California
California is the most populous state in the US, so it’s no wonder there are more cozy series set here than anywhere else.
The Alex M. Mysteries (Maggie Seacroft)
The Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries (Heather Haven)
The Angie & Friends Mysteries (Joanne Pence)
The Angie Amalfi Mysteries (Joanne Pence)
The Annie Graceland Mysteries (Pamela Sue DuMond)
The Art Lover’s Mysteries (Hailey Lind)
The Beach City Mysteries (Giselle Lumas) Patricia Garret and Shirley Martinez are both widowed and retired, and they each have a sweet tooth. One sunny day in Beach City, California, they make a run to the candy store.
The Beachcomber Mysteries (Vickie McKeehan) Newlyweds Brogan Cole and Lucien Sutter are busy settling in to their new home. Life is good. But when Lucien saves a young girl from drowning and they discover a dead body in the dunes, life starts to take a sinister turn.
The Beachfront Bakery Mysteries (Fiona Grace) Allison Sweet, 34, a sous chef in Los Angeles, has had it up to here with demeaning customers, her demanding boss, and her failed love life. When she spots a charming, vacant storefront on the boardwalk near Venice, she goes for it.
The Benni Harper Mysteries (Earlene Fowler) Benni Harper moves to the trendy California town of San Celina and takes an exciting new job as director of a folk-art museum. While setting up an exhibit of handmade quilts, she stumbles upon the body of a brutally stabbed artist.
The Bibliophile Mysteries (Kate Carlisle) Brooklyn Wainwright is a skilled surgeon. Sure, her patients might smell like mold and have spines made of leather, but no ailing book is going to die on her watch.
The Blossom Valley Mysteries (Staci McLaughlin)
The Bo-Bo and Bobby Mysteries (D. A. E. Jackson)
The Bread Shop Mysteries (Winnie Archer)
The Carol Sabala Mysteries (Vinnie Hansen)
The Cats and Curios Mysteries (Rebecca M. Hale)
The Cece Barton Mysteries (Maddie Day) As the manager of Vino y Vida Wine Bar in Colinas, California, Cecelia “Cece” Barton’s first harvest is a whirlwind of activity. She barely has a moment to enjoy her new home.
The Charley Fairfax Mysteries (Margaret Dumas) Charley Van Leeuwen can tell by a man’s kiss whether he’s been drinking Taittinger or Veuve Clicquot. Not that she kisses many men, a fact her friends deplore. So imagine their surprise when she came home to San Francisco with a new husband.
The Charm Kitty Mysteries (J. L. Collins)
The Cheese Shop Mysteries (Korina Moss) Cheesemonger Willa Bauer is proving that sweet dreams are made of cheese. She’s opened her very own French-inspired cheese shop, Curds & Whey, in the heart of the Sonoma Valley.
The Claire Gray Mysteries (Michael Craft) Claire Gray is a much traveled, highly regarded and very successful theatrical director who, in the prime of her career, accepts an offer to head the Theatre Department at Desert Arts College near Palm Springs, California.
The Connor Westphal Mysteries (Penny Warner)
The Cookbook Nook Mysteries (Daryl Wood Gerber) Jenna Hart helps her aunt, Vera, open a culinary bookshop and café called The Cookbook Nook.
The Cornwall Mysteries (Edith Wells)
The Coyote Mysteries (Dianne Harman)
The Crochet Mysteries (Betty Hechtman) For Molly Pink, the weekly crochet group at Shedd & Royal Books and More was just another event to manage.
The Crystals & CuriosiTEAS Mysteries (Lauren Elliott) Self-taught “seer” Shay Myers is the owner of a New Age tea shop, Crystals & CuriosiTeas, and the descendant of an Irish witch. She’s set on growing ingredients in the mysterious greenhouse on the second floor and decides to hold her own group reading.
The Cypress Cove Mysteries (Carlene O’Neil)
The Daley Buzz Treasure Cove Mysteries (Meredith Potts) A family tragedy drove Sabrina Daley to study criminology. She planned to become a detective, but put it all behind for a simpler life. Running her family’s coffee shop, Sabrina hasn’t needed her crime-solving skills.
