Hemlock for the Holidays by Paula Darnell
As Lonesome Valley kicks off the holiday season with its annual parade, artist Amanda Trent embraces the Christmas spirit, happy that her family will be coming to town to celebrate the season with her and her loyal pets, Laddie, a friendly golden retriever, and Mona Lisa, an independent calico cat.
Amanda has just one nagging concern: her art sales have stalled, so her checking account is starting to look a bit puny. Her financial woes pale, though, in comparison to her concern when several people eat carrot bars laced with hemlock at the high school's arts and crafts fair, resulting in one unlucky man's death. Was the poisoning an accident, or did someone with evil intent deliberately spike the sweet baked goods?
Leads the police follow don't pan out until Amanda puts the puzzle together. But, sometimes, knowledge can be a dangerous thing. . . .
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Ding Dong Dead by Patti Larsen
When retired Guild Artemis Inquisitor Georgia Drake’s past comes
back to haunt her, resulting in the disappearance of her mastiff,
Benjamin, her choice to go after him is complicated by a murder that
entangles her in local politics. Under scrutiny from an elite team, her
magic blocked and with Harriet Quin asking for help, Georgia has to make
a tough decision—throw caution to the wind and go after Benny or trust
that he knows what he's doing…
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Murder Aboard the Mistletoe by Ellen Jacobson
Can Mollie discover whodunit before someone else ends up dead?
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Holiday Horseplay by Wendy Meadows
Sometimes a kind gesture is a simple cup of coffee.
Carol Green is a divorcee two weeks shy of the big Five-O, with a lot to shoulder. Her daughter, Mary, has been booted out of job and room by her ex-boyfriend’s father. Carol offers her a place to stay in her campervan – something Mary point-blank refuses. To help her daughter, Carol must tether down her life.
When Carol pulls into a town called Tinsel Pine, she overhears a man walk away from a deal with a woman, Miss Lucy Inkerman, selling a stable and horses. One man’s loss is another’s gain – and Carol doesn’t hesitate to put a bid in.
It is a place that needs some tender loving care, something Carol has in spades. She feels like a fish out of water as she gets to know the town. William Goudy, a good-natured storeowner, is willing to point her in the right direction... until he is found murdered on his doorstep.
Carol finds herself at the center of a crime she did not commit in a town she is a stranger to. She must work with the Scrooge-incarnate Chief of Police, Brogan Peterson, to find out who killed William before anyone else is targeted. Carol is a tough woman, but could her own need for mystery put what is precious to her in the firing line?
Holiday Corner Christmas Cozy Mystery (3 book series) - Missing Santas by Sharon Michaels, Ghostly Gift by Ileana Muñoz Renfroe, Slay Ride by D.B. McNichol
You're probably thinking nothing exciting ever happens in our quiet mountain town, but you'd be wrong because Holiday Corner has its share of mystery and surprises…
Mistletoe and Mayhem by Carly Winter
Deck the Halls… with a dead body?
When
Mrs. Claus is found murdered days before the Annual Heywood Christmas
Festival, Sheriff Mallory Richards cancels the beloved event.
As the flu takes out the whole sheriff’s department—except for Deputy Jordan Branson—he begs Sam to help him find the killer.
She and Annabelle set out to catch the murderer but land themselves in a tangled web of deception and danger.
Will
they be able to find the killer and save the Christmas Festival, or
will Sam and Annabelle get too close to the truth and end up silenced?
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Milo's Christmas Mystery by Victoria LK Williams
Can you imagine having your home stolen?
The Fairbanks sisters look after each other and their neighbors, and when someone tries to scam her neighbor out of her home, Holly jumps right in to help.
Milo, Cat Extraordinaire, looks out for the Fairbanks Sisters and thinks that fraud, murder and the return of Holly's ex are a lot to deal with, especially when she would rather enjoy the Christmas preparations going on in town. But friendships push her to become involved and motivated to solve the murder an old friend is being framed for.
Holly relies on her knowledge of the small town and its assortment of gossipy residents to solve the mystery and, in the process, makes a few new special friends. Christmas has never had so much adventure for Holly.
But will she and Milo survive the adventure?
