Cozy Case Files—New Titles for Your Spring & Summer Enjoyment
By Crime HQ
May 23, 2023
Minotaur Books’s free Cozy Case Files sampler is BACK! With so many titles to choose from, we thought we’d make it easy and give you a taste of all eleven titles publishing this spring and summer:
Fatal Fudge Swirl
Get a scoop of drama when former CIA librarian-turned-ice cream shop owner Riley Rhodes caters a wedding for her very wealthy clients. No one gets to enjoy her delicious ice cream cake when the bride—a very icy heiress—winds up dead. Everyone at the wedding had the motive to kill her, and it’s up to Riley to find the killer and save reputations.
Curds of Prey
Another wedding! Curds & Whey is everyone’s favorite cheese shop, so it’s a huge deal when the town’s socialite requests Willa Bauer to handle her wedding shower’s cheese bar. Things get moldy when the socialite’s groom-to-be gets into a fight and winds up dead afterward. Safe to say, this wedding isn’t so grate.
Misfortune Cookie
Lana Lee is officially the manager of Ho-Lee Noodle House, so she and her sister must attend a restaurant convention where they meet up with their Aunt Grace. The weekend has no shortage of drama, with a catfight between a fortune cookie vendor and their aunt’s journalist friend. That very same journalist plunges off the rooftop the next night, and the police deem it an accident. Aunt Grace and the Lee sisters must find the killer before the convention is over, or they might be next.
Hard Dough Homicide
Spice Isle Bakery owner Lyndsay Murray loves any and all business requests, except when she has to host a local high school principal’s retirement dinner. The former principal—Emily—used to employ Lyndsey’s mom, and they did not get along. Things get spicy when Emily mysteriously dies during dinner, leading everyone to suspect Lyndsey and her family. She has no choice but to clear her family’s name, all while trying not to lose customers in the process.
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust
Pizzeria owner Delilah O’Leary wants to put her restaurant on the map when she enters the town’s annual “Taste of Wisconsin” culinary contest. Her culinary rival—who happens to be her ex’s new flame—is also competing with her juice bar team. This makes things all the more interesting when a juice bar employee has a poisoned smoothie, and Delilah is named the prime suspect. She needs to act quickly to prove her innocence, and to save others at the convention from becoming future victims.
Birder, She Wrote
Meg Langslow’s relaxing plans of hummingbird watching are derailed when her grandmother arrives with a reporter who is writing a feature on her for a genteel Southern ladies’ magazine. The reporter brings Meg and her grandmother on-site with her as she’s investigating an old cemetery, but instead of buried bodies—they find a fresh corpse. Can they crack the case before the murderer strikes again?
A Fatal Groove
Sip & Spin Record Shop owners Juni, Tansy, and Maggie are enjoying the town’s annual Bluebonnet Festival until one of their customers is poisoned by their delicious coffee. That customer was the town’s mayor. Tansy is under fire since she brewed the coffee. Family is everything to these three sisters, so they have each other’s backs when searching for the killer and trying to clear each and every one of them of suspicion.
Tell-Tale Bones
Private Investigator Sarah Booth Delaney and her partner Tinkie are on the case of the disappearance of an heiress and her friend. The heiress’s mother is convinced that the husband caused the disappearance, as he is set to collect the fortune. Sarah and Tinkie don’t hesitate to solve this case and won’t let anything get in their way—even a haunted cemetery.
The Wayward Prince
The fate of the British throne lies in the hand of Joanna and the Watsons when a prince goes missing at the height of the Great War. Things get more serious when MI5 decodes a recent message from German spies in London, leading them to believe that the kidnapped royal is being transported to Berlin. Once Joanna is on the case, it is very clear that the criminal mastermind has a personal grudge against Sherlock, and the only way he will rest is if he gets his revenge through Joanna’s death.
The Lady from Burma
The Right Sort Marriage Bureau is a necessary venture in a post-World War II world. Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge are surprised when someone approaches their business to find a life partner for her husband. The woman is dying of cancer, so she wants to make sure her husband has someone to make him happy after she passes. Her passing happens shortly, but it is apparently a suicide. The conservator who has been managing her assets is also found dead, so Sparks and Bainbridge are on the case to find the killer.
The Last Drop of Hemlock
Vivian Kelly has a new job at a speakeasy in Prohibition-era New York. Things are looking good for her until the bouncer to the speakeasy is found dead due to apparent suicide. Vivian isn’t quite sure about that, as the bouncer was hiding a payoff from a mob boss. With his death, the money is missing. Against her better judgment, Vivian starts investigating to try and stop the killer, which results in threats and blackmailing.
This 18th installment of Minotaur Books’s Cozy Case Files will bring you the beginnings of these eleven cozies. But be forewarned: you won’t want to stop reading.