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 Della Cooks Mysteries (Melinda Wells)
The Desert Flowers Mysteries (Lee Hollis)
The Destination Mysteries (Ann Shepphird)
The Detective by Day Mysteries (Kellye Garrett) Dayna Anderson doesn’t set out to solve a murder. All the semifamous, mega-broke actress wants is to help her parents keep their house. So after witnessing a deadly hit-and-run, she pursues the fifteen grand reward.
The Dolphin Bay Mysteries (Leena Clover)
The Dom Reilly Mysteries (Marshall Thornton)
The Duffer McDermott Mysteries (Cornelius Peter)
The Enchanted Garden Mysteries (Bailey Cattrell) Elliana Allbright’s life has blossomed in Poppyville, California, since she opened Scents & Nonsense, a custom-made-perfume store. Her skills with aromas and botanical essences—some from her very own garden—seem almost…supernatural.
The Fairy Garden Mysteries (Daryl Wood Gerber)
The Firewatch Mysteries (Lee Branson)
The Fixer-Upper Mysteries (Kate Carlisle) In the seaside town of Lighthouse Cove in northern California, everyone knows the best man for the job is actually a woman… contractor Shannon Hammer. But while her home-renovation and repair business is booming, her love life needs work.
The Foggy Fox Mysteries (Padgett Farmer)
The Food Festival Mysteries (Penny Pike)
The French Bistro Mysteries (Daryl Wood Gerber)
The Ghost of Granny Apples Mysteries (Sue Ann Jaffarian)
The Ghost Town Mysteries (Jamie L. Adams) Lily Cranston is eager to return to her hometown and get a do-over on life. As manager of the Calico Rock Mine and Ghost Town, she’s excited to take on the challenge of turning the old west town back into the premier tourist destination she remembers.
The Golden Motel Mysteries (Ellen Byron) Down-on-her-luck sitcom writer Dee Stern is flipping the script. Twice divorced and wasting her talents on an obnoxious kids’ show, the lifelong Angeleno jumps in her car. It’s a road trip with no destination—until she pulls into a mid-century motel filled with cobwebs and retro charm.
The Gourmet Cat Mysteries (Kathy Krevat)
The Gunn Zoo Mysteries (Betty Webb) If Lucy, the pregnant Giant Anteater from Belize, didn’t kill the man found dead in her enclosure at California’s Gunn Zoo, who did? Zookeeper Teddy Bentley must find the real murderer before her furry friend is shipped off to another zoo in disgrace.
The Haley Randolph Mysteries (Dorothy Howell)
The Haunted Home Renovation Mysteries (Juliet Blackwell) Melanie Turner has made quite a name for herself remodeling historic houses in the San Francisco Bay Area. At her newest renovation project, a run-down Pacific Heights mansion, Mel is visited by the ghost of a colleague who recently met a bad end with power tools.
The Hazel Hart Mysteries (Louise Lynn)
The Henny Penny Farmette Mysteries (Meera Lester) Ex-cop Abigail Mackenzie has started a second career–as a farmer. Raising chickens, keeping bees, and growing heirloom vegetables on her farmette in the Bay Area, Abby has a peaceful life. Yet when she finds a dead body, her investigative instincts kick in.
The High Desert Mysteries (Dianne Harman)
The High Heels Mysteries (Gemma Halliday)
The Hollywood Mysteries (Marjorie McCown) Joey Jessop enjoys working behind the scenes. As key costumer for the next epic superhero movie, her role is to make others look good while staying out of the spotlight.
The Hollywood Headlines Mysteries (Gemma Halliday)
The Hollywood Treasures Mysteries (Zac Bissonnette)
The Hollywood Whodunit (Brittany E. Brinegar) Move to Hollywood. Catch her big break. Become a movie star. Nowhere on Becky Robinson’s to-do list does it say discover a dead body or become the prime suspect.
