Here are 25 books that Hamish Macbeth Mysteries fans have personally recommended once you finish the Hamish Macbeth Mysteries series.
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I write cozy mysteries about a house flipper turned sleuth in fictional Crocus Heights, Minnesota. My father was a carpenter, and I was his helper. My childhood was spent on a farm, with the biggest event of the week being a trip to the local library, where I checked out seven books. I would prop my library book in front of my school book and read in class whenever I could. My favorites were mysteries, and later romances, and now cozy mysteries, which combine a bit of both. I am always fascinated by people and their motivations, and that is what I enjoy in all the authors I recommend.
I love every one of M. C. Beatonâs books, including her witty, wry humor and observations of an abusive ex-husband and her move to a small village. I love her flaws and that she is an unapologetic smoker and has two cats she loves. I love that she is relatable with a hardscrabble life, coming from an impoverished childhood and finally making it. Albeit with all the insecurities that come from her past. Every book is a treat.Â
'Every new Agatha Raisin escapade is a total joy' ASHLEY JENSEN
'No wonder she's been crowned Queen of Cosy Crime' MAIL ON SUNDAY
'A Beaton novel is like The Archers on speed' DAILY MAIL
The first Agatha Raisin mystery from bestselling author M. C. Beaton
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Revenge is a dish best served warm...
High-flying public relations supremo Agatha Raisin has decided to take early retirement. She's off to make a new life in a picture-perfect Cotswold village. To make friends, she enters the local quiche-making competition - and to make quite sure of first prize she secretly pays a visitâŠ
I grew up reading Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, and everything British. My first novel celebrated American literature and small towns, and my first murder mystery was a love letter to England. I once spent twenty days visiting almost thirty bookshops and reading my way all over England, and let me tell you, I learned a thing or two about murders.
A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30. Itâs impossible to talk about British crime without mentioning the queen of crime herself: Agatha Christie. My own personal favorite is Miss Marple, the unimposing old lady who solves crimes by noticing parallels to the people she knows in St Mary Mead.
If you love cozy English villagers, you will love the opening of this book, which follows several different villagers as they read the local paper and a mysterious ad that invites them all to witness a murder at Little Paddock. Fortunately, Miss Marple is at hand to solve the mystery.Â
The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn, including Jane Marple, are agog with curiosity over an advertisement in the local gazette which read: 'A murder is announced and will take place on Friday October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6:30 p.m.' Unable to resist the mysterious invitation, a crowd begins to gather at Little Paddocks at the pointed time when, without warning, the lights go out ...
Iâve loved mysteries since I gobbled up Nancy Drew and the Encyclopedia Brown books in grade school. As I grew older, I got hooked on Agatha Christieâs Miss Marple, Sue Graftonâs Kinsey Milhone, and Sara Paretskyâs VI Warshawski. Besides being a diehard fan of female sleuths, I have a B.S. in Journalism, which drummed the importance of âwho-what-when-where-and-whyâ into my brain. I definitely take a reporterâs mindset into my story-telling, particularly when it comes to the âwho.â Breathing life into characters is crucial. Maybe thatâs why I used bits and pieces of my grandma Helen in order to create my fictional Helen. Plus, it gives me a chance to spend time with her again, if only in my imagination.
Though this is Pennyâs first in the âThree Pinesâ series featuring CI Armand Gamache, Iâll confess that I initially read it out of order. I picked up a later Penny book and liked it well enough to go back and start from the beginning.
This book feels like a debut. The writing is good, but not quite as sure-handed as more recent books (which makes sense). It introduces us to Armand Gamache, a seasoned detective if ever there was one, and to the cast of characters in Three Pines.
By the time I finished it the first time around, Iâd become a legit Gamache fan-girl. This series is one of the few that Iâm so enamored with that I pre-order forthcoming titles. âNuff said.
In Still Life, bestselling author Louise Penny introduces Monsieur L'Inspecteur Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec, a modern Poirot who anchors this beloved traditional mystery series.
Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards.
I started my motherhood journey when I was barely out of my teens. For the next two decades, I only knew myself as a wife and mother. As my brood of five children grew into adults, I found myself poorly equipped to parent independent Gen X and Zâers. Then, at 46 years of age, when perimenopause hit me like a hurricane, I found myself evolving into another woman altogether. The good news was â I really liked her! I hope you enjoy these books about mid-life women parenting adult children and rediscovering themselves in the never-ever-done-aftermath of motherhood.
