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Cozy Mysteries February 2026 |
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The Next Deadly Chapter
by V. M. Burns
Michigan bookstore owner and mystery writer Samantha Washington is engaged to be married--but she may have to step over a few bodies before she walks down the aisle...--
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The Game Is Afoot
by Elise Bryant
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S 10 BEST MYSTERY NOVELS OF 2025 A clever and hilarious new mystery about a mother who thinks she has to do it all--even solve a murder--from the author of It's Elementary After rage quitting her job, Mavis finally has time to get all the rest she's been putting off. Or she should have the time. Hypothetically. Except she's taken on a new role: Supermom. Her hours are filled with chauffeuring her daughter, Pearl, around to her extracurricular activities, somehow ending up class mom, and...investigating another mystery? When Coach Cole, the director of the kids' soccer program, drops dead on a sunny Saturday morning, no one suspects foul play. However, the police soon discover something suspicious left on the field, making it clear that someone had it in for the coach. But who? Sure, parents got mad when he made their precious star athletes sit on the bench, but not that mad. Mavis is determined to find out, even if it takes her into the dark, dangerous underbelly of gentle parents and MLM girlbosses. Plus, it's an easy distraction from everything else going on. Like the panic attacks she keeps brushing off. Or the fact that she's unemployed and totally lost as to what her purpose and path in life should be. And then there's her ex-husband who's back in town and doing everything she's ever wanted, just as she's beginning a new relationship. Mavis knows a murder investigation probably isn't the self-care she needs right now. But how exactly are you supposed to take care of yourself when you don't even know who you are anymore?
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Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes: A Mystery
by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
When Savvy Summers first opened Essie's soul food cafâe, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie's reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area. Even as the police deem Grandy's death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself-- and her beloved cafâe--in the middle of an entire city's worth of bad press. Desperate to clear her name and keep her business afloat, Savvy and her snooping assistant manager Penny Lopâes take it upon themselves to find who really killed Grandy--
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Dead Dead Girls
by Nekesa Afia
The start of an exciting new historical mystery series set during the Harlem Renaissance from debut author Nekesa Afia. Harlem, 1926. Young black women like Louise Lloyd are ending up dead. Following a harrowing kidnapping ordeal when she was in her teens, Louise is doing everything she can to maintain a normal life. She's succeeding, too. She spends her days working at Maggie's Cafâe and her nights at the Zodiac, Harlem's hottest speakeasy. Louise's friends might say she's running from her past and the notoriety that still stalks her, but don't tell her that. When a girl turns up dead in front of the cafâe, Louise is forced to confront something she's been trying to ignore-two other local black girls have been murdered over the past few weeks. After an altercation with a police officer gets her arrested, Louise is given an ultimatum: She can either help solve the case or wind up in a jail cell. Louise has no choice but to investigate and soon finds herself toe-to-toe with a murderous mastermind hell-bent on taking more lives, maybe even her own--
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A deadly inside scoop
by Abby Collette
A recent MBA grads efforts to relaunch her familys traditional ice-cream shop are complicated by the untimely murder of a con artist whose notorious rivalry with her family places her father under suspicion. Original.
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Murder by page one
by Olivia Matthews
"Marvey, a librarian, has moved from Brooklyn to a quirky small town in Georgia. When she's not at the library organizing events for readers, she's handcrafting book-themed jewelry and looking after her cranky cat. At times, her new life in the South still feels strange ... and that's before the discovery of the dead body in the bookstore. After one of her friends becomes a suspect, Marvey sets out to solve the murder mystery. She even convinces Spence, the wealthy and charming newspaper owner, to help. With his ties to the community, her talents for research, and her fellow librarians' knowledge, Marvey pursues the truth. But as she gets closer to it, could she be facing a deadly plot twist?"
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Murder in G Major
by Alexia Gordon
With few other options, African-American classical musician Gethsemane Brown accepts a less-than-ideal position turning a group of rowdy schoolboys into an award-winning orchestra. Stranded without luggage or money in the Irish countryside, she figures any job is better than none. The perk? Housesitting a lovely cliffside cottage. The catch? The ghost of the cottage's murdered owner haunts the place. Falsely accused of killing his wife (and himself), he begs Gethsemane to clear his name so he can rest in peace. Gethsemane's reluctant investigation provokes a dormant killer and she soon finds herself in grave danger. As Gethsemane races to prevent a deadly encore, will she uncover the truth or star in her own farewell performance?--Jacket.
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A Glimmer of Death
by Valerie Wilson Wesley
Award-winning author Valerie Wilson Wesley launches a thrilling new mystery series set in New Jersey, featuring a multicultural cast, and starring a caterer-turned-realtor with the gift of second sight... In the first of a thrilling new series, one woman's extraordinary psychic gift plunges her already-troubled present into chaos--and puts her future in someone's deadly sights... Until now, Odessa Jones' inherited ability to read emotions and foretell danger has protected her. But second sight didn't warn her she would soon be a widow--and about to lose her home and the catering business she's worked so hard to build. The only things keeping Dessa going are her love for baking and her sometimes-mellow cat, Juniper. Unfortunately, putting her life back together means taking a gig at an all-kinds-of-shady real estate firm run by volatile owner Charlie Risko... Until Charlie is brutally killed--and Dessa's bullied co-worker is arrested for murder. Dessa can't be sure who's guilty. But it doesn't take a psychic to discover that everyone from Charlie's much-abused staff to his long-suffering younger wife had multiple reasons to want him dead. And as Dessa follows a trail of lies through blackmail, dead-end clues, and corruption, she needs to see the truth fast--or a killer will bury her deep down with it.
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A spell for trouble
by Esme Addison
Aleksandra Daniels returns to Bellamy Bay, North Carolina to help her estranged relatives run their herbal apothecary and discovers rumors about her family being magical healers descended from mermaids after her aunt Lidia is arrested for poisoning a local.
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Two parts sugar, one part murder
by V. M. Burns
Receiving a surprise inheritance, social media expert Maddy Montgomery must live in her great-aunt Octavia's house in New Bison, Michigan, for a year, running her bakery and caring for a 250-pound English mastiff named Baby, while trying to prove her innocence in the murder of the town's mayor. Original.
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Murder with fried chicken and waffles
by A. L. Herbert
Halia Watkins, the owner of a well-loved soul food restaurant in Prince George's County, Maryland, investigates after a smooth-talking, shady entrepreneur turns up murdered in her kitchen, right next to her cast-iron frying pan
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Indianapolis Public Library
P.O. Box 211
Indianapolis, Indiana 46206-0211
317-275-4100www.indypl.org/ |
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