These Cozy Mystery Series Will Get You Through The Summer

Susan Wittig Albert has a series of cozy mysteries called The Darling Dahlias. The first book in the series is called The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree. The good old ladies of Darling, Alabama, are determined to keep their town beautiful. The Darling Dahlias garden club is off to a good start until rumors of trouble at a bank, an escaped convict, and a ghost digging around their tree surface. If anyone can get to the root of these mysteries, it's the Darling Dahlias.

M.C. Beaton also has a popular series of cozy mysteries featuring sleuth Agatha Raisin. The first book of the series is called Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death. Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful PR firm, sells her London flat, and settles in for an early retirement in the quiet village of Carsely. But she soon finds her life of leisure isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Bored, lonely, and used to getting her way, she enters a local baking contest: Surely a blue ribbon for the best quiche will make her the toast of the town. But her recipe for social advancement sours when the judge, Mr. Cummings-Browne, not only snubs her entry but also falls over dead! After her quiche’s secret ingredient turns out to be poison, she must reveal the unsavory truth. . . .That is, Agatha has never baked a thing in her life! In fact, she bought her entry ready-made from an upper-crust London quicherie. Grating on the nerves of several Carsely residents, she is soon receiving sinister notes. Has her cheating and meddling landed her in hot water, or are the threats related to the suspicious death? It may mean the difference between egg on her face and a coroner’s tag on her toe. . . .

Another lovely garden-themed cozy series is Magic Garden Mysteries by Amanda Flower. The first of the series is titled Flowers and Foul Play. Fiona Knox lost her fiancé and her flower shop—but when she flies to Scotland to inherit her godfather’s cottage and possibly magical walled garden, she may lose her life as well when she’s swept into a murder investigation. Florist Fiona Knox’s life isn’t smelling so sweet these days. Her fiancé left her for their cake decorator. Then, her flower shop wilted after a chain florist opened next door. So when her godfather, Ian MacCallister, leaves her a cottage in Scotland, Fiona jumps on the next plane to Edinburgh. Ian, after all, is the one who taught her to love flowers. But when Ian’s elderly caretaker Hamish MacGregor shows her to the cottage upon her arrival, she finds the once resplendent grounds of Duncreigan in a dreadful shambles—with a dead body in the garden. Minutes into her arrival, Fiona is already being questioned by the handsome Chief Inspector Neil Craig and getting her passport seized. But it’s Craig’s fixation on Uncle Ian’s loyal caretaker, Hamish, as a prime suspect, that really makes her worried. As Fiona strolls the town, she quickly realizes there are a whole bouquet of suspects much more likely to have killed Alastair Croft, the dead lawyer who seems to have had more enemies than friends.

Finally, why not try the Gardening Mystery series by Janis Harrison. The first book is Roots of Murder (we have it in Large Print). The Flower Shop in River City, MO, is Bretta Solomon's whole life. Widowed more than a year ago when her cop husband had a heart attack, Bretta has thrown herself into her florist's business and her place in this small rural Midwestern community. And her diet--she's lost a lot of weight in the intervening year. If only she could shed her grief in the same way. When Bretta reads in the newspaper that Isaac Miller, an Amish farmer who supplied some of her most beautiful flowers, has died under mysterious circumstances, she's shocked and saddened. But her shock turns to curiosity when Isaac's brother, Evan, a friend of hers since his family bought her parents' farm in neighboring Woodgrove, calls and asks her to help him find out more about his brother's death. What Bretta finds when she begins looking into Isaac's murder--for that's what it was--is a complicated web of mistrust and suspicion both inside and around the Amish community. The sheriff suspects Evan, Evan suspects the neighbors, and Bretta finds her florist competitors unnaturally interested in Isaac's garden.

