Book picks similar to
One Woman's Junk by J.B. Lynn


mystery
paranormal
cozy-mystery
first-in-series

Buried in a Bog


Sheila Connolly - 2013
    Honoring the wish of her late grandmother, Maura Donovan visits the small Irish village where her Gran was born—though she never expected to get bogged down in a murder mystery. Nor had she planned to take a job in one of the local pubs, but she finds herself excited to get to know the people who knew her Gran.   In the pub, she’s swamped with drink orders as everyone in town gathers to talk about the recent discovery of a nearly one-hundred-year-old body in a nearby bog. When Maura realizes she may know something about the dead man—and that the body’s connected to another, more recent, death—she fears she’s about to become mired in a homicide investigation. After she discovers the death is connected to another from almost a century earlier, Maura has a sinking feeling she may really be getting in over her head...A New York Times bestseller!

A Shot in the Bark: A Dog Park Mystery


C.A. Newsome - 2011
    Neither do her friends at the Mount Airy Dog Park. When the apparent suicide of Lia's deadbeat boyfriend draws the attention of Detective Peter Dourson, he decides to adopt the dead man's dog to infiltrate the tight group he's certain conceals Luthor Morrissey's killer. As his investigation uncovers secrets, a grieving Lia fights her growing attraction to the laid-back detective. Meanwhile, Luthor's killer lurks, desperate to stay ahead of the investigation--no matter who has to die... If you like believable characters, a multi-layered plot, and a compelling sense of humor with your intrigue, pick up this can't-put-down whodunit for a romp through the dog park with Lia and the gang. This extended edition includes new and expanded scenes. (69,000 words)

Murder at Mile Marker 18


Denise Jaden - 2020
    Her late husband had been the mystery novelist with a penchant for the suspicious. She was born for the crock pot, not the magnifying glass, and yet here she is elbow deep in fettuccine, cat treats, and teenagers with an attitude, the combination of which lands her smack-dab in the middle of a murder investigation.Maybe she should have thought twice about delivering a casserole to a grieving family. Maybe she should have avoided the ever-changing green eyes of her seventh-grade crush—now the most heart-stopping cop in town. Maybe she should have stopped listening to the insightful mewls of her cat, Hunch, who most likely wants her to be the town’s next murder victim.Whatever the case, Mallory Beck got herself into this investigation, and she has a distraught teenage girl counting on her to deliver the truth.Add book one in the brand new Mallory Beck Cozy Culinary Series, to your to-read list now!

The Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen


N.L. Wilson - 2011
    firm where she's worked for years, Dix Dodd has hung out her own shingle at the ripe age of 40. There are plenty of cheating husbands to go around, and Dix has a knack for busting them. Problem is, it doesn't always pay so well. Conscious that the guys back at the old firm are laying bets about how soon she'll come crawling back, she figures she's got six months to make a go of it.The going gets even tougher when she hires Dylan Foreman. But when he told her about getting fired from his law firm and disbarred for putting common decency before the firm's interests, she hired him on the spot. In addition to being smart, he's gorgeous enough to remind her she's a woman. And at 28, young enough to make her feel like a total cougar.Things start looking up when Dix gets hired by millionaire businessman Ned Weatherby's wife Jennifer Weatherby, to tail Ned 24/7 for a week, for a cool ten grand. Easy-peasy, right? Wrong! The job lands Dix in the middle of a murder investigation - with her as the prime suspect and her arch-enemy Detective Richard Head (a.k.a., Dickhead, one of the cheating husbands she'd nailed) gunning for her.Dix will need all her ingenuity, as well as the help of Dylan and her oddball cast of supporters to extricate herself from this one.

The Vampire Knitting Club


Nancy Warren - 2018
    With Gran's undying love to count on and Cardinal Woolsey's, Gran's knitting shop, to keep her busy, Lucy can catch her breath and figure out what she's going to do. Except it turns out that Gran is the undying. Or at least, the undead. But there's a death certificate. And a will, leaving the knitting shop to Lucy. And a lot of people going in and out who never use the door—including Gran, who is just as loving as ever, and prone to knitting sweaters at warp speed, late at night. What exactly is going on? When Lucy discovers that Gran did not die peacefully in her sleep, but was murdered, she has to bring the killer to justice without tipping off the law that there's no body in the grave. Between a hot 600-year-old vampire and a dishy detective inspector, both of whom always seem to be there for her, Lucy finds her life getting more complicated than a triple cable cardigan. The only one who seems to know what's going on is her cat ... or is it ... her familiar?

