My TBR pile tilts toward cozies.
Gorgeous settings, amateur sleuths with a job and a life, fair-play clues, and a complete absence of forensic detail I’ll regret reading before bed.
Every cozy mystery book on this list is a first-in-series. Each gives me (and you) a chance to get to know the characters. Enjoy!
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Table Of Contents
- The 11 Cozy Mystery Books On My TBR
- Meet Your Baker By Ellie Alexander
- The Secret, Scone, & Book Society By Ellery Adams
- Death By Darjeeling By Laura Childs
- Murder At The Summer Cheese Festival
- On What Grounds By Cleo Coyle
- Tea & Treachery By Vicki Delaney
- Murder Is Binding By Lorna Barrett
- Sprinkle With Murder By Jenn McKinlay
- A Crafty Killing By Lorraine Bartlett
- Flipped For Murder By Maddie Day
- Catering To Nobody By Diane Mott Davidson
- Already Read Them All? Try These
- A Few Notes On Cozy Mysteries
- How To Find More Cozy Mysteries
The 11 Cozy Mystery Books On My TBR
Note: I’ve checked every pick to ensure it’s in print, but they move in and out of stock, so it’s always worth confirming current availability before you order.
Meet Your Baker By Ellie Alexander
Ellie Alexander started the Bakeshop Mysteries with this, and it’s for foodies and Shakespeare enthusiasts. Juliet (Jules) Capshaw moves home to Ashland, Oregon, to help her mother run Torte, a bakery.
The pastry work reads like the author has actually folded butter into laminated dough at 4am. The series is well past 20 books, so if you click with Jules, you have a long run ahead.
The Secret, Scone, & Book Society By Ellery Adams
In 201, Ellery Adams launched her series (now eight books strong!) where you can visit the town of Miracle Springs, North Carolina,
At its center is Nora Pennington, a “bibliotherapist” who runs Miracle Books and matches each customer with the precise novel needed to mend a bruised soul.
When murder strikes the town, Nora founds a secret society where membership demands one thing: confess your darkest secret. It’s a character-rich mystery with a tenderness you rarely find in the cozy genre.
Death By Darjeeling By Laura Childs
This 2001 first-in-series launched one of the longest-running tea cozies in print, 30 books and counting. Theodosia Browning runs the Indigo Tea Shop in Charleston’s historic district.
When a guest at a Lamplighter Tour collapses mid-Darjeeling, she starts asking the questions the police aren’t. The author writes about specific blends, brewing temperatures, and the cultural particulars of an afternoon tea service in a way that’s grounded in research.
Murder At The Summer Cheese Festival
Disclosure: this one’s mine. It’s the first in my Silver Springs Mysteries, set in a fictional Vermont small town during the annual summer cheese festival. A food critic turns up dead and café manager Laura Evans starts pulling threads. I wrote it because I wanted a cozy that took artisan food, small-town belonging, and crafting circles seriously. The members of the Maplewood Crafters Club help with the investigations.
If you enjoy the rest of this list, I’d love it if you give my story a try!
On What Grounds By Cleo Coyle
Cleo Coyle’s 2003 debut for the Coffeehouse Mysteries proved you could set a cozy mystery in Manhattan and still have it feel like a cozy.
Clare Cosi comes back to manage the Village Blend, her ex-mother-in-law’s century-old Greenwich Village coffeehouse. When her assistant manager turns up dead in the back room, the official investigation is content to call it an accident. Clare is not.
Tea & Treachery By Vicki Delaney
Vicki Delaney opened the Tea By The Sea Mysteries in 2020, and the grandmother-granddaughter dynamic just shines. Six books in so far, Lily Roberts runs Tea-By-The-Sea, a proper English tearoom on the bluffs of North Augusta. Her grandmother Rose runs the adjoining B&B.
When a property developer drops dead and Rose ends up the prime suspect, Lily has to investigate her way out of a problem Rose may have caused.
Murder Is Binding By Lorna Barrett
Lorna Barrett’s Booktown Mysteries’ setting is something any booklover would adore! Stoneham, New Hampshire has reinvented itself as a destination of nothing but bookstores.
Tricia Miles runs Haven’t Got A Clue, the village’s mystery bookshop, and when the cookery-book proprietor next door is murdered, Tricia ends up at the top of the suspect list. Her cat is named Miss Marple, which tells you everything you need to know about the tonal commitment. The series runs to 19 plus books, with long-arc plotting that rewards readers.
Sprinkle With Murder By Jenn McKinlay
Jenn McKinlay’s 2010 Cupcake Bakery Mysteries are bright, fast, and dialogue-driven.