Large Print Valentine Novels

 

Travel to the Scotland Highlands with this classic called Death of a Valentine: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery is by M.C. Beaton. "Amazing news has spread across the Scottish countryside. The most famous of highland bachelors, police sergeant Hamish Macbeth, will be married at last. Everyone in the village of Lochdubh adores Josie McSween, Macbeth's newest constable and blushing bride-to-be. While locals think Josie is quite a catch, Hamish has a case of prenuptial jitters. After all, if it weren't for the recent murder of a beautiful woman in a neighbouring village, there wouldn't be a wedding at all. For it was a mysterious Valentine's Day package--delivered to the victim before her death--that initially drew Hamish and Josie together on the investigation. As they work side by side, Hamish and Josie soon discover that the woman's list of admirers was endless, confirming Hamish's suspicion that love can be blind, deaf . . . and deadly." (from Amazon.com)

In A Catered Valentine's Day by Isis Crawford, "Bernie and Libby, owners of A Taste of Heaven, have plans to partner up with the Just Chocolate store for a taste-tempting Valentine's Day fundraiser featuring pairings of exotic chocolates, food, and wine, as well as a bachelor auction. And though Bernie isn't too happy about her boyfriend volunteering to be auctioned off, she's got too much on her plate to be jealous: one of the coolers is leaking; they need a new butter supplier, and the mother of a very good client has died. Putting their preparations on hold, Bernie and Libby attend the funeral, only to be recruited to help solve a mystery. In an old cemetery-turned-lover's-lane, the body of Ted Gorman has been found in someone else's grave. The same Ted Gorman who supposedly died in a fiery car crash weeks earlier. Ted was the owner–with his wife–of Just Chocolate. So now, as Bernie and Libby continue working with the grieving widow, they open up a mixed box of dark financial scandal, sticky family ties, bittersweet passion, and just desserts." (from Amazon.com)

It's the one day each year when being single is a sin . . .In The Trouble With Valentine's Day by Rachel Gibson, it just plain stinks! "Kate Hamilton should know. Dumped by her boyfriend, burnt out by her job, she's returned to Gospel, Idaho, where a Mountain Momma Crafters' original poetry reading is about as good as it gets on a Friday night. Then her first attempted seduction of a hunky stranger is completely rejected. So much for her self-esteem! It turns out that Rob Sutter, former ice hockey madman, owner of Sutter's Sports—and the hunky stranger who told her to get lost—has been more than burned by love and isn't looking for a relationship. But then he and Kate find themselves in an ultra-compromising position in the M&S Market after-hours, giving the phrase "clean up in aisle five" a whole new meaning, and causing a whole lot of gossip in Gospel . . ." (from Amazon.com)

Valentine Murder is by Leslie Meier. "It's Valentine's Day in Tinker's Cove. And while the cupcakes Lucy Stone is baking for her children will have pink frosting and candy hearts, Lucy's thoughts aren't centered on sugary sentiments. She's barely arrived at her first board meeting of the newly-renovated library when Bitsy Howell, the new librarian, is found dead in the basement, shot only minutes before story hour was to start. The agitated board members assume that Bitsy was killed by an outsider, until Detective Lt. Horowitz arrives on the scene and announces that the killer is among them. Lucy was already aware that Bitsy's uppity big city ways rubbed some people in Tinker's Cove the wrong way. But she has a hunch that motives for the librarian's violent death run a lot deeper. From Hayden Norcross's elegant antique shop to Corney Clark's chic kitchen, Lucy relentlessly snoops into the curious lifestyles and shocking secrets of Tinker's Cove's most solid citizens--secrets that will plunge her into a terrifying confrontation with a conniving killer. . ." (from Amazon.com)

Tracie Peterson has penned the historical romance My Valentine. "Enjoy two touching historical romances set in 1800s New York City. When Pierce and Darlene meet in her father’s tailor shop, their lives are on very different paths. But neither can forget the other. Also includes the bonus story, Little Shoes and Mistletoe by Sally Laiity, in which two orphans restore a woman’s capacity to love." (from Amazon.com)

 

