Cozy Mysteries for Adults

Some of our favourite picks for mysteries featuring amateur sleuths in small communities that are light on violence and sex.


Updated June 16, 2023
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Greater Victoria Public Library
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A world of curiosities
Penny, Louise
Paper Book
INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Agatha Award Winner for Best Contemporary Novel Chief Inspector Armand Gamache returns in the eighteenth book in #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny's beloved series. It's spring and Three...

Also available in Large Print, CD, eBook, and eAudiobook.

Aunt Dimity and the enchanted cottage
Atherton, Nancy
Paper Book
In the twenty-fifth installment of the bestselling Aunt Dimity series, when an inscrutable newcomer arrives in Finch, Lori is determined to befriend him--and in the process discovers Finch's own heart-wrenching past It's early May in the small English village of Finch and the air...

Also available in Large Print and CD.

Devil's delight
Beaton, M. C.
Paper Book
Beloved New York Times bestseller M.C. Beaton's cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin--the star of her own hit T.V. series--is back on the case again in Devil's Delight. Agatha and her assistant, Toni, are driving to their friend Bill Wong's long-awaited wedding, thinking...

Also available in Large Print, CD, eBook, and eAudiobook.

Murder is in the air
Brody, Frances
Paper Book
Frances Brody's twelfth Kate Shackleton mystery will positively intoxicate fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Nicola Upson. A competition for the crown proves deadly when confidences are betrayed and secrets are spilled. North Yorkshire, 1930. It's the season for...

Also available in Large Print, eBook and eAudiobook.

Murder through the English post
Ellicott, Jessica
Paper Book
When a rash of poisoned pen letters envelops their sleepy English village, Beryl and Edwina, the delightfully mismatched friends and sleuths-of-a-certain-age, step up to stamp out the evil-minded epistles in Jessica Ellicott's sixth historical mystery set in the wake of WWI.

Also available in Large Print.

Hook, line, and murder : a novel
Fletcher, Jessica
Paper Book
Jessica enters a fly-fishing competition with the sheriff's wife, Maureen Metzger. Their guide, it turns out, is ex-con Brian Kinney. Jailed as an accomplice to convicted killer Darryl Jepson, Brian was later exonerated. He seems like a decent enough fellow. Yet when Jepson breaks out of prison...
Murder ink
Bartlett, L. L.
Paper Book
The charm of Victoria Square may prove to be only skin deep when murder follows the arrival of a tattoo parlor in town in this latest installment of the New York Times bestselling series. A tattoo parlor on Victoria Square? Some of the merchants get hot under the collar at...

Also available in eBook.

Clause of death
Barrett, Lorna
Paper Book
Sisters, Angelica and Tricia Miles, are the co-presidents of the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce. Things are changing in the booktown, and some merchants would say not for the better. And all the business owners agree on one thing: Tricia and Angelica are to blame. When bookstore owner Eli Meier is...

Also available in Large Print.

Mumbo gumbo murder
Childs, Laura
Paper Book
A shocking murder strikes a sour note during Jazz Fest in the latest New Orleans Scrapbooking Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs.

Also available in Large Print.

Yews with caution
Collins, Kate
Paper Book
Flower shop owner Abby Knight is out to help a friend in need but soon finds herself in the weeds... The Spring of Abby's Discontent It's April in New Chapel, and Abby and her husband, Marco, are off to buy shrubs for their new house. But the owner of the...
Auntie Poldi and the lost Madonna
Giordano, Mario
Paper Book
There's only one Auntie Poldi: bewigged, cursing in Bavarian, and knocking back a wee shot of grappa as a pre-breakfast aperitif ... or is there? No one is as they seem (and sound) in this hilarious new mystery featuring Sicily's sultriest sleuth. Strange dealings are afoot in...

Also available in Large Print.

The painted queen
Peters, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Egypt, 1912--Amelia Peabody and her dashing archeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, are once again in danger as they search for a priceless, stolen bust of legendary Queen Nefertiti and Amelia finds herself the target of assassins in this long-awaited, eagerly anticipated final installment of...

Also available in Large Print and CD.

On deadly tides
Duncan, Elizabeth J.
Paper Book
Penny Brannigan is the owner/operator of a Welsh seaside spa, a talented watercolor artist--and an amateur detective. But mayhem is far from her mind as Penny commences a painting holiday on the idyllic island of Anglesey, off the coast of North Wales. Penny takes a deep breath of island air and...

Also available in eBook and CD.

Murder in an Irish cottage
O'Connor, Carlene
Paper Book
Family is everything to Siobhan- her five siblings; her dear departed mother for whom the family business, Naomi's Bistro, is named; and now her fiance, Macdara Flannery. So precious is her engagement that Siobhan wants to keep it just between the two of them for a little longer. But...

Also available in Large Print, CD, eBook, and eAudiobook.


Smile Beach murder
Bessette, Alicia
Paper Book
From author Alicia Bessette comes an all-new mystery series featuring Callie Padget, a former reporter turned bookshop clerk in the Outer Banks who is pulled into a deadly web of secrets when a mysterious fall at a lighthouse echoes a tragedy from her past. When Callie is laid off...

Also available in Large Print, eBook, and eAudiobook.

A song of comfortable chairs
McCall Smith, Alexander
Paper Book
In this latest installment in the beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Grace Makutsi encounters a pair of quandaries that will require all of her and Mma Ramotswe's cleverness and generosity to resolve. Mma Grace Makutsi's husband, Phuti, is in a bind. An international...

Also available in Large Print, eBook, and eAudiobook.

The golden tresses of the dead
Bradley, Alan
Paper Book
The spectacular final novel starring Flavia de Luce--"the world's greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth" (The Seattle Times)--from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Alan Bradley. Flavia de Luce, the twelve-year-old chemist and amateur...

Also available in Large Print, CD, eBook, eAudiobook and DAISY format.

The bullet that missed
Osman, Richard
Paper Book
The third installment in the beloved and New York Times bestselling series from Richard Osman, also author of We Solve Murders "The quartet of aging amateur sleuths...remain wonderful company." --The New York Times Book ReviewIt is an ordinary...

Also available in Large Print, eBook and eAudiobook format.

Arsenic and adobo
Manansala, Mia P.
Paper Book
In the small town of Shady Palms, Illinois, Lila Macapagal and her relatives run Tita Rosie's Kitchen, serve delicious Flipino dishes, and solve crimes on the side.

Also available in eBook and eAudiobook.


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