23 books like Claire Malloy Mysteries

The murder and the laughs in this mystery begin on page one—which is no mean feat. Retired CIA agent Merry Wrath is now leading an Iowa girl scout troop. A murdered Al Qaeda operative tangled in the ropes course puts her back on the case again… and with her old and very attractive handler. Add in a handsome detective, and the sparks and laughs are flying in this good-natured and well-plotted romp.

Travel back in time, reader, to the dark ages of the 1980s and a sci-fi convention full of eccentric gamers, puffed-up speakers, and fans unleashing their alter egos. And of course… murder. The hero, a professor with a surprise hit sci-fi book on his hands, is a charming fish out of water determined to do the right thing. Though the technology described in the book is dated, the quirky characters can still be found at any con today.

A CIA assassin who is forced to go undercover as a girly girl in the tiny bayou town of Sinful, Louisiana? From that premise alone, I knew this would be a fun read, and wow, does Jana DeLeon ever deliver in book one of her Miss Fortune Mystery series.

It’s a fabulous fish-out-of-water story filled with quirky characters of all ages, secrets that refuse to stay buried, and wrongs to be made right. There’s a splash of romance and plenty of laughs in this well-paced, sassy whodunit. My favorite kind of lighthearted mystery!

Zany family members and weddings gone wrong provide page-turning laughs in the first book in the Meg Lanslow series. The heroine is smart, funny, and… a blacksmith. The small-town shenanigans just keep coming in this laugh-out-loud mystery, but the heart comes from the familial relationships. (No peacocks are harmed in the making of this mystery, but they do provide plenty of laughs.)

I love a quirky small-town mystery with screwball comedy, and this one absolutely delivers–with a wonderful twist: the detective is Sheriff Arly Hanks, a woman forced to go home and start over after a meltdown in the big city.

I love Arly’s intelligence and spirit…and the fact that while she has a gun (and even a bullet or two), she doesn’t need more than her wits and the help of the crazy locals–including her own mother–to catch the killer. She’s my favorite funny, badass woman sleuth. 

Newly minted homicide detective Patricia is a flawed but believable protagonist who puts everything on the line when it counts the most.

Patricia won me over right from the beginning in this tightly written nail-biter that pulled at my heartstrings and never let go. I was moved by the compelling plot threads woven together by love, loss, courage, weakness, strength, the devastation of betrayal and trust, and a tragedy, the result of a misguided sense of responsibility.

Give me a parable of good versus evil that defines the best and worst in us, like A Matter of Motive, and I’ll stay up all night on the edge of my seat because I could never fall asleep until I found out what happened next.

This is a breathless ocean adventure to Mexico, chock-full of international intrigue, a deadly hurricane, and a lovesick whale courting Civil Engineer Hetta Coffey’s yacht.

I laughed out loud at the hilarious antics of zany but lovable characters. Give me a madcap escapade featuring a macho rent-a-Captain with Lucy and Ethel as the crew, on a cruise where whatever could go wrong would go wrong.

I loved the snappy, spicier-than-hot salsa dialogue and snarky banter between sassy Hetta and Jan, her BFF. Add a plot that runs at a breakneck pace, and I bought myself a ticket for a rollercoaster-worthy wild ride that was more fun than whacking a piñata.  

I began my ladies’ apparel sales career as a manufacturer’s representative traveling the deep Southern states where many of my accounts were located in small, rural towns that were dead ringers for Maggody, Arkansas, a hotbed of gossip and murder, and the fictional burg where Mischief in Maggo takes place.

So, of course I have a special place in my heart for Joan Hess’s cheerfully bawdy, tongue-in-cheek second book of the Arly Hanks Mystery Series.

Brilliant, unapologetic author Joan Hess gleefully created a zany cast of characters-Madame Celeste, the psychic enthralling gullible local Yokels with her predictions of doom; a crooked Mayor who also owns the overpriced grocery store, and the fire and brimstone preacher who can’t keep his pants zipped, along with a gaggle of mantra-chanting hippies who have turned the old general store into the source for “cosmic harmony.”

With the brutal murder of Robin Buchanon-a moonshiner, prostitute,… show more.

Nothing much happens in Maggody, Arkansas, so Arly Hanks figures her job as the first female police chief will be a yawn. Life is so boring that the locals resorted to gobbling up every rumor of creatures from outer space invading their burg.

Give me an irreverent protagonist, dialogue dripping with sarcasm, and a zany plot that spits in the eye of society’s absurdity. I love the way life-long Arkansan Hess gleefully makes mincemeat of the hypocrisy of the caste hierarchy often found in small southern towns by reducing them to a parody of themselves.

I’m a happy camper when a Queen of Cozies like Hess pushes a mystery to the brink of merry madness—and then pushes it even farther.

Maybe it’s because I had to do it throughout my career as a sales exec in a historically male-dominated industry before I became an author, that I am a hopeless sap for a heroine who picks herself up no matter how many times she gets knocked down.

So, it is no surprise that Savannah, Georgia-based recent divorcee Reagan Summerside has a special place in my heart. Reagan, left with almost nothing, thanks to the ruthless tactics of her husband’s divorce lawyer, discovers the bimbo her ex dumped her for dead in her former Lexus.

I cheered the consignment shop owner on as she relentlessly searched for the murderer.