Short Cozy Mysteries

I must have missed the "Santa Clause"… When I won an all-inclusive vacation to a luxury mountain resort over the holidays after entering a sweepstakes on the back of my cereal box, I assumed it was Fate announcing it was finally Merri Bianchi’s time to relax and have a little fun. But you know what they say about assumptions.... As it turns out I neglected to read the fine print, aka the "Santa Clause," and now I’m dressed as an Elf working my red-and-white striped stockings off at Santa’s Toyshop to make sure every parent finds the perfect gift for their precious little snowflake ...

There is a dead body at The Lodge - a dead body that just happens to hail from Nikki's own hometown of Atlanta. As the newest, and arguably the nosiest, neighbor in the area, she knows all eyes will soon turn her way and tongues will start to wag. Nikki has no choice but to garner her new friends and put her extensive experience as a big city reporter to use, playing a modern-day Nancy Drew against a backdrop of gorgeous hills and the Canadian border.

A man mysteriously murdered in his house. Nothing stolen, and no apparent suspects. It seems like an open-and-shut case, but is it? In this heartwarming short story by Wall Street Journal best-selling author Christopher Greyson, join Finn and Annie as they work together to solve The Case of the Attic Door!

Shortly before the holidays, inventor and former assassin Missi Bombay gets orders to perform one last job. It's the granddaddy of all hits-to be carried out on Christmas Eve, no less. Missi knows she has only one chance at success, so she enlists the help of her cousins Gin, Dakota, and Coney. Together the Bombay cousins come out of retirement to stamp out the world's most evil cabal.

Ph.D in Murder is a cozy mystery short by best-selling author R. Barri Flowers. A doctoral student's independent study reenactment of the well-known and still unsolved murder of Marilyn Sheppard ends with a modern day murder and killer on the loose. Also includes a bonus mystery suspense short, "Kill and Say Goodbye". A woman discovers a dead woman on the beach that bears a striking resemblance to herself.

Her life was once filled with love and the promise of new beginnings. But she'd given up on her hopes and dreams of marriage and a family and instead buried herself in her big city career and the small home in her quiet home-town neighborhood. Then everything changed. Jessie Richards found herself in just about the worst possible position. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been in difficult situations before in her life, but this one pretty much outdid all the others. And it didn’t help that she had no choice but to tell her new boss. The feelings that she had for the man…romantic feelings...

Get your mystery fiction fix with this collection of short stories featuring retired federal agent Chris Matheson; sleuths Mac Faraday, Joshua Thornton, and Cameron Gates; and a rambunctious crime-solving dog named Gnarly.

It’s beginning to look a lot like arson this Christmas season… The Cat Café is buzzing with excitement this holiday season as they prepare for the Holiday Fur Ball & Silent Auction. As Tinsley and her crew put the finishing touches on the treats and decorations, she can’t help but daydream about the new animal shelter she hopes to build with the money from the auction. The excitement soon fizzles, however, when a fire breaks out at the café with the fur babies inside. Thankfully, they’re rescued by firefighters and all safe and sound. But everyone at the Cat Café is shocked when ...

April Fools' Day has arrived and Leger can't help himself from playing tricks. With his new-found reading skills, as basic as they are, he manages fool Ginger's human, John, into believing he is a psychic cat who can predict the winner of dog races. Thinking Leger is the key to untold riches, John takes Leger's signs and signals seriously and plans to gamble with Leger's help. However, a trip to the local pub, and the slot machine there sheds light on the shady dealings of of the pub's owner.

This is a collection of Merryville Mystery Books 1-3 and includes Brownies & Betrayal, Cupcakes & Contempt and Daiquiris & Death. Book 1: Meredith is a divorced empty-nester who bakes brownies for cash. In her tiny rural town of Merryville, the last thing she expects is to stumble upon a dead body. But that’s what happens. And what’s worse is she dreamt about it the night before it happened. To avoid being a suspect, she must figure out who wanted the town’s general contractor dead. And it would be great if she could wrap things up before Christmas! Luckily she’s not alone. She’s ...

From USA Today best-selling author Christina A. Burke comes a laugh-out-loud collection of three full-length novels featuring temp-turned-rock-star, Diana Hudson. This collection includes Queenie Baby: On Assignment, Queenie Baby: Out of Office, and Queenie Baby: On Tour.

