Cozy Case Files, A Cozy Mystery Sampler, Volume 10

Cozy Case Files #10

by Carolyn Haines, Carolyn Haines, Ellie Alexander

Looking for a new cozy series? In the new edition of Cozy Case Files, Minotaur Books compiles the beginnings of eleven charming cozy mysteries publishing in Fall 2020 for free for easy sampling.The tenth edition of Cozy Case Files features the latest cozies by the following Ashley Weaver, Jane K. Cleland, Ellen Hart, Carolyn Haines, Donna Andrews, Ellie Alexander, Cate Conte, Diane Kelly, Elizabeth Penney, Vivien Chien, and Susan Cox.In 1930s England, Amory Ames must sort through secret identities and whirlwind romances to uncover the killer in the crowd in A Deception at Thornecrest. Or in Hidden Treasure and In a Midnight Wood, things from the past shake things up in the present.Christmas is threatened to be canceled in A Garland of Bones, The Gift of the Magpie, and A Whisker of a Doubt. Then after the holidays are over, a murder in the midst of preparation for the town’s annual IceFest means brewer Sloan Krause must serve a pint of hoppy justice in Without a Brew.In Bending the Paw, murder without a body is like a dog without a bone. Need an excuse to order takeout? Thread & Dead and Killer Kung Pao have you covered with a lobster festival or the popular Ho-Lee Noodle House. And finally, San Francisco is calling your name in The Man in the Microwave Oven.

Genres: Cozy Mystery, Mystery, Anthologies, Amazon, Fiction, Ebooks

349 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 4, 2020

About the author

Carolyn Haines is the USA Today bestselling author of over 70 books. In 2020, she was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. She was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alabama Library Association, the Harper Lee Award for Distinguished Writing, the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence, as well as the "Best Amateur Sleuth" award by Romantic Times. Born and raised in Mississippi, she now lives in Alabama on a farm with more dogs, cats, and horses than she can possibly keep track of.

Reviews

[Stefani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the sampler from NetGalley, overall a nice glimpse into cozy mystery authors, though admitedly I have not read many of them. I would read full length novels for 1 and 3, will definitely look into those authors.
Also, such a cute cover!

[Ms. Sethi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all samplers, this book had some novels I really want to keep reading and others that weren't my style, It's a great way to peruse some new books and see what interests you! The mysteries have different protagonists and situations, and almost all of them are part of a series. I'd recommend this book, especially if you are looking for a new mystery series and aren't sure where to start!

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur for the chance to read these samples! But of course this is also available as a free e-book on retail sites as well.

This sampler of cozy mysteries--just the first few chapters of each book--is a great reminder that even within the cozy mystery subgenre there is a lot of variety. I am pretty picky about mysteries but enjoyed the chance to try some things I wouldn't have otherwise.

A DECEPTION AT THORNECREST: AN AMORY AMES MYSTERY by Ashely Weaver
Cover: gives a nice sense of time and place, with the car, the fashions, and the estate. I love the stylized illustration and the texture generated by the shadows on the clothing
Story: 1930s England: Our heroine Amory Ames is 8 months pregnant when another woman comes to her house claiming to be married to the same man. We don't see the husband until the end of the excerpt, but I imagine for people who have read earlier books in the series it's much more easy to trust the husband's integrity. Amory was much too trusting of the woman's story for my taste (she shows the stranger a picture of the man, instead of testing her). And at the end we get a hint of family drama, which seems like it will be a heavy element in the mystery.
Would I Read It: this didn't grab my attention, but fans of Downton Abbey might like it

HIDDEN TREASURE: A JOSIE PRESCOTT ANTIQUES MYSTERY by Jane K Cleland
Cover: features an ancient Egyptian box, which fits with the antiques theme. It's placed a windowsill overlooking a nice landscape, I really liked the clean design and use of perspective
Story: Our heroine Josie has recently bought a house from an older woman, and the woman's relatives are claiming there is a forgotten item. They are seriously annoying -- one even waltzes into the house using a key, claiming the doorbell didn't work (obviously not bothering to knock), and I loved that Josie was not a pushover, and got the locks changed, and generally treated them coolly but professionally. When she actually did find the forgotten item, hidden in an obscure place, she videotaped and measured everything and I wanted to cheer for someone taking care to document things.
Would I Read It: Yes! I love how smart and professional our heroine is. Bonus, there are cats, including a black kitty with a white triangle just like my girl