The HSP Mysteries (Carol E. Ayer) When home bakery owner Kayla Jeffries discovers her elderly friend has been strangled, she draws upon her strengths as an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) to help solve the murder and restore peace to her quiet oceanside community.
The Idyllwild Mysteries (Jolie Tunnell)
The Jaine Austen Mysteries (Laura Levine) Smarmy personals ads. Daring declarations of love. Freelance writer Jaine Austen has penned them all. But no one needs her help more than geeky, gawky Howard Murdoch.
The Jamie Bond Mysteries (Gemma Halliday)
The Jersey Girl Mysteries (E. J. Copperman) New Jersey prosecutor Sandy Moss is tired of petty criminals, and a new job at a glitzy Los Angeles law firm seems the perfect career move. Putting 3,000 miles between her and her ex-boyfriend is just an added bonus.
The Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mysteries (Anna Celeste Burke) Jessica’s life is blessedly calamity-free until she goes for a checkup. Her personal and professional life turn upside down at the news she receives during her visit. Before she can absorb the shocking news about her health, calamity strikes.
The Joe Grey Mysteries (Shirley Rousseau Murphy) It’s been quite a week for Joe Grey. First the large, powerful feline discovers that, through some strange, inexplicable phenomenon, he now has the ability to understand human language. Then he discovers he can speak it as well!
The Josephine West Mysteries (Beth Byers)
The Kelly Jackson Mysteries (Janet Finsilver)
The Kelsey McKenna Destination Wedding Mysteries (Marla Cooper)
The Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mysteries (Linda O. Johnston)
The Lark Davis Mysteries (Annabelle Hunter)
The Last Ditch Mysteries (Catriona McPherson) It’s the Fourth of July in California and Lexy Campbell must deliver her final dose of marriage guidance to the elderly Bombarros. They don’t turn up for the session, but the cops do.
The Laurel McKay Mysteries (Cindy Sample)
The Lee Harding Mysteries (Beth Everett)
The Lillian Frost & Edith Head Mysteries (Renee Patrick) Los Angeles, 1937. Lillian Frost has traded dreams of stardom for security as a department store salesgirl . . . until she discovers she’s a suspect in the murder of her former roommate.
The Lisette Darling Mysteries (Colette Clark) Hollywood, 1934. It’s New Year’s Eve, the dawn of the Golden Age of Hollywood movies. Lisette Darling finds herself ringing in the new year with the biggest and brightest stars in the Hollywood Hills.
The Liz Lucas Mysteries (Dianne Harman)
The Madeline Bean Mysteries (Jerrilyn Farmer) Madeline Bean, caterer to the stars, is in the middle of the biggest job of her career. She and her partner Wesley have pulled off Hollywood’s most outrageous A-list Halloween party for notorious producer Bruno Huntley.
The Madness and Murder Mysteries (Melissa Baldwin)
The Maggie & Jasper Mysteries (Barbara Cool Lee)
The Maritime Teashop Mysteries (Louise Lynn)
The Marty Hudson Mysteries (Gemma Halliday)
The Mary McGill Mysteries (Kathleen Delaney)
The Mary Ryan Mysteries (Claire M. Johnson)
The Material Witness Mysteries (Diane Vallere) When Polyester “Poly” Monroe was little, she loved playing in her family’s textile store. Now, as inheritor of the long-shuttered shop, she’s ready to restore the family business.
The Maternal Instincts Mysteries (Diana Orgain)
The McCreadie Mysteries (Andrew Culver)
The Mercy Allcutt Mysteries (Alice Duncan) Los Angeles, 1920s. Mercy Allcutt lands employment as secretary to Ernie Templeton, Private Investigator. Mercy’s thrilled, and she’s sure, with time and help, she’ll become an invaluable asset to Ernie’s business.
The Michaela Marcoux Mysteries (Jorgina Wright)
The Miniature Mysteries (Margaret Grace) Geraldine Porter thought that being the chairwoman of the local Dollhouse and Miniatures Fair would give her leisure time to spend on her favorite craft. That was before a fellow miniatures afficionado is suspected of murder, leaving Gerry to prove the woman’s innocence-or die trying.
