{"id":4235,"date":"2021-11-12T05:50:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T13:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4235"},"modified":"2021-11-12T05:50:24","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T13:50:24","slug":"best-of-cozies-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/best-of-cozies-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of: Cozies 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read many books in a year, but I still can\u2019t claim an encyclopedic reading of the cozies that were published in 2021.\u00a0 These delicious morsels of storytelling are reason for joy, as the storytellers, even though they include murders, are in general optimistic.\u00a0 You like the characters in these books, and would love to be friends with them.\u00a0 These are my favorites this year.\u00a0 For a really deep dive, check out Dru Ann Love\u2019s blog, Dru\u2019s Book Musings<\/a>, which tackles everything in the cozy universe.\u00a0 All of these titles are available on our website.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Rocky Road to Ruin, <\/em>Meri Allen. \u00a0In Meri Allen\u2019s inaugural series outing, heroine Riley Rhodes is returning to her small New England hometown after her stint as an undercover CIA operative (as a librarian) went horribly wrong. She\u2019s coming back for the funeral of her best friend\u2019s mother, and as is the way of the mystery novel, her friend\u2019s brother is murdered the night of the funeral. What was a stand out here was Allen\u2019s complexity with her characters and their motivations. Nothing is quite black and white – there are many shades of grey – as Riley sleuths to acquit her best friend.\u00a0 She also takes over her best friend\u2019s mother\u2019s ice cream store.\u00a0 This will obviously be a series staple going forward, and the homemade ice cream sounds delicious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jane Austen\u2019s Lost Letters, <\/em>Jane K. Cleland. It takes an astute and intrepid woman to get to the heart of a murder mystery, and Jane Cleland\u2019s Josie Prescott has all of that going on.\u00a0 Josie is the owner of Prescott\u2019s Antiques in New Hampshire, where she lives with her husband, Ty.\u00a0One of the things I like best about Cleland\u2019s books is that Josie uses her skills as an antique appraiser and expert to solve the crimes she encounters.\u00a0 In this novel, as the book opens, she\u2019s filming an episode for her antiques-centric TV show (sounds very much like the popular\u00a0Antiques Roadshow<\/em>). Josie forms a friendship with one of the experts, Gloria.\u00a0 The two\u00a0share a work ethic and an intelligence as well as a love of old books and documents that gives them a bond.\u00a0\u00a0Of course,\u00a0Gloria is\u00a0murdered,\u00a0and Josie feels like she can hardly help but\u00a0look into\u00a0the matter as the body is discovered near her property.\u00a0While consumed with the murder, she\u2019s also consumed by a box a mystery woman has dropped off (without a word of explanation) from her long dead father.\u00a0 The box contains some average watercolor sketches and what look like two authentic letters written by Jane Austen.\u00a0\u00a0 This book is a great mix of character delineation, antiques expertise, and a truly golden age style hand with plot. This is a stand out series, reliably excellent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait, <\/em>Cleo Coyle. This is the seventh in the series (the first five written as Alice Kimberly) featuring bookseller Penelope Thornton-McClure, or Pen for short, and as the book opens she and her aunt (and fellow bookseller) are planning a big launch party for a book on the art of pulp and early mass market paperback covers.\u00a0 Making it more delicious is the fact that Pen \u201ccoexists\u201d with a ghost named Jack Shepard, who was a P.I. back in the 40\u2019s. I loved the combination of the 40\u2019s private eye with the contemporary bookselling universe, as well as a little master class on pulp cover art.\u00a0 The story was light, funny, and well told.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Deadly Summer Nights, <\/em>Vicki Delaney. Vicki Delany launches yet another new series with Deadly Summer Nights. <\/em>Set in a Catskill resort in the 1950\u2019s, Delany captures the feel of resort culture \u2013 wealthy New York families would spend several weeks of the summer at these resorts, enjoying the many planned activities, entertainments, and fine dining.\u00a0 The heroine, Elizabeth Grady, works the nuts and bolts while her fading celeb mother works the front of the house, schmoozing the guests.\u00a0 When a dead man is discovered on the property, an apparent Communist, all heck breaks loose.\u00a0 The crime is tricky and character driven, and Delany, a total story telling pro, knocks this one out of the park.\u00a0 It was one of my favorite reads of the year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Danger at the Cove, <\/em>Hannah Dennison This is the second installment in the charming Island Sisters series, set in Britain\u2019s Scilly Isles.\u00a0 Sisters Evie and Margot have taken over an old hotel and are managing it for the owner.\u00a0 They are on the hook for repairs, which are turning out to be massive. Because the books are set on the tiny island of Treggarick Rock, accessible only by boat and at certain times because of high or low tide, every story is going to be essentially a locked room mystery.\u00a0 Because the d\u00e9cor of the hotel calls back to the 30\u2019s, this adds a decidedly golden age feel to the proceedings. Dennison has structured the book so that that murder is discovered just about exactly halfway through.\u00a0 She spends the first half giving a thorough examination of her characters and setting, leading up to the remains of a shipwreck visible only at low tide.\u00a0 It\u2019s on expedition to see the ship that the body is discovered.