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New Mysteries to Cozy Up Your Fall Reading

By Carrie McBride, Communications
November 1, 2024

Cozy mysteries make perfect fall reading. They're the literary equivalent of a cup of tea and a biscuit. They'll give your puzzle-loving brain a little workout while still letting you sleep soundly. If you're ready to start a new book, give one of these new releases a try. They are all either standalones or the first in a series so you can dive right in. A few are so new they're not yet on our physical or digital shelves, yet, but you can put a hold on the title to be one of the first to get it.

Although not a requirement, one of the hallmark of cozy mysteries is a pun-based title. Once you've picked out your next cozy read, give our quiz a try and see if you can figure out which titles are real and which ones we made up: Cozy Mystery Titles: Can You Spot the Fake?

  • We Solve Murders

    by Richard Osman

    Investigator Steve Wheeler comes out of retirement when his daughter-in-law, Amy, needs help finding out who left a dead body on a remote island with a huge bag of money.

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    A Grim Reaper's Guide to Catching a Killer

    by Maxie Dara

    A pregnant, divorced, middle-aged grim reaper must unravel the mystery of a missing soul and a potential murder within 45 days, or a recently deceased teen will be doomed to roam the earth as a ghost forever. 

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    The Murders in Great Diddling

    by Katarina Bivald

    Moving to a run-down Cornwall village, author Berit Gardner, when a man blows up during a tea party, decides to snoop around to both help the police and gain ideas for her new book, discovering the villagers are using this murder as an opportunity to attract tourists to Great Diddling. 

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    Murder on the Page

    by Daryl Wood Gerber

    Allie Catt, caterer and personal chef in the beautiful mountain community of Asheville, North Carolina, has devised a winning formula by using her clients’ favorite books as inspiration, but when her friend’s aunt ends up murdered, Allie conjures up those books again for clues to a killer.

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    A Very Woodsy Mystery

    by Ellen Byron

    Divorced sitcom writer Dee Stern escapes Hollywood to renovate a remote, ramshackle mountain motel with her first ex-husband, where she meets meddling park rangers, prowling bears, the murder of a disrespectful guest and a second chance at love.

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    The Author's Guide to Murder

    by Beatriz Williams

    At Castle Kinloch in the Scottish Highlands, literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley is found dead under strange circumstances, leading Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh to investigate three American novelists-each with their own motives and secrets-as he uncovers connections between Presley's murder and the castle's dark history.

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    Puzzle Me a Murder

    by Rosalind Noonan

    When her close confidant Ruby is accused of murdering her cheating husband, 65-year-old librarian Alice Pepper, secretly searching for the truth to exonerate Ruby, uses her unassuming persona to fly under the radar to slim down a massive suspect list and restore peace to West Hazel.

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    The Gardener's Plot

    by Deborah J. Benoit

    A woman helps set up a community garden in the Berkshires, only to find a body in one of the plot's on opening day.

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    A New Lease on Death

    by Olivia Blacke

    A young woman, Ruby, and the ghost of her deceased neighbor, Cordelia, team up to solve the murder of another neighbor who was killed outside their Boston apartment building in a mugging that seemingly went wrong. 

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    Booked for Murder

    by P.J. Nelson

    Madeline Brimley returns to small town Georgia after inheriting a bookstore from her eccentric aunt. When the gazebo in the back yard is set ablaze and a late night called threatens to burn the store down, Madeline must untangle the skein of secrets and find the killer before she herself is the next victim.

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    Pony Confidential

    by Christina Lynch

    Pony, a rebellious horse determined to reunite with his long-lost owner Penny, escapes and embarks on a cross-country journey to clear her name after she is wrongfully accused of murder, using his keen understanding of human nature to seek out the true killer.

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    Grounds for Murder

    by Betty Ternier Daniels

    When Jeannie Wolfert-Lang won’t sell her farm, someone tries to kill her. Who wants her land enough that they’d attempt to kill a 60-year-old widow? Jeannie must now grapple with ghosts from her past and solve the mystery.

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    Come Shell or High Water

    by Molly MacRae

    After discovering letters addressed to her late husband from the proprietor of a shell shop off the North Carolina coast, Maureen decides to visit the store where she discovers a dead body and gets assistance from a Welsh pirate’s ghost.

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    The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society

    by C.M. Waggoner

    Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle, a librarian with a knack for solving murders, soon realizes there is something supernatural afoot in her little town. With the help of her town's new priest, and an assortment of friends who dub themselves the "Demon-Hunting Society," Sherry will have to solve a new murder and get rid of a demon.

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    A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor

    by Darci Hannah

    While filming at a haunted English manor, chef Bunny MacBride’s big break on her first reality TV show may be cut short by an unscripted murder.
     

Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.