New Mystery Fiction

Rosemary Simpson delivers another Gilded Age Mystery with Death Brings a Shadow. Prudence MacKenzie and former Pinkerton Geoffrey Hunter take a private yacht bound for The Sea Islands along the coast of Georgia. Prudence is the maid of honor for her beast friend Eleanor Dickson who is to wed a Southern gentleman Teddy Bennett. Just days before the wedding the bride is missing. The frantic search of Bradford Island turns up poor Eleanor’s corpse in an alligator-infested swamp. Prudence is beside herself but gathers her wits when she and Geoffrey find evidence that Eleanor was held under the water purposefully. The pair navigate a morass of voodoo spells and dark secrets left from the days of slavery. Can they bring a killer to justice before anyone else dies? 

The latest Meg Langslow mystery by Donna Andrews is called The Falcon Always Wings Twice. Meg’s grandmother Cordelia has decided to host a Renaissance Faire at her craft center and puts the whole family to work: Meg handles the blacksmithing, Michael and the boys perform, and everyone dresses in full regalia. Meg’s grandfather, however, is most excited to spend time with the fair’s falconer and his hunting birds—the peregrine falcon and a red-tailed hawk. He’s also concerned about the birds’ well-being with all of the hullabaloo surrounding the fair, so he appoints himself their protector. One of the actors performing at the fair is found dead and, because the man was suspected of mistreating one of the falcons, Grandfather is one of the main suspects. Meg and company will have to beat the bushes for clues to clear Grandfather’s name and catch the real killer. 

M.C. Beaton’s latest Agatha Raisin novel is called Hot to Trot. Private investigator Agatha learns that her friend and one-time lover Sir Charles Fraith is to be married to a horrible woman. She takes it upon herself to do a bit of digging to find out what she can about the socialite but comes up empty. Naturally, Agatha crashes the wedding—out of selfless concern for Charles, of course. The public altercation is embarrassing for everyone, but just when Agatha thinks things can’t get worse, she hears a scream for the stables on the property and rushes to check it out. What she discovers is a murder and she and Sir Charles are the prime suspects. Some shifty evidence surfaces that seems to seal Charles’s fate and Agatha jumps into action to keep her friend from losing his ancestral home, his entire estate, and his freedom. On top of everything else, Agatha’s ex-husband is back in Carsely and wanting back into her heart. What is a girl to do? 

The Right Sort of Man is a mystery by Allison Montclair. As London is slowly recovering from World War II, two very different women come together to launch the Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The quick-witted and impulsive Iris Sparks, and the practical widow with a young son Gwendolyn Bainbridge are determined to achieve some independence and do some good in the rapidly changing world. Their promising start is threatened, however, when their newest client—Tillie La Salle—is found murdered and the man arrested for crime is the prospective husband they matched her with. The police are convinced of the man’s guilt, but Miss Sparks and Mrs. Bainbridge are not. In order to clear his name and rescue their business’s reputation, the two decide to do some sleuthing of their own. They use all the skills and contacts they’ve each acquired through their lives as well as their individual adventures during the recent war to find a killer. What they don’t know is that they are putting themselves in grave danger. 

Next to Last Stand is Craig Johnson’s latest Walt Longmire mystery. One of the most viewed paintings in American History is Custer’s Last Fight. Anheuser-Busch copied and distributed the painting at a rate of more than a million copies a year, but the original was destroyed in a fire at the Seventh Calvary headquarters in Fort Bliss, Texas in 1946. Or was it? When Charley Lee Stillwater apparently dies of a heart attack at the Veterans’ Home of Wyoming, Walt is called in to try and make sense of a partial painting and a shoebox containing one million dollars. Both were found in Stillwater’s footlocker. Walt is fond of the veterans who sit outside and wave at passing cars, and he felt a particular kinship to Charley which makes the puzzle more pressing in Walt’s mind. As he tracks down the providence of the painting and the source of the money, he encounters some dangerous characters along the way. Walt will have to make sure that this investigation doesn’t become his own last stand. 

