Cozy Crime Fiction

Lacey Doyle, 39 years old and freshly divorced, has made a drastic change: She has walked away from the fast life of New York City and settled down in the quaint English seaside town of Wilfordshire. With Halloween fast approaching, Lacey lucks out when she’s given a rare, ancient book that’s perfect for her upcoming spooky auction. But after the book is sold to a buyer, the mysterious book vanishes before she can deliver it. Even stranger, the equally mysterious seller has disappeared - just as a body turns up dead.

A cold case warms up when an archaeological dig uncovers the remains of a student who went missing a decade previously. It was a missing person case that bugged ex-inspector Fabia Havard long after she left the force. Now she has been asked by DCI Matt Lambert to aid the investigation. Caleb Morgan went missing whilst studying at a university campus near the ancient Roman city of Caerleon. Now, with his body finally found during an archaeological dig, partly exposed due to the riverbank subsiding after a flood, there is new evidence. It is clear he was murdered.

When retired police detective Albert Smith and his dog wander into a small town in the French mountains, no one expects the trouble they will uncover. A body has been unearthed at a nearby archaeological dig and it's clear no one was ever supposed to find it. The locals deny all knowledge; they have no idea who it could be, but there is something disturbing about how they all give the exact same answer. And what of the archaeologists? What were they really looking for? It wasn't the Stone Age settlement they claim to be after. Does everyone in this town have a secret they don't want exposed?

Marion Sharpe and her mother seem an unlikely duo to be found on the wrong side of the law. Quiet and ordinary, they have led a peaceful and unremarkable life at their country home, The Franchise. Unremarkable that is, until the police turn up with a demure young woman on their doorstep.Not only does Betty Kane accuse them of kidnap and abuse, she can back up her claim with a detailed description of the attic room in which she was kept, right down to the crack in its round window.

At the Great New York Cookie Swap, pastry chefs bake up their very best for charity. Clare is in charge of the beverage service, and her famous Fa-la-la-la Lattes make the gathering even merrier. But her high spirits come crashing down when she discovers the battered body of a hard-working baker's assistant. Police suspect a serial attacker whose escalating crimes have become known as "the Christmas Stalkings". Clare'sboyfriend, NYPD detective Mike Quinn, finds reason to believe even more sinister forces are involved.

La mort ose tout... Le septième tome de la série best-seller Les Détectives du Yorkshire. Après un enlèvement qui l'a terrifiée, Delilah Metcalfe tente de retrouver ses esprits. Or les ennuis ne font que commencer : elle a découvert qu'une menace pesait aussi sur son coéquipier et prétendant Samson O'Brien. Pour le protéger d'une mort certaine, elle va devoir prendre ses distances avec lui alors même qu'elle vient de propulser les émotions de son partenaire à des sommets étourdissants.

Carl Finch is a desperate man. Cut out of his stepfather's will, he is heavily in debt, and unless he can persuade his stepsister Hattie to bail him out, he'll be in even more trouble. Hattie's husband, Guy, has never liked Carl and wants his wife's inheritance for his own use, so Hattie agrees to meet Carl in secret to discuss his predicament. Little does she realise that when she arrives at their meeting point in Crooked Man Wood, she'll find Carl's dead body....

Dreams of stardom had lured Martyn Tarne from faraway New Zealand to make the dreary, soul-destroying round of West End agents and managers in search of work. The Vulcan Theatre had been her last forlorn hope, and now, driven by sheer necessity, she was glad to accept the humble job of dresser to its leading lady. And then came the eagerly awaited opening night.

When medical internist Julia Fairchild receives an invitation to Paris from her long-distance beau, Josh, she packs a bag, grabs her sister Carly, and jets off for the City of Lights. But once they arrive, death and suspicion take the place of champagne and escargot. Josh’s business partner is dying in the hospital, and the police are convinced Josh is behind it. Naturally curious and driven to seek justice, Julia jumps at the chance to clear Josh’s name—but he doesn’t seem interested in proving his innocence.

