Series-ouly Good - Brand New Mystery Series - January 2015

While I was working on January's mystery series titles, I found a number of new mystery series starting up this month. Since I love cozy mystery series and I don't have enough to read already (VERY tongue in cheek!), I thought I would highlight a few for you that sounded good to me.

Christine Husom starts her new Snow Globe Shop mystery series with
Snow Way Out. Ever since she was a child, curio shop manager Camryn Brooks has loved the sparkling beauty of snow globes, and now, she sells them. In fact, they’re so popular, Cami and her friend—coffee shop owner Alice “Pinky” Nelson—are hosting a snow globe making class. After the flurry of activity has ended and everyone has gone off with their own handmade snow globes, Cami spots a new globe left behind on a shelf, featuring an odd tableau—a man sleeping on a park bench. On her way home, she drifts through the town park and is shaken to come upon the scene from the globe—a man sitting on a bench. But he isn’t sleeping—he has a knife in his back. When the police arrive, it’s clear they consider Cami a little flaky and possibly a suspect. After her friends also come under suspicion, Cami starts investigating.


Criminal Confections is the first title in a new series by Collette London. It sounds right up my alley as it begins the Chocolate Whisperer mystery series. Two of my favorite things together - chocolate and cozy mystery fiction! Hayden Mundy Moore is an expert on everything chocolate, helping clients develop new products and revamp recipes until they're irresistible. Hayden has bushwhacked through African jungles and haggled in exotic markets to find the finest cacao beans and the most flavorful blends. When a colleague turns up dead at the exclusive chocolate-themed Lemaître resort spa in San Francisco, Adrienne Dowling's heart attack is blamed on an accidental overdose of the secret ingredient used in Lemaître Chocolates' new line. Hayden can't believe that conscientious Adrienne would make that mistake. Between chocolate body scrubs, cocoa mud baths, and a non-stop frenzy of chocolate-based treats, Hayden starts to suspect that she, not Adrienne, was the intended target.

Lea Wait begins a new series this month. Twisted Threads is the first title in her new Mainely Needlepoint mystery series. Returning to the quaint coastal town of Harbor Haven, Maine—a place she once called home—Angie Curtis finds her memories aren’t all quite pleasant ones. After leaving a decade ago, Angie has been called back to Harbor Haven by her grandmother, Charlotte, who raised her following her mother’s disappearance when she was a child. Her mother has been found, and now the question of her whereabouts has sadly become the mystery of her murder. The bright spot in Angie’s homecoming is reuniting with Charlotte, who has started her own needlepointing business with a group called Mainely Needlepointers. But when a shady business associate of the stitchers dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, Charlotte and Angie become suspects. As Angie starts to search out clues, she discovers that this new murder may have ties to her own mother’s cold case.

Toured to Death by Hy Conrad is the first title in his new Amy's Travel mystery series, featuring Amy and Fanny Abel, a spunky mother-and-daughter duo of travel agents who find their mystery tour becoming all too real. While Fanny takes care of the business end of Amy's Travel in New York City, Amy is traipsing around Monte Carlo, managing their first mystery-themed excursion, a road rally in which guests compete to solve a fictional murder along the way. Amy still has reservations about partnering up with her mother. But both women, having lost the men in their lives, need a fresh beginning. The trip starts off without a hitch. Clues quickly mount, the competition is lively, and just when the suspense is peaking, the writer they hired to script their made-up mystery is found murdered in his New York apartment. Suddenly, on top of running a new venture together, mother and daughter must solve a real-life case of foul play, while trying not to drive each other bonkers. But Amy and Fanny are ready, willing, and Abel to track down a clever killer.

Susannah Hardy is publishing Feta Attraction this month. It is the first title in her Greek to Me mystery series. Georgie Nikolopatos manages the Bonaparte House, a Greek restaurant and historic landmark in beautiful upstate New York rumored to possess ghosts and hidden treasure. With her husband, Spiro, inexplicably gone for days, Georgie has her hands full running the restaurant and dealing with the crew of the TV show Ghost Squad, called in by Spiro to inspect the house for haunting. So when she has a chance to take a boating excursion on the St. Lawrence River with her friend Keith Morgan, she jumps on it. But their peace and quiet is quickly ruined when they discover the body of rival restaurant owner Domenic "Big Dom" DiTomasso floating in the water. When the police start asking questions, it doesn't help that Spiro can't be found - and with Georgie on their suspect list, it's up to her to find her missing husband and find out who killed Big Dom.