Cozy Historical Fiction

Suspicion. Lies. Murder. Barbara Hollis didn't expect to encounter any of these in small town life. With a murky past to hide from, moving to quiet little Cobbsville was supposed to be a perfect escape. But a neighbor who has her own dangerous secret to conceal soon becomes as big a threat as the crazed lunatic who is setting fire to houses around town . . . Even as a terrible new doubt surfaces against her brother, Barbara is intrigued by an attractive new acquaintance who happens to be the local mayor. But will one more distraction prove welcome . . . or deadly?

In the sleepy town of Raven’s Point, the annual ball at the opulent Park Mansion is the highlight of the year—a night of pure fantasy. This year, the Regency masquerade theme adds an extra layer of allure, and sisters Helen and Maybelle can hardly contain their excitement. Dressed in exquisite period costumes, they enter the grand estate, eager to glimpse the luxurious lives of the Park family, the town’s wealthiest residents. But the glittering evening takes a dark turn when Jeffrey Park, the man controlling the family fortune, is brutally murdered during a sudden power outage.

Aunt Kate and Lady Jane's third lighthearted cozy mystery takes place at a priory destroyed in 1545. While Jane and her archaeological friends seek the long-lost grave of Prior Wilfred, Kate astounds everyone by unearthing a body buried only twenty years ago. Was it murder?

Christmas at Fortescue Manor is always celebrated in style. The highlight is the annual Christmas Fayre hosted by Lord and Lady Buckley-Phipps. With ice skating, entertainment, and tobogganing, Lottie Sprigg and her dog, Rosie, are looking forward to the festivities!

After months of travel, former maid Lottie Sprigg returns to Fortescue Manor in the rolling hills of Shropshire. Her arrival coincides with a celebratory dinner to mend a family feud. But the flow of champagne dwindles to a trickle when a body is found in the library. Who committed the atrocity? Suspicion falls on several characters: some above stairs and some below....

Having lost her post as a governess, when Annabeth Watson returns home for Christmas, she's returning home to stay. A less-than-welcome reception from her father isn't surprising, but the murder of a maid is quite shocking. Can Annabeth find the truth of what happened during the house party, against her father's wishes? Or will the lecherous Lord Gresham and mysterious Lord Wright keep her from investigating?

Hazel Arnold's mother has a strong sense of what is proper for a woman of the Arnolds' financial stature and is determined that Hazel marry a man she despises. This sets Hazel on a quest to prove the man is not who he appears to be. She enlists the help of her family's handsome chauffeur and her lady's maid. Her search takes her along a path of lies and deceit, resulting in death and destruction. Still, at the end of her quest, Hazel finds something worth much more than proving her mother wrong.

Officer Jax Diamond doesn’t always play by the rules, and he’s in the hot seat again with the captain of his precinct. So, when a brazen little puppy alerts him of a crime, Jax is ordered to stand down or get canned. On the city streets, broke and alone, Jax beats himself up for making the wrong decision. Even the little tramp who keeps trailing him everywhere can’t lift his spirits. But crime never stops in New York City, and a string of deadly Christmas capers spirals out of control.

In Aunt Kate and Lady Jane's second lighthearted cozy mystery, Kate's retired friend Norman West goes missing. But does his disappearance relate to a brutal murder? England, June 1928 The relationship between aunt and niece continues to grow when Lady Jane comes to stay with Kate in Sandham-on-Sea. However, instead of enjoying a week of fine dinners, long lunches, and clotted cream teas, they become entangled with Norman's secret life and a murderous conspiracy—which Scotland Yard's Inspector Ridley insists they stay away from.

When Kit and Mary Aston visit the Newmarket stables of an old friend who is training a potential Derby winner, they stumble into a new case. The death of Teddy Harrison seems to be an open and shut case of suicide. Yet, the manner of his death raises suspicions as the two men who found him were rumored to be paramours to the dead man's wife. Kit meets an old detective sparring partner from his days at school in Cambridge. Together with Mary, they investigate one of the twistiest mysteries you will come across.

From prolific best-selling authors Susan Easton Black and George Durrant comes this gripping historical mystery.

Moments before the wedding, Christopher Sterry finds the groom, his twin brother, murdered. One would expect Christopher to become the next Earl of Longford. No one would be surprised if he married his twin's almost-bride, Helen Grove. She is, after all, his closest friend and confidante. Except Christopher is deaf in an inflexible world that believes a deaf mute is no better than a barbaric half-wit, unfit to be an earl and quite capable of murdering his brother.

Greece, 545 BC: It is illegal to die on the sacred isle of Delos. It's also illegal to give birth there. Yet when murder is committed, the only available detective to solve the crime is the priestess Diotima, and she is heavily pregnant.

In this novella, Annie and Nate Dawson, the amateur sleuths from M. Louisa Locke's cozy Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, are visiting Nate's family at their ranch near San Jose, California. What was supposed to be a pleasant romantic interlude for the two of them, plus a chance for Annie to get to know Nate's family better, turns serious when a crime is uncovered. And, as in Locke's short stories from this series, Annie gets help in resolving the crisis from a very unexpected quarter.

On his death bed, Lord Pembroke took great care to try to ensure the future of his beautiful, unconventional niece, Lady Jane. Her debutante ball featured the most eligible bachelors of London society. But when the night of the dance arrives, things do not go as planned.

An historian, who is convinced that the memoirs of 19th-century Shoshone heroine Sacajawea are stashed somewhere on the reservation, has disappeared.

After being fired from her latest variety hall engagement, Ophelia acts her way into a lady's maid position for a crass American millionaire. But when her new job whisks her off to a foreboding castle straight out of a Grimm tale, she begins to wonder if her fast-talking ways might have been too hasty. The vast grounds contain the suspected remains of Snow White's cottage, along with a disturbing dwarf skeleton. And when her millionaire boss turns up dead - poisoned by an apple - the fantastic setting turns into a once upon a crime scene.

Mary Handley is a not your typical late-nineteenth century lady. She's fiery, clever, daring—and she’s not about to conform to the gender norms of the day. Not long after being fired from her job at the hat factory for insubordinate behavior, Mary finds herself at the murder scene of Charles Goodrich, the brother of a prominent alderman and former bookkeeper of Thomas Edison.

After closing a case with the Brooklyn Police Department, Mary Handley is determined to become an official detective in her own right. And when Emily Worsham shows up at her new office— convinced her uncle John Worsham was murdered and desperate for answers—Mary’s second assignment begins.

Daisy Gumm Majesty, spiritualist to folks with more money than sense, can scarcely believe that her best client wants her to get her spiritual control, Rolly, to appear at a séance in a speakeasy. Bad enough that Daisy made up Rolly when she was ten, but now Rolly has to perform at a séance for a bunch of murdering gangsters?