The Misty Dawn Mysteries (Nancy Cole Silverman) When Misty Dawn, a former Hollywood Psychic to the Stars, moves into an old craftsman house, she encounters the former owner, the recently deceased Hollywood set designer, Wilson Thorne.
The Mother-Daughter Realty Team Mysteries (Carol E. Ayer) Mother-daughter real estate agents Autumn and Sierra have just found a dead body in their client’s kitchen. This will have to go in the disclosures!
The Movie Palace Mysteries (Margaret Dumas)
The Nick and Nora Mysteries (T. C. LoTempio)
The Nikki Harper Mysteries (Cheryl Crane)
The Odelia Grey Mysteries (Sue Ann Jaffarian)
The Oilfield Mysteries (Malvina Lerma)
The Otay Bay Book Club Mysteries (Jill-Ayn Martin)
The Pampered Pets Mysteries (Sparkle Abbey) When Caro Lamont, former psychologist turned pet therapist makes a house call to help Kevin Blackstone with his two misbehaving German Shepherd dogs, she expects frantic dogs. What she doesn’t expect is that two hours later the police will find Kevin dead and his dogs impounded.
The Paranormal Museum Mysteries (Kirsten Weiss)
The Party-Planning Mysteries (Penny Warner)
The Pet Rescue Mysteries (Linda O. Johnston) Lauren Vancouver is the head of HotRescues, a no-kill animal shelter north of Los Angeles, but it’s often human nature that puts her in the path of danger.
The Pie Shop Mysteries (Carol Culver)
The Pie Town Mysteries (Kirsten Weiss)
The Pinx Video Mysteries (Marshall Thornton)
The Pixie Twist Mysteries (Alyn Troy) Twizzle Twist isn’t your normal real estate pixie. Nor is St. Maurice your normal Southern California town. The magic in the valley belches at the worst time.
The Poppy Cove Mysteries (Barbara Jean Coast) California, 1957. Daphne and Margot, two independent young California women, own their own dress shop called Poppy Cove.
The Purr-fect Relic Mysteries (DeAnna Drake) What are cursed artifacts, a talking cat, and a dead body doing in the sweet little town of Citrus Grove? That’s what spirited shopkeeper Rebecca Cuthbert wants to find out.
The Quilting Mysteries (Mary Marks)
The Quilting Mysteries (Terri Thayer)
The Rebecca Schwartz Mysteries (Julie Smith) Rebecca Schwartz, nice Jewish lawyer with a few too many fantasies, is happily playing the piano in a whorehouse when she suddenly finds herself assigned to make sure a near-naked state senator escapes a police raid.
The Regan Mchenry Real Estate Mysteries (Nancy Lynn Jarvis)
The Roaring Twenties Mysteries (Mary Miley)
The Robinson Family Detective Agency (Brittany E. Brinegar) Taking her mother’s advice, Becky seeks to legitimize her title of amateur sleuth by working as a detective apprentice. Can the clumsy small-town girl juggle a caseload and her dreams of Hollywood stardom?
The Rock Shop Mysteries (S. D. Brown)
The Rosa Reed Mysteries (Denise Jaden) It’s 1956 and WPC (Woman Police Constable) Rosa Reed has left her groom at the altar in London. Time spent with her American cousins in Santa Bonita, California is exactly what she needs to get back on her feet. The series was written by Lee Strauss and Denise Jaden.
The Roundup Crew Mysteries (Diana Orgain)
The SACTown Mysteries (Joanne Alain Cook)
The Sadie Kramer Flair Mysteries (Deborah Garner) When flamboyant senior sleuth Sadie Kramer learns the owner of Cioccolato, her favorite chocolate shop, is in trouble, she heads for the California wine country with a tote-bagged Yorkie and a slew of questions.
The Sally Solari Mysteries (Leslie Karst) After losing her mother to cancer, Sally Solari quits her job as an attorney to help her dad run his old-style Italian eatery in Santa Cruz, California. But managing the front of the house is far from her dream job.