\u00a0 The second half is then devoted to investigation. These books have a very real and enduring charm.\u00a0 I love the two main characters, who are a good yin and yang (Evie is practical, Margot dreams big), and I love everything about the setting<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Marriage can be Mischief, <\/em>Amanda Flower. The busy Amanda Flower (author of 10 series, 6 active), gifts us a visit with Amish matchmaker Millie Fisher, who makes a living as a quilter.\u00a0 In this outing, Millie is wondering just how long her childhood friend Uriah Schrock will stay in town.\u00a0 He\u2019s absent at the opening concert scene and it\u2019s only later that Millie discovers where he\u2019s been.\u00a0 When the bones of Uriah’s long missing sister turn up, Millie, called the “Amish Marple” gets to work.\u00a0 Millie’s relentless sleuthing gives readers a trip to a busy Amish restaurant, a buggy shop and a quilting bee, which both illuminate the Amish culture and advance the plot.\u00a0 There\u2019s a matchmaking plot thread on the side as Millie settles differences between a young couple with doubts (on the part of the future groom).\u00a0 The detective work is intelligent, and the clues are fairly laid\u00a0\u00a0 Though the suspect pool was small, I didn\u2019t guess the killer.\u00a0 I loved the character of Millie, who in her 60\u2019s is happy to live on her own with her goats and her quilts.\u00a0 Flower has that special sparkle that some writers have \u2013 the sparkle that makes the plot, characters and setting fly through your reading fingers faster than you can turn the pages.\u00a0 She makes her situations and characters truly come to life, with a depth of emotion behind her characters that make them memorable.\u00a0 This was a wonderful read.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Murder Always Barks Twice, <\/em>Jennifer Hawkins. Series heroine Emma has left a finance job in London to open a Cornish teashop as her true passion is \u2013 cakes. Along with her is her corgi, Oliver, who \u201ctalks\u201d to Emma (she is the only one who understands what he says). Emma is taking on a huge catering job \u2013 providing food for the nearby Daphne du Maurier festival. So there are cakes, there\u2019s a corgi, there\u2019s Cornwall, and there\u2019s Daphne du Maurier.\u00a0 What\u2019s not to love?\u00a0 Really, I loved everything about this snappy, witty, well told mystery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Pairing to Die For, <\/em>Kate Lansing.\u00a0 This is the second entry in Lansing\u2019s Colorado Wine series. Main character Parker Valentine has just opened a winery in trendy Boulder, and as the book opens she\u2019s at an incredibly painful dinner with her boyfriend\u2019s family.\u00a0 The boyfriend in question, Reid, owns the restaurant where the dinner is taking place so Parker is mostly left on her own, fending off the barbs lobbied by his family. When Reid is accused of the murder of his sous chef, Parker goes into overdrive with her lawyer best friend to prove his innocence.\u00a0 This was a nice blend of setting, character, humor, and the details of wine making.\u00a0 It made me either want to drink a glass or stomp some grapes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Arsenic and Adobo, <\/em>Mia P. Manansala.\u00a0 Rightly one of the reads of the year, Manansala, while adhering to the tropes of the cozy novel, nevertheless brings a fresh take to her telling of a poisoning at main character Lila\u2019s Aunt Rosie\u2019s restaurant.\u00a0 The dead man is a food critic detested by every mom and pop restaurant owner in town.\u00a0 Lila\u2019s family is Filipino and the presentation of the Filipino culture of family and food as an extension of love is one of the strengths of the novel.\u00a0 (Also, the food is swoon-worthy.)\u00a0 While the tone is cozy-ish there\u2019s an undertone that takes in the reality of living as a person of color in this country.\u00a0 It\u2019s subtle, but present, and the book is the richer for it.\u00a0 Paired with Manansala\u2019s natural storytelling chops, this is a series to keep your eye on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Body Over Troubled Waters, <\/em>Denise Swanson.\u00a0 It\u2019s no secret I\u2019m a long time fan of Denise Swanson and especially of her Scumble River series, featuring school psychologist Skye Dennison, now the happily married mother of twins.\u00a0 This is technically the 4th<\/sup> in her \u201cReturn to Scumble River\u201d series, but it\u2019s actually the 24th<\/sup> book featuring Skye. In a series this long it\u2019s rare for one to pop out of the pack, but this one did, and part of the reason is Swanson\u2019s assured storytelling hand.\u00a0 In this book, the Superintendent of Schools is murdered, and Skye is believably folded into the investigation as she works as a consultant to the police department (quite luckily, her hub is the police chief).\u00a0 The combination of humor, a clever mystery, and characters readers have grown to love made this book a stand out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read many books in a year, but I still can\u2019t claim an encyclopedic reading of the cozies that were published in 2021.\u00a0 These delicious morsels of storytelling are reason for joy, as the storytellers, even though they include murders, are in general optimistic.\u00a0 You like the characters in these books, and would love to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[709,5,706,118,423,708,532,710,705,711,707],"class_list":["post-4235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of","tag-amanda-flower","tag-americancozy","tag-cleo-coyle","tag-denise-swanson","tag-hannah-dennison","tag-jane-k-cleland","tag-jennifer-hawkins","tag-kate-lansing","tag-meri-allen","tag-mia-p-manansala","tag-vicki-delany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4268,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4235\/revisions\/4268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}