Senior Reviewer Debbie Wiley  School is back in session and it’s time to hit the textbooks! Navigating the politics of any school system can be tricky, but it’s even worse when things turn to murder. Several cozy mystery authors give us a taste of what happens when things turn deadly. Lee Hollis takes us into the ugly shenanigans at Portland High in MURDER AT THE PTA where someone has been posting nasty rumors and gossip on an anonymous blog. Private Investigator Maya Kendrick tracks down the owner of the blog, only to find her dead. Meanwhile, Sandra Wallage, PTA President and wife of a US Senator, is facing all sorts of hostility thanks to the last rumor posted on the blog. Maya doesn’t believe the death is a suicide, and Sandra wants to help. Lee Hollis’ first book in the Maya and Sandra Mystery takes some hilarious turns, even as we see Maya and Sandra dealing with some very weighty personal issues. I like that we see how Maya and Sandra team up together and I can’t wait to see what other murders they will solve! Susan Wittig Albert takes us away from high school to the college level in…

It’s my favorite time of year…I get to choose my favorite cozies released in the past twelve months!  And yet, it’s the hardest thing to do, almost like looking at all of the ornaments on my tree and trying to decide which ones I like the most. Since they all belong to my kids and were gifts from my parents who have been gone for too many years, it’s a monumental task, emotional and heart-warming. Like our ornaments, each mystery I’ve featured, along with the books featured on the Cozy Corner by guest authors, has a special place on my bookshelf. Whether it be the hardback, paperback or the ebook, I tend to keep more than I should so that I can go back and reminisce about the wonderful experience. Maybe I should start a tree with book ornaments—my very own Charli Rae and Scarlet would love that in the Book Barn, don’t you think? Princess the armadillo, however, would probably root through the ornaments and knock over the tree. Goodness, but I do see a holiday novella scurrying through my brain for next year! Without further ado, I give you my favorite mysteries and blogs of 2018! Teen Drama…

A love for reading was instilled in me at an early age and I remember reading Gothic romances tinged with a touch of mystery as far back as middle school. Cozy mysteries and paranormal stories (urban fantasy especially) were natural fits for me as I grew older but what a great surprise to discover cozy mysteries that blended my love for the genre with my love of the paranormal! How could anyone not love a magical bookstore? Amanda Flower is quickly becoming one of my favorites for cozy mysteries with that delightful paranormal touch and her series, Magical Bookshop, is practically a must read for all book lovers. Charming Books is exactly the kind of bookstore I would love to browse, a bookstore where the book you need will fly off the shelves just for your reading pleasure. There are three books in the series, CRIME AND POETRY, PROSE AND CONS, and MURDERS AND METAPHORS (releasing in February 2019), and each book is as delightful to read as one would expect. After all, there’s a magical bookshop involved! Magical bookstores aren’t my only love, however, as enchanted gardens have captured my heart as well (particularly during gardening season when I…

Everyone is more than ready for the trees to bloom and the flowers to sprout. The temperatures are finally rising and hopefully *fingers crossed* we’ve all experience the last snowfall of winter! Sitting in the sun soaking up some vitamin D is finally a possibility, and what better way to celebrate the return of nice weather than to do it with a blanket in the park and a book in your hands? Here are four new mysteries for you to enjoy this spring season. And as a tease for next week, one of these authors will be joining me for a short story right here on the Cozy Corner! It’s your turn to dig into the clues, and figure out the mystery! But, you’ll only be able to do that, by going to each author’s social media sites! QUEEN ANNE’S LACE by Susan Wittig Albert China Bayles #26 A present day ghost leads China Bayles to a secret from Pecan Springs’s past in this haunting mystery from New York Times bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert. While helping Ruby Wilcox clean up the loft above their shops, China comes upon a box of antique handcrafted lace and old photographs. Following the…

It’s hard to pick the best mysteries of the past year, especially when I’m limited on space. I don’t feature a book I don’t love, so if you’ve seen it on the Cozy Corner, you know I adored it. Yet each year I torture myself by trying to list the best mysteries, and considering I never come close to reading all of the books in my to-be-read file, it’s an impossible task. What if the best is still at the bottom of that pile?! This year the challenge seemed even more difficult and my pile even bigger, which led me to choose books that resonated with me, for one reason or another, throughout the past twelve months. I hope you enjoy my picks for 2017’s best mysteries. ON HER MAJESTY’S FRIGHTFULLY SECRET SERVICE ON HER MAJESTY’S FRIGHTFULLY SECRET SERVICE by Rhys Bowen Royal Spyness Mystery #11 In the new Royal Spyness Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Crowned and Dangerous, Lady Georgiana Rannoch juggles secret missions from the Queen, Darcy, and her mother. But it’s all in a day’s work when you’re thirty-fifth in line to the British Crown. When Darcy runs off on another secret assignment,…