New Corpse In Town


Lucy Quinn - 2016
     A phone call to the sheriff should mean the end of Cookie’s involvement, but when it’s clear the sheriff has no interest in the investigation, Cookie calls in reinforcements…her ex-partner Hunter O’Neil. Suddenly it’s like old times while the pair questions the residents of Secret Seal Isle. Except it’s not. Now she has both Hunter and Dylan vying for her attention, a wayward hippy mother, and a potential killer on the loose. With her love life heating up, her mother lighting up, and all signs pointing to the most unlikely suspect, Cookie does the only thing she knows to do—focus on solving the case.

Pushing Up Daisies


Katherine Hayton - 2018
    Instead, she ends up with a dead body on her doorstep! When the murder victim is revealed as her 'kind-of' boyfriend, the finger of blame points squarely at Willow. To avoid a murder charge, she needs to track down the real killer. Believing that the local Aniseed Valley sheriff is unequal to the challenge, Willow sets about clearing her name. She must also decide the fate of a gifted Maine Coon kitten, who's set her allergies ablaze. As the net tightens, Willow draws on the book-smarts of best friend Harmony and conspiracy-laden facts from second-best friend Reg to help solve the crime. And, of course, she can always rely on handy hints from her favorite TV show of all time - Miss Walsham Investigates! Tea Shop Cozy Mysteries are quick 1-2 hour reads, perfect for filling in time waiting for appointments, commuting to work, or when your significant other insists on watching a TV show that makes you roll your eyes! These books contain no swearing, no gore, no cliffhangers, and no graphic scenes.

Switching Hour


Robyn Peterman - 2015
    Released from the magic pokey and paroled with limited power is enough to make any witch grumpy.However, if you throw in a recently resurrected cat, a lime-green Kia and a sexy egotistical werewolf, it’s enough to make a gal fly off the edge.Not to mention a mission…with no freaking directions.So here I sit in Asscrack, West Virginia trying to figure out how to complete my mysterious mission before All Hallows Eve when I’ll get turned into a mortal.The animals in the area are convinced I’m the Shifter Whisperer (whatever the hell that is) and the hotter-than- asphalt-in-August werewolf thinks I’m his mate.Now apparently I’m slated to save a bunch of hairy freaks of nature?If they think I’m the right witch for the job, they’ve swallowed some bad brew.

Murder Drama With Your Llama


Erin McCarthy - 2020
    what could possibly go wrong? Out-of-work actress, Sophie LaFleur is ready for a scene change. When she discovers she’s inherited both a house and pub in quaint Friendship Harbor, Maine, she’s thrilled. This is exactly what she needs— fresh start, fresh air and fresh faces. What she doesn't need is a trouble causing llama named Jack Kerouac or a hunky, disinterested pub manager who just so happens to live in her guesthouse. Just when you think it can’t possibly get worse, it does. Two words. Dead. Guy.Now the new girl in town is public enemy number #2. The honor of #1 currently belongs to her inherited ornery llama, which just so happens to be the suspect in the death of a well loved, elderly man. Except Sophie quickly learns he isn’t as well loved as she first thought. She also suspects that his death might not have been at the foot of her cantankerous llama. Sophie didn’t leave the theatrics of L.A. just to be caught up in llama drama... or a murder investigation.

Picture Miss Seeton


Heron Carvic - 1968
    It sounded so—so aggressive. But she must be exact. “Actually I was a little angry—at his rudeness, you know—so I poked him in the back...” When Miss Seeton walks out after a performance of Carmen and witnesses a real-life stabbing, all she can recall is a shadowy figure. But how could she have guessed that her latest artistic endeavor is a picture-perfect portrait of the killer? Her sketch puts her in a perilous position, for back at her recently inherited cottage in Plummergen village, she’s fated to be a sitting duck . . . for murder most foul! Meet Miss Emily D. Seeton: retired art teacher Miss Seeton steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles. Armed with only her sketch pad and umbrella, she is every inch an eccentric English spinster and the most lovable and unlikely master of detection.

