What Are the Best Cozy Mysteries Set in a Pub?

Pub-set cozy mysteries are rarer than you would think.

The genre is stuffed with bakeries, bookshops, tea rooms and flower shops. Villages get a pub in the background, usually for one scene where somebody overhears something useful. Very few books actually put you behind the bar.

Which is a shame, because a pub is the best possible place to set a murder mystery. Everybody in the village comes through the door eventually. They drink, and then they talk. The landlord hears everything and is expected to repeat none of it.

So here are the cozy mysteries where the pub genuinely earns its place.

1. The Fethering Mysteries by Simon Brett

Carole Seddon and Jude are neighbours who could not be less alike, and the Crown and Anchor in Fethering is where half the plot happens.

If you want the pub one specifically, read The Poisoning in the Pub. Dodgy seafood, a landlord in trouble, and a village that would rather gossip than help.

Gentle, very British, and Brett has been doing this for decades.

2. Agatha Raisin by M.C. Beaton

The Red Lion in Carsely is where Agatha goes to be disliked in comfort.

Agatha packs in her London PR job, moves to the Cotswolds, and is spectacularly bad at village life. The pub is where she keeps failing to fit in, which is most of the fun.

Over thirty books, so there is no danger of running out.

3. The Village Mysteries by Margaret Mayhew

Frog End has a green, a Norman church and an old pub, and the whole series runs on the sort of village politics that only really happen within walking distance of a bar.

Quiet, witty and beautifully written. Good if you want something calm.

4. Hamish Macbeth by M.C. Beaton

Not England, but the Highlands, and worth the trip. Lochdubh is tiny, everybody knows everybody, and the bar is where the village works out what it thinks.

Hamish is an idle village constable who solves things by listening. Which, as any landlord will tell you, is the only technique that works.

5. Bob and Shirley (mine, and I am not impartial)

I will declare my interest straight away. I wrote these.

Bob and Shirley run the Goose and Gander in the fictional Suffolk village of Great Oakley, and they keep finding bodies among the regulars. They are the only sleuths on this list who actually pull the pints.

The books are written in alternating first person, so you get Bob's version of what happened and then Shirley's, and the two never quite match. Bob thinks he is being perfectly reasonable. Shirley knows better, and she is usually right.

There are four now, and they are all in Kindle Unlimited.

You can take a look here Bob and Shirley on Amazon

Why the pub works so well for a murder mystery

A village pub is a gossip engine with a licence.

The vicar comes in. So does the woman who runs the village hall committee, the man who has opinions about the parking, and the two people who have not spoken since 1987 but still drink ten feet apart.

Nobody thinks twice about any of them being there. That is the trick. In a bakery you need a reason to be present. In a pub you need a reason to leave.

And the landlord and landlady get to hear all of it while looking like they are just changing a barrel.

FAQ: cozy mysteries set in a pub

Are there any cozy mysteries where the detective runs the pub?

Very few, which surprised me when I went looking. Pubs turn up constantly as settings, but almost nobody makes the landlord the sleuth. Bob and Shirley do run theirs, which is partly why I wrote them.

What is the difference between a pub mystery and a village mystery?

A lot of overlap. Village mysteries use the whole place, the church, the shop, the green. A pub mystery keeps coming back to one room where everybody turns up eventually. The pub ones tend to be funnier, because people say more after a drink.

Are pub cosy crime books suitable for American readers?

Yes, and a lot of my readers are American. You do not need to know what a ploughman's lunch is to enjoy one, though you may find yourself wanting one by chapter four.

Where can I read cozy mysteries set in a pub for free?

Quite a few are in Kindle Unlimited, including all of mine. Worth checking before you buy, especially if you are about to start a long series.

Happy reading, and if you find a good pub mystery I have missed, do tell me. I collect them.

Suzy xx