A Taste of Suspense with Cozy Mysteries and Recipes to Savor
Cozy mysteries all follow similar recipes. Trade a gritty crime scene for a scenic setting and a hardened detective for a lighthearted amateur sleuth. Then add in a collection of quirky neighbors turned suspects, a dash of small town gossip, and an intriguing puzzle to the low-stakes mystery. Mix it all up and top it off with just a dash of a prominently placed food, recipes, or coffee tie in and - BAM - a cozy mystery that pairs perfectly with a hot dish from your kitchen.
From talented bakers to celebrity chefs to coffee shop connoisseurs, the sleuths of cozy mysteries always seem to find a murder on the day they happen to be enjoying a good meal, participating in a pastry competition, or opening their new restaurant. These charming who-dun-its bring suspense with a side of charm that will leave you hungry for more.
While not every cozy mystery is centered around food, it is an important element of the genre. It adds that extra layer of comfort and warmth that has readers coming back for more. So, in the spirit of cozy season, here are a few cozy mysteries and cozy cookbooks.
The Cozy Cookbook: More Than 100 Recipes from Today's Bestselling Mystery Authors
by Julie Hyzy - Laura Childs - Cleo Coyle - Jenn McKinlay - B B Haywood
Great meals don't have to be a mystery--but they can come from a mystery. Selecting the most delicious recipes from some of the most popular names in crime solving, The Cozy Cookbook serves up mouth-watering appetizers, entrèes, and desserts that will leave your family or book club group asking, "Whodunit?"
In addition to recipes, choose a sleuth du jour from our menu of mystery series and get a taste of each of our authors' bread and butter--page-turning puzzles and stay-up-all-night suspense in excerpts from their bestselling works.
Whether you like your meals sautéed, roasted, baked, or served cold like revenge, The Cozy Cookbook has something to satisfy every mystery fan.
This book contains previously published material.Seasonal Cozy
The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective
by Jo Nichols
The perfect summer read, full of charm and heart, written in the vein of The Thursday Murder Club or Only Murders in the Building but with a southern California twist.
Mrs. B, the landlady of The Marigold Cottages is a stubborn idealist who only rents to people she cares about: Sophie, an anxious young playwright with a dark past; Hamilton, an agoraphobe who likes to overshare; Ocean, a queer sculptor raising two kids alone; the perfectionist Lily-Ann; and Nicholas, a finance bro who's hiding secrets.
The tenants live contentedly in their doll-house bungalows in Santa Barbara, just minutes from the beach, until their peace is shattered when Anthony, a quiet, hulking, but potentially violent ex-con moves in. Three weeks later, a dead body is discovered on the streets of the peaceful neighborhood. Anthony is arrested, and the tenants heave sighs of relief. Until Mrs. B, convinced that he's innocent, marches down to the police station and confesses to the crime herself. The tenants band together and form "The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective" to save their beloved landlady. As clues are unearthed and secrets are revealed, the community of misfits only grows more tight-knit...until a second body is found. Full of eccentricity, humor, community, The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective will keep you hooked until the last page.
Guilt and Ginataan
by Mia P Manansala
Autumn is in full swing for the town of Shady Palms--the perfect time for warm drinks, cozy cardigans, and...dead bodies?
The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town's biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts, and of course, the second largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event and even make a little wager on who can make it through the corn maze the fastest--but their fun is suddenly cut short when a dead body is found in the middle of the maze...and an unconscious Adeena lies next to it, clutching a bloody knife.
The body is discovered to be a local politician's wife, and all signs--murder weapon included--point to Adeena as the culprit. But Lila knows her best friend couldn't have done this, so she and her crew put on their sleuthing caps yet again to find the killer who framed Adeena and show them what happens when they mess with a Brew-ha…
The Soup Book: 200 Recipes, Season by Season
by DK DK
Make the most of fresh produce all year round with 200 homemade recipes for soup and accompaniments, organized by season
The Soup Book is packed with plenty of nourishing recipes for every season. Try winter warmers such as parsnip and apple soup or French onion soup, enjoy a light summer lunch of chilled cucumber soup with dill, and make a hearty borscht or pumpkin soup in the fall. The recipes are organized first by season, and then by ingredient, so you can easily find the ideal soup to suit the fresh ingredients you have on hand.
