Cozy Comedy

Necromancer-witch hybrid Ava Harper has accomplished many things in the year since moving back home to Shipton Harbor. She’s checking things off a bucket list she never knew she had.

Private investigator Franki Amato has just turned 30, and she feels anything but festive. To add insult to birthday injury, she has to investigate a surreal strip club homicide - with her 60ish ex-stripper landlady. Adding to her troubles, she has to figure out what a missing amber pendant and a mysterious amaretto bottle have to do with the murder, not to mention why she's being followed. When a second dancer goes down and a third is threatened, Franki turns to a weird witch to crack the case and cancel a curse.

Stewart Johnson had worked hard his entire life to reach retirement. However, his Golden Years would prove to be more of a challenge than he anticipated after his wife passed away. Seeking to find peace of mind and warmth in Florida, Stewart became surrounded by a tribe of Snowbird residents who took him on a journey of laughter and sleuthing inside a gossip riddled community filled with the humorous dysfunction of overgrown children.

Welcome to the Palace movie theater! Now Showing: Philandering husbands, ghostly sidekicks, and a murder or two. When Nora Paige’s movie-star husband leaves her for his latest co-star, she flees Hollywood to take refuge in San Francisco at the Palace, a historic movie theater that shows the classic films she loves. There she finds a band of misfit film buffs who care about movies (almost) as much as she does. She also finds some shady financial dealings and the body of a murdered stranger. Oh, and then there’s Trixie, the lively ghost of a 1930’s usherette who appears only to Nora and...

Pretending to date my rich, sexy, and caring friend Gabriel could grant us the deal of a lifetime . . . or ruin my chances of ever running my family's company. Gabe is handsome and surprisingly down to earth for a billionaire. Teaming up with him for a massive project shouldn't have required us to fake a relationship. My machista Latine family is to blame for forcing us into it. They think my goal should be to settle down and make babies, not run a corporation. But I won't let anything come between me and my career plans . . .

The second in this hilarious cozy mystery series features a woman who is a talent agent for showbiz animals and discovers that she has a talent herself: solving crimes. Kay Powell, theatrical agent to non-human animals, is babysitting - that is, birdsitting - her client, a parrot named Barney, on the set of his new TV show, Dead City. When the show’s charismatic star is shot in his trailer between scenes, the only eyewitness to the crime is - you guessed it - Barney.

For all those craving more adventures of their favorite bookseller-by-day and burglar-by-night, The Burglar in Short Order for the first time ever collects all of Bernie Rhodenbarr's short-form appearances in one complete volume. From the story in which a prototype of Bernie first appeared (“A Bad Night for Burglars”) to his appearances in Playboy and (maybe? It's kinda complicated) Cosmopolitan...from an essay discussing Bernie's misadventures in Hollywood to a piece commissioned by a European publisher for a tourist guide to New York....

A billionaire in hiding. A lost Spanish galleon. A body in the surf. Julia Ross and her friends, Dottie and Penelope, are invited to an exclusive island retreat in The Bahamas known as Abrams Cay, a world-class wildlife education center catering to the ultra-wealthy. Their all-expenses-paid vacation takes a deadly turn when Julia discovers the hotel manager’s body floating in the surf. The Bahamian authorities suspect drug smuggling—but once again, they arrest the wrong suspect. As Julia, Dottie, and Penelope search for the real killer, they uncover a web of secrets involving a ...

Iris finally landed her dream job as campaign manager for Aiden Duggin’s run for governor. Too bad it coincides with her once-in-a-lifetime wedding. How will she balance political rallies and press conferences with picking out the perfect dress and the most delicious wedding cake? Luckily, her two sisters will help. They all coordinated their weddings to be on the same day. One is marrying the creator of the Dream Droids franchise, and the other, a Dream Droid. Iris isn’t sure how she feels about her sister marrying a robot. More than that, Aiden’s campaign seems to come down to one ...

***RECIPE INCLUDED*** What do you get when you combine a new bakery, an inquisitive poodle, and an unexpected love triangle? The perfect recipe for murder. Sophie, a 32-year-old librarian, has spent her entire adult life caring for her ill grandmother. When she suddenly passes away, Sophie is left with the freedom to live her own life and an inheritance to pursue her dream. When she comes across a boutique for sale in her quant hometown, she realizes that now is the best time to open the gluten-free bakery she's always imagined. Along with her poodle, Marshmallow, and her best friend, ...

