining Men and Corpses Graduate student Raina Sun is trying to keep her head above water as the bills roll in when her dashing college adviser cons her out of several months of rent. But her quest to get her money back sets into a motion a streak of bad luck. First, she finds the dead body of an ex-lover and becomes the prime suspect to his murder. The only man she ever loved reappears as the lead detective to the case and wants to reignite their passion (or at least he’s sending out smoke signals). Her life careens out of control as her grandma moves into Raina’s postage-stamp-sized apartment, dragging a red suitcase and trouble. Raina summons her sleuthing skills to extract herself before things get dicey. There is no place for an amateur when it comes to murder. Gusty Lovers and Cadavers Graduate student Raina Sun thought she knew what she was getting herself into when she volunteered to take the new foreign exchange student shopping on the last weekend before Christmas. But between a riot for the last hot toy of the season and an abandoned baby, the holiday is a season for mayhem, and sometimes it doesn’t pay to be a Good Samaritan. She wants to reunite the infant with his family, but calling the mysterious phone number in the diaper bag leads to more questions than answers. A strange man claims to be the child’s father, and his alleged mother turns up dead. Raina summons her sleuthing skills to protect this baby and soon discovers everyone has a few skeletons in their closets. With her pimp-cane-toting grandma, she faces an ex-boyfriend bringing sexy back as well as a murderer determined to hide the truth. Breezy Friends and Bodies Raina Sun thought cleaning her grandma's house in San Francisco to prepare for Chinese New Year would be a breeze. Instead, she finds her deceased grandfather’s secret journal and ends up French kissing the train tracks in a mugging incident. After putting the move on her grandma, her grandfather’s BFF took an elevator ride straight to the Heavenly Gates. And the second time Raina ends up flat on her back without a man in sight, she suspects the Year of the Monkey would leave her skulking in cold damp places where family secrets are better off dying with the dead.
Hopeless Pocus
Rachel Rivers - 2021
What could go wrong?Witch out of water, Violet Vance, believes she’s run out of luck, when the truth is…she never had any in the first place. The poor girl’s not even a witch.Or so she thinks.Fired from her dream job as an investigator, Violet moves to the tiny town of Hex Falls seeking a new start where she discovers her somewhat-wacky, and terribly over-protective family has followed her. Being the only member of a paranormal family born without powers in the last hundred years, Violet has always been the anomaly. She was born human, never to become magical, but her family doesn’t seem to want to give up on that idea. Despite it all, she settles in, becomes an interior decorator, and right away strange things begin to happen. The winds of change begin to blow, and the waterfall next to her house flows backwards. But it’s when Violet’s fingertips begin to twitch, and her nose to itch, and a long-lost heirloom shows up out of nowhere that Violet begins to panic. But the slime really hits the cauldron when she’s followed by an overweight talking fox who claims to be her familiar. Could it be she has powers after all?Violet is then hired to restore a place called Murder Manor, to its former glory. She should have run screaming from the place when the house smelled like rotting corpse and the owner looked as white as a ghost… but, what can she say, she needed the money. Then a head rolled out onto the carpet of the blood-stained study, and well…what was an ex-investigator-turned-interior-decorator to do—just let a perfectly good murder lie there unsolved?Hex Falls Cozy Mysteries Series:Hopeless Pocus, Book 1, Now AvailableBedknobs & BroomHilda Sticks, Book 2, Now AvailableWitchity, Glitchy, Boo, Book 3, Now AvailableAbracastabra, Book 4, Now AvailableIn Charm’s Way, Book 5, Now AvailableWitchy, Glitchy, Glamour, Now AvailableThe Poof! Is In The Pudding ~ a special Christmas Novella to complete the series ~ Now Available
Witch You Wouldn't Believe
Lucy May - 2018
Violet Broussard gets called back to the hometown she left in the dust when a dead body is found in the abandoned factory bequeathed to her by her grandmother. Violet has plans, big plans, and they most definitely don’t involve staying in Lemon Bliss any longer than necessary. The town is mostly famous for its lemon tea infused with enough alcohol to make one experience bliss, hence the town’s name. Yet, once she’s there, things get a tad wacky. There’s the old factory, which has amateur supernatural investigators sneaking into it, there’s the fact that the moment Violet sets foot in town, no one wants her to leave, and then things get plain crazy. Violet’s mother announces she’s a witch, and so is Violet and apparently half the freakin’ town. Violet’s busy trying to absorb this astonishing fact—who knew?!—and gets caught up in sorting out exactly how a dead body ended up in the factory. Fending off the opinions of her mother and a gaggle of coven witches, Violet finds herself falling for Gabriel, a too-handsome-for-his-own-good sort who happens to be descended from witches as well. As if she doesn’t have enough going on already. Loopy lemon tea, witches and wackiness abound in this cozy mystery.
Bubba and the Dead Woman
C.L. Bevill - 2010
His ex-fiancee is deader than a door nail and everyone thinks he dun did it. His house is haunted. His mother is running an illegal gambling ring. His dog likes to bite people too much. And he's got to find out who really did it before the sheriff throws him in jail...again.
Inn Over Her Head
Dixie Davis - 2018
Lori Keyes is excited to settle into her perfect new life: a bed and breakfast owner in the sleepy resort town of Dusky Cove, North Carolina. Sure, her first guest is a little rude and hateful, but that just comes with the hospitality territory sometimes, right? Lori steels herself to endure one bad guest—until that guest turns up dead. The police investigation says it’s murder, and the evidence points to Lori. She’s instantly the prime suspect. Lori digs into the guest’s failing marriage and into rivalries in town, trying to figure out who could have killed her. To keep her dream job, her perfect life and the inn over her head, Lori will have to prove that she’s innocent—or she’ll go to jail for a murder she didn’t commit. A new cozy mystery series set in a Southern small town, featuring a historic inn! Read more of the Dusky Cove B&B Cozy Mystery series: 1. Inn Over Her Head 2. Inn Trouble 3. Inn Vain 4. Inn Dire Straits 5. Inn Danger (early 2019) Get recipes and a tourist's guide to the prettiest little town all up and down the North Carolina coast in the author's email group--offer inside!