Featuring recipes from Raymond Blanc, Dan Barber, Alice Waters, and other supporters of The Soil Association, The Soup Book offers plenty of recipe ideas and inspiration to fill your bowl. Each recipe is accompanied by freezing times so that you can prepare your favorite recipes to enjoy later. This updated edition features brand-new and updated photography to accompany the book's refreshed design.
Make hearty, wholesome, and healthy soups year round with The Soup Book.
Historical Cozy
Harlem After Midnight
by Louise Hare
Named a Must Read by Ebony ∙ Boston Herald ∙ Book Riot ∙ Bookish ∙ Minneapolis Star-Tribune and more!
A body falls from a town house window in Harlem, and it looks just like the newest singer at the Apollo...in this evocative, twisting new novel from the author of Miss Aldridge Regrets.
Harlem, 1936: Lena Aldridge grew up in a cramped corner of London, hearing stories of the bright lights of Broadway. She always imagined that when she finally went to New York City, she'd be there with her father. But now he's dead, and she's newly arrived and alone, chasing a dream that has quickly dried up. When Will Goodman--the handsome musician she met on the crossing from England--offers for her to stay with his friends in Harlem, she agrees. She has nowhere else to go, and this will give her a chance to get to know Will better and see if she can find any trace of the family she might have remaining.
Will's friends welcome her with open arms, but just as Lena discovers the stories her father once told her were missing giant pieces of information, she also starts to realize the man she's falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And they might just place a target on her back. Especially when she is drawn to the brightest stage in town.
A Terribly Nasty Business: A Beatrice Steele Novel
by Julia Seales
NATIONAL BESTSELLER - London provides fabulously deadly opportunities for a fledgling inspector in the twisty follow-up to Julia Seales's bestselling debut, A Most Agreeable Murder, hailed by People as a "delightful cocktail . . . of wit, hilarity, and suspense!"
After achieving her lifelong dream of solving a murder, bringing a killer to justice, and proving she is not, in fact, a morbid creep, Beatrice Steele feels like everything is finally falling into place. She's traded her etiquette-obsessed community of Swampshire for the big city of London, accompanied by her ever-trusty chaperone, Miss Bolton. They've settled in a lovely neighborhood, Sweetbriar, known for its proximity to the Sweet Majestic theater, picturesque pleasure gardens, and an unfortunate infestation of flying squirrels. But Beatrice's favorite part is that Sweetbriar is also home to DS Investigations, the new office she opened with the prickly, annoyingly logical Inspector Drake to solve the city's brutally thrilling crimes.
However, nothing is turning out how Beatrice imagined it would. Sir Huxley, famed gentleman inspector and Beatrice's former crush, is still considered the real investigator in London, so the only cases left for Beatrice and Drake are lost pets and spectacles. Not that Beatrice has much time for crime-solving anyway, as her mother still expects her to find an eligible (rich) husband to protect their family from destitution. Beatrice is struggling to balance all the demands on her and begins to wonder if she can become a true detective in a city that feels full of false promises.
That is until a string of murders thrusts Beatrice and Drake into the center of a scandal that pits the neighborhood's wealthiest against the arts community, spreading fear and chaos throughout the city. As they follow the trail through bewildering ballrooms, secretive shops, and odd operas, Beatrice must survive threats to her partnership, her business, and her place in society to break the case--before it's too late.
Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking: A Cookbook
by Toni Tipton-Martin
"A celebration of African American cuisine right now, in all of its abundance and variety."--Tejal Rao, The New York Times
JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER - IACP AWARD WINNER - IACP BOOK OF THE YEAR
TONI TIPTON-MARTIN NAMED THE 2021 JULIA CHILD AWARD RECIPIENT AND THE 2025 WINNER OF THE JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION'S LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
A BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, NPR, Chicago Tribune, The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, Food52
Throughout her career, Toni Tipton-Martin has shed new light on the history, breadth, and depth of African American cuisine. She's introduced us to black cooks, some long forgotten, who established much of what's considered to be our national cuisine. After all, if Thomas Jefferson introduced French haute cuisine to this country, who do you think actually cooked it?