When Val tries to revive her old writing career, story ideas prove as elusive as a moment alone without her boyfriend Tom breathing down her neck. Tom’s moved in, and Val’s itching to move out–at least temporarily. A last-minute getaway to the country seems like the perfect solution for dissolving her writer’s block. But a fateful fish fry ends up inspiring a whole different kind of dead end.

Isabel Dreary's Undeath is a mess. When Isabel gets turned into a vampire by her almost-boyfriend, she expects a thrilling new life of moonlit adventures. What she doesn’t anticipate is waking up in a crypt while he plays Horseman of the Apocalypse—talk about a glow-up gone wrong! Now she’s stuck dodging the Rabble Rebels and grappling with her rapidly fading soul, all while trying to resist the urge to bite the hottest vampire in town. Armed with a mystical cat, an impractical scythe, and her secret stash of werewolf blood, Isabel must navigate the chaos of her undead existence. When...

Melanie knew someone should have kept Barry Turk on a short leash. The star Poodle handler and lady killer had a habit of chicanery that bred contempt in the dog show circuit. But when Barry is shot dead in his own driveway, even Melanie is stunned at how unsporting the competition can get. Now, as Melanie digs for clues deep under Connecticut's well-groomed surface, she finds herself sniffing around in the killer's own backyard, and counts herself lucky to have the animal instincts to keep herself alive. .

Mumbai is a city that thrives on extravagant spectacles and larger-than-life characters. But as Chopra is about to discover, even in the city of dreams, there is no guarantee of a happy ending.

In the months she's been in Shipton, new neighbors moved in across the street from her Philly home. Now, Ava has nothing against vampires. But when people in the neighborhood start turning up with bite marks and Uncle Wade goes missing, she can't help but to check into the newbies in the hood. One of the fanged ones isn't happy with Ava poking around and tries to scare her off the case. But he is no match for two necromancers, a tiger-ghoul, and a sheriff/hunter.

Wedding bells are ringing as Tara and her soon-to-be-husband Nick prepare for their big day. But along with all the RSVP cards are a series of death threats from an unknown source. The culprit must be someone from an earlier investigation-a white-collar criminal with a red-hot grudge-but Tara has run across too many lawbreakers to narrow down the search. And time, like her biological clock, is ticking.

The sign welcoming travelers to Maggody, Arkansas, reads "Pop. 755," and don't expect Hizzoner Jim Bob to repaint it just because there's someone new in town. The mayor won't go out of his way for anyone, especially someone wicked—and a woman who would open a pawnshop in Maggody must be very wicked indeed. Kayleen Smeltner decided to open the shop after her husband was killed during a burglary. She came to Maggody expecting peace and quiet, but she'll find this quaint little patch of nowhere isn't as peaceful as it seems.

They wanted a peaceful vacation in a wintry location. But when Santa meets an untimely end, can these intrepid investigators save the season? Chloe Carson is excited for her long-awaited family reunion. But as they gather in a snow-clad village to plan their aging mother’s dream of opening a restaurant, the old lady’s habit of spreading garden gnomes around town leads to a panicked pilgrimage. And the mayhem continues when their visit to the nutcracker museum reveals Kris Kringle has come to an unmerry demise. With a ton of questions and no answers, Chloe and her cunning cocker spaniel ...

When Big Wig moves to the beach, Big Trouble comes with him. Doubtless Bay’s resident private investigator has a dilemma on her hands. With the arrival of a new detective in her small, beachside town, Summer O’Dare has a decision to make: Let him think she’s merely a little kooky or open up the doors to her skeleton-harbouring closet and invite him in. Trust, though, has to be earned. And Detective Douche is walking on the wrong side of that equation. Three days in and he’s already dating the realtor next door; Summer’s high school nemesis. Add in a missing biker, a murdered man, ...

Cameron Dakota is the L.A. Informer's staff photographer and paparazzi extraordinaire. Her latest subject is Trace Brody, top-shelf actor and half of America's favorite Hollywood couple. Trace is about to get married in a blow-out wedding, and Cam’s editor, Felix Dunn (from the High Heels Mysteries), has assigned her to get the first shots of the bride and groom.