Book picks similar to
Mourning Routine by S.E. Babin
mystery
cozy-mystery
cozy-mysteries
fiction
The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra
Vaseem Khan - 2015
And the second is a baby elephant. As his search for clues takes him across the teeming city of Mumbai, from its grand high rises to its sprawling slums and deep into its murky underworld, Chopra begins to suspect that there may be a great deal more to both his last case and his new ward than he thought. And he soon learns that when the going gets tough, a determined elephant may be exactly what an honest man needs...
A Charming Crime
Tonya Kappes - 2012
Bubble...June Heal has nothing to lose when she relocates her homeopathic cure shop, A Dose of Darla, from the flea market booth in her home town, to a quaint shop in the cozy but unusual little town of Whispering Falls, Kentucky. Or so it seems. Cures and trouble... Whispering Falls has a lot of secrets. From talking snow globes to whispering animals not to mention a few sprinkles of fairy dust, June realizes Whispering Falls is more magical than she thought. . .literally.
Truly, Madly
Heather Webber - 2010
But when her parents temporarily step down from the family business, Valentine, Inc., it’s Lucy’s turn to step up and help out—in the name of love.
Plus, her rent is due.
Here’s the problem: Lucy doesn’t have the knack for matchmaking. According to family legend, every Valentine has been blessed by Cupid with the ability to read “auras” and pair up perfect couples. But not Lucy. Her skills were zapped away years ago in an electrical surge, and now all she can do is find lost objects. What good is that in the matchmaking world? You’d be surprised. In a city like Boston, everyone’s looking for something. So when Lucy locates a missing wedding ring—on a dead body—she asks the sexy private eye who lives upstairs to help her solve the perfect crime. And who knows? Maybe she’ll find the perfect love while she’s at it…
Murder, Mystery & Dating Mayhem
Elaine Spaan - 2015
Even after his death, I remained close to her. When she dies, I'm naturally devastated.Grandma's knitting group of Jessica Fletcher wannabes are convinced Grandma's death wasn't natural. Something to do with knitting needle placement? No idea what they're talking about. The police think the old ladies are senile. I don't necessarily disagree, but I'm always up for a bit of excitement as long as it doesn't lead to a night in jail. Well, more than one night anyway. But someone is not happy with our snooping around, which only spurs us on to snoop more. Things are starting to heat up in our little town.Will we find Grandma's killer in time?
Earthly Delights
Kerry Greenwood - 2004
At four am she starts work at Earthly Delights, her bakery in Calico Alley.But one morning Corinna receives a threatening note saying "The wages of sin is death" and finds a syringe in her cat's paw. A blue-faced junkie has collapsed in the dark alley and a mysterious man with beautiful eyes appears with a plan for Corinna and her bread. Then it is Goths, dead drug addicts, witchcraft, a homeless boy and a missing girl and it seems she will never get those muffins cooked in time.With flair, chutzpah and a talent for kneading, Corinna Chapman will find out who exactly is threatening her life and bake some beautiful bread.
Bittersweet Betrayal
Stephanie Damore - 2018
Except one of them is dead. Ever since Nick passed, Claire has been able to see ghosts. Well the grounded ones anyway. When Nick’s not-so-dearly departed grandma makes an untimely exit, Nick relies on his ever-clever wife to track the clues and bring the killer to justice. Claire is more than willing to take the case if only to send Grandma up to the Pearly Gates and get her out of her hair...and bakery. If you love a clean paranormal mystery, heavy on the whodunit, you're going to love these quick reads!
The Gossiping Gourmet
Martin Brown - 2014
But for love of his caramel chicken and cherry fudge brownies, everyone has a story to share regarding their fellow citizens—Stories that too often find their way into his weekly gossip-filled newspaper column, "Heard About Town." When the great chef and his admirers, the Sausalito Ladies of Liberty, take offense to a newly arrived Manhattan power couple, their insular world of tasty sauces and stinging insults leads to deadly results.Everyone has their own theory about who killed Warren. But it takes the combined efforts of Rob Timmons, the local newspaper publisher, and Eddie Austin, his childhood friend and Marin County’s top detective, to unravel this tale of delicious dishes and malicious deception.
Any Witch Way You Can
Amanda M. Lee - 2012
To make matters worse, the police believe the murder may have something to do with the occult.This wouldn't be a problem for a normal reporter, but since Bay is descended from a well-known line of actual witches, the town is understandably on edge.Between the suspicious townspeople, the befuddled police presence and that random hot biker guy that may or may not have something to do with the murder -- Bay has her hands full.When you add the typical family problems, multiplying ghosts -- and one monster of a zit that she's sure came from her aunt's curse -- Bay is just struggling to make it through the week.Of course, when the killer sets his sights on Bay, things could get a whole lot worse.