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A Killer Christmas Wish by Lynn Cahoon
From NYT bestselling author, Lynn Cahoon, comes a new Cat Latimer mystery. Santa's on his way, but the house Cat shares with her best friend and a monthly writing retreat isn't even decorated yet.Christmas is coming early to Cat Latimer's Writers Retreat. Cat and the gang aren't feeling the Christmas spirit. First up on her to do list, the last retreat of the year. A group of non-fiction authors dying to get into the Covington library. When one writer is found dead before the first retreat session, Cat must find the killer before he puts her on his naughty list.
A Murder Yule Regret by Winnie Archer
A holiday costume party in the sleepy coastal town of Santa Sofia could be just the boost Ivy needs for her fledgling photography business. At the party, Ivy enters a Victorian fantasy come to life, all courtesy of the fabulous Ms. Fox. Ivy gets to play shutterbug while hanging with Scrooge, Marley, the Cratchits, and more classic Dickens characters. But what begins as the best of times turns out to be the very worst for one of the party guests—a tabloid journalist with more enemies than Ebenezer himself.
When the man’s body is found sprawled across the jagged rocks below the house, the fingers begin pointing at Eliza. Meanwhile, Ivy gets roped into helping prove the starlet’s innocence. Her festive photos are now official evidence—and the Ghosts of Christmas Present could mean the party for Eliza is over, once and for all.
Christmas Dessert Murder by Joanne Fluke
Six ambitious bakers are competing for glory and a grand prize, showcasing their most delicious candies, cookies, and desserts. Courtney detects some on-set grinchiness from her coworkers, especially judge Shannon Collins, but she’s hoping the sweet treats will restore everyone’s festive spirits. That Christmas wish swiftly fizzles when assistant director Kinzy Hummel is found strangled—with an apron from Shannon’s new product line . . .
Shannon insists she’s innocent. Meanwhile, Kinzy had been under pressure from a disgruntled attorney to settle her late grandfather’s estate. But could that be a motive for murder? The show must go on even as Courtney sifts through competitors and crew for likely suspects. But unless she can quickly get to the truth, there’ll be another helping of homicide amid the pinwheel cookies and fruitcakes . . .
Aurora Hart hates everything Christmas, but how could she turn down the
opportunity to serve one year of probation in Holiday Haven versus a
full sentence for her crimes? Saddled with a talking squirrel roommate,
Aurora is doing her best to keep a low profile as she bides her time.
Everything is going fine…until Santa’s sleigh gets stolen.
Now,
all eyes are on her and the other town Humbugs, and it’s up to Aurora to
keep her behind from ending up back in jail. With the help of a very
important person from the North Pole, she finds herself hot on the trail
of the real culprit. But it will take her having to do something she’s
never done before—accepting new friends and their assistance. Only then
will Aurora be able to turn not only her own life around but also
Christmas for the entire world!
Will Aurora be able to solve the mystery of who stole Santa’s sleigh in time? Or will the culprit get the final sleigh?
Christmas Calamity at the Vicarage by Emily Organ
This is a Christmas novella in the Churchill and Pemberley Cozy Mystery Series.
The Vicarage Christmas Party has gone horribly wrong. The mince pies
have been finished off. And so has the village choirmaster.
Senior
sleuths Churchill and Pemberley are enjoying sherry and festive cheer
at Compton Poppleford's big event of the season, but their fun is ruined
when the choirmaster is found dead in the parlour. Which of the vicar's
guests could possibly commit murder at Christmas time?
With
everyone detained at the vicarage, Churchill and Pemberley find
themselves in all the wrong places at all the wrong times. Their
wayward, four-legged assistant isn't helping matters either. Inspector
Mappin is certain they're his suspects and the vicar is convinced too.
How can the two old ladies prove their innocence? With the net closing
in, the detective duo must find the culprit to avoid spending Christmas
in Compton Poppleford's police cells.
Christmas Calamity at the Vicarage is a novella for fans of light-hearted mysteries and sharp-witted elderly sleuths.
Reindeer Runes by Danielle Garrett
When Rudolph vanishes the week before Christmas, Lumi is thrust from the peace and quiet of her family’s farm, into the magical town of Holiday Haven to help find him.
Lumi quickly discovers that Rudolph isn’t
the only local celebrity who’s gone missing. Jack Frost is also MIA,
just days before his coronation as the next Frost King.
Teaming
up with Corbin Frost, Jack’s reclusive brother, Lumi finds more
questions than answers. What she thinks is an odd coincidence quickly
turns into something more sinister.
