Curl Up With A Cozy Mystery

Most of us love reading mysteries.  As a youngster, I devoured books by Enid Blyton, a prolific British author, who wrote series of popular children’s books. I remember my favorites were three series entitled The Secret Seven, The Famous Five and The Five Find-Outers. The protagonists in these entertaining stories were children who investigated and solved the most baffling mysteries. Donning disguises, hunting for clues and checking out alibis until, much like a jigsaw puzzle, all the pieces would come together and it would be solved! I could not wait to get my hands on these books!  Much later, I discovered Agatha Christie and enjoyed reading mysteries involving the skillful and famous sleuths, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, each with a different style but similar in the way they used astute observation, astonishing logic and insightful deduction to solve the puzzling mysteries. While red herrings and nasty or suspicious characters are plentiful, Agatha Christie’s books contain no graphic violence or vulgarity. Christie’s whodunits are well constructed. Abounding with sly humor and clever, at times acerbic, descriptions of characters, her books are great fun to read. I confess to never successfully guessing who the murderer was until the very end when all was revealed to us by the mustachioed and fastidious Poirot or the unassuming and aunt-like Miss Marple.

If we were to classify the genre of Christie’s books, they would fall in the category of cozy mysteries. What are cozy mysteries? Mysteries that are not too scary or gruesome.  Usually, the backdrop is a small town, or village, where the members of the community are known to each other. The protagonist is clever and likable though tends to be a tad too inquisitive - perhaps, a prerequisite for the amateur sleuth! With emphasis on plot and character and minimal action-a cozy mystery is similar to an intricate puzzle and add to that a dash of droll humor and there you have it- a first class cozy mystery. If all of the above sounds appealing to you, then read on for the coziest of cozies to keep you warm on cold and snowy winter evenings. It is only fitting that all the mysteries mentioned below have a seasonal flare!


‘Tis the season to be jolly, of course, but add murder and mayhem to the mix and you get this cozy Christmas mystery.

The holiday season begins with its usual celebrations and merriment in Mrs. Jeffries and the Merry Gentlemen by Emily Brightwell. But, a few days before Christmas, stockbroker Orlando Edison is found dead in his home. Who would want him dead? It falls upon Inspector Witherspoon to solve the crime - but not without behind-the-scenes aid from his clever housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries. An enduring series, this is the thirty-second in a series of thirty-six books. This period cozy will certainly satisfy all fans of this genre.




Two books by Rhys Bowen, Away in a Manger and The Ghost of Christmas Past both belong to the Molly Murphy series. An Agatha award-winning series, the books are quick and enjoyable reads. It all began in the early twentieth century when Molly left her native Ireland after committing murder in self defense. She comes to New York and sets up her detective agency. Charming, clever and scrappy, Molly tracks down errant husbands, missing debutants and solves kidnappings and murders.

Eventually she marries a police captain and promises to give up being a private detective but, thankfully for us readers, she just cannot stop using her sleuthing skills. In Away in a Manger, we see Molly looking forward to the holidays with her husband and son. Before long she finds two homeless
children on the streets and discovers that they have come from England and their mother has disappeared. What can Molly do but start searching for the missing mother?

In the newest book, we see that Molly, keeping her promise to give up her career, is now semi-retired. But as luck would have it, while dining at a mansion on Christmas, their host’s daughter - who had disappeared ten years ago - makes an entrance. Is she the real daughter or is she a fake? Of course, Molly is compelled to investigate. Check out the entire Molly Murphy series, seventeen so far, and enjoy these cozy well-written and engaging mysteries!

Aunt Dimity’s Christmas by Nancy Atherton is the perfect seasonal cozy. Set in the idyllic village of Finch, England, Lori Atherton prepares for a perfect Christmas with her family, her husband, their
twin sons and her father-in-law. But all her holiday plans are shattered when a mysterious man is found comatose on her driveway. Lori and Father Julian, a Catholic priest, team up and try to discover the identity of this nameless man. A heartbreaking story, with a touch of the supernatural, Lori not only solves the mystery but in the process discovers the real meaning of Christmas.







Two anthologies worth mentioning:

Murder for Christmas and The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries.
The first compilation contains twenty six tales of “seasonal malice and yuletide malfeasance,” by authors as varied as Woody Allen, G.K. Chesterton, Damon Runyon and Charles Dickens.
True to its title, the big book contains sixty tales and, though there is some overlap of authors such as Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Hardy, the stories in the former book are more vintage holiday crime stories, while the latter contains stories by far more contemporary authors. Both these books have something to appeal to every taste this holiday season.

- Rina B., West Windsor Branch