Death of a Liar: a Hamish Macbeth Mystery

With all the usual twists, turns, and red herrings, M.C. Beaton has created another completely readable cozy featuring my favorite ginger-haired Highland police sergeant. While this volume does seem to slow down in a few places, series fans will be delighted and newcomers will find it absolutely charming.
Long-suffering police sergeant Hamish Macbeth winds up with multiple murders on his hands in the latest installment of this cozy mystery series. Hamish and his partner Dick Fraser are called to the small village of Cromish in the Scottish Highlands. A middle-aged woman named Liz Bentley has called claiming that she has been raped. When Hamish and Dick arrive, they convince her to have the local doctor to examine her for the sake of evidence. The doctor pulls Hamish aside and tells him that Liz is a virgin and that there is absolutely no sign of her being raped. The doc also informs him that Liz is know to be a compulsive liar. Upset with having his time wasted by the attention-seeker, Hamish gives Liz a stern warning that she not call him again. In the meantime, the unfriendly couple who claim to be from London and have purchased the recently vacated local elementary school, are found murdered. The wife is half buried in the front garden and the husband is found some miles away stuffed in the trunk of his car. Such a high profile crime brings Inspector Blair and Superintendent Daviot up from Strathbane. Hamish is relegated to house-to-house inquiries.
After a long day of knocking on doors, Hamish gets another call from Liz Bentley in Cromish. She claims that someone is in her home and the call is interrupted before she can finish. Thinking that Liz is up to her old lying ways, Hamish ignores the immediacy and turns in for the night. The next day, he and Dick head back to Cromish. The pair find Liz dead in her back garden. A terrible storm the night before seems to have prevented anyone from hearing anything. Blair convinces Daviot to assign Hamish to the murder in Cromish; which is just fine with Hamish.
Both murder scenes are pristine and there is very little forensic evidence found. Hamish becomes convinced that these two murders are connected, but he can't seem to make the connection. Perhaps, if he would stop crushing on the polish baker, he'd actually get some work done. These two cases stall and Hamish becomes worried that they may never get solved, which doesn't sit well with him.
I won't give away the ending, but I will say that this book will keep you guessing and even give you a chuckle when the climax of the story rolls around. Hamish puts up with a lot to keep his little police station, but as he puts it, "who will look after the folks who live in all the little crofts and out-of-the-way places?" Hamish may not be lucky in love, but he knows how to take care of his Highland neighbors.

"Death of a Policeman"

     This latest installment of the Hamish Macbeth series by author M.C. Beaton finds our intrepid police sergeant at odds with his superiors. Hamish Macbeth has managed to keep his little station at Lochdubh open so far, but if Chief Inspector Blair has his way, Macbeth and the station will go the way of the dodo. Blair insists that Macbeth does nothing important on his beat, but the people of the small communities surrounding his station rely on him to settle disputes, look in on those who have no one, and to generally put up with all manner of nonsense from the locals. Blair has decided to send policeman Cyril Sessions to spy on Macbeth and gather as much evidence as he can to shut down the Lochdubh station. However, Macbeth is onto Cyril's game almost from the moment he arrives and he is having none of Cyril's nonsense. The only trouble is that Cyril is murdered while following Macbeth in the countryside. At first, it looks like Cyril is killed by a criminal drug ring operating in the highlands. Even while trying to solve Cyril's murder, Macbeth must try to save his station, deal with his lovesick policeman Dick, and his own pitiful attempts at romance.

    The author, Beaton, excels at her descriptions of the Scottish Highlands as well as the myriad of colorful local characters she uses to populate her books. While the ending is a bit of an out-of-nowhere twist, the last part of the book does seem a little hurried. Some may say that this series is getting a little tired, but fans of the series will not be disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed this book for what it is: a fun, cozy mystery and an easy read.