When someone is dead and buried, they’re supposed to stay that way...aren’t they? Claire Morgan thought so, but now she suspects the dead guy whose treasures she’s been digging up is not only breathing, but spying on her, too. Crap! When someone is divorced from a pain in the ass, they’re supposed to stay that way....at least, that’s what Ronnie Morgan had hoped when she dumped her husband. But then he rolled over on some bloodthirsty criminals. With him tucked away in prison, they’ll settle for taking their revenge on her. Fudge!

The Danube Express was once the most famous train on the continent. Linking east and west, it was the fastest route from the Alps to the Black Sea, until airplanes and automobiles made it obsolete. When a group of savvy investors revived it in the 1970s, it became an express only in name. But when a Hungarian actress disappears from the train, it turns out to be more than a publicity stunt. Soon it is clear that a killer lurks on the Danube Express, and plans on taking it all the way to the end of the line.

Paisley Sutton hates to see an old barn falling down, so when she has a chance to take in a crew of friends to salvage timbers, she goes in with gusto. But when they find the bones from a decades-old murder, Paisley begins to wonder if maybe some things should just be let go to ruins. Maybe some secrets need to stay buried. If Paisley decides to salvage more than just wood and reveal the murderer, will she be the next body buried in a barn?

Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye, is having a hard time getting over a gunshot wound from her last case-especially because she didn't see the shots coming. Out of work and second-guessing her abilities, she tries to get back in the saddle by helping her boyfriend Dutch with some of his FBI cases. And soon enough, her intuition returns-with a vengeance.

The Chester Square Cookery School in the heart of London offers students a refined setting in which to master the fine art of choux pastry and hone their hollandaise. True, the ornate mansion doesn’t quite sparkle the way it used to—afeeling chef Paul Delamare is familiar with these days. Worn out and newly broke, he’d be tempted to turn down the request to fill in as teacher for a week-long residential course, if anyone other than Christian Wagner were asking.

A classic Ngaio Marsh novel in which a game of darts in an English pub has gruesome consequences. At the Plume of Feathers in south Devon one midsummer evening, eight people are gathered together in the taproom. They are in the habit of playing darts, but on this occasion an experiment takes the place of the usual game - a fatal experiment which calls for investigation.

Heading back to work the day after she returns from her European honeymoon, Delaney Nichols is excited to get back to the Cracked Spine. But as she disembarks the bus and hurries toward the shop, she and another woman collide, sending a stack of books the woman is carrying to the ground. Delaney's hapless victim's name is Mary, and she and Delaney can't help but notice that they bear an uncanny resemblance to one another. According to Mary, they both also look like the long-beheaded Mary Queen of Scots.

In a quiet small town in New Brunswick, old Agatha Treadway makes one last cranky complaint to her niece before dying on her kitchen floor. The cause seems to be a jar of contaminated string beans, which sat on Agatha's basement shelf for years before becoming her final meal. The town doctor calls it a tragic accident - and a warning to all who can their own vegetables - but Agatha's neighbor, the intrepid Janet Wadman, knows better. Agatha was an expert canner, which means the beans must have been placed there by someone else. This was murder.

When her mother telephones from France with news of her imminent arrest, Ella along with her aunt and an eccentric friend rush to her aid. But what starts as a simple disappearance quickly turns to murder and Ella finds herself embroiled in a mystery which is far more complex than she'd anticipated.

While no-nonsense mother-to-be Cass Halloran tries downplaying her pregnancy and her frequent doctor's visits as an older mother-to-be, a softer side of the lobsterwoman emerges as she joins the Seaside Knitters in knitting an abundance of delicate hats and booties. But in contrast to the happy news, terrifying events unfold at the town's art series that puts a real chill in their New England fall...

Beloved author Mary Stewart's long-lost novella, now available again for the first time in 40 years. In 1879 a wealthy young woman elopes with an impoverished fisherman, leaving her family, who live on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, distraught. In 1968, 23-year-old Perdita West, secretary to the famous author Cora Gresham, visits Lanzarote, the strangest and wildest of the Canary Isles, on a research trip. They meet Cora's estranged son, Mike, and fall in love with the unusual, beautiful little island.