In the first book Mel Cooper and Angie DeLaura have just opened Fairy Tale Cupcakes in Scottsdale, Arizona, when a bridezilla turns up dead and Mel’s signature cupcakes are at the scene. McKinlay writes the kind of best-friend banter that sounds like best friends, and the cupcake recipes at the back are tested and reliable.
A Crafty Killing By Lorraine Bartlett
Lorraine Bartlett’s 2011 Victoria Square Mystery series opens with Katie Bonner inheriting a partial stake in Artisans Alley, a struggling craft co-op on a fictional New York village square, right before her business partner turns up dead. Katie has to keep the co-op solvent and figure out who killed him.
The craft world is rendered with affection. Candle makers, quilters, potters, and a knitter or two, all written as people rather than set dressing. (She writes the Booktown Mysteries under Lorna Barrett.)
Flipped For Murder By Maddie Day
Maddie Day launched the Country Store Mysteries in 2015 with this Indiana-set debut. Robbie Jordan has converted a derelict country store into Pans ‘N Pancakes, a breakfast-and-lunch place that also sells vintage cookware.
When a local woman is murdered after a very public argument with Robbie, the suspect list narrows fast. The breakfast recipes (biscuits, pancakes, country gravy) are the comfort food readers will love.
Catering To Nobody By Diane Mott Davidson
Diane Mott Davidson’s 1990 debut for the Goldy Bear Culinary Mysteries built the culinary cozy mystery subgenre. Goldy is a caterer in a Colorado mountain town, working a wake when one of the guests is poisoned.
Goldy’s food. Goldy’s reputation. Goldy’s investigation. Davidson was one of the first cozy authors to include full, tested recipes, and the series ran to 17 books. Just a note, the ex-husband material is heavier than typical cozy fare, but it’s handled with care.
Already Read Them All? Try These
If you’ve seen the 11 above, here’s where I’d send you next:
- Tea Shop Mysteries by Laura Childs. If Death By Darjeeling worked for you, this is where to keep going. Roughly 28 books, all in the same Charleston tea shop setting, with consistent care for the tea writing throughout.
- The Cookbook Nook Mysteries by Daryl Wood Gerber. Cookbook-themed cozies set in a fictional California coastal town, with great recipes and a strong sense of place.
- The Lighthouse Library Mysteries by Eva Gates. North Carolina coastal cozies with a librarian protagonist and a built-in love of mystery fiction.
- Yarn Retreat Mysteries by Betty Hechtman. A dessert chef inherits her late aunt’s yarn retreat business in California and ends up solving crimes between hosting knitting getaways.
A Few Notes On Cozy Mysteries
A note on what makes a book a ‘cozy.’
An amateur sleuth (rarely a professional detective), a small, knowable setting, no graphic violence or explicit content, and a mystery that plays fair with the reader. The clues are all on the page, even if they’re well hidden. Most cozies sit firmly in series because the pleasure is partly in returning to a community!
Within the genre, there are loose subgenres:
- Culinary cozies center on food.
- Bookshop and library cozies revolve around reading communities.
- Craft cozies bring knitting, quilting, or other handwork into the plot.
Tea and coffee cozies have a large subgenre, as do dog cozies, antique cozies, and small-town cozies. If something looks interesting, you’ve got plenty to choose from.
How To Find More Cozy Mysteries
A few ways I find new cozy mystery books worth reading:
- Goodreads’ ‘Readers Who Liked X’ lists. The algorithm is good at the cozy genre, probably because reader behavior in cozies is so consistent. You find a series, you read all 24 books, and then you go looking for the next series.
- The Cozy Mystery List website (cozy-mystery.com) maintains a curated, regularly updated catalog organized by author, theme, and setting.
- Your local library’s cozy mystery shelf. Especially the small-press and reissued backlist titles that don’t show up usually.
- Cozy mystery podcasts. The Cozy Mystery Book Club is worth a listen.
- Author newsletters. Once you find one cozy author you love, their newsletter usually points you to 2 or 3 others in the same lane.
That’s my reading pile. I’d love to hear what’s on yours. If there’s a first-in-series cozy I should be adding, let me know! Happy reading, and even happier knitting.
About The Author
Jodie Morgan (Author & Founder)
jodie@knitlikegranny.com | Lives In: Regional Australia
Author: Jodie Morgan is a passionate knitter and blogger with 40+ years of experience currently living in regional Australia. Taught by her mother and wonderful grandmother “Mama”, she fell in love with crafting from a young age. When she’s not knitting, you’ll find her enjoying a cup of coffee with cream, or sharing helpful resources and tips with the online knitting community. Get to know Jodie and the team on our meet the team page.
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