Cozy Fiction

Another murder in small town Cold Creek has tensions rising. Clive Johnson, the groundskeeper at Cold Creek College, is a convenient scapegoat for a police chief when he has the bad luck of finding the body. Although Clive helps the students on scholarship and claims innocence, he’s not helping himself. Convinced Chief Barney Pfeiffe has it all wrong, Sheridan Hendley sets out to help prove Clive's innocence. Her curiosity and questions place her in danger.

Each December, the faculty of Balaclava Agricultural College goes wild with holiday decorations. The entire campus glitters with Christmas lights, save for one dark spot: the home of Professor Peter Shandy. But after years of resisting the school's Illumination festival, Shandy suddenly snaps, installing a million-watt display of flashing lights and blaring music perfectly calculated to drive his neighbors mad. Then the horticulturalist flees town, planning to spend Christmas on a tramp steamer. He returns home to find his lights extinguished - and a dead librarian in his living room.

The last thing Officer Dixie Jones wants to do over winter break is take an assignment in the Podunk town of Lily Rock. But if locating a missing baby Jesus statue for the Christmas tree lighting ceremony is what she needs to do to land the big city assignment of her dreams, that’s exactly what she’ll do. As soon as Dixie arrives in town she realizes there are worse things at play than stolen decorations. Mysterious emails. Biker gang activity. A deadly fire. One thing is clear, there is more to Lily Rock than meets the eye.

The International Butter Festival has come to town! When Harlow Torrent, part-time journalist and full-time Slip witch stumbles upon a dead body, frozen and drained of blood, she's pulled into a murder mystery. Someone has murdered one of the Butter Festival competitors. Was it Zero Bend, punk sculptor extraordinaire with a history of violence? Perhaps Fusion Swan, a sleazy agent playing the publicity game when his clients meet their untimely end?

Gerda Jones is no average bridge troll. Sure, she can create riddles like the best of them, but she has skills up her sleeve that no one would expect . . . and a backstory that no one would believe. She uses her fortune-telling talents to change the fate of everyone around her, but avoids getting too close to anyone herself. All of that changes when Gerda catches the eye of Duke Julian von Slyke at his sister's wedding. The tall, dark, and handsome half-elf is making her let down her guard—and inviting a royal heap of trouble into her life.

Who killed Baubles the Clown? The beloved performer Baubles, hired to entertain children with Sparkles his Shetland pony, is found slumped over in the corral strangled by his trick lasso. Lily Rock's librarian, Meadow McCloud, wants to help find the killer but she has a personal crisis to deal with. Between Christmas errands and the plentiful expectations that come with the season, she's feeling pretty overwhelmed. Plus there's the secret she's kept from her daughter, Sage, that keeps threatening her peace of mind. If that isn't enough, Sage is overwhelmed with her concerns.

When Ruth Townsend discovers Tessa Martin’s body in an abandoned factory, sprawled across a Ouija board, she does the responsible thing and calls 911. But by the time Sheriff Blevins arrives, the girl’s body has vanished. Blevins is convinced that Tessa is playing an elaborate hoax. But Ruth and her daughter, Cassie, know better. They both saw the body.

A luxurious island. A mysterious invitation. A deadly secret. When amateur sleuth Charlotte "Charlie" Reed receives an invitation to a lavish weekend on a secluded island, she thinks it's the perfect opportunity to boost her fledgling detective agency. But when the enigmatic host turns up dead, it's clear this won't be the relaxing getaway anyone had in mind. With the storm cutting off communication and all escape routes, Charlie must navigate a house full of eccentric guests—all with dark secrets of their own.

Darcy Ingram's time in supernaturally-tinged Brookhaven has been anything but idyllic. She solved one murder, but now a friend is begging for help finding his missing sister. A day cruise with her co-workers sounds like just the break she needs. But when a passenger dies under unusual circumstances, she finds herself tangled up in another mystery.

Only, asking questions can be hazardous to her health. The closer she gets to finding the truth, the more her own life might be in danger. Sheridan’s self-defense classes are put to good use as she eliminates suspects. But her involvement strains her increasingly serious relationship with Detective Brett McMann. Are some secrets better left untold? Join Sheridan and her friends as they search to prove Zoe’s innocence and identify the killer, who is determined to stop them.