A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment
"Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining." -Wall Street Journal
"Don't trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman's own laugh-out-loud whodunit." -Parade
Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first big case A brutal murder Welcome to... THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club.
Iâm Julia Buckley, a passionate lifelong reader, English teacher, and mystery writer. I gravitated toward mystery as a child when my mom read all the greats of 20th Century Mystery and Romantic Suspense and then passed them on to me. When I became an English teacher, I had the privilege of teaching some of the great Gothic classics like Jane Eyre, Rebecca, and The Castle of Otranto. Teaching these great works and researching the way that all Gothic literature stemmed from Horace Walpole and Ann Radcliffe, I realized that MANY of the books I read are tinged with the Gothic.
I began reading Grimes in the 80s, but her books still hold up today, and this one establishes all of the cozy/Gothic things I love. Grimes has a gift for ironic humor, so even though she sets her books in a very cozy English village called Long Piddleton, she tends to satirize the residents and the narrow-mindedness of the provincial town.
In this way, she is similar to Agatha Christie, except that Grimes is much funnier. In this small town, Melrose Plant, a Lord by inheritance who has thrown off his title and tries to live a quiet life in the family manse, is a long-suffering, sane person in an often chaotic existence. He is continually terrorized by his âAunt Agatha,â an American who married his uncle and refers to herself as âLady Ardry,â although her late husband had no title. Their relationship is a source of great humor, butâŠ
At the Man with a Load of Mischief, they found the dead body stuck in a keg of beer. At the Jack and Hammer, another body was stuck out on the beam of the pubâs sign, replacing the mechanical man who kept the time. Two pubs. Two murders. One Scotland Yard inspector called in to help. Detective Chief Inspector Richard Jury arrives in Long Piddleton and finds everyone in the postcard village looking outside of town for the killer. Except for one Melrose Plant. A keen observer of human nature, he points Jury in the right direction: into the darkestâŠ
Bad things happen to good people every day, and it seems unfair. Iâve lost friends to cancer, heart disease, and accidents, and I always wonder why it had to be someone who was decent and good and kind. At the same time, other people get away with all sorts of crimes, including murder. I canât change the way the world works. So, in my own books and the books I like to read, the good guys might have some tough times, but in the end, they win. And the bad guys get what they deserve.
I laugh out loud at the awkward social situations Lady Georgina, 34th in succession to the throne of England, gets into.
Although she has been trained in all the proper graces, she is impoverished, and I find her creative, muddled attempts to figure out who murdered the body in her bathtub while meeting royal expectations endearing and amusing. I also enjoy glimpses into the mores of the royal family in 1930.Â
The New York Times bestselling author of the Molly Murphy and Constable Evan Evans mysteries turns her attentions to "a feisty new heroine to delight a legion of Anglophile readers."*
London, 1932. Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, 34th in line for the English throne, is flat broke. She's bolted Scotland, her greedy brother, and her fish-faced betrothed. London is a place where she'll experience freedom, learn life lessons aplenty, do a bit of spying for HRH-oh, and find a dead Frenchman in her tub. Now her new job is to clear her long family name...
I write cozy mysteries about a house flipper turned sleuth in fictional Crocus Heights, Minnesota. My father was a carpenter, and I was his helper. My childhood was spent on a farm, with the biggest event of the week being a trip to the local library, where I checked out seven books. I would prop my library book in front of my school book and read in class whenever I could. My favorites were mysteries, and later romances, and now cozy mysteries, which combine a bit of both. I am always fascinated by people and their motivations, and that is what I enjoy in all the authors I recommend.
I loved Molly Fitzâs introduction to her series, where a coffee maker hit her character on the head and introduced the ability to hear a multi-named cat speak at the reading of a will. I loved that she shortened the catâs name to Octo-Cat. Fitz puts the cat in charge, solving the mystery. The main character has challenges with her job, and who canât relate to those issues?
When a faulty coffeemaker zaps Angie Russo unconscious, she wakes up to a very demanding talking tabby who insists she help him solve his late-ownerâs murder. What could possibly go wrong?
If you love cats but also recognize how demanding, snarky, and downright mean they can be when they arenât getting their way, then you canât afford to miss this series. Pet Whisperer PI will make you laugh big, think hard, and lose yourself for hours in this purrfect escape!
