What Are Comforting Murder Mystery Books? (My Cozy Picks)

Comforting murder mystery books are the ones where somebody dies but nobody suffers. The crime happens off the page. The detective is an ordinary nosy person rather than a haunted police officer. The killer gets caught by the last chapter and the village goes back to arguing about the flower rota.

Most of them are cozy mystery books, and they are the reason I still read in the bath until the water goes cold.

I write them too, so I'm hardly impartial. I have read a great many of them though, and I know what makes one properly comforting.

What Makes a Murder Mystery Comforting?

Four things.

The violence stays off the page. Somebody is found in the potting shed. You do not have to watch them get there.

The setting is somewhere you'd like to be. A village, a bakery, a pub with a wonky sign and a landlady who knows everyone's business.

The detective is an ordinary person. No lonely inspector with a whisky problem. Just a woman who cannot mind her own business, which is a much better hobby.

The ending sorts everything out. Nothing left dangling to ruin your sleep.

That last point is why cozy mystery books make such good book club books. Everyone actually finishes them, which is more than I can say for the literary novel my old book club attempted in 2019. We got to page 40. Collectively.

My Own Comforting Murder Mystery Books - Bob and Shirley

I'd be a rubbish author if I didn't mention my own.

Bob and Shirley run The Hare and Hounds in Great Oakley, a fictional English village with one shop, one church and an alarming murder rate.

Bob is pedantic and likes things done properly. Shirley says whatever arrives in her head, usually at volume. They're married. They keep finding bodies between shifts.

The books are written in dual first person, so you get both voices. Bob explaining the correct way to change a barrel, Shirley telling you exactly what she thinks of the vicar's wife. Readers tell me they take sides, which makes me SO happy.

Every Bob and Shirley book is in Kindle Unlimited, so if you're a member you can pop the whole series on your Kindle and see what you think.

Three More Authors for Comforting Murder Mystery Books

M.C. Beaton. The Agatha Raisin books. Agatha is vain, prickly, hopeless with men and wonderful company. Cotswolds villages, quiches, and a woman who will not be told.

Faith Martin. The Hillary Greene series. A touch more procedural than most cozy mystery books, but gentle with it, and the Oxfordshire canals are a lovely place to solve a murder.

Janet Evanovich. Stephanie Plum. Not English, not a village, but if you want murder mystery books that make you laugh in public, Stephanie and Grandma Mazur will oblige.

Availability shifts about, so it's worth checking which are Kindle Unlimited books this month before you commit.

How to Pick Comforting Murder Mystery Books for a Book Club

Look for a series rather than a standalone. If everyone likes book one, there's another eleven waiting.

Check the page count. Book club books that run to 500 pages are not comforting, they're homework.

Read the first page in the Kindle sample. If the voice makes you smile, you're in. If it opens with a forensic description of a wound, that's a different genre wearing a nice cover.

FAQ

Are cozy mysteries the same as comforting murder mystery books?

Mostly, yes. 'Cozy mystery' is the official shelf label. 'Comforting' is what readers actually mean when they ask for one. Both point at the same thing, which is a murder, a puzzle, an amateur sleuth and no gore.

Are comforting murder mystery books on Kindle Unlimited?

Loads of them. Kindle Unlimited books work especially well for cozy mystery series because you can read six in a row without thinking about it. All my Bob and Shirley books are in there.

Do I have to read a cozy mystery series in order?

Not for the mystery, which is self-contained in each book. The characters' lives move along though, so reading in order is nicer. Start at book one if you can.

What's a good first comforting murder mystery to try?

If you want prickly and British, start with Agatha Raisin. If you want funny and American, start with Stephanie Plum. If you want a village pub and two people bickering their way to a solution, start with the first Bob and Shirley.

Happy reading, lovely readers. Tell me what you're reading this week, I always want to know.

Suzy xx