The Top 10 Animal Sleuths (Plus Honorable Mentions)

Cats and Cozies go paw in hand. Claudia H. Long said, “Cats and Cozies are a natural fit, even if the cat is not a literal cat, but rather a dog, a goat, or even a nun who sells cannabis cookies.” At this last example, Long lifted her own book, which I admit I ordered immediately. Her very valid point was that every amateur sleuth deserves some comic relief and someone to bounce ideas off of when they get stuck.

But many of us have a special fondness for mysteries where the furry friends are more sleuth than sidekick. It was extremely difficult to limit myself to ten, but after several pots of tea and more than one good scolding from my own feline colleague, Hylia, here are my favorite animal sleuths of all time.

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Number Ten

Rene Fonby, Private Eyes

This fast paced, noir-leaning mystery is more thriller than cozy, but it’s still lighthearted and accessible for a wide range of readers and ages. The main character, a dog called Moose, enlists the aid of Fat Tony, a feline PI, to save his pit bull BFF from execution in this twisty mystery full of anthropomorphic animals.

Number Nine

Jeffrey Burton, The Finders

Another book that leans more thriller than cozy, The Finders stars Mason “Mace” Reid and cadaver dog Vera working with local law enforcement to catch a serial killer in Chicago. This story has some heavier backstory, but I enjoyed the writing, and its fast-paced, high-stakes energy makes it hard to put down.

Number Eight

Lillian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Could Read Backwards

The first Cat Who…book stars Journalist Qwilleran and his clever Siamese cat Koko as they tackle a murder in an art gallery. Braun published twenty-nine The Cat Who… books, and played a huge role in defining the genre. The Cat Who… books are a gold standard in cat cozies, and not to be missed!

Number Seven

Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat in an Alphabet Soup: A Cozy Cat Mystery Featuring Midnight Louie, Esq, Private Investigator Carole

Originally published under the title “Catnap,” Douglas and her narrator Midnight Louie, a twenty-pound black cat P.I., go hard in this first book of a twenty-eight volume series that leans into every noir genre trope you can think of while still managing to keep a troublemaking paw solidly in the cozy mystery camp.

Number Six

Janna Rollins, An Escape Goat: A Zen Goat Mystery

This cozy mystery has it all: an adorable town called Bobwhite Hollow, an amateur sleuth starting out a brand new yoga studio, and best of all, goats. Yoga goats. Zen goats. While the goats are less sleuth and more sidekick than most of the fur-family on this list, I just couldn’t resist including it because…I mean…goats. Yoga goats.

Number Five

Leonie Swann, Three Bags Full

We had goats, so what about SHEEP? Not only are the sheep in this highfalutin cozy the sleuths, the murder victim is none other than their own shepherd! This book is a hilarious, playful romp, cozy in every way.

Bonus: it’s now being made into a movie! I’m excited to see this flock of Irish countryside sherlocks (and not-so-sherlocks) solving their very own whodunnit on the big screen!

Number Four

Spencer Quinn, Dog On It

Who doesn’t love Chet the Dog? This goofy guy has sixteen books so far. He would follow his human, Berine, through fire, though he’d rather snooze by one. Despite Chet’s simple worldview, Bernie’s complex, tortured, noir-leaning personality shines through as Quinn elegantly invites us to infer things Chet is too clueless to understand.

Number Three

Rita Mae Brown, Sneaky Pie Brown, Wish You Were Here

Mary Minor Haristeen, aka Harry, has a cat named Mrs. Murphy. Or rather, Mrs. Murphy has a human named Harry. My heavens, the voice in this thirty-four book series is beyond compare.

I picked up my first Mrs. Murphy mystery when I was just a kid, and I’ve loved them ever since. Rita Mae Brown is one of my heroes and a luminary of the cozy world! Now in her eighties with over fifty published titles, she’s still writing, still riding horses, and still rocking life like the queen she is!

Number Two

Laurie Cass, Lending a Paw

Wait, cat cozy AND books? Yep! The thirteen Bookmobile Cat books out so far are a twofer in the best way! Firecracker Minnie Hamilton and stowaway cat Eddie make a dynamic duo as they solve crimes in their small Michigan town and on the road.

The bookmobile element assures we will never run out of places to explore and crimes to solve, although I suspect Minnie and Eddie will always find their way back to their hometown in the end.

Number One

Sofie Kelly, Curiosity Thrilled the Cat

What could be better than cats and books in one cozy series, you ask? Cats, books, and magic!

Sofie Kelly’s richly imagined and vibrantly written Magical Cats series is so delightful from the first page that it seems like it can’t get any better, but somehow, it keeps doing just that! Sixteen phenomenal books take us to the end of the Magical Cats series, but fear not!

She has a whole other series, Second Chance Cats, under the name Sofie Ryan! I can’t wait to see what this phenomenal author writes next!

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Honorable Mentions

Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair

A mashup of mystery and speculative fiction starring a detective who must enter famous works of literature to stop them from being destroyed by fantastical villains, Thursday Next’s “cozy cat” is a dodo called Pickwick who is of very little help indeed.

Scooby Doo (Created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears)

I couldn’t make a list of animal sleuths and ignore Scooby Doo. He’s iconic. More than a hundred books feature this big dopey guy.

Deborah Howe, James Howe, Bunnicula

This is the first animal mystery I ever read, told from the perspective of the family dog whose feline frenemy is convinced the new pet bunny is a vampire sucking the juice from any vegetable he can get his fangs on.

For more great recommendations on cat sleuths in particular, check out Deborah Blake’s article here.

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