Gus has traveled out of state and up to the city of Seattle to visit his daughter. She’s sharing an apartment with two criminology majors. Naturally their thoughts turn toward talking about crime and they ask Gus to talk about one of his cases. Since he doesn’t want to discuss anything too recent or else his daughter might know the people involved, he digs down deep into his memory banks for the perfect case from his first year as a sheriff. It also just so happens to be the first case he crossed path with Father Xavier. As he remembers it, Gus was called in to investigate an apparent ...

Passing Out—a compelling addition to the Cecil Whitford series—takes readers back to the formative days of the compassionate funeral director, and to his training at HMS Raleigh. As Cecil faces the challenging selection process, the atmosphere turns tense as recruits begin to mysteriously disappear. Determined to unravel the truth, Cecil finds himself entangled in events that will shape the man we later meet in Suicide in Suffolk. The suspense heightens as the disappearances cast long shadows over the training grounds. Cecil's relentless pursuit of the facts propels him into a web of ...

Spring is in the air. Gus is feeling pretty good about the change in seasons until an unknown man decides he would rather change from being alive to being dead. He clearly drank something toxic, and it didn’t agree with him. The question is, did he really decide to do that, or did someone make that decision for him. Only that question is buried under a lot of other layers of questions. Why did the man visit Gus a few days before his death proclaiming the end times were near? Why didn’t he take enough poison to kill him near instantly instead of lingering around for days slowly dying? ...

A missing artifact. A town losing its magic. And a feisty librarian. Two decades ago, Elara Blackwood’s parents died in a mysterious accident. Since then, Quillhaven’s magic has disappeared, along with her own. When historical manuscripts relating to the town’s history are stolen on her watch, she is determined to find the thief. As she digs deeper into the mystery with Jasper, Quillhaven’s quirky journalist, she uncovers a startling secret. The stolen books contain clues about her parents’ death and the powerful artifact they had with them when they died. With the help of Leo and...

A dead body. A small town of secrets. One librarian who never signed up for murder. Gabby Keats is no stranger to mystery—on the page, that is. She’s content reading about fictional crimes while managing the quiet Maplewood Library. But her cozy life takes a dark turn when she stumbles upon the body of Councilman Bernard Cass right outside her library. With her golden doodle, Agatha, sniffing out clues by her side, Gabby must put her mystery knowledge to the test when her best friend Brittany is arrested as the main suspect.New-to-town Detective Brandon has his suspicions and a knack ...

Stormy Summers gets a surprise visit during the holiday season. This stranger delivers unexpected magical news.

Harry wanders into Gretchen's Kitchen for lunch and ends up taking custody of Mulligan, a nine-year-old with adult sized problems. He soon finds out that Mulligan may be only nine, but she has a mind of her own, doesn't hesitate to express herself, often times offering her take on "You seriously old people." To solve Mulligan's problems, Harry searches for a missing cousin and his denim collection, has a deadly encounter with bad guys, and robs the town office building. Cat does battle with bad guys to protect her new buddy, despite her irritating habits, and like Mulligan, doesn't hesitate...

Returning to Glasgow after a brief spell in his new island home has left Leger feeling homesick and heartbroken. His son and daughter have grown up without him, his beloved Ginger has found a new tom and a thief is running amok in the area while his former sidekick, Amber, is uninterested in catching the culprit. On the plus side, the extra pounds he gained during his brief retirement have done nothing to ruin his appeal with the local mollies. Leger faces uneasy choices. Should he help Amber collect clues and point her in the right direction? How can he win back Ginger? Did he make the ...

Family meant everything to Ayden Stratton. It always had even when he didn’t always allow it to show. Because of that, he understood the fury in Tobias Blaise’s eyes when they learned that his sister had been dragged out the backdoor of her restaurant despite every effort to stop her from being kidnapped. Fury didn’t begin to describe what he saw in his brother’s face. Cassidy Blaise might be Tobias’s sister, but she was Benjamin’s entire world. Tobias Blaise never expected to find any woman he wanted to spend his life with, let alone one who looked at him the way Ellis did, ...