IN A MIDNIGHT WOOD: A JANE LAWLESS MYSTERY by Ellen Hart
Cover: what I think of as classic cozy mystery, with skull icons woven into an innocuous scene (hotel room, class reunion invitation)
Story: We open with a prologue of the victim twenty years ago, then jump to present day. There are a lot of different POVs in the sample and it felt like we hardly got to know our detective Jane. I also felt a little disappointed that it seems like even though she is a PI, she is more interested in her true crime podcast (I like fictional mysteries and hate true crime, I read cozies because they're so removed from reality!)
Would I Read It: this wasn't for me, with all of the different POVs and hints at sinister doings. I am intrigued, though, that there is a reference to a book of poetry called IN A MIDNIGHT WOOD (like the book title!), maybe there are clues in it

A GARLAND OF BONES by Carolyn Haines
Cover: this is a very silly cartoon cover which gives a good flavor of the book! the dog with reindeer ears is a nice touch, as is the caution tape around the Christmas tree
Story: This opening was stuffed with wacky hijinks and it was too over the top for me, especially the paranormal element with a talkative but cryptic ghost.
Would I Read It: this didn't fit my sense of humor, but I can see where the chaos and silliness would provide a nice screwball escape for other readers

THE GIFT OF THE MAGPIE: A MEG LANGSLOW MYSTERY by Donna Andrews
Cover: I love that we have three birds with crowns to add to the Magi pun
Story: This wasn't quite as wacky as the GARLAND OF BONES excerpt, but any book that opens on talking about cow manure clearly is not taking itself too seriously! This seems very small town, with a colorful cast of characters that all know each other and have a charity project to help out.
Would I Read It: this didn't grab my interest, but the cover copy mentions this is the 28th book so I wonder if it would be easier to start earlier in the series

A WHISKER OF A DOUBT: A CAT CAFE MYSTERY by Cate Conte
Cover: kitty in the snow!
Story: A local wealthy neighborhood is cranky about volunteers coming in to care for a feral cat colony. Our heroine owns a cat cafe and her volunteer list has dwindled lately, so she needs to go out in the snow to provide food for the poor things. And stumbles upon one of the grumpy neighbors. Then we flash back two weeks and see some more grumpiness.
Would I Read It: I have heart eyes because of the cat rescuers, so probably, though the structure of the flashback is annoying as I prefer my stories to progress linearly

WITHOUT A BREW by Ellie Alexander
Cover: super fun, with spilled beer glass and soft pretzels. I was immediately hungry, so that's a good sign!
Story: Our heroine Sloan is a brewmaster who is opening up a small bed-and-breakfast with beer-themed rooms. They're opening next week but all the local hotels are full and a bunch of people come in to fill up the rooms. One group is so obnoxious that the story was hard to read! And we have a mysterious woman who is new to town but seems to know and have beefs with everyone she runs into. You can tell this isn't going to end well!
Would I Read It: this isn't for me, but beer aficionados will love all the descriptions of the brewery, the beer-infused cooking, and the beer-themed B&B (rooms are inspired by the four elements of hops, grain, yeast, and water)

BENDING THE PAW by Diane Kelly
Cover: very cute German shepherd did NOT prepare me for the darkness of the story!
Story: We have 2 chapters from our bad guy's POV, which is a deal-breaker for me, that's way too un-cozy for my taste. The story is fairly violent and bloody so far, and the presence of a workplace harasser (our heroine Megan is a police officer) is just another stressor I didn't need.
Would I Read It: way too stressful for me, but other more adventurous souls may enjoy it. I do adore the idea that the heroine and her love interest both have working dogs, though I'm mixed on the chapter from the K9 point of view

THREAD AND DEAD: THE APRON SHOP SERIES
Cover: very cute, with a beautiful sense of detail and perspective as we have a cat perched on a windowsill looking into a shop with pretty aprons
Story: Our heroine Iris owns a vintage apron and linens shop, which is not something I would ever have thought of, but I'm excited to get to read some lovely clothing detail. An old woman in a nearby town calls her up, as she's discovered some interesting items when cleaning her house including some mysterious designer clothing. This was very cozy so far, no murder yet, and seems there will be an element of historical mystery as the old woman talks about the family history and doesn't know how her mother, who was originally a nursemaid, ended up with all this fancy clothing.
Would I Read It: I'm tentatively interested, especially if we keep getting more lovely textile descriptions

KILLER KUNG PAO: A NOODLE SHOP MYSTERY by Vivien Chien
Cover: another cozy classic, with a Chinese restaurant layout and skull icons woven in
Story: I was instantly won over by our heroine Lana Lee wanting to dye her hair metallic gray as she reminded me of my sister. Her voice is friendly and fun and made the excerpt zip along.
Would I Read It: yes, I like being in our heroine's head

