Welcome back! It’s Season Four of our podcast book group: Reading with Libraries! We hope you have enjoyed all of our short Book Bites, and now we are looking forward to settling in to read more books with you!

We usually spend our sessions chatting with our Guest Hosts about genres they like – and it’s always fun. This season we are going to do that, and we are also going to have each of our three staff members pick a genre we like! So today, we are going to look at one of Mary’s favorite genres: Cozy Mysteries

In our book group we have fun talking about books, and provide useful information for library people doing Reader’s Advisory work. There are so many books out there that it’s tough to be an expert on all of them. So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar genre!

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages, and we each came prepared with our own drink to enjoy while we talk about our books. You are an important part of this book group, so if you don’t have a beverage go ahead and get one now. Each of our beverages will have a recipe or a link on our episode page, so you can try them yourself!

You can enjoy a variety of different beverages with cozy mysteries, but coffee drinks are a good addition to enjoying any cozy mystery.

S’Mores Iced Coffee

This S’Mores Iced Coffee is creamy, chocolatey, filled with marshmallow fluff and has a fun chocolate and graham cracker rim! It’s a caffeinated S’More in a glass!

Ingredients

S’Mores Iced Coffee

• 1-2 shots shots espresso or 1/2 cup STRONG coffee
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup marshmallow fluff*
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup
• 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar optional **

Optional chocolate/graham cracker rim

• crushed graham crackers
• chocolate syrup

Optional toppings

• whole graham crackers
• whipped cream
• extra chocolate sauce for drizzling

S’Mores Iced Coffee

1. Combine hot coffee/espresso with marshmallow fluff and stir until the fluff has almost melted.
2. Pour coffee/marshmallow mixture into your blender along with the milk, 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup and optional sugar.
3. Blend on low until everything has been fully incorporated.
4. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and then pour the coffee over that.
5. Shake until chilled.
6. Fill your drinking glass with ice and strain the coffee over the ice.
7. Top with whipped cream, an extra chocolate drizzle, and graham cracker, if desired and serve immediately!

Frozen Mexican Hot Chocolate Mocha

A refreshing, icy coffee beverage drenched in chocolate and spiked with cinnamon and the tiniest bit of heat. Top with whipped cream and another dash of cinnamon for the perfect treat.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup iced coffee concentrate
• 1/3 cup half-and-half or milk of choice
• 1/4 cup chocolate syrup
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 3/4 cup ice
• Whipped cream and additional ground cinnamon for topping

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Taste and add additional cinnamon if desired (cinnamon can vary in strength, so I suggest you start with 1/2 teaspoon and go from there.) Pour into a large glass and top with whipped cream and sprinkle with additional cinnamon. Plop in a straw and serve.

Healthy Salted Caramel Mocha Smoothie

This Healthy Salted Caramel Mocha Smoothie is a delicious way to start your day! Flavors of coffee, rich chocolate and salty caramel all come together in a secretly healthy beverage!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cups cold coffee
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 packet Sweetened CocoaVia (or Cocoa powder)
• 1 small frozen banana
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 scoop chocolate or vanilla protein powder, optional*
• 3 pitted dates (soaked in hot water for 15 minutes if not soft)
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 cup of ice

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to a blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately!

Notes

*Add a scoop of protein powder to make this smoothie more filling.

Genre Discussion:

Cozy mysteries are always fun to read. You know nothing too horrible is going to happen, you know the appropriate bad guy is going to get caught in the end, and if there is a romance element in the story, you know the two people will end up happy together. In short: these are nice stories when you want to enjoy yourself, and read things not too taxing. When life gets you down, read a cozy mystery and things will seem a little better.

Cozies usually have female main characters, though most new ones have males who are part of the story and supportive of the woman doing the detecting. They easily lend themselves to becoming series, so once you find a character you like know that you will probably be able to follow them for a while. Usually in the first book, the main character stumbles over a body. There will be some sort of reason – not always a good one – why she feels she must solve this crime.

The police will not generally welcome her assistance, but she will show them up in her outsider’s approach to crime fighting. Fortunately, she will usually have some sort of special talent: she worked at a famous auction house and can spot fake antiques from across the room, or she worked in a big-city bank before the story starts, and remembers seeing the face of a con artist.

Usually they will take place in a small town, or they will be in a tight-knit community of a big city that could double as a small town. The main character will either have lived there her whole life, and have a group of dedicated friends; or she will have very recently arrived in town knowing no one, but people will be immediately drawn to her and very close friendships will happen.