The Sassy Cat Mysteries (Jennifer J. Chow)
The Savannah Reid Mysteries (G. A. McKevett) Georgia-born Detective Sergeant Savannah Reid is cruising for crime in one of Southern California’s most exclusive enclaves, until a shocking murder rouses San Carmelita from its star-studded stupor, and places Savannah in the center of a sensational case that soon erupts into a media feeding frenzy.
The Seamier Side of Magic (Carol M. Booton) Los Angeles in 1980 is a magical place for fashion and style. Frances Blivens, known to her friends as Frak, dreams of opening her own shop and launching a line of unisex office wear.
The Seascape Cove Mysteries (M’Lissa Moorecroft)
The Seaside Cove Mysteries (Terry Ambrose)
The Seaside Inn Mysteries (Rimmy London) A hauntingly beautiful seaside mansion has been abandoned for decades… and for good reason. When Abby stumbles on the crumbling estate, she’s uncommonly drawn to it. Even the chilling sight of decaying animals on the back porch or the two million dollar price tag isn’t enough to keep her away.
The Secret Staircase Mysteries (Gigi Pandian) Tempest Raj heads back to her childhood home in California to comfort herself with her grandfather’s Indian home-cooked meals. And every day brings her closer to working for her father’s company.
The Segmimn’s School of Sorcery Mysteries (Emory Keller)
The Senior Delinquents Mysteries (Jill-Ayn Martin) First Detective Mattie Conners has to deal with her granny and her three friends, otherwise known throughout the small town of Delco, California, as the “Senior Delinquents”. And now, to top it all off, she has a murder on her hands.
The Silicon Valley Mysteries (Marc Jedel)
The Sister Mary Helen Mysteries (Sister Carol Anne O’Marie)
The Storybook Park Mysteries (Carol E. Ayer) Ashling Cleary, the owner and manager of a storybook theme park in Northern California, isn’t exactly leading the fairy tale life she’d always dreamed of.
The Summerhouse Reunion Mysteries (Kathi Daley)
The Sunny McCoskey Napa Valley Mysteries (Nadia Gordon) Sunny McCoskey is the independent chef/owner of Wildside, a respected little cafe nestled in the heart of California’s wine country. When the heir apparent to a major vineyard is shot dead, and Sunny’s eccentric winemaker friend Wade is arrested for the murder, she sets out to prove his innocence.
The Tourist Trap Mysteries (Lynn Cahoon) In the gentle coastal town of South Cove, California, all Jill Gardner wants is to keep her store—Coffee, Books, and More—open and running. So why is she caught up in the business of murder?
The We Sisters Three Mysteries (Melissa F. Miller)
The Wedding Bells and Magic Spells Mysteries (A. R. Winters) Aria Whitmore, weddings specialist and secret witch, is a little concerned about her parrot familiar Kiwi’s addiction to unhealthy snack food. But this fades away when Aria’s client is found dead, possibly killed by magic!
The Whit and Whiskers Mysteries (Gabby Allan) Whitney Dagner has come home to Santa Catalina Island to help her brother run the family tourism business. Between gift shop shifts and keeping her feline Whiskers in fine fettle, she pilots the Sea Bounder, a glass bottom boat.
The Willa Friday Food & Wine Mysteries (Jamie Lee Scott)
The Wine & Dine Mysteries (Gemma Halliday) The Oak Valley Vineyard has been in Emmy Oak’s family for generations, and Emmy moves home to try to save her legacy with her modern culinary know-how.
The Wine Country Mysteries (Nancy J. Parra)
The Wine Lover’s Mysteries (Michele Scott)
The Witchcraft Mysteries (Juliet Blackwell)
The Witches of Doyle (Kirsten Weiss)
The Yarn Retreat Mysteries (Betty Hechtman) Dessert chef Casey Feldstein doesn’t know a knitting needle from a crochet hook. But after her aunt dies unexpectedly, leaving Casey to run her yarn retreat business, Casey finds herself rising to the occasion.
The Zion Sawyer Mysteries (M. L. Hamilton)