I write cozy mysteries about a house flipper turned sleuth in fictional Crocus Heights, Minnesota. My father was a carpenter, and I was his helper. My childhood was spent on a farm, with the biggest event of the week being a trip to the local library, where I checked out seven books. I would prop my library book in front of my school book and read in class whenever I could. My favorites were mysteries, and later romances, and now cozy mysteries, which combine a bit of both. I am always fascinated by people and their motivations, and that is what I enjoy in all the authors I recommend.
I love Mulhernâs references to the 70s and a snooty country club entourage. I love the way she describes men and whether they live inside or outside of the lines, capturing their quirks perfectly. I love the depiction of a simpler time of life with no cell phones or the internet, where everything felt more personal and connected.
INTRIGUING PLOT, FASCINATING CHARACTERS... "Part mystery, part women's fiction, part poetry, Mulhern's debut, The Deep End, will draw you in with the first sentence and entrance you until the last. An engaging whodunit that kept me guessing until the end!" - Tracy Weber, Author of the Downward Dog Mysteries Sub-Genre Keywords: Humorous Mystery, Historical Mystery, Whodunnit, Amateur Sleuth, Women Sleuths Swimming into the lifeless body of her husband's mistress tends to ruin a woman's day, but becoming a murder suspect can ruin her whole life. It's 1974 and Ellison Russell's life revolves around her daughter and her art. She's longâŠ
Maybe itâs due to my Cuban heritage, but I was raised to appreciate a delicious meal. Beans and rice, roasted pork, plantains, my mouth waters at the thought. When I launched into the writing business twenty five years and fifty books ago, I managed to sprinkle my novels with plenty of tasty treats. Diving into the culinary mystery world allowed me to combine my fancy for food and fiction into one glorious place. The best kind of mystery novels are the ones that tickle your taste buds while they tweak your little grey cells, donât you think?
As a young adult, I absolutely devoured all the books in Lilian Jackson Braunâs The Cat Who series. I was infatuated with the dashing Qwilleran and his sleuthing cats Koko and YumYum. Qwilleran is a foodie and he seeks out excellent vittles when he relocates from the big city to Moose County and schmoozes with all the locals. This cookbook was an absolutely geeky delight, since it features recipes mentioned in the books and snippets directly from the novels which describe when the foods are mentioned. The dishes are quite fancy, but there is a selection of easier ones included also. (Brownies, Mac and cheese, and meatloaf to name a few.) I am partial to Mrs. Cobbâs meatloaf. (It turned out perfectly!) Really though, I adored this book just because it was so much fun to rediscover Qwill and the quirky Moose County residents through this clever cookbook!
Those who love Lilian Jackson Braun's Cat Who... mysteries know that the residents of Moose County are as discerning in their gastronomical tastes as the finicky felines who star in the novels. Now readers can enjoy the kind of feast that can only be found four hundred miles north of everywhereâwith recipes for Polly's Picnic Brownies, Sea Scallops with Saffron Cream on Angel Hair Pasta, Mulligatawny Soup, Marinated Mushrooms, Thanksgiving Potatoes, Vonda's Chocolate Whoppers, and more. And for those who want to pamper their pets, The Cat Who...Cookbook features a section called "Feline Fare"âfeaturing some of Koko and Yum Yum'sâŠ
Maybe itâs due to my Cuban heritage, but I was raised to appreciate a delicious meal. Beans and rice, roasted pork, plantains, my mouth waters at the thought. When I launched into the writing business twenty five years and fifty books ago, I managed to sprinkle my novels with plenty of tasty treats. Diving into the culinary mystery world allowed me to combine my fancy for food and fiction into one glorious place. The best kind of mystery novels are the ones that tickle your taste buds while they tweak your little grey cells, donât you think?
Imagine you are a caterer who lives and breathes cooking. Now imagine yourself going undercover at a spa that doesnât serve coffee or any of the other gourmet vittles youâre used to while youâre trying to unmask the killer of a local doctor. Protagonist Goldy Schulz is a savvy caterer, a tough cookie who escaped an abusive spouse and reinvented her life. I like that Goldy has that kind of depth which is sometimes lacking in a cozy mystery. Sheâs gritty and determined. As a west coast girl, I enjoy the fact that this series is set in Colorado and Goldyâs marriage to her second husband, a hunky cop, adds flavor. Itâs fun to see how the acerbic Goldy handles a âBridezillaâ while trying not to offend her client. The book is fun and satisfying, like Goldyâs recipes!
Colorado caterer Goldy Schulz encounters bridezillaâand murderâin another delectable novel by the New York Times bestselling author of Sweet Revenge, Dark Tort, and Double Shot.