One person will take an immediate dislike to the main character – through some sort of accident, or just because that person is terrible. They will not usually be the murderer, so they can return book after book to showcase how much nicer and better the main character is than this person who mysteriously hates her.

The primary settings can vary. Some good ones for library fans take place in libraries or bookmobiles. They may happen in coffee shops. They may happen in knitting or quilting shops, or among friends in a sewing and crafting circle. Stories involving cats, and sometimes dogs, are common. Sometimes there will be a paranormal element, where the main characters suddenly discovers she can see ghosts or that she has inherited her family’s magical abilities. This will never get too scary, and she will always feel compelled to hid her powers from all but her trusted group of friends.

In short – these are predictable stories. You know what is going to happen, and that understanding is part of the fun. Read these on a beach, in front of a roaring fire in the winter, or have an ebook version available on your phone to read while standing in line. To know them is to love them.

Suggested Reading Resources:

• What Exactly is a Cozy Mystery?                   
• Cozy Mystery List
• Cozy Mystery Unlimited
• Cozy Mysteries discussion
• Mystery Lovers Kitchen
• The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Our Book Discussion

Now we are a little more familiar with this week’s genre, and we have enjoyed some of our special beverages, let’s get to the book discussion!

Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth, by Tamar Myers ” This debut mystery introduces Magdalena Yoder, prim, proper, and persnickety proprietor of the PennDutch Inn, where guests luxuriate in the true “Amish experience,” (read: doing Magdalena’s chores and paying top dollar for the opportunity!). When one of her more reclusive guests takes a tumble down the PennDutch’s picturesquely steep staircase and breaks his neck, the timing couldn’t be worse. It’s the start of hunting season – and her inn is packed to capacity! What at first seems to be a horrible accident (and insurance nightmare for Magdalena!) could turn out to be a much more sinister event; and when another mishap occurs, Magdalena is certain there is a killer in her group – and it’s up to her to sniff out the culprit…before the world’s most incompetent town sheriff throws her in jail! “

Potions and Pastries, by Bailey Cates “It’s been exactly two years since Katie and her aunt and uncle opened the Honeybee Bakery, where they serve delicious—and bespelled—treats to the good people of Savannah. After a dinner celebrating the bakery’s anniversary, they all take a stroll along the waterfront and meet Aunt Lucy’s friend Orla, a colorful character who has been telling the fortunes of locals and tourists alike for years.
 
The next day, Orla meets with what seems like a terrible accident, but Katie’s witchy intuition tells her it was something more sinister. Together with her trustworthy coven and her firefighter boyfriend, she’ll race to find out what happened to the unfortunate fortune-teller before the piping hot trail goes cold…. “

May Day, by Jess Lourey “The not-so-proud owner of a dead-end job and a cheating boyfriend, cosmopolitan Mira James jumps at the chance for a fresh start in rural Battle Lake, Minnesota. She immediately regrets her move. That is, until she crosses paths with Jeff, the ultimate sexy nerd. When their romance heats up, she thinks she has it made.

And she does, right up until Jeff turns up dead.

Anxious to learn more about the man who briefly stole her heart, Mira delves into Battle Lake’s mysteries, including an old land deed obscuring ancient Ojibwe secrets, an octogenarian crowd with freaky social lives, and a handful of thirty-something high school buddies who hold bitter, decades-old grudges.

Mira soon discovers that unknown dangers are concealed under the polite exterior of this quirky town, and revenge is a hotdish best served cold.

Secondhand Spirits, by Juliet Blackwell “Lily Ivory feels that she can finally fit in somewhere and conceal her “witchiness” in San Francisco. It’s there that she opens her vintage clothing shop, outfitting customers both spiritually and stylistically.

Just when things seem normal, a client is murdered and children start disappearing from the Bay Area. Lily has a good idea that some bad phantoms are behind it. Can she keep her identity secret, or will her witchy ways be forced out of the closet as she attempts to stop the phantom?”

Louisiana Longshot: A Miss Fortune Mystery, by Jana DeLeon “CIA assassin Fortune Redding is about to undertake her most difficult mission ever–in Sinful, Louisiana. With a leak at the CIA and a price placed on her head by one of the world’s largest arms dealers, Fortune has to go off-grid, but she never expected to be this far out of her element. Posing as a former beauty queen turned librarian in a small bayou town seems worse than death to Fortune, but she’s determined to fly below the radar until her boss finds the leak and puts the arms dealer out of play. Unfortunately, she hasn’t even unpacked a suitcase before her newly inherited dog digs up a human bone in her backyard.
 