THE MAN IN THE MICROWAVE OVEN by Susan Cox
Cover: this does not have very strong genre signals, as it's just a street scene
Story: Our heroine is hiding her identity, which is inconvenient when she discovers a neighborhood nuisance's body. She is irritated that people are suspicious of her assumed last name Bogart, which is very silly because it was not a great pick if you were aiming for an unremarkable name. Also, her love interest is from Texas and there is a lot of droppin' g's in the dialogue, which is a pet peeve of mine.
Would I Read This: this isn't for me, but others may enjoy the San Francisco setting, or the promise of secret family drama with the heroine's rich estranged English family

Overall: Even though most of these were set in present day, there was plenty of variety in tone and themes, enough that fans of mysteries from the silly to the serious should find an upcoming release to be interested in.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sampler is right! You get a taste of the writing styles of new-to you authors as well as an alert to what's coming soon from authors whose next book you really want to read. Great idea!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. I've already begged for one or two of them and put in a pre-order to Audible for the next Meg Langslow!

[Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this Cozy mystery sampler. I read number 9 and found a few new series. This one was no different. I feel like I will definitely be enjoying several of these series. I would recommend reading this book if you like a good cozy.

I was given this book to read in exchange for my honest review. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

[Jackie Rogers · Rating 1 out of 5]

dNF

[Katie]

Disappointing

This is a collection of unfinished stories providing only the basic setting of each story. It was disappointing and a waste of time.

[Giizis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great.idea putting Out a preview of so many books fro. Really great writers! I actor found a four I plan to start color.

[Mary Gwyther · Rating 5 out of 5]

While reading this book I discovered new authors to follow. There was only 1 story I had read before, the others were a great read.

[Vinette Dephillipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just a short sample. Seemed like it would be an interesting story.

[Annazetta Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange stories

From the missing trunk to the second wife which were my two favorite books. The other stories didn't capture my attention much

[Cynthia Rodrigues · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Deception at Thornecrest by Ashley Weaver: A pregnant woman, Amory Ames, is disturbed when a young woman, Imogen Prescott, tells her that she has married Milo Ames, Amory’s husband, a few months ago. In the rest of the novel, Amory, heroine of her own book series, will go on to solve the mystery behind the killing of the stable-hand.

Hidden Treasures by Jane K Cleland: Josie Prescott and her husband Ty buy a new house. The previous owner, Maudie, has been moved to an assisted living facility by her nieces. Then the nieces want a trunk that, they claim, Aunt Maudie forgot to move.

Author Jane K Cleland, according to her bio, once owned her own antiques and rare books business. Her personal experience and knowledge enhance the book.

In a Midnight Wood by Ellen Hart: The body of Sam Romilly, a high school student who disappeared, is found 20 years after the fact. The body is found buried beneath the grave of the principal’s wife.

A Garland of Bones by Carolyn Haines: Private eye Sarah Booth, on a road trip with her best pals during the Christmas season, finds herself encountering one accident too many. When too many people begin to get hurt, she is determined to catch the wrongdoers.

Gift of the Magpie by Donna Andrews: Meg is part of the Helping Hands for the Holidays project, volunteering to help neighbours with things they can’t get done. She is assigned to help Harvey Dunlop with his hoarding problem. But then Harvey gets wondered and Meg begins to wonder which of his hoarded possessions led to his death.

A Whisker of Doubt by Cate Conte was good. Even though I am not a cat lover at all. Maddie James runs a cat café and volunteers to help feed feral cats in a gated community. But some of the residents aren’t pleased with their efforts. There is a lot of friction, and then one of the residents is found dead.

Without a Brew by Ellie Alexander: Sloan Krause and her boss, Garrett, run an inn which specialises in beer. One of the brewery patrons, Liv Paxton, has an unpleasant encounter with some other patrons. The unpleasantness escalates until Liv disappears.

Bending the Paw by Diane Kelly: The police team of Megan and her dog, Birgit, are called to the scene of a brutal murder. But the strangest thing is that while there is blood everywhere, there is no victim. For once, they will have to find both murderer and victim.

Thread and Dead by Elizabeth Penney: Iris Buckley’s apron shop is doing well. When the rich and reclusive spinster Eleanor Brady calls her home to have a look at her trunks full of vintage fabrics and buy whatever she likes, it’s an offer that Iris just cannot resist. But Ms Brady has rented her house to a team of environmentalists, and one of them is killed.

Killer Kung Pao by Vivien Chien: Lana Lee runs her family’s Chinese restaurant, not an easy task. Then she witnesses a car accident in the parking lot and finds herself involved in more than she can handle.

