Book picks similar to
Murder by the Pint by Belle Knudson


mystery
cozy-mysteries
first-in-a-series
mystery-cozy

Pancakes and Pleas


Gretchen Allen - 2019
     Joss Rockwell has been a waitress at the Day and Night Diner for fifteen years, and while she loves her job, she’s about to find out that there are some things in life that are more important than work. When an old friend is found murdered, Joss realizes just how fragile life is and how dear her friends are. Determined to get to the bottom of the tragedy, she jumps into investigating the crime. Her boss is a task-master, and it seems that everyone in her life depends on her for something, but she’s determined to move forward with the case, no matter what. This determined, and a little bit snarky, amateur sleuth will use her wit and wisdom to find out the truth, even if it puts her own safety in danger.

Crimes on Campus


Susan Harper - 2019
     A cozy mystery from #1 Bestselling author Susan Harper Woodville is a small college town in the Smokey Mountains. When a murder shocks the community, long time friends Tori and Jordan must put their heads together and find a killer. Can they keep their beloved college focused on higher learning or will it be overcome by heinous crimes? Crimes on Campus is the first book in the College Town Cozy Mystery series. If you enjoy cozy mysteries with interesting characters, it’s time to go back to school to solve a mystery. Download Festivals and Fatalities and start solving your next mystery today! Always FREE on Kindle Unlimited

The Book Club Murders


Leslie Nagel - 2016
      Charley Carpenter has poured heart and soul into her clothing store, Old Hat Vintage Fashions. She’ll do anything to make it a success—even join the stuffy Agathas Book Club in order to cultivate customers among the wealthy elite of Oakwood, Ohio.   Although mixing with the most influential women in town has its advantages, Charley finds the endless gossip a high price to pay. But after two women with close ties to the Agathas are brutally murdered, everyone falls under threat—and suspicion. When key evidence indicates that both murders are the work of the same hand, Charley realizes that the killer has arranged each corpse in perfect imitation of crime scenes from the Club’s murder mystery reading list. She uses her membership in the Club to convince Detective Marcus Trenault to use her as an inside informant. Not that he could stop her anyway.   Intelligent, fearless, and every bit as stubborn as Marc is, Charley soon learns the Agathas aren’t the only ones with secrets to protect. Passions explode as she and Marc must race against time to prevent another murder. And if Charley’s not careful, she may find herself becoming the killer’s next plot twist.

Perilous Pranks


Joyce Lavene - 2013
    Jessie was only getting revenge on a prank that Wanda had pulled on her. Someone else killed Wanda and left her in her shower, dyed blue by Jessie hand.Now Jessie is looking for Wanda's killer - spurred on by Wanda's blue ghost following her around Renaissance Faire Village, demanding justice.With her wedding to Bailiff Chase Manhattan less than a month away, and her new job at the Village Museum of Arts and Crafts, will Jessie be able to find Wanda's killer too?It's either that, or life with dead Wanda, forever.

Hot Tea & Cold Murder


Angela C. Blackmoore - 2017
    It has everything she’ll need to recover. A new best friend, a handsome park ranger, and a loving grandmother. If only her friend, Becky, weren’t accused of murdering a local land developer, it might just be perfect.

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…

Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse


Harper Lin - 2015
    She spends her days making delicious artisan cappuccinos, until she stumbles upon her neighbor’s dead body. When the police discover Mr. Cardosi was poisoned, Francesca becomes a suspect. The victim’s son, Matty, happens to be Francesca’s old high school friend. Together, they uncover the secrets of the locals in order to find the killer in their idyllic beach town. Includes two special cupcake recipes!

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?

Rosemary's Gravy


Melissa F. Miller - 2015
    But then, plans have a way of going out the window when a girl learns her parents have skipped town, leaving behind a half-million-dollar debt. Rosemary makes the best of her situation, putting up with her boss's diva antics and halfheartedly fending off the advances of the impossibly sexy stepson who comes with the high-paying gig. Then someone decides to kill the miserable movie star. It's bad news for any chef when a client dies from an allergic reaction after eating your cooking. It's even worse news for Rosemary because the police are determined to charge her with murder. To restore her reputation (and stay out of prison), Rosemary has to find the real murderer--and fast. Her short list of suspects includes a womanizing race car driver, a powerful music producer, Hollywood's hottest leading man, and, oh yeah, Felix, the dead woman's stepson--which gets a little awkward when Rosemary starts dating him. Unfortunately, everything Rosemary thought she knew is wrong--dead wrong. After a romantic dinner with Felix ends in food poisoning, she finds herself unattached, unemployed, and once again on the wrong side of the LAPD. She knows how to salvage an oversalted sauce, but can she salvage the disaster that is her life? And will the hunky homicide detective help her--or book her? ROSEMARY'S GRAVY is the first book in the We Sisters Three series, the new romantic comedic mystery series from Melissa F. Miller, the USA TODAY Bestselling Author of the Sasha McCandless legal thriller series and the Aroostine Higgins legal thriller series.