Sometimes the only way to do the right thing is to break the rules. Love, Lies, and Murder is a collection of 19 short stories that explore the extremes of human emotion and the conflicts that result. Every story will leave you tense and breathless as the characters race to a conclusion that is as unexpected as it is satisfying. Intense and gripping, each story features a hero that seeks justice and the triumph of good over evil by whatever means necessary - regardless of what society’s rules find acceptable.

The services of the Eyes Peeled Detective Agency are secured by Sir Barrington Hedley-Smythe following the theft of four rare and exceptionally valuable bronze busts. Sam and the team are soon hot on the case, also happening upon a mysterious spate of missing pets in the process. Then, if their caseload wasn’t busy enough, the shocking theft of the iconic Isle of Man Senior TT Trophy is making global headlines, meaning even more potential work for our intrepid team. Overall, ideal business conditions for an expanding firm of private detectives, you’d imagine? Not so much….

Montagues, Magic and Murder! Life in Brookhaven has settled down for Darcy. She's gained more control over and confidence in her magic. And she's happily dating Maggie. When she discovers she has family in the area, Darcy can't imagine things going any better. But when a night out at the theater for her cousin's production of Romeo and Juliet turns deadly and Darcy 's new cousin looks like a prime suspect, she's bound up in another murder investigation. Proving her family's innocence seems simple enough but the more Darcy digs, the more she unearths a twisted obsession and dangerous magic.

Book eight of the hilarious Pineapple Port mystery series from Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author Amy Vansant has Charlotte awaking to find Mariska and Bob gone, kidnapped from their home. Their disappearance is a message from a familiar killer: Help me or your friends will disappear. To save her loved ones, Charlotte must find a way to clear her boyfriend's crazy ex of a killing.

In this fourth installment of the Chrissy the Shih Tzu Cozy Mysteries, Autumn Clarke and Ray Reed are planning the winter wedding of the year, and the first major social event at Autumn's newly renovated Peabody Mansion Bed & Breakfast. Autumn's dreams are about to come true: a spectacular, romantic ceremony with the handsome love of her life.

Even with her life in ruins in New Mexico, Shay feels uneasy about settling into the small seaside town where she grew up on California's Monterey Peninsula, and taking over an estate bequeathed to her by Bridget Early, a woman she had barely known. Her heightened senses—an empathic gift she's had since childhood—go into overdrive upon touring Crystals & CuriosiTEAS, Bridget's eclectic tea and psychic shop brimming with Irish lore and Celtic symbols. They reach a boiling point when Shay looks up to discover a stranger's body sprawled across the shop's greenhouse roof . . .

To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose; it is summer in Scotland Street (as it always is) and for the habitués of Edinburgh's favourite street, some extraordinary adventures lie in waiting. For the impossibly vain Bruce Anderson - he of the clove-scented hair gel - it may finally be time to settle down, and surely it can only be a question of picking the lucky winner from the hordes of his admirers. The Duke of Johannesburg is keen to take his flight of fancy, a microlite seaplane, from the drawing board to the skies.

Sheriff Frank asks newly-minted private detective Charlotte to help him crack the case, but she has no idea those darn gingerbread men will start showing up everywhere. What did Santa do that made them so angry? And what's the secret in his colorful Christmas-themed bureau? Charlotte is forced to split her time between searching for Santa's killer and helping Declan's crazy ex, Stephanie, stop a corrupt district attorney in exchange for a book that could help solve more crimes in the future.

I never thought my life would take a turn into the world of murder mysteries, but here I am, Ophelia Pane, vampire veterinarian extraordinaire, caught in the middle of a deadly game of cat and mouse... or should I say parrot and vampire? As I struggle to juggle my overflowing clinic of fur babies and mythical creatures, a simple house call to check in on a chatty parrot named Elvis turns into a nightmare when I stumble upon his owner’s lifeless body.

Trouble is brewing as April May approaches her 50th birthday and the opening of her tearoom. When word gets around that a local reporter is penning a tell-all, everyone in town is on edge that their secrets may be revealed.