Winter is peeking around the corner in most parts of the nation but here in sunny Florida, fall is just another growing season. We’ve already produced quite a few lemons from our tree and I’m ready to start digging in the dirt again to see if we can grow more tomatoes and peppers for my husband’s yummy salsa. Cozy mysteries about organic planting and farms always appeal to me when I’m planting (or even thinking about planting) as they offer me tips, encouragement, and an entertaining mystery in the process, particularly long-running series that make me feel like I’m sitting down with old friends for a cup of tea. One of the first cozy mysteries I remember reading that featured gardening was THYME OF DEATH by Susan Wittig Albert. Long before going healthy and organic was popular and you could find a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s in almost every major city, the heroine, China Bayles, appeared on the scene as a high-powered attorney who left her job to open an herb shop. China has her own garden next to her store, Thyme and Seasons Herb Company, and it’s a place I’ve enjoyed visiting off and on over the years…

In my historical mystery, THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE TEXAS STAR, the real star of the show is Lily Dare, the Texas Star, “the fastest woman in the world.” Lily is a stunt and speed pilot who flies a Travel Air Speedwing (until it is repossessed), and in an effort to look like Amelia Earhart, wears a white leather helmet, goggles, and white flying suit with a long, flowing red scarf looped around her neck. She can fly rings around any man and is ready to prove it—until somebody sabotages her airplane and threatens her life. Then the Darling Dahlias (the local garden club, hosting a party for the Texas Star) will have to dig down and find out what’s going on. Lily Dare is a fictional member of an important club of real flying ladies of her era, women who dared to challenge the skies in their own airplanes. In October of 1929, 99 of these women met at Curtiss Field on Long Island and created the Ninety-Nines, to coordinate the efforts of women in aviation. The new organization pledged to do what it could to help in “aeronautical research, air racing events, acquisition of aerial experience, maintenance of…

I love historical mysteries! As I look back over my list of favorites, I see that most of them are historicals that take me to a different time and place, introduce me to different cultures, and show me different ways of seeing the world. That’s why my husband Bill Albert and I teamed up to write a dozen Victorian/Edwardian mysteries, under the pen name of Robin Paige. That’s why, when we finished that series, I turned to the life of children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter for eight books in the series: The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. And why my latest historical mystery project has been THE DARLING DAHLIAS, a Depression-era series featuring a garden club in a small Alabama town in the challenging decade of the 1930s. Most of us think of the Depression as a dark time, with businesses out of customers, people out of work, and families out of luck. And yes, it was a dreadful time, there’s no doubt about it. But the ladies of Darling, Alabama, reflect the best of those shadowed years. They belong to a garden club called “The Dahlias,” which (next to Beulah’s Beauty Bower, the Darling Diner, and the party…

Finally! There is a little bit of a nip in the air, the kids are back in school, and you can almost hear an audible sigh of relief! Fall is Here! And with the beautiful falls days to come, there is a multitude of fresh new cozy mysteries to be enjoyed! So, with no further ado . . . THE CROCODILE’S LAST EMBRACE: A Jade Del Cameron Mystery by Suzanne Arruda Obsidian: $15.00 No one does historical mysteries better than Suzanne Arruda, and her Jade Del Cameron Mysteries, set in the 1920s, are always thrilling adeventures – and her latest book, THE CROCODILE’S LAST EMBRACE is no exception! Returning from Europe, intrepid explorer Jade del Cameron arrives in Kenya with bittersweet memories-and the certainty that Africa is her home and Sam Featherstone the man she wants to share her life with. When a letter arrives from America, Jade hopes it’s Sam sending word of his return. Instead, it’s a message written in the hand of her long- dead fiancé, asking “Why did you let me die?” When two men die under mysterious circumstances and Jade discovers that her old nemesis, Lilith Worthy, has escaped from prison, the deaths and the…