In Jubilee, Tipton-Martin brings these masters into our kitchens. Through recipes and stories, we cook along with these pioneering figures, from enslaved chefs to middle- and upper-class writers and entrepreneurs. With more than 100 recipes, from classics such as Sweet Potato Biscuits, Seafood Gumbo, Buttermilk Fried Chicken, and Pecan Pie with Bourbon to lesser-known but even more decadent dishes like Bourbon & Apple Hot Toddies, Spoon Bread, and Baked Ham Glazed with Champagne, Jubilee presents techniques, ingredients, and dishes that show the roots of African American cooking--deeply beautiful, culturally diverse, fit for celebration.
Praise for Jubilee
"There are precious few feelings as nice as one that comes from falling in love with a cookbook. . . . New techniques, new flavors, new narratives--everything so thrilling you want to make the recipes over and over again . . . this has been my experience with Toni Tipton-Martin's Jubilee."--Sam Sifton, The New York Times
"Despite their deep roots, the recipes--even the oldest ones--feel fresh and modern, a testament to the essentiality of African-American gastronomy to all of American cuisine."--The New Yorker
"Jubilee is part-essential history lesson, part-brilliantly researched culinary artifact, and wholly functional, not to mention deeply delicious."--Kitchn
"Tipton-Martin has given us the gift of a clear view of the generosity of the black hands that have flavored and shaped American cuisine for over two centuries."--Taste
Comfort Food Cozy
Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes: A Mystery
by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
A sparkling debut mystery set on the South Side of Chicago, featuring the quick-witted, unforgettable Savvy Summers, proprietor of a soul food café.
When Savvy Summers first opened Essie's soul food café, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie's reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area.
Even as the police deem Grandy's death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself--and her beloved café--in the middle of an entire city's worth of bad press. Desperate to clear her name and keep her business afloat, Savvy and her snooping assistant manager, Penny Lopés, take it upon themselves to find who really killed Grandy.
But with a slimy investor harassing her to sell her name and business, customers avoiding her sweet potato pie like the plague, and her police sergeant ex-husband suddenly back in the picture, will Savvy be able to clear the café's name and solve Grandy's murder before it all falls apart?
After all, while Savvy always said her sweet potato pie was to die for, she never meant literally.
History Lessons
by Zoe B Wallbrook
A college history professor must solve her superstar colleague's murder before she becomes the next target in this funny, romantic debut mystery, perfect for readers of Janet Evanovich, Kellye Garrett, and Ali Hazelwood.
As a newly minted junior professor, Daphne Ouverture spends her days giving lectures on French colonialism, working on her next academic book, and going on atrocious dates. Her small world suits her just fine. Until Sam Taylor dies.
The rising star of Harrison University's anthropology department was never one of Daphne's favorites, despite his popularity. But that doesn't prevent Sam's killer from believing Daphne has something that belonged to Sam--something the killer will stop at nothing to get.
Between grading papers and navigating her disastrous love life, Daphne embarks on her own investigation to find out what connects her to Sam's murder. With the help of an alluring former-detective-turned-bookseller, she unravels a deadly cover-up on campus.
This well-crafted, voice-driven mystery introduces an unforgettable crime fiction heroine.
Half Baked Harvest Quick & Cozy: A Cookbook
by Tieghan Gerard
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - 120+ recipes for delicious, soul-warming comfort food . . . and getting it ready in a hurry--from the author of Half Baked Harvest Every Day.
Colorful. Convenient. Comforting.
Mega-bestselling author Tieghan Gerard is busier than ever--always creating recipes, taking photographs, and collaborating with friends. In her fourth cookbook, she returns with a collection of more than 120 recipes that reflect the way she cooks now: simple ingredients, easy to get on the table, short on time yet big on flavor.
Having cooked for her large family from a young age, Tieghan loves the feeling of sharing great food--and now she wants to share that feeling with you. This collection leans into the comfort food she's known for, but with an eye toward getting it ready in a hurry. With many recipes doable in one pot or pan, most in under forty-five minutes, and a more-is-more focus on flavor (but not ingredients), you'll be feasting fast. Start your day with Maple Bacon Pancakes with Bourbon Maple Syrup, snack on Cheesy Roasted Shallot Bread, and make Garlic Butter Steak Bites with Bang Bang Sauce your family's new favorite. Enjoy delicious twists like Sheet Pan Mac & Cheese with All the Crispy Edges, and, of course, finish it all off with something sweet, like a Dark Chocolate Pistachio Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.
