Male sleuth
The vast majority of sleuths in cozy mysteries are women, but there are still men who investigate as amateurs. Here’s our list of cozies where a man is the protagonist.
The Adam & Bagel Mysteries (Edward Coburn) Adam Martin Swope decided to take a job as columnist for the Tweet, the newspaper in the small West Virginia town of Canary Corners.
The Bartender Brian McNulty Mysteries (Con Lehane) Brian McNulty, veteran bartender at Oscar’s on the Upper West Side, respects his customers’ privacy. And their space.
The Bear Collector’s Mysteries (John J. Lamb) Retired San Francisco cop Brad Lyon is settling into a quieter life with his wife Ashleigh in Virginia’s mountain country, where they collect and create teddy bears.
The Beau Brummell Regency Mysteries (Rosemary Stevens) England, 1805. When a desperate Duchess of York asks for his help, Beau Brummell wouldn’t think of refusing.
The Butterfly Island Mysteries (Cheri Baker) Paul Gumbs can’t wait for his next chapter to begin. After several years serving as security chief aboard the Adventurous Spirit cruise ship, he’s been hired as the newest member of the Butterfly Island Police Department.
The Candlemaking Mysteries (Tim Myers) Harrison Black is stunned when he learns his Great Aunt Belle has been murdered. The shock runs even deeper when an attorney informs him he’s inherited At Wick’s End, a candleshop in the River’s Edge complex. As he learns the art of candlemaking, Harrison also tries his hand at solving her murder.
The Casebook of Dr. McKenzie (Claudia Bishop) On their farm nestled in upstate Trumansburg, New York, veterinarian Austin McKenzie and his wife Madeline keep themselves busy looking after a variety of ailing farm animals and pets in poor health. While they may be able to mend creatures great and small, they have yet to find a cure for murder.
The Cat in the Stacks Mysteries (Miranda James) Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the good-natured librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash. He’s returned to his hometown to immerse himself in books, but soon enough he’s entangled in a real-life thriller.
The Cat Who… Mysteries (Lilian Jackson Braun) The Cat Who… books are an early example of a very successful cozy mystery series. Follow Qwilleran, Koko and Yum Yum as they solve mysteries in Moose County. The series even inspired The Cat Who Cookbooks.
The Cats Whisker Café Mysteries (Sarah May Bird) Welcome to Catton Strawless, a charming little seaside village in the English countryside. Home to a cat café and lively bunch of characters, everything seems idyllic. Detective Constable Bardot thought his posting would be a dull affair of sorting out lawn mower thefts or disturbances at church fetes.
The Christmas Mysteries (Ada Moncrieff) Christmas 1938. The Westbury family and assorted friends have gathered together for another legendary Christmas at their Sussex mansion. As family tensions simmer on Christmas Eve, the champagne flows and the silver sparkles.
The Circus of Unusual Creatures (Tammie Painter) Duncan — aka “Brutus Fangwrath, Deadliest Dragon in the West” — wakes one morning to find his best friend isn’t just sleeping off a hangover. He’s been murdered.
The Coffee House Sleuths Mysteries (T. Lockhaven) Michael West’s new life in Lana Cove seems perfect. He just purchased an amazing home facing the ocean in a small North Carolina town, and has finally won over the hearts of the locals. And he is finally living his dream, writing his first mystery novel.
The Dante & Jazz Mysteries (Michael Craft) Dante O’Donnell is white, gay and getting older every day, so now he’s working as a concierge for a vacation-rental outfit in Palm Springs.
The Death in Paradise Mysteries (Robert Thorogood) DI Richard Poole has been seconded from London to the beautiful Caribbean island of Saint Marie. More comfortable in woollen suits than short-sleeved shirts, he’s struggling to adapt to his new home.
The Drag Queen Detective Mysteries (Shane Morton) Victor Sommers has a secret identity. He is Maple Grove’s top hairstylist and drag queen emcee, but he is also best selling mystery author Vicki Dean. With the help of his best friend, gym bunny Cory and the town’s hunky sheriff Hudson Wolfe, no mystery is safe from their sleuthing.
The Father Douglas Mysteries (C. T. Mitchell) Father Douglas is a senior sleuth and the Catholic priest at the local parish in the sleepy seaside village of Hastings Point, Australia.
The Ghostly Hitchhiker Mysteries (Rodney Strong) Oliver Atkinson, married father of two and would be writer, has a woman on his mind. Literally. Violet Tumbleton died in 1948, but now she’s taken up residence in Oliver’s head. Someone is using her name and Violet wants it back.
The GhostWriter Mysteries (Mallory Pierce) Brought back from the other side by a séance, Gwendolyn Frink has been roaming the halls of her family’s Victorian house for more than a century. She can’t communicate with the living, she can’t leave the premises, and she can’t stand feeling useless.
