December 2025 MysteryKIT - Cozy Mysteries

At this time of year, we are all busy and preoccupied with things other than reading. This month, take some time to stop, put your feet up, and read a simple, cozy mystery of your choice.
Here is a list to get you started. https://www.librarything.com/tag/cozy%20mystery

Santa is watching, so don't forget to add to the WIKI

I will be reading the next in the Haunted Tearoom Cozy Mystery series - Tea Is For Tarot by Karen Sue Walker.

My possibilities for this include:

The Sting of Death by Rebecca Tope
The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith
Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

>3 Robertgreaves: I can recommend Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

Perfect! I have the final book in the Vampire Knitting Club series to read. That will round out the year nicely, so that I can start the Vampire Book Club series in January.

Just finished The Alchemist of Brushstrokes and Brimstone by Gigi Pandian, book 8 in the Accidental Alchemist series. Think I'm starting to get a little bored with this series. Not sure if I'm going to keep going.

Starting The Sting of Death by Rebecca Tope

I read The Mystery of the Skelton Diamonds, a Detective Lavender mystery, set in Regency London, by Karen Charlton.

Tea Is For Tarot by Karen Sue Walker ★★★

It's said that your future can be foretold in the tea leaves at the bottom of your cup. But when the tarot cards warn of murder, is it a warning? Or a threat? April May has turned her tearoom into a psychic fair for the day. Visitors are having their palms read and fortunes told, while April bakes up plenty of flaky scones and buttery shortbread. It's all fun and games until a mysterious stranger turns up dead. With the cards stacked against her, April must find the culprit if she’s going to keep the wrong person from going to jail.

This book in the series is not as good as the others. The solution seemed rushed, and the culprit really had nothing to do with the story. I would call this book a filler as it pointed to directions that the characters may take in the future, but served no other purpose.

I finished Mort à la Fenice by Donna Leon - a deft murder mystery with a very sad but clever ending.

COMPLETED The Sting of Death and A Market for Murder, both by Rebecca Tope

Murder at Mullings by Dorothy Cannell
Beginning before the Great War when Florence is a young maid, the story jumps ahead to a mysterious death that she investigates. A reasonable crime novel in the cosy genre, but I won’t look for more by Cannell.

Blood Ink Sister Scribe

I was a big fan of this contemporary fantasy. Johanna lives alone, protecting her family's collection of magic books. Her sister Esther moves every year according to her late father's warnings. Nick, the last living Scribe after his parents' murders, the only one who can write new magic books, is living under the protection of his uncle and the Library of magic books his uncle runs. However, not everything is as it seems...

The mysteries and twists in this story were my favourite kind — ones where I figure them out before they are revealed, but without feeling like the author has hand-fed me the answers. I'm not sure if this story fits the strictest definition of a 'cosy mystery', but it's hard for me to find shelves full of magical books any kind of setting but cosy. I do recommend this book.

Full synopsis/review on my thread.

I read The Diva Runs Out of Thyme by Krista Davis.

Finished another one for this month, Stalking Around the Christmas Tree by Jacqueline Frost, book 4 in the Christmas Tree Farm mystersy series.

Starting Vera Wong's Guide (To Snooping On A Dead Man) by Jesse Sutanto

COMPLETED Vera Wong's Guide (To Snooping On A Dead Man) by Jesse Sutanto

This novella certainly fits the category: The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

>19 Cecilturtle: Have you read any others of her books? She seems to be an author various algorithms keep pushing at me

>20 Robertgreaves: I received The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels for Christmas as well but have not started it. It seems to be written in the same style as The Christmas Appeal (which itself seems to be a follow-up from The Appeal). I hope it has the same zing of humour. The format, fonts and structure (e-mails, texts, group chats, etc.) can be a little confusing at first but it definitely gives a unique insight into the characters.

I've been trying to read A Cotswold Christmas Mystery by Rebecca Tope for the last week or two but I'm getting nowhere with it so have abandoned it.

Thanks to everyone who participated this month.