Thrust into the middle of a bayou murder mystery, Fortune teams up with a couple of seemingly sweet old ladies whose looks completely belie their hold on the little town. To top things off, the handsome local deputy is asking her too many questions. If she’s not careful, this investigation might blow her cover and get her killed. Armed with her considerable skills and a group of elderly ladies the locals dub The Geritol Mafia, Fortune has no choice but to solve the murder before it’s too late.”

Curiosity Thrilled the Cat, by Sofie Kelly “When librarian Kathleen Paulson moved to Mayville Heights, Minnesota, she had no idea that two strays would nuzzle their way into her life. Owen is a tabby with a catnip addiction and Hercules is a stocky tuxedo cat who shares Kathleen’s fondness for Barry Manilow. But beyond all the fur and purrs, there’s something more to these kitties.

When murder interrupts Mayville’s Wild Rose Summer Music Festival, Kathleen finds herself the prime suspect. More stunning is her realization that Owen and Hercules are truly special—perhaps even magical. Now, with a little legwork from her four-legged friends, Kathleen may be able to solve this purr-fect murder… “

The Case of the Missing Servant: from the Files of Vish Puri, India’s Most Private Investigator, by Tarquin Hall ” A first installment in a new series by the author of To the Elephant Graveyard introduces mustachioed Vish Puri, a respectable family man who styles himself as India’s forefront private investigator and who runs background checks for prospective brides and grooms until more sensational cases take him into India’s increasingly divergent communities. “

The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride (Nocturne Falls) (Volume 1), by Kristen Painter ” Welcome to Nocturne Falls, the town where Halloween is celebrated 365 days a year. The tourists think it’s all a show: the vampires, the werewolves, the witches, the occasional gargoyle flying through the sky. But the supernaturals populating the town know better. Living in Nocturne Falls means being yourself. Fangs, fur, and all. After seeing her maybe-mobster boss murder a guy, Delaney James assumes a new identity and pretends to be a mail order bride. She finds her groom-to-be living in a town that celebrates Halloween every day. Weird. But not as weird as what she doesn’t know. Her groom-to-be is a 400-year-old vampire. Hugh Ellingham has only agreed to the arranged set up to make his overbearing grandmother happy. In thirty days, whatever bridezilla shows up at his door will be escorted right back out. His past means love is no longer an option. Not if the woman’s going to have a future. Except he never counted on Delaney and falling in love for real. Too bad both of them are keeping some mighty big secrets… “

Her Royal Spyness, by Rhys Bowen “London, 1932. Lady Victoria Georgiana Charlotte Eugenie, 34th in line for the English throne, is flat broke. She’s bolted Scotland, her greedy brother, and her fish-faced betrothed. London is a place where she’ll experience freedom, learn life lessons aplenty, do a bit of spying for HRH—oh, and find a dead Frenchman in her tub. Now her new job is to clear her long family name… “

Woof at the Door, by Laura Morrigan ” Animal behaviorist Grace Wilde keeps her ability to psychically communicate with furry and feathered critters under wraps. But when a Doberman turns out to be the only witness to a crime, Grace will have to let the cat out of the bag in order to catch a killer. Grace Wilde’s job is anything but normal. When she’s not helping out at the zoo by comforting agitated lemurs, she’s listening to the woe… “

A Taste Fur Murder: A Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Mystery, by Dixie Lyle “Meet Deirdre “Foxtrot” Lancaster. Trusted employee of eccentric zillionairess Zelda Zoransky, Foxtrot manages a mansion, a private zoo, and anything else that strikes her boss’s fancy. Her job title is Administrative Assistant, but chaos handler would be more accurate. Especially after she glimpses a giant ghost-beast in Zelda’s pet cemetery. For some strange reason, Foxtrot is seeing animal spirits. And, ready or not, in this mystery from Dixie Lyle, the fur’s about to hit the fan…

Still reeling, Foxtrot comes home to find her cat Tango―her dead cat Tango―alive and well and communicating telepathically. But that’s not all: There’s an ectoplasmic dog named Tiny who changes breeds with a shake of his tail…and can sniff out a clue like nobody’s business. So when a coworker drops dead while organizing closets, Tiny is on the case. Can Foxtrot and her new companions ferret out the killer among a menagerie of suspects―human and otherwise―before death takes another bite?”

Conclusion

Thanks so much for joining us this week for the book group!

Be sure you are subscribed to this podcast to get every episode, genre, and book suggestion dropped right into your favorite app. And you can check out our shownotes for each episode to get all the info we discussed, along with the links to more resources. Every episode we have created is on our website: cmle.org.

Join us next week for more genre discussions!