The Guy Harford Mysteries (T. P. Fielden) London, 1941. Major Edgar Brampton is found shot dead in his office in Buckingham Palace. All signs point towards a self-inflicted tragedy, but fellow courtier Guy Harford’s suspicions are raised.
The Heathcliff Lennox Mysteries (Karen Baugh Menuhin) It’s 1920 and Christmas is coming. Major Lennox finds a body on his doorstep. Lennox goes to Melrose Court, home to his uncle, Lord Melrose, to uncover the mystery. But then the murders begin and it snows and it all becomes very complicated.
The Holmes & Moriarity Mysteries (Josh Lanyon)
The Inspector Boyle Mysteries (J. H. Roche) England, Late 1931. Lord Avery’s death brings his family back to Oakford Court, a large manor house estate in the small village of Oakford, Devon. His dying wish was that the ancestral home remains in the family.
The Inspector de Silva Mysteries (Harriet Steel) Set in the 1930s among the tea plantations of Ceylon, Inspector Shanti de Silva is not finding life in his new post in the sleepy town of Nuala as restful as he had hoped.
The Lord Kit Aston Mysteries (Jack Murray) It’s 1919, Lord Arthur Cavendish has received a Christmas card saying, ’Happy Christmas, I’ve killed you.’ When Cavendish is found dead, Kit Aston, a WWI hero, Secret Intelligence Service spy and amateur sleuth, investigates.
The Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles (Jinx Schwartz) Harry Thurgood just wants a quiet life, and to leave his past in the past. And he thinks he’s found the perfect place in sleepy Magnolia Bluff, Texas. Until the murder of a prominent citizen threatens to let the skeletons out of his closet. Multi author series.
The Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles (Kelly Marshall) Harry Thurgood just wants a quiet life, and to leave his past in the past. And he thinks he’s found the perfect place in sleepy Magnolia Bluff, Texas. Until the murder of a prominent citizen threatens to let the skeletons out of his closet. Multi author series.
The Misadventures of a Clandestine Critic (Bob Abelman) When Asher Kaufman, a local theater critic, takes an acting role with a top-tier theater company in order to write about the experience, he gets more of a story than he bargained for.
The Mycroft Holmes Mysteries (Anna Waterhouse) The Mycroft Holmes series, starring Sherlock Holmes’ lesser known but far more talented older brother, is co-written by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse.
The Myrtle Beach Mysteries (Caleb Wygal) Myrtle Beach Boardwalk and recently widowed bookstore owner Clark Thomas finds himself somehow getting involved in murder investigations throughout the Grand Strand of South Carolina.
The Nero Wolfe Mysteries (Rex Stout) Nero Wolfe is one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time.
The Secrets and Scrabble Mysteries (Josh Lanyon) Ellery Page, aspiring screenwriter, Scrabble champion and guy-with-worst-luck-in-the-world-when-it-comes-to-dating, inherits both a failing bookstore and a falling-down mansion in the quaint seaside village of Pirate’s Cove on Buck Island, Rhode Island.
The Silicon Valley Mysteries (Marc Jedel)
The Simon Kirby-Jones Mysteries (Dean James) Amateur sleuth, Simon Kirby-Jones is looking forward to settling into his new home in the quaint British village of Snupperton—despite a few challenges. Not only is Simon an American, but he’s also a gay vampire who controls his vampiric urges and sun sensitivity with an effective medication.
The Soapmaking Mysteries (Tim Myers) Ben Perkins is the family and business troubleshooter for Where There’s Soap, a family-owned boutique and small scale production shop that creates and sells all things Soap related.
The Supper Club Mysteries (Ellery Adams)
The Trouble in Paradise Mysteries (Terry Ambrose) Former skip tracer turned apartment manager Wilson McKenna’s newest tenant is hot, gives great hugs, and just saw a dead body being thrown from a plane on Oahu’s North side.
The Tudor and Stewart Abergwyn Mysteries (Ripley Hayes) Peter Tudor was an adrenaline-fuelled emergency nurse, until he decided his duty lay in caring for his disabled mother in the dull seaside village where he grew up.
The Vish Puri Mysteries (Tarquin Hall) Meet Vish Puri, India’s most private investigator. Portly, persistent, and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swath through modern India’s swindlers, cheats, and murderers.
The Winston Wong Mysteries (Jennifer J. Chow) Winston Wong left his career to follow in the footsteps of Encyclopedia Brown, his favorite childhood detective. When the Pennysaver misprints his new job title, adding an extra “s” to his listing, Winston becomes a “Seniors Sleuth.” To validate his new career choice (and maybe win the girl), he must unravel the truth from a tangle of lies.
The Wizards of Little Hope Mysteries (Tyler Rhodes) After losing his wife five years ago, Bran sank into a mire of depression and over-eating. Two years of grieving later, he got his act together, moved back to his hometown of Lost Hope, and embraced his wizardly credentials.