Maids of Misfortune


M. Louisa Locke - 2009
    Annie’s husband squandered her fortune before committing suicide five years earlier, and one of his creditors is now threatening to take the boardinghouse she owns to pay off a debt. Annie Fuller also has a secret. She supplements her income by giving domestic and business advice as Madam Sibyl, one of San Francisco’s most exclusive clairvoyants, and one of Madam Sibyl’s clients, Matthew Voss, has died. The police believe his death was suicide brought upon by bankruptcy, but Annie believes Voss has been murdered and that his assets have been stolen. Nate Dawson has a problem. As the Voss family lawyer, he would love to believe that Matthew Voss didn't leave his grieving family destitute. But that would mean working with Annie Fuller, a woman who alternatively attracts and infuriates him as she shatters every notion he ever had of proper ladylike behavior. Sparks fly as Anne and Nate pursue the truth about the murder of Matthew Voss in this light-hearted, cozy historical mystery set in the foggy gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco. Maids of Misfortune is the first book in M. Louisa Locke’s historical mystery series, see also, Uneasy Spirits, and Bloody Lessons, as well as the two short stories based on the characters from the novels, Dandy Detects, and The Misses Moffet Mend a Marriage.

Truffles and Troubles: Book 1 in The Chocolate Cafe Series


Valley Sams - 2016
     After the death of her beloved grandfather, Catharine “Mac” Mackenzie opens a chocolate shop in her sleepy little New England bayside town with her best friend Sabrina. Things are going well for the daring duo, until Sabrina’s landlord, one of the wealthiest women in town, is murdered. Toss in a British detective with a wicked sense of humor, a shudder-worthy encounter with a childhood friend, and you’re in for a delectable mystery experience that’ll have you on the edge of your seat!

Murder Takes the Cake


Gayle Trent - 2008
    When the meanest gossip in Brea Ridge dies mysteriously, suspicions turn to cake decorator Daphne Martin. But all Daphne did was deliver a spice cake with cream cheese frosting--and find Yodel's body. Now Daphne's got to help solve the murder and clear her good name. Problem is, her Virginia hometown is brimming with people who had good reason to kill Yodel, and Daphne's whole family is among them.

Betrayal at the Beach


K.L. Montgomery - 2021
    With the help of children’s librarian Molly Simmons and cataloguer Evangeline Dupree, Sunshine and her colleagues scour Bryce Beach for suspects, clues, and the stolen treasure.Can she and her squad recover the proceeds from the library’s annual fundraising gala and Bryce Beach’s most priceless historical artifact, the Bible with the town’s founding fathers’ signatures? But here’s the most vexing question of all: could one of Sunshine’s colleagues be a backstabbing traitor out to destroy the library?

Cappuccino


M.L. Hamilton - 2016
    She had friends, a loving family, and a bright future. Until she received a call from a lawyer in Sequoia, California, informing her she is the sole heir to her biological mother’s estate. Zion never met Vivian Bradley, but her death sends Zion on a path of discovery that changes her future forever. And she discovers that you can never escape your past, even a past you didn’t want to know.

The Counterfeiter-Catching Cat


Alannah Rogers - 2015
    Beatrice Young, the sixty-two-year-old owner of the Cozy Cat Café, is busy slinging coffee for tourists. Yet when her ever-perceptive Maine Coon cat, Hamish, sniffs out a fake twenty-dollar bill, the hunt is on to find its maker. And then there’s the fact that Jordan Clark has disappeared – he was seen walking out of a bar towards the woods, never to be seen again. With the help of the ever-grumpy sheriff, her black cat Lucky, and her ex-husband and best friend Matthew, Beatrice finds intriguing links between the two mysteries. Jordan has a complicated past, one that could draw out a dangerous killer and place him squarely in Beatrice’s path. In the end, it’s up to her feline companions to find the clues that will keep her safe, put the culprit behind bars, and restore order to Ashbrook once more.The Counterfeiter-Catching Cat is the first book in the Beatrice Young cozy cat mystery series.