Cozy Mystery Garden

Restaurant critic Derek Schumaker, notorious for his bitter reviews, is about to visit Daisy's Tea Garden, and Daisy and Aunt Iris are simmering with anxiety. A bad word from the culinary curmudgeon could really hurt their business, but Daisy tries to stay confident. After all, how can he resist her cucumber sandwiches with pimento spread—not to mention the cheesy cauliflower soup and strawberry walnut salad?

The faculty of Willow Creek High School are having a get-together after the spring concert with refreshments provided, courtesy of Daisy's Tea Garden. Oolong tea and chocolate biscuits are just what the staff needs to help them unwind from Althea Higgins's demanding curriculum. Her lessons on such controversial subjects as school uniforms and under qualified substitute teachers are earning her an F from her colleagues. But a failing grade was preferable to Althea falling victim to foul play.

Sue Jaworski has big hopes for Butterflies and Blooms, her new garden shop in the mountain town of Aspen Notch. Housed in the same historical cabin that once held a beloved local candy store, Sue dreams of building something just as cherished by the town's tight-knit community. But when a series of unsettling incidents disrupts the shop—escalating from minor mischief to full-blown vandalism—those dreams start to wither. Then food poisoning sweeps through town, and health officials point to Sue's shop as the source. Now, it's clear someone wants her shut down for good—but why?

A fire breaks out in town, resulting in a tragic death, and Alice's brother, Blue Valley PD Officer Ben Maguire, and newcomer, Detective Luke Evans—who has an irritating way of making Alice blush—lead the investigation. When it is determined that the death was no accident, Alice, Franny, and Owen get pulled smack dab into investigating the case. Will they solve it before you do?

Posie Parker, Private Detective, has been summoned to Chelsea, to the House of Sinne, the London perfume house. Anouk Sinne, the most brilliant perfumier of her age, and famous for her spoiled bald cat, has been receiving blackmail demands, and she asks Posie to investigate. But is blackmail just the tip of the iceberg?

Karen Rose Smith presents Book 10 in the Daisy's Tea Garden Mystery series.

When the owner of a new business digs up buried bones on opening day, the rumor mill in Spicetown comes alive! Figuring out who the bones belong to will open up the cold cases in Spicetown and unearth all the old gossip that was never truly buried. Cora Mae and Chief Harris learn a few things about their fellow citizens along the way.

Daisy's orange pekoe is flowing at a fundraiser - and she's also made a new friend, Piper, a young woman whose hopes for motherhood were dashed by a foul-up at a fertility clinic. But before they can settle into a long conversation, the event is disrupted by masked protestors who object to building a shelter in Willow Creek. Among the angry crowd is Eli - who left his Amish community some time ago, with help from a lawyer named Hiram.

When decorator Meg Barrett travels to a remote mansion to help select period pieces for a new 1930s-style television mystery series, she's chilled to learn that the manor was once a mental asylum and the site of a mysterious decades-old murder. And when a fierce blizzard knocks out the power and strands Meg and her cohorts in the home's rickety old elevator, they emerge to discover that another person has been murdered—in the same macabre manner as the original victim.

Poppy is settling into life in an English village and gaining some green fingers at last as she restores the beautiful cottage garden nursery she's inherited. When she meets a wealthy dog lover at the village fête and is hired to create a "canine scent garden", the future looks rosy...until the day ends with a vicious killing, and she finds herself spade-deep in a murder investigation once again.

Jesse Camden is a sucker for a mystery. So when Amanda Carmichael's assistant Bethany asks the Myrtle Grove Garden Club to investigate what she thinks are attempts on her employer's life, Jesse and Vivian Windsor agree. But before they can start, Bethany sends a frantic message that Amanda is leaving for her isolated estate in the Salish Sea, taking her dog Lady and a small staff, including Bethany, with her. As Jesse and Vivian go hurrying after them, disaster strikes again, and this time the "accident" is fatal.

When she lands her first gardening job at a beautiful country house, Poppy is delighted to earn some much-needed money. But she barely sets foot in the flower bed before the meddling neighbour drops dead in front of her - murdered by a lethal poison. Before she knows it, Poppy is busy weeding out suspects, helped by mad scientist Bertie and his feisty terrier, Einstein, plus a whole host of nosy villagers…not to mention maverick crime author Nick Forrest.

Can Christmas get any crazier? A new case for Mack and, lucky for Doreen, she finds a cold case connected to it, making her year end on a high note. All the while she struggles to navigate gift giving and a special party that Nan wants to put on for her at Rosemoor—except Doreen has to solve all kinds of issues, including the missing mistletoe, which Nan insists on having for the party.

Spending time with Mack is always fun, but, when Doreen overhears a conversation that sounds like a murder confession, he disagrees, … until a body shows up. Then he’s suddenly a whole lot more interested. The deceased young man had planned to attend the local college and had hoped to rekindle a relationship with an ex-girlfriend.

After her ex-husband leaves her high and dry, former socialite Doreen Montgomery's chance at a new life comes in the form of her grandmother, Nan's, dilapidated old house in picturesque Kelowna...and the added job of caring for the animals Nan couldn’t take into assisted living with her: Thaddeus, the loquacious African gray parrot with a ripe vocabulary, and his buddy, Goliath, a monster-size cat with an equally monstrous attitude. It’s the new start Doreen and her beloved basset hound, Mugs, desperately need.

When Jesse Camden, owner of the Gilded Lily Tea Room and Coffee House, agrees to meet her childhood friend, Winnie Rogers, for a morning of girl talk and reminiscing, or "fishing" as Winnie likes to call it, Jesse anticipates a morning of shared confidences over a picnic brunch in the countryside. But spring in Oklahoma can be unpredictable, and when a tornado drops out of a wall cloud practically on top of them, Jesse and Winnie find themselves stranded with a demolished pickup and a dead body before they've even opened the picnic basket.

Ever since her husband’s affair, Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen has taken a sabbatical from men. The 30-ish divorcée is content to tend her farm and gain a bird’s-eye view of the neighbors from her perch as small-town postmistress. Yet when a hunky city slicker comes to town with no clue about farming, she’s happy to show him the ropes. When pieces of a dismembered body crop up around Crozet, however, the wary townsfolk reckon the handsome stranger is the culprit.

Doreen Montgomery’s new life in Kelowna was supposed to be a fresh start after a nasty split from her husband of 14 years, plus a chance to get her bearings and her life back on track. Instead her first week in her new hometown was spent digging up dead bodies, chasing clues, and getting in Corporal Mack Moreau’s way.

Even though its famous opera house has shuttered its doors for the war, Covent Garden remains one of the most exciting, bustling areas of London. It’s where Hannah Merrill and Aunt Violet have their bookshop and, in spite of the recent spate of burglaries in the area, it’s generally thought to be a good neighbourhood. So Hannah is surprised when she sees a fellow shopkeeper – a jeweller named Jacob Cornelis – having a heated argument with a stranger. Especially when the next day Cornelis is found dead in his shop, apparently the victim of another burglary.

Texas transplant Pru Parke has put down roots in England, but she never dreamed she'd live in a grand place such as Greenoak. When her former employers offer Pru and her new husband, former Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse, the use of their 19th-century estate while they're away for a year, she jumps at the chance. Sweetening the deal is the prospect of further bonding with her long-lost brother, Simon, who happens to be Greenoak's head gardener. But the majestic manor has at least one skeleton in its closet.