The Man in the Microwave Oven by Susan Cox: Theo Bogart has left her old life and town behind and started a new life with a new name and history. Fleeing from a tragedy in the past, Theo finds that the peril from her past is far from over and that someone she knows might be a murderer.



In each case, we get the synopsis and about three to four chapters of each novel. I felt as literary agents must feel when they have to make up their minds about a book based on a few chapters.

This is certainly a good way for readers to be introduced to new authors, and for new authors to make a splash with their target audience.

Garland of Bones and The Gift of the Magpie took too long to come to the point, and at the end of it, Garland of Bones had lost me. Other than that, I liked most of the others, and look forward to reading them.

[Myarn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cozy Case Files, A Cozy Mystery Sampler, Volume 10 5 stars

I always look forward to the Cozy Case Files every time they come out. This one featuring titles from Minotaur Books Fall 2020 was a blast. I enjoyed all of them, but my favorites excerpts were:

The Gift of the Magpie by Donna Andrews 5 stars: Another Christmas Meg Langslow mystery is always an anticipated event. Last years "Owl Be Home For Christmas" was a hoot. This Christmas, Meg is involved with Helping Hands - a service that provides home repair help for seniors and others. The plot revolves around a hoarder and the items he has in his home. I am really looking forward to reading this one.

Bending the Paw by Diane Kelly 5 stars: What can I say except that duo of Megan and Bridget is investigating a mystery of a possible homicide with no body. I love the Bridget chapters.

Hidden Treasure by Jane K. Cleland (Josie Prescott #13) 4 stars: I've was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book and it is a great mystery.

Thread and Dead by Elizabeth Penney 4 stars; I have her first book on my TBR pile and this sample makes me want to move it to the top.

Killer Kung Pao by Vivien Chen 4.5 stars: The excerpt was intriguing enough that I want to read the rest of it.

All the other sample chapters were enjoyable and makes me want to go back and read some of the backlist, especially Susan Cox and her first book, "The Man on the Washing Machine".

Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur Books for this ARC.

[joyce w. laudon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the tenth edition of this sampler.  It includes long excerpts from cozy style mysteries that will be coming out soon.  The authors included are Ashley Weaver, Jane Cleland, Ellen Hart, Carolyn Haines, Donna Andrews, Cate Conte, Ellie Alexander, Diane Kelly, Elizabeth Penny, Vivien Chen and Susan Cox.  See the covers of these authors' new titles, read the summary about the novel and then immerse yourself in the beginning of the book to see if it appeals to you.  There are several chapters of each, surely enough to whet your appetite.  Then, learn more about the authors, see their photos and find  a full list of their books  and see what they looks like.  All in all, a very good resource if cozies are your cup of tea.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.

[PeggySue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley for this early sampler of eleven cozies coming out this fall. Some authors are old favorites for me, such as Donna Andrews. I always look forward to her Christmas books and The Gift of the Magpies looks to be as much fun as the previous 26 books in her series.I have also read a couple of books by Vivien Chien and Killer Kung Pao seems to be a good one also.
I plan to try books by Elizabeth Penny, Cate Conte, and especially Jane K. Cleland. I really got caught up in the sample of her book Hidden Treasures.
I also found The Man in the Microwave Oven by Susan Cox to be intriguing but it does not really seem to be a cozy.
I plan to go back and read Cozy Case Files Volume 9. I’m hooked.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sampler of upcoming cozy mysteries with an average of Four chapters from each. With the exception of Ashley Weaver (I’d classify her work as more historical mystery than cozy ) the authors were new to me. Some appealed more than others but I enjoyed the introduction and have a list of new authors to read

These samplers are available in ebook format at no cost. I looked at Amazon and there earlier versions so I plan to check this out as well

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great samples of some very interesting cozy mysteries. Some of the authors were new to me, so it was a nice introduction to them and their writing style.
As is always in a boxset, there were some books I enjoyed more than others...but I appreciated the chance to read them all.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias or favor.

[melissa]

I received this book from netgalley
I liked the stories didn't like how short they was I was like ahhh need to know more ha ha.
very quick read and easy.
I would have liked to have known more about each story.

[Cozybooklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of my favorite authors are in this sampler of cozy mysteries, so it was really fun to read this book.
I love that we readers get a little taste of what other authors bring to the cozy mystery genre, and it’s always a pleasant surprise to find a new to me author!

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has some intriguing books in it. I can't wait to read the whole story. #CozyCaseFiles10 #NetGalley

[Cynthia Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy reading these samplers as they give a good taste of many books at once. They gave me quite a number of books to look out for when the full book is released.