Touched


A.J. Aalto - 2011
    Twice-Touched by the Blue Sense--which gives her the ability to feel the emotions of others, and read impressions left behind on objects--Marnie also has a doctorate in preternatural biology and a working knowledge of the dark arts. She is considered without peer in the psychic community. Then her first big FBI case ended with a bullet in one shoulder and a chip on the other, a queasy heart and a serial killer in the wind, leaving her a public flop and a private wreck. When the FBI’s preternatural crimes unit tracks her down at a remote mountain lodge for her insight on a local case, her quiet retirement is promptly besieged by a stab-happy starlet, a rampaging ghoul, and a vampire-hunting jackass in tight Wranglers. Marnie figures the only real mystery is which one will kill her first. Too mean to die young, backed up by friends in cold places, and running with a mouth as demure as a cannon’s blast, Marnie Baranuik is about to discover that there’s no such thing as quitting time when you’re Touched.

Nine Lives


Wendy Corsi Staub - 2015
    But on their way to stay with family in Chicago, they stop in Lily Dale, New York and a storm forces them to spend the night.Brimming with psychics and mediums, Lily Dale is just the kind of quirky little town Bella's late husband always talked about settling down in. So when the local hotel's owner, Leona, passes away, Bella agrees to step in and help temporarily. The longer she and Max stay there, the more Lily Dale starts to feel like home.But for Bella, finding a home means finding danger, too. Leona was murdered, and it's up to Bella to track down the killer before her sanctuary comes crashing down in bestseller Wendy Corsi Staub’s warm and witty series debut.

Death by Dumpling


Vivien Chien - 2018
    . .The last place Lana Lee thought she would ever end up is back at her family’s restaurant. But after a brutal break-up and a dramatic workplace walk-out, she figures that a return to the Cleveland area to help wait tables is her best option for putting her life back together. Even if that means having to put up with her mother, who is dead-set on finding her a husband.Lana’s love life soon becomes yesterday’s news once the restaurant’s property manager, Mr. Feng, turns up dead―after a delivery of shrimp dumplings from Ho-Lee. But how could this have happened when everyone on staff knew about Mr. Feng’s severe, life-threatening shellfish allergy? Now, with the whole restaurant under suspicion for murder and the local media in a feeding frenzy―to say nothing of the gorgeous police detective who keeps turning up for take-out―it’s up to Lana to find out who is behind Feng’s killer order. . . before her own number is up.

A Dark and Stormy Murder


Julia Buckley - 2016
    Not only will she help her idol craft an enchanting new mystery, she’ll get to live rent-free in Camilla’s gorgeous Victorian home in the quaint town of Blue Lake, Indiana.   But Lena’s fortune soon changes for the worse. First, she lands in the center of small town gossip for befriending the local recluse. Then, she stumbles across one thing that a Camilla Graham novel is never without—a dead body, found on her new boss’s lakefront property.   Now Lena must take a page out of one of Camilla’s books to hunt down clues in a real crime that seems to be connected to the novelist’s mysterious estate—before the killer writes them both out of the story for good...

Gunpowder Chowder


Lyndsey Cole - 2015
    With the inheritance of her Great Aunt Caroline’s café and cottages, she faces a challenge of turning it into a modern business. A challenge she is ready for—until a body turns up in an unexpected place. With her own insecurities rising when she becomes a suspect, Hannah must decide who in Hooks Harbor she can trust, and who is really out to get her—Her elderly neighbor? The handsome carpenter? A former employee of the café? The list grows.Hannah’s life—and reputation—depends on her ability to make quick decisions. Will she get herself out of this nightmare and get her business moving forward before time runs out? If you love a good culinary cozy mystery, grab Gunpowder Chowder and get hooked on Hannah Holiday’s adventures.***Gunpowder Chowder is approx. 330 pages and is volume 1 in the Hooked & Cooked Cozy Mystery Series. Lyndsey’s books can be read and enjoyed in any order.