Kym Roberts | Cozy Corner: A Mystery Spring Retreat

I just returned from a spring retreat in the mountains of North Carolina. The air was fresh with pine, rain, and flowers and the silence from manmade machines soothed my soul. Horseback riding and hiking by day with no television, no computer, and very little phone reception was a true gift. It was magnificent in it’s simplicity and my reading material was all the entertainment I required.

It also provided me with some great recommendations for mystery readers who want to get away as badly as I did. Even if you can’t escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life, put in a pair of earbuds and use the noise canceling setting while play a revolving loop of your favorite sounds of nature. Then open up one of today’s recommended mysteries and engage your imagination in one of these captivating novels. You deserve the escape.

As the owner of Portland, Oregon’s popular Ground Rules coffee cart, hard-working young master barista Sage Caplin is excited to expand her business with a brick-and mortar store. But not everyone gives her a warm welcome.

DEATH UNFILTERED by Emmeline Duncan

Ground Rules Mystery #4

A fresh-voiced and witty cozy mystery series set in Portland, Oregon, from rising star Emmeline Duncan, starring twenty-something master barista Sage Caplin. Perfect for coffee-lovers, cozy readers, and fans of Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mysteries.

Ground Rules isn’t the only newcomer set to open in Portland’s grand new Button Building. Fortunately, most of the fellow micro-restaurant owners and patrons are great—with two exceptions. There’s Rose, a true-crime podcaster and active TikToker who’s pestering Sage for an interview about her estranged con-artist mother; and Bianca, the familiar and perpetually unpleasant owner of Breakfast Bandits. Bianca is abrasive to everyone, so Sage doesn’t feel singled out. . . . Until Bianca falls dead at the building’s grand opening—a to-go cup of Ground Rules coffee in her hand. Laced with Ketamine, also known as Special K.

It doesn’t help that just before she collapsed, Bianca was publicly rude to Sage. Or that Bianca’s boyfriend points the police toward Sage. Or that Rose, still hung up on investigating Sage’s mom, has declared she’ll solve the murder. Now it will be up to Sage to sift through a complex blend of motives, blackmail, and old and new rivalries to get to the truth of a very bitter brew . . .

Mystery Cozy | Mystery Amateur Sleuth [Kensington Cozies, On Sale: March 26, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781496744890 / eISBN: 9781496744913]

The Sirens Sang of Murder

By Sara Caudwell

4/2/24

Young barrister Michael Cantrip has skipped off to the Channel Islands to take on a tax-law case that’s worth a fortune—if Cantrip’s tax-planning cronies can locate the missing heir. But Cantrip has waded in way over his head. Strange things are happening on these mysterious, isolated isles. Something is going bump in the night—and bumping off members of the legal team, one by one.

Soon Cantrip is messaging the gang at the home office for help. And it’s up to amateur investigator Hilary Tamar, Oxford don turned supersleuth, to get Cantrip back to the safety of his chambers—alive!

MURDER MARKS THE PAGE by Karen Rose Smith

Tomes & Tea Mystery #1

The first in a new series spun off from the Daisy Tea Garden Mysteries, Daisy’s daughter Jazzi Swanson has opened her own book and tea shop, providing a variety of literature and flavored beverages for a rural New York community. But Jazzi has not only inherited her mother’s gift for brewing tasty drinks—she also has a nose for sniffing out murder.

New York State’s Belltower Landing is a lakeside resort town where tourists spend their summer days boating, floating, and paddle-boarding on the water. It’s also the perfect place to cuddle up with a good book and enjoy a cup of tea, courtesy of Tomes & Tea. Owned and operated by Jazzi and her best friend Dawn Fernsby, the book bar is beloved by vacationers and locals alike, but browsers grabbing brews in the off season aren’t enough to help them make ends meet.

Between brainstorming social media publicity ideas for the shop and fending off flirtatious men she has no interest in or time for, Jazzi befriends a woman named Brie who has recently made contact with her biological father. As an adopted child herself, Jazzi is more than happy to give Brie emotional support, especially as her wealthy father’s wife and children see her as a threat.

But Brie is also looking to start a family of her own. Unfortunately, all the potential princes she’s met through a dating app turn out to be frogs. Then, when Brie is found murdered, Jazzi finds herself playing detective. With a list of suspects ranging from jealous half-siblings to less-than-suitable suitors, Jazzi may need to consult some of her shop’s bestselling mysteries to help her uncover a killer . . .

Mystery Amateur Sleuth | Mystery Cozy [Kensington Cozies, On Sale: March 26, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9781496747037 / eISBN: 9781496747051]

A MOST AGREEABLE MURDER by Julia Seales

A Novel

When a wealthy bachelor drops dead at a ball, a young lady takes on the decidedly improper role of detective in this action-packed debut comedy of manners and murder.

“If you grew up reading Jane Austen and Agatha Christie (or are a fan of Bridgerton and Knives Out), you will adore A Most Agreeable Murder.”—Kate Stayman-London, bestselling author of One to Watch

Feisty, passionate Beatrice Steele has never fit the definition of a true lady, according to the strict code of conduct that reigns in Swampshire, her small English township—she is terrible at needlework, has absolutely no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people. Nevertheless, she lives a perfectly agreeable life with her marriage-scheming mother, prankster father, and two younger sisters— beautiful Louisa and forgettable Mary. But she harbors a dark secret: She is obsessed with the true crime cases she reads about in the newspaper. If anyone in her etiquette-obsessed community found out, she’d be deemed a morbid creep and banished from respectable society forever.

For her family’s sake, she’s vowed to put her obsession behind her. Because eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth is set to attend the approaching autumnal ball, and the Steele family hopes that Louisa will steal his heart. If not, Martin Grub, their disgusting cousin, will inherit the family’s estate, and they will be ruined or, even worse, forced to move to France. So Beatrice must be on her best behavior . . . which is made difficult when a disgraced yet alluring detective inexplicably shows up to the ball.

Beatrice is just holding things together when Croaksworth drops dead in the middle of a minuet. As a storm rages outside, the evening descends into a frenzy of panic, fear, and betrayal as it becomes clear they are trapped with a killer. Contending with competitive card games, tricky tonics, and Swampshire’s infamous squelch holes, Beatrice must rise above decorum and decency to pursue justice and her own desires—before anyone else is murdered.

Mystery Historical | Mystery Amateur Sleuth [Random House Publishing Group, On Sale: June 27, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593449981 / eISBN: 9780593449998]

Until next month, get cozy and read on!

About Kym Roberts

Kym Roberts writes by day and is a pro-surfer in her dreams by night. Her humor is often raunchy, her jokes are often bad, but her hunger for a story keeps the adventures coming fast. Experience the thrill & catch the wave of passion, mystery, and suspense with her on her website, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Tickled to Death | Malia Fern | Book Barn | Hard Men of the Rockies | Men of Rock

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