Assault and Batting
Tess Rothery - 2019
A good job, a home in the city, and someone she loves to share life with. But when her mom dies unexpectedly, she doesn’t hesitate to drop everything for her family. With a baby sister still in high school, an elderly grandfather at home, and the family quilt shop to run, she knows where she needs to be. Belle, Taylor’s sister, fears their mom’s death is her fault. She thinks her birth mom may just have wanted her back badly enough to kill. To lay Belle’s fear to rest, the Quinn girls search out exactly what happened the night of the accident. But in doing so, Taylor finds herself tangled in a mess of secrets, envy, and small town gossip that threatens to unravel the family she loves. Ripping out the stitches that hold her family together may be the only way to keep their lives from falling apart.
Dying for a Date
Cindy Sample - 2010
Right, or Mr. Every Other Saturday Night, divorced mother of two, Laurel McKay reluctantly joins THE LOVE CLUB, a popular local dating service. Dressed to kill, she meets bachelor number one at a trendy restaurant. But the date is a bust, literally, when the guy decides Laurel is dessert, and she breaks his nose with her cell phone. It gets even worse when the man is found murdered the next morning, and Laurel has his blood on her clothes.Despite her now being a person of interest to the police, Laurel bravely ventures out on date number two. When that unlucky bachelor disappears during dinner, Laurel’s only alibi is a bottle of Dom Perignon. The sexy investigating detective thinks she’s innocent and is worried she may be the next target. That’s more than enough motivation for Laurel to find a murderer determined to kill her social life––before dating becomes a dead end she can’t escape.
Deadly Dog Days
Jamie M. Blair - 2019
What she isn’t looking for is one of their bodies floating in the canal. When she and her estranged husband, the town sheriff, are both named suspects for the murder, Cameron takes solving the crime into her own hands, teaming up with her eccentric co-workers who dub themselves The Metamora Action Agency. As if hunting for a murderer with two high school geniuses, the town drunk, and an elderly kleptomaniac isn’t hard enough, Cameron adopts the five mangy guard dogs of her deceased neighbor. But maybe a stint at playing gatekeeper is just what she needs to come face-to-face with the killer and save another neighbor from being the next victim.
Aunt Bessie Assumes
Diana Xarissa - 2014
For most of those years, she's been in the habit of taking a brisk morning walk along the beach. Dead men have never been part of the scenery before.Aunt Bessie assumes that the dead man died of natural causes, then the police find the knife in his chest.Try as she might, Bessie just can't find anything to like about the young widow that she provides tea and sympathy to in the immediate aftermath of finding the body. There isn't much to like about the rest of the victim's family either.Aunt Bessie assumes that the police will have the case wrapped up in no time at all, then she finds a second body.Can Bessie and her friends find the killer before she ends up as the next victim?
A Fatal Twist of Lemon
Patrice Greenwood - 2012
They don't belong in Ellen Rosings's Victorian tearoom. But when her opening day thank-you tea ends in the murder of the president of the Santa Fe Preservation Trust, the police invade her haven. Enter Detective Tony Aragon: attractive and unsympathetic, with a chip on his shoulder that goes beyond the murder investigation, and Ellen's delicate bone china cup is full. Is the murderer one of her honored guests, or the ghost rumored to haunt the building? Will Ellen solve the mystery, or will the Wisteria Tearoom's premiere turn out to be its—and Ellen's—finale?
Elvis and the Dearly Departed
Peggy Webb - 2008
And no one gets into Eternal Rest without passing muster with Elvis--the basset hound who's convinced he's the reincarnation of the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Brewing up a big ol' pitcher of Mississippi mystery, Peggy Webb's delightful new series is as intoxicating as the Delta breeze.Normally, Callie Valentine Jones spends her days fixing up the hairdos of the dead, but when the corpse of local, prominent physician Dr. Leonard Laton goes missing, it's bad for business. So Callie and her cousin Lovie (Eternal Rest's resident wake caterer) have no choice but to go in hot pursuit of the recently embalmed, last seen bound for Vegas by way of downtown Tupelo. In Vegas, Callie and Lovie hit the jackpot when they find the dearly departed inside a freezer owned by his showgirl mistress, Bubble Malone. But their luck runs out when Bubble decides to join her man in the afterlife. With the poisonous Laton family tree providing plenty of rotten suspects, Callie, along with some help from her basset hound, Elvis, is determined to crack this case--and have a killer singing "Jailhouse Rock" in time for her next haircutting appointment. . .Pure southern lunacy of the best possible kind." --Laurien Berenson
Adventures in Funeral Crashing
Milda Harris - 2011
At one of these, Kait is outted by the most popular guy in school, Ethan Ripley. Yet, instead of humiliating her for all the world to see, he asks for her help, and Kait finds herself entangled in a murder mystery. Not only is the thrill of the mystery exciting, but more importantly Ethan knows her name! A little sleuthing is well worth that!