Picked by A Rare Books Cozy Mystery fans

Here are 5 books that A Rare Books Cozy Mystery fans have personally recommended once you finish the A Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. Shepherd is a community of authors and super-readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

Book cover of Artifact: A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery

Daphne Silver Author Of Crime and Parchment

From my list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the Agatha-winning author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. My first in the series, below, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel. I’ve worked for more than twenty years in museums and symphonies and have the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When not writing, I’m drawing and painting. I live in Maryland with her family. Although I’m not much of a baker, I won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Daphne's book list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums

Daphne Silver Why Daphne loves this book

Gigi Pandian has gone on to write several series I adore, including the Secret Staircase and Accidental Alchemist mysteries, but her first series about history professor Jaya Jones remains my favorite.

A bejeweled and mysterious artifact sends her globe-trotting, and I, for one, enjoyed the ride every step of the way. Jaya is smart and confident, and I would want to hang out with her and her friends any day of the week—especially that roguish possible art thief she encounters. 

By Gigi Pandian ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Artifact as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Scottish legend that hides a secret. A treasure from India that vanished long ago. An unexpected package that ignites an adventure.

History professor Jaya Jones is reeling from the news of a former flame's untimely death when she receives a mysterious parcel he’d sent from abroad. Inside is a cryptic plea for help, along with a jewel-encrusted artifact hinting at a treasure from India shrouded in a Scottish legend. As she starts to unravel the mystery, the unsettling discovery of her ransacked apartment makes it clear she's not the only one on the trail.

From the iconic British Library…


Book cover of Feint of Art

Daphne Silver Author Of Crime and Parchment

From my list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the Agatha-winning author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. My first in the series, below, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel. I’ve worked for more than twenty years in museums and symphonies and have the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When not writing, I’m drawing and painting. I live in Maryland with her family. Although I’m not much of a baker, I won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Daphne's book list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums

Daphne Silver Why Daphne loves this book

One of the reasons I started working for museums was that I trained as a painter and in art history, so Hailey Lind’s Annie Kincaid Mystery series was a particular delight. Her main character, Annie, is a former art forger turned faux finisher.

However, she can’t seem to put her past behind her after realizing her curator ex-boyfriend’s new big painting acquisition is a fake. I enjoy a good redemption story, especially when mixed with history and artifacts. 

By Hailey Lind ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Feint of Art as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Annie Kincaid informs her ex-boyfriend, curator Ernst Pettigrew, that the Brock Museum's fifteen-million-dollar Caravaggio painting is a fake, a bizarre chain of events is set in motion, forcing Annie to enter into an underworld of art forgers--a place she swore she left behind. Original.


Book cover of Fundraising the Dead

Daphne Silver Author Of Crime and Parchment

From my list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the Agatha-winning author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. My first in the series, below, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel. I’ve worked for more than twenty years in museums and symphonies and have the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When not writing, I’m drawing and painting. I live in Maryland with her family. Although I’m not much of a baker, I won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Daphne's book list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums

Daphne Silver Why Daphne loves this book

As someone who worked in museums for decades, finding Sheila Connolly’s series was a fantastic look behind the curtain of my career.

I got such a kick out of going behind the scenes with fundraiser Nell Pratt as she navigates historic artifacts in the collections, seeking donations, and solving crimes in her historical society. 

By Sheila Connolly ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fundraising the Dead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

At The Society for the Preservation of Pennsylvania Antiques, fundraiser Eleanor "Nell" Pratt solicits donations-and sometimes solves crimes. When a collection of George Washington's letters is lost on the same day that an archivist is found dead, it seems strange that the Society president isn't pushing for an investigation. Nell goes digging herself, and soon uncovers a long, rich history of crime.


Book cover of Murder Is Binding

Daphne Silver Author Of Crime and Parchment

From my list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the Agatha-winning author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. My first in the series, below, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel. I’ve worked for more than twenty years in museums and symphonies and have the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When not writing, I’m drawing and painting. I live in Maryland with her family. Although I’m not much of a baker, I won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Daphne's book list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums

Daphne Silver Why Daphne loves this book

Who wouldn’t want to go to a quaint town where the streets are lined with bookstores? Sign me up! Lorna Barrett’s series features mystery bookshop owner Tricia Miles ending up solving her own crimes, including one featuring a rare cookbook.

The idea of owning a bookstore, sharing a love of mysteries, and being part of such a special community really grabbed me as a reader. Since I can’t actually move to Booktown—aka Stoneham, New Hampshire—I’m glad I can read so many books about it!

By Lorna Barrett ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Murder Is Binding as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The streets of Stoneham, New Hampsire are lined with bookstores...and paved with murder.

When she moved to Stoneham, city slicker Tricia Miles met nothing but friendly faces. And when she opened her mystery bookstore, she met friendly competition. But when she finds Doris Gleason dead in her own cookbook store, killed by a carving knife, the atmosphere seems more cutthroat than cordial. Someone wanted to get their hands on the rare cookbook that Doris had recently purchased-and the locals think that someone is Tricia. To clear her name, Tricia will have to take a page out of one of her…


Book cover of Homicide in Hardcover

Daphne Silver Author Of Crime and Parchment

From my list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the Agatha-winning author of the Rare Books Cozy Mystery series. My first in the series, below, won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel. I’ve worked for more than twenty years in museums and symphonies and have the great fortune of being married to a librarian. When not writing, I’m drawing and painting. I live in Maryland with her family. Although I’m not much of a baker, I won’t ever turn down a sweet lokshen kugel.

Daphne's book list on cozy mysteries about rare books and museums

Daphne Silver Why Daphne loves this book

Kate Carlisle’s Bibliophile Mystery series is what made me fall in love with cozy mysteries. I wanted to restore the book bindings on old books like her main character, Brooklyn Wainwright.

Since that wasn’t going to happen, I loved living vicariously through her adventures, learning more about how she works and how that knowledge can be used to solve crimes. 

By Kate Carlisle ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Homicide in Hardcover as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Book expert Brooklyn Wainwright discovers that murder is always a bestseller in the first novel in the New York Times bestselling Bibliophile Mystery series.

Brooklyn Wainwright is a skilled surgeon. Sure, her patients might smell like mold and have spines made of leather, but no ailing book is going to die on her watch. The same can’t be said of Abraham Karastovsky, Brooklyn’s friend and former employer. 
 
On the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration, Brooklyn finds her mentor lying in a pool of his own blood. With his final breath Abraham leaves Brooklyn with a cryptic…