With time running out for Rudolph and Jack, can Lumi use her powers to save the North Pole?
Mistletoe Murder by Leslie Meier
This is Book 1 in the long-running Lucy Stone series (there are 26 books in the series!).
As if baking holiday cookies, knitting a
sweater for her husband’s gift, and making her daughter’s angel costume
for the church pageant weren’t enough things for Lucy Stone’s busy
Christmas schedule, she’s also working nights at the famous mail-order
company Country Cousins. But when she discovers Sam Miller, its very
wealthy founder, dead in his car from an apparent suicide, the sleuth in
her knows something just doesn’t smell right.
Taking time out
from her hectic holiday life to find out what really happened, her
investigation leads to a backlog of secrets as long as Santa’s Christmas
Eve route. Lucy is convinced that someone murdered Sam Miller. But who
and why? With each harrowing twist she uncovers in this bizarre case,
another shocking revelation is exposed. Now, as Christmas draws near and
Lucy gets dangerously closer to the truth, she’s about to receive a
present from Santa she didn’t ask for--a killer who won’t be satisfied
until everyone on his shopping list is dead, including Lucy herself.
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Cadaver on Candy Cane Lane by Leighann Dobbs
This cozy mystery is a short novella-length book.
When Ember Quinn visits Christmas Village to assist her elderly
great-aunt Phoebe in the holiday chocolate-making tasks, the last thing
she expects is for an elf to get murdered at their back door.
She
soon discovers that toy-making elf, Alfie Svenson, was up to no good.
Not only that, but he had a mysterious accomplice. Too bad Ember
suspects that accomplice might be Phoebe.
With the reluctant
help of Brimstone the snarky cat, Ember must dodge lying elves, creepy
snowmen, unfriendly reindeer, an angry toy factory manager, and a
sleigh-transportation boss who might be involved in organized crime in
order to find the real killer.
This humorous Christmas cozy
mystery novella features Ember Quinn and Brimstone from Leighann Dobbs’s
Silver Hollow series in a twisty, old-fashioned whodunit in a warm and
cozy Christmas village setting.
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Yule Be Sorry by by Kim M. Watt
This cozy is billed as "a funny cozy mystery with dragons."
A festive tale of kidnapping, explosions, & stolen turkeys....
One
should never meddle in the affairs of dragons, but someone has been
doing just that. They’ve been making imitation dragon scale baubles that
are nothing short of lethal, and kidnapping delivery drivers all over
the Yorkshire Dales. They’ve also been leaving behind some distinctly
dragon-ish traces.
Beaufort Scales, High Lord of the Cloverly
Dragons, is hot on the trail – or would be, if he wasn’t having certain
political problems at home. That leaves Alice and Miriam to track down
the real culprits, rescue the hostages, and salvage Mortimer’s bauble
reputation, all while misleading the police regarding the of existence
of dragons, and hopefully without being blown up by unexpectedly
aggressive Christmas decorations in the process. Luckily they have the
full resources of the Toot Hansell Women’s Institute at their disposal.
They’ll need it.
And then there’s the small question of who stole all the Christmas turkeys…
Dragons, the Women's Institute, and one very suspicious cat. What could possibly go wrong?
Yule
Be Sorry is the perfect Christmas cozy mystery for anyone who likes
their crime funny, dragonish, and full of cake and friendship.
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The 12 Cozy Mystery Carols of Christmas
This is a collection of holiday cozy mystery novellas. Each of the twelve novellas is written by a different author.
Deck the Halls with books of mystery, fa la la la la, it’s murder most foul.
The season is rife with tasks and obligations. Shopping, cleaning, cooking, and parties...you need some downtime. So, cue up your favorite holiday album and stoke up a blazing fire. Grab your preferred beverage and a bowl of freshly popped corn, and immerse yourself in murderous fun from a dozen goddesses of mystery, mayhem, and murder.
Deck the halls with mystery, hear sleigh-bells in the bloody snow, wish for a merry murder, and make this holiday season your very own with this fun collection of cozy mystery novellas featuring Ava Mallory, Carolyn Ridder Aspenson, Jenna St. James, K.M. Waller, Laina Turner, Rachael Stapleton, Sam Cheever, Stephanie Damore, Susan Boles, Tara Meyers, Tricia L. Sanders, and Wendy Meadows.
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