Cozy mysteries are having a moment. The sub-genre is expanding and has resulted in a surge of popularity. Modern cozies maintain the core elements including a light-hearted tone, an amateur sleuth, and no graphic sex or violence. Yet they’ve become more inclusive and expanded their boundaries to embrace current technology as well as the use of contemporary verbiage. The shift has infused a new energy into the category, bringing with it themes and humor that resonate with a broader readership.
When writing my new cozy, Peril in Pink, I was inspired by the modern mysteries I’d been reading. Without a doubt, I knew I wanted my book to be in that lane, too, particularly when it came to the humor. The relatable quips and fun banter between characters felt fresh.
Here is a list of some of the modern cozies coming out in 2024 to keep on your radar.
The first in the heart-warming and deliciously mysterious Magical Fortune Cookie series from Lefty Award-nominee Jennifer J. Chow.
Readers are introduced to Felicity Jin and her family’s magical bakery in the quaint town of Pixie, California. Her mother’s enchanted baked goods bring instant joy to anyone who eats them.
After some failed attempts, Felicity creates a fortune cookie recipe that becomes a huge hit. Things are going well until one of her customers is murdered. The personalized prediction draws suspicion from the police and she becomes a prime suspect. Felicity has no choice but to get involved. She must clear her name and turn her luck around.
The second book in the Hayden & Friends Mystery series, readers are treated to some daring excitement!
Dating blogger Hayden McCall and his best friend Hollister are once again drawn into a murder mystery after attending an upscale circus arts show. It’s a fundraiser featuring magic, acrobatics, and a Michelin-star dinner.
Things start to go wrong when the celebrity performer is a no-show. Then Hayden’s frenemy, Sarah Lee, finds the missing star dead in her hotel suite. Sarah Lee turns to Hayden for help. With a cast that includes a trapeze artist, a cowgirl comedian sharp-shooter, and a sexy troop of Romanian male acrobats, there’s no shortage of suspects to choose from. Hayden and Hollister need to act fast before Sarah Lee is charged with murder and the real killer performs a disappearing act.
The rhythm is gonna get you.
What a fun tag line! Rhythm and Clues is the third book in the Record Shop Mystery series. It features Juni Jessup and her two sisters, Tansy and Maggie. Together they own Sip & Spin Records.
The sisters are under pressure from predatory investors and the struggling vinyl record/coffee shop is in trouble. Things go from bad to worse when a sketchy financier is found dead outside their shop during a thunderstorm.
Then the nearby river spits out an unexpected surprise and Detective Beau Russell, Juni’s ex, asks for her help. With washed out roads and the whole town on alert, Juni must hurry before someone else gets hurt.
Influencer Maddy Montgomery is at it again in A Cup of Flour, A Pinch of Death…
Maddy Montgomery has turned Baby Cakes Bakery into a huge success after inheriting it from her great aunt Octavia. But not all the attention she’s drawn to the bakery is good. Her former nemesis, Brandy Denton, shows up and disrupts a vlog Maddy is making. Their argument snags the attention of viewers and the video goes viral. Then Brandy is found dead and Maddy becomes a murder suspect.
With the help of her aunt’s friends, the Baker Street Irregulars and her English mastiff Baby, Maddy digs into the case. She must unearth some secrets and find the truth.
Time to tune into Peter Penwell and JP Broadway’s HGTV hit reality show Domestic Partners for a Halloween themed mystery.
Peter Penwell and JP Broadway are excited to kick off season three of their hit show with a fixer-upper that’s rumored to be a haunted house. Twenty-five years ago automotive heiress and beauty queen Emma Wheeler-Woods fell from a third-floor balcony to her death at a Halloween night party inside a lavish manor home in the Detroit suburb of Pleasant Woods.
Fiona Forrest, who recently inherited the home after learning she is Emma’s daughter, hires Domestic Partners to restore the property. But ghostly sightings, deep secrets, and sabotage have Peter and JP wondering if the place is haunted and if Fiona’s mother was actually murdered.
They hustle to finish the project by Halloween—the anniversary of Emma’s death. Can they finish the work, shoot the finale, and solve a cold case before someone else ends up dead?
It’s Autumn in Shady Palms and Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Café crew are at it again.
It’s the annual Corn Festival, a big deal in Shady Palms. Lila is happy to participate and have some fun. She and her friends at the Brew-ha Café even put a wager on who can make it through the fastest.
Then a dead body is found in the middle of the corn maze, and Adeena Awan, one of the Brew-ha crew, is found unconscious next to the body. Even worse? She’s holding a bloody knife.
Lila knows Adeena is no killer so she gears up to find the real culprit and prove her friend is innocent.
The lazy, hazy, dairy days of summer are coming to a close in the Sonoma Valley… and so is someone’s life.
Willa Bauer is at it again! Willa, owner of the Curds and Whey Cheese Shop in Yarrow Glen, is gearing up for the annual Labor Day weekend bash: Dairy Days, in neighboring Lockwood. Willa is thrilled to celebrate her favorite things—she is a cheesemonger after all—and this festival goes all out: butter sculptures, goat races, cheese wheel relays, even a Miss Dairy pageant. Too bad the pageant runner, Nadine, is treating Dairy Days prep like it’s fondue or die and is putting everyone around her on edge.
When Willa finds Nadine’s dead body under years’ worth of ceramic milk jugs, the police are slow to want to call the death anything but an accident. But fingers are pointing at Willa’s employee, Mrs. Schultz, who stepped in to help the pageant after Nadine’s death. Someone wanted Nadine out of the whey, and Willa is going to find out who.
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