Riot Recommendation

50 of Your Favorite Cozy Mysteries

S. Zainab Williams

Executive Director, Content

S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.

This Riot Recommendation is sponsored by Dead In The Water by Denise Swanson.

First in a brand new series featuring New York Times bestselling author Denise Swanson’s beloved Scumble River!

A twister, a kidnapping, and a murder—oh my! Scumble River may never be the same.

For school psychologist Skye Denison, there’s certainly no place like home. When a violent tornado devastates her small hometown of Scumble River, she can’t see how the community will ever recover—especially since town councilman Zeke Lyons has apparently died in the storm.

But things get even worse for Skye when her police chief husband, Wally, disappears in the midst of investigating Zeke’s death. Did Zeke really die in the storm, or was he murdered? And could Wally be next on the criminal’s hit list?


Like a vacation at a quaint countryside destination, like cuddling up with a box of goodies from your favorite bakery, like piecing a puzzle together with friends, there’s something so…well, cozy about cozy mysteries. We’re here for your small towns, amateur sleuths, and murder plot mind games. We asked you to tell us your favorite cozy mysteries and you responded. Here are 50 of your favorites!

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache Series by Louise Penny

In the Frame by Dick Francis

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side by Agatha Christie

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

A Dark-Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell / Barbara Vine

Trent’s Last Case by E.C. Bentley

The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Series by Sue Grafton

Berger and Mitry Series by David Handler

Hamish Macbeth Series by M.C. Beaton

Agatha Raisin Series by M.C. Beaton

The Jaine Austen Mystery Series by Laura Levine

A Needlecraft Mystery Series by Monica Ferris

Mrs. Murphy Series by Rita Mae Brown

Dr. Laszlo Kreizler Series by Caleb Carr

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

A Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery Series by Diane Mott Davidson

Myrtle Clover Mysteries Series by Elizabeth Spann Craig

A Knitting Mystery Series by Maggie Sefton

Chet and Bernie Mystery Series by Spencer Quinn

Home Repair is Homicide Series by Sarah Graves

Kate Shackleton Series by Frances Brody

The Railway Detective Series by Edward Marston

Amory Ames Series by Ashley Weaver

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes Series by Laurie R. King

Daisy Dalrymple Series by Carola Dunn

Flavia de Luce Series by Alan Bradley

Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery Series by Jane K. Cleland

A Tea Shop Mystery Series by Laura Childs

Her Royal Spyness Series by Rhys Bowen

Bruno, Chief of Police Series by Martin Walker

An Aunt Dimity Mystery Series by Nancy Atherton

Miss Silver Series by Patricia Wentworth

Albert Campion Series by Margery Allingham

Maisie Dobbs Series by Jacqueline Winspear

The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart

Father Brown Series by G.K. Chesterton

Gervase Fen Series by Edmund Crispin

Thoroughly Southern Series by Patricia Sprinkle

Sheila Travis Series by Patricia Sprinkle

Family Tree Series by Patricia Sprinkle

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie

Aurora Teagarden Series by Charlaine Harris

The Spellmans Series by Lisa Lutz

Miss Julia Series by Ann B. Ross

Family Skeleton Mystery Series by Leigh Perry

Maggody Mystery Series by Joan Hess

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Mobile Library Mystery Series by Ian Sansom

Isabel Dalhousie Series by Alexander McCall Smith

No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series by Alexander McCall Smith

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