Must-Read Cozy Mysteries for 2025
Hello, fellow readers!
’Tis the season of curling up with a good cozy mystery with charming settings, warmth, and delightful characters. Here are a few suggestions that I’m sure will make your year-end holiday reading enjoyable.
🎅 A Wonderful Christmas Crime by Jacqueline Frost
As Christmas descends on Mistletoe, Maine, Holly White has an extra gift for the season: a new baby on the way. Her husband, Sheriff Evan Gray, has been worried about her elevated blood pressure, and Holly has agreed to take this year easy. Being idle has never been one of Holly’s gifts, so when Evan surprises her with tickets to the town-wide dinner, she and her many cravings thank him. But when a thief tries and fails to steal an antique ornament from the dinner’s holiday display, it’s clear that someone is on the naughty list.
The thief manages to escape, but after dinner, Holly spots their lifeless body. It’s clear that someone in town was keen to kill them. Evan is less than jolly to find his wife at the scene of yet another holiday homicide and asks her to promise that she’ll leave the investigating to the police. But Holly has never been one to turn down a challenge and has to get creative with the help of a few of her friends in order to find this killer.
Will she and her friends be able to stop the killer and uncover the motive behind the attempted robbery, or will the killer strike again and paint the town a bloody red?
👩👩👧👧 Sisters Before Misters by Amelia Diane Coombs
Remi and her sisters, Maeve and Eliana, have a knack for stumbling into murder mysteries. And after a killer family camping trip last year, they’re back together for a Halloween they’ll never forget.
Remi is living her best life in Seattle until Eliana’s husband, Chad, who refused to sign their divorce papers, disappears on the spookiest night of the year. Eliana swears she has no idea where he is, though her obvious motive and weird behavior don’t really weigh in her favor. Nor does the severed finger they find in his house…
Torn between loyalty to her sister and mounting suspicions she can’t ignore, Remi and her boyfriend, Leo, embark on a manhunt to find Chad-or the rest of him. But the further Remi digs into Chad’s movements on Halloween, the more trouble she finds. With a ruthless detective on their tail, threatening texts, a mysterious flash drive, and dubious legal advice from a kooky aunt, the Finch sisters are in over their head. But Remi is determined to prove her sister’s innocent, even though the bloody evidence points right at her.
❄️ A Cattitude Christmas by Tara Lush
Amelia Matthews, midlife innkeeper and reluctant witch, is determined to make her first Florida Christmas magical for her daughter, her friends, and the quirky guests of the Crescent Moon Inn. Between baking for what feels like everyone in town, wrangling inflatable snowmen, and coordinating the town’s beloved Christmas parade, she barely has time to breathe.
Then disaster strikes. The town’s most treasured holiday mascot — the Santa Manatee statue — vanishes. To make matters worse, Jimbo, Amelia’s kind-hearted employee (and official Town Elf), is attacked during the theft. Now, with Cypress Grove’s holiday cheer hanging by a thread, Amelia has no choice but to investigate.
With the help of her daughter Jenny, her eccentric friends, and cat Freddie Purrcury, Amelia must follow a trail of glitter, gossip, and magical mischief to uncover the truth. But someone in town is hiding more than holiday secrets, and solving this mystery could mean the difference between saving Christmas… or watching it sink into the Florida swamp.
🧩 Picking Up the Pieces (Jigsaw Puzzle Mystery Book 1) by J.B. Abbott
After her mother’s passing, Katie Chambers returns to Cedar Bay, a serene enclave nestled in the southwest corner of Washington State’s Whidbey Island to support her newly widowed father, Jim Chambers. Stepping into her mother’s footsteps, Katie takes on the role of graphic designer at Cedar Bay Puzzles. With the help of her father, she resurrects her mom’s cherished initiative, the South Island Jigsaw crew, a group of puzzle enthusiasts who gather weekly at the library to test and tackle the latest Cedar Bay Puzzles creations. But when a member of their club is murdered and Jim is the last person to see her alive, resulting in his arrest, Katie and the rest of the gang must use all of their resources to obtain justice for both.
Get Book Vue’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
To prove her father’s innocence, Katie reaches out to Connor Crozier, a firefighter and her former flame who shattered her heart seven years ago. With problems piling up at work and a competitor outright accusing CBP of stealing his designs, it is up to Katie to puzzle out the mystery before it’s too late.
☕ No Roast for the Weary (Coffeehouse Mystery Series #21) by Cleo Coyle
As much as master roaster Clare Cosi adores coffee, the landmark shop she manages won’t survive if she doesn’t sell enough of it. So when the Village Blend’s customer traffic grinds to a halt, she turns to her staff for creative ideas, and the Writer’s Block Lounge is born.
Madame, the eccentric octogenarian owner of the shop, is upset by this news. Years ago, a group of accomplished writers used the shop’s second-floor lounge to inspire each other, but the group disbanded when something dark occurred. Though that history is shrouded in mystery, Clare presses forward…
Soon the Village Blend tables are filled with aspiring novelists, playwrights, and poets, all happy to be coaxed, cajoled, and caffeinated by her coffeehouse crew. Clare admires the stamina of these scribes, many of them toiling at night jobs-driving taxis, tending bar, ushering for Broadway-while penning projects during the day.
Then one of their fictions turns fatal when a shocking secret leads to a deadly end. Unless Clare can untangle this mystery, uncover the truth, and stop a desperate killer, she fears more of these weary writers may be marked for eternal rest.
Includes a knockout menu of recipes!
🔫 Bad Blood (Country Club Murders Book 20) by Julie Mulhern
Prudence Davies is one of Ellison Jones’ least favorite people on earth. She’s vindictive. She’s mean. And the two share a twisted history. Or, they did.
When Prudence is murdered after a very public spat, Ellison finds herself a murder suspect. Worse, the investigating officer has it in for Ellison’s homicide detective husband.
Old secrets. Old lies. New drama.
Can Ellison find the killer or will the bad blood between her and Prudence mean the end to all she holds dear?
🏰 Death at an Irish Village (Irish Castle Mystery Book 3) by Ellie Brannigan
With six months left to fulfill the provisions of Uncle Nevin’s will and save the fixer-upper castle she and her cousin inherited, Rayne McGrath and Ciara Smith’s bridal venue venture is finally bringing in money. To unite the reluctant villagers, some who’d vehemently protested their efforts to modernize the village, they agree with Father Patrick’s idea to create a group of volunteers to clean the old cemetery behind the beloved church. When a body is found by one of the historic tombstones, the cousins must work overtime to solve the newest case.
The plot thickens and an unsolved crime from the past is unearthed when it’s discovered that the body was on top of a fake grave that has connections to Rayne’s ancestors. With two weddings scheduled at the castle and her mother on the way, Rayne fears she won’t be able to balance it all, yet she rolls up her sleeves and dives into old family journals in hopes of puzzling out not one but two mysteries.
Perfect for fans of Carlene O’Connor and Sheila Connolly, this whimsical cozy will charm mystery readers everywhere.
Originally published at https://bookvue.wordpress.com on November 19, 2025.