Relying on basic ingredients and Tieghan's signature knack for making sauces and dressings that you'll want to double to keep on hand at all times, these recipes will make your meals feel like a warm hug. If you've ever needed a belly full of comfort and a plate bursting with fresh, unexpected flavors--and wanted it all right now--Half Baked Harvest Quick & Cozy is for you.
Whimsical Cozy
Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery
by Rachel Ekstrom Courage
***Instant NEW YORK TIMES bestseller***
The first novel in the all-new Golden Girls Cozy Mystery Series!
When Dorothy's obnoxious date is found dead in a hotel freezer, it not only ruins a gorgeous cheesecake but threatens the elaborate St. Olaf-themed wedding Rose is hosting.
Things are heating up, and not just because of Blanche's hot flashes. Rose's cousin is eloping to Miami, and Rose is playing host. If she can't balance the groom's family's snobbery against the traditional St. Olaf wedding week guidelines, her hometown may never accept her cousin again!
Dorothy quickly realizes she needs a date with whom she can exchange wedding-related wisecracks. Turning to a newfangled VHS dating service, she believes she's found the ideal conversationalist. Unfortunately, what looks good on TV can actually be a total jerk in real life. It seems she'll just have to enjoy the company of Sophia, Blanche, and whomever Blanche has targeted for a hookup.
As the Girls all pitch in, Rose is thrilled that the tea-and-fish-themed kickoff event is perfect, not a herring out of place. That is until Dorothy's date is found dead--face-planted in an otherwise scrumptious-looking cheesecake. With every guest a suspect (especially Dorothy) and a marriage on the line, the four besties must ID the real killer, get the should-be-happy couple down the aisle, and make sure nobody from St. Olaf gets lost in the wilds of Miami. It's up to the Golden Girls to sleuth out a way for friendship and love to win the day!
A Gargoyle's Guide to Murder: An Accidental Alchemist Mystery
by Gigi Pandian
A vanished body. A deadly bookshop. A country house party full of suspects. Can a living gargoyle and an alchemist decipher the clues before poisoned pages claim another victim?
Dorian Robert-Houdin is used to living his life in the shadows, his existence only known to a few trusted friends. When a dangerous book from his past resurfaces, he follows his closest confidante, alchemist Zoe Faust, from Oregon to England to investigate.
Before he can examine the magical book, Dorian witnesses a murder amidst the foggy lanes of Oxford. But when he takes Zoe to the scene, there's no body-and no evidence a crime has taken place. Using his unique skills as a gargoyle, Dorian sets out to solve the baffling crime nobody else believes occurred.
When Dorian and Zoe discover a dead man in a bookshop filled with arsenic-laced books, the victim isn't a stranger-he's connected to the vanishing crime scene. The trail leads to a country house party where a group of bibliophile suspects have gathered and a storm is brewing. Could the killer be the mercurial Agatha Christie scholar? The prickly literature professor? The secretive rare books expert? With an unscrupulous book thief lurking, can sleuths Dorian and Zoe unmask a murderer before the next page brings them to a perilous end?
Perfect for fans of the quirky charm and found family of Only Murders in the Building and books by Ellery Adams and Travis Baldree. Don't miss the new novel in the award-winning cozy fantasy mystery series from USA Today bestselling author Gigi Pandian!
The Cottagecore Baking Book: 60 Sweet and Savory Bakes for Simple, Cozy Living
by Kayla Lobermeier
Discover a Whimsical World of Decadent Bakes!
From Kayla Lobermeier, author of The Prairie Kitchen Cookbook, comes an enchanting escape into the realm of cottagecore baking, where rustic charm meets mouthwatering flavors. Whether you are already living out your cozy cottage dreams or are just starting to embrace the softer, simpler life, you'll be captivated by the variety of baked goods on offer! Delight in luscious pies that are bursting with fresh, seasonal fruits; delicate teacakes and scones that enchant the eyes and the taste buds; and warm, crusty breads to fill your kitchen with pleasing aromas. Wherever you might be in your cottagecore journey, you'll soon find yourself embracing the slow-paced rhythms of cottage life as you whip up incredible sweet and savory treats.
In the end, cozy mysteries serve up more than intrigue—they offer comfort, connection, and a touch of wonder. Each page is a reminder that stories, like recipes, are meant to be shared and savored. They are books we return to when the days grow long and the evenings grow cold. So brew a pot of tea, pull up a chair, and let these mysteries feed both your curiosity and your heart.