Reading for Leisure: Cozy Mysteries

Bones of Holly is the next novel from Carolyn Haines in the series that Kirkus Reviews characterizes as "Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood" featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney. Sarah Booth and Tinkie, along with baby Maylin, are in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi for Christmas this year, as judges for the annual library tree decorating contest. The other two judges are writers Sandra O'Day and Janet Malone. They're bestselling Mississippi authors, but bitter competitors. In fact, the feud between them is the stuff of legends. For years, they've brawled, their sales skyrocketing with each cat fight. Sandra's most recent true crime book documents the 1920s rum-running era of Al Capone, who built a mansion in BSL and a distribution network for his liquor. Janet's book, scheduled to be published in January, is a fictional account of the same material--which only heightens their bitter rivalry. Sarah Booth and Tinkie are shopping with little Maylin when they see Sandra and Janet outside a bookstore, fur flying, and when Sandra vanishes from her own gala later that night, suspicion turns to Janet. Janet accuses Sandra of attempting to manipulate the media by a fake disappearance, but is it a stunt, or is something more sinister at play? Sarah Booth and Tinkie will have to dive deep into the history of Bay St. Louis, and even Al Capone himself, to get to the bottom of this case. But the trail in fact leads them back to several prominent families still residing in the area. Families who may not want their secrets known...

It was a dark and stormy night, but that was the least of Theodosia Browning's troubles. As she approaches St. Philips Graveyard, Theodosia witnesses a brutal murder and sees a dark-hooded figure slip away into the fog. As she is alerting police, Theodosia recognises the victim - it is the daughter of her friend, Lois, who owns the Antiquarian Bookshop next door to her own Indigo Tea Shop. Even though this appears to be the work of a serial killer who is stalking the back alleys of Charleston, Lois begs Theodosia for help. Against the advice of her boyfriend, Detective Pete Riley, amateur-sleuth Theodosia launches her own shadow investigation.

Librarian Lucy's new historic house comes with a lot of baggage and family secrets. Can she put them to rest or will a killer bring Lucy's family to their downfall, in the 9th Lighthouse Library mystery.   It's spring in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Lucy and Connor have moved into their new home at last, a historic cottage on the Nags Head Beach. The house needs a lot of renovations, but they worked hard over the winter to get it ready. Lucy is now happily immersed in her work at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, planning her wedding, and decorating the house. That is, until a dead body disrupts their peaceful new abode.      The first night Lucy's alone in the house, with the company of Charles the library cat, she hears sounds. Investigating they see footsteps in the dust of the unfinished living room, and the door to the outside is open. Lucy's reminded that the house is said to be haunted: forty years ago the teenage daughter of the owners fled in the night, and never again stepped foot inside her family home.   But the sounds have an all-too-human origin and one evening Lucy and Connor find the dead body of a man they don't even recognize in their kitchen. They soon realize he has a long-time connection to their house. Lucy's forced to find out what happened all those years ago and why it's threatening her happiness today.   Meanwhile, the Classic Novel Reading Club is reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne, a book about another old house full of secrets. Can Lucy find parallels to her own situation in Hawthorne's fiction before the killer strikes again?

Georgie is excited for her first Christmas as a married woman in her lovely new home. She suggests to her dashing husband, Darcy, that they have a little house party, but when Darcy receives a letter from his aunt Ermintrude, there is an abrupt change in plans and they find themselves invited to spend Christmas with the Queen. It soon becomes clear that the Queen expects Georgie to do a bit of spying. There have been a couple of strange accidents at the estate, including two deaths...

In the tenth installment of Barbara Ross's award-winning mystery series starring Julia Snowden and her family's coastal Maine clambake business, a heated feud over a proposed pedestrian mall leads to murder--which means it's up to Julia to clean up the case. Mud season takes on a whole new meaning in the coastal town of Busman's Harbor, Maine, when local business owners sling dirt at one another in a heated feud over a proposed pedestrian mall. Vandalism is one thing, but murder means Julia Snowden of the Snowden Family Clambake steps in to clean up the case... When Julia spots police cars in front of Lupine Design, she races over. Her sister Livvie works there as a potter. Livvie is unharmed but surrounded by smashed up pottery. The police find the owner Zoey Butterfield digging clay by a nearby bay, but she has no idea who would target her store. Zoey is a vocal advocate for turning four blocks of Main Street into a pedestrian mall on summer weekends. Other shop owners, including her next-door neighbor, are vehemently opposed. Could a small-town fight provoke such destruction? When a murder follows the break-in, it's up to Julia to dig through the secrets and lies to uncover the truth...

Hold on to your shoulder pads for another wild ride to the Deep South of the 1980s in this fourth installment in G.A. McKevett's spin-off series set thirty years before her popular Savannah Reid novels and featuring her beloved-and much younger-Granny Reid as the sleuth! For Stella "Granny" Reid, the 1980s in McGill, Georgia could be seriously predictable. Gossip would flow, her grandkids would stumble into the kind of harmless trouble only encountered when growing up, and a deadly mystery was all it took to make the tranquil Southern town unravel... With a new grandbaby to care for at home, Stella has little time to spare. Her hands are especially full since Savannah, her teenage granddaughter, developed a crush on a boy guaranteed to break her heart. Gallivanting around with her best pal Sheriff Manny Goldford simply isn't an option-until a freshly murdered body is discovered... Holding a criminal record unlike anyone's in McGill, Dexter Corbin was a man who wouldn't be missed at Sunday school or the darkest local tavern. But he never deserved to meet his end so soon-so violently. When a gravedigger finds Dexter sprawled across the steps of a crypt, Stella and Manny launch into action to investigate who had motive to kill him... As the pieces start falling together, everything else becomes less certain. Manny soon realizes he could lose his position as sheriff, and there's the case of yet another shocking death. Now, Stella must protect those closest to her while unearthing the dangerous culprit and putting a real grave affair to rest.