Charming Cozy Mysteries Worth Investigating

When Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth hears reports of a haunted castle near Drim, he assumes the eerie noises and lights reported by the villagers are just local teenagers going there to smoke pot or, worse, inject themselves with drugs. Still, Hamish decides that he and his policeman, Charlie “Clumsy” Carson, will spend the night at the ruined castle to get to the bottom of the rumors once and for all.

There’s no sign of any ghost . . . but then Charlie disappears through the floor. It turns out he’s fallen into the cellar. And what Hamish and Charlie find there is worse than a ghost: a dead body propped against the wall. Waiting for help to arrive, Hamish and Charlie leave the castle just for a moment–to eat bacon baps–but when they return, the body is nowhere to be seen.

It’s clear something strange–and deadly–is going on at the castle, and Hamish must get to the bottom of it before the “ghost” can strike again . . . 

Related: Ten Crime-Solving Sleuths Who Face Danger at Every Turn

Few can rival attorney Andy Carpenter’s affection for golden retrievers, especially his own beloved Tara.

After he astonishes a New Jersey courtroom by successfully appealing another retriever’s death sentence, Andy discovers that this gentle dog is a key witness to a murder that took place five years earlier.

It will take all the tricks Andy’s fertile mind can conceive to get to the bottom of a remarkable chain of impersonations and murder — and hopefully save not only a dog’s life but also his own in the process.

Regan Reilly plans to spend her Fourth of July week vacationing in the Hamptons at her parents’ home and also with her best friend, Kit, who has a share in a group house. A last-minute phone call, however, casts Regan’s trip in a new light. Brigid O’Neill, a rising country star, has been getting frightening “love notes” and she hires Regan as her bodyguard for a Fourth of July concert in Southampton. Brigid plans to play a fiddle given to her in Ireland and said to have magic powers. She later learns the rest of its legend–whoever takes it out of Ireland will have an accident or face death.

A guest found floating face-down in a pool at Chappy’s welcoming party for Brigid is only the first in a series of ominous incidents. As Brigid’s Fourth of July concert nears, it looks as if the cursed fiddle should be shipped back to Ireland–Express Mail! It’s Regan’s job to hold the curse at bay and fend off Brigid’s pursuers.

Whenever a celebrity throws a phone, crashes a car, or kills a spouse, celebrity journalist Bailey Weggins is there to cover it for the gossip magazine Buzz. Now, the new television show Morgue is the talk of the town, and just as Bailey starts reminiscing about her brief summer fling with the show's gorgeous star, Chris Wickersham, he calls.

But Chris isn't thinking about rekindling their old flame. His friend and fellow actor on the show has gone missing, and while nobody else seems to be alarmed, Chris can't believe his friend would just run off while on the brink of stardom. When Bailey starts to investigate as a favor for Chris, she soon realizes there is much more to the disappearance than meets the eye, and unless she can unearth the truth, she could become the inspiration for Morgue's next episode.

Related: Heart-Pounding Suspense: When a Protagonist Will Stop at Nothing

Bailey Weggins, the very clever and the very irreverent true crime writer for Gloss, a leading women's magazine, is in desperate need of a little R&R after solving the murder of her boss' nanny. A trip to the Cedar Inn and Spa seems like the perfect remedy. Bailey, totally full of Zen after her deep tissue massage, looks forward to all of the other treatments. Getting ready for bed, she realizes she forgot the Rolex that her father gave her before he died. She and Piper, her massage therapist, go back, only to discover a dead body getting a seaweed wrap. The body turns out to be Anna, another massage therapist.

Detective Beck arrives, and against her better judgment, Bailey becomes infatuated with him, forgetting her tepid relationship with her boyfriend. Bailey learns that one of Anna's clients died of heart failure after she worked on him. Then the spa owner's second husband, who was clandestinely pursuing Anna, becomes suspect number one. But Anna's past also provides numerous suspects. Was she killed by a client who'd been rebuffed? Or by a male therapist who she'd apparently spurned? Or the son of the heart attack victim who blames the spa for this father's death? Or by someone from her deeper past? Bailey keeps digging, getting closer to the truth. Then there's a second horrifying murder at the inn, and it's clear that Bailey's life is in danger. Nothing prepares her for the answer she finds as she finally discovers who the murderer is.