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If you’re craving twisty plots, murders lurking in unexpected places and an opportunity to play detective alongside quirky characters, this season’s crop of cosy crime novels delivers in spades. From charming village gardens hiding deadly secrets to glittering theatres concealing backstage rivalries, below you’ll find nine new thrilling reads to curl up on the sofa with over the next few months…
In the charming village of Pudding Corner, vintage-lover Daphne Brewster helps Lord Hugh Darlington restore his crumbling ancestral home, Darlington Hall. But her delight in stained-glass windows, regal turrets and sprawling kitchen garden turns dark when she discovers an unidentified body hidden among the greenery. As Daphne dusts off her sleuthing skills – despite police warnings – Lord Darlington is attacked and a string of burglaries shakes Pudding Corner, and it’s clear that no one is safe.
When a toxic hospital consultant dies of a heart attack, fellow doctor Eitan Rose – a rheumatologist recently back at work following a mental health breakdown – smells foul play. Nobody else does though, including the police and coroner. But when another doctor dies in similar circumstances, Eitan launches his own investigation. As his life spirals – romance, colleagues and mental health all under pressure – he struggles to discern whether there really is a killer in the wards… or if it’s just him losing the plot.
When Caroline’s brother Daniel goes missing, she invites his closest friends to a dinner party in London, determined to uncover the truth. Among the guests is a psychic who claims to have seen Daniel in New Orleans, where he recently disappeared after a whirlwind romance with Selina. As the evening spirals, revelations, betrayals and simmering tensions surface. What begins as a polite gathering soon unravels into a dangerous game of secrets, lies and the chilling mystery of Daniel’s fate.
When Rosie wakes in the middle of the night to find her grandmother, Mona Frogmorton, and her attacker dead, Detective Inspector Caius Beauchamp is called to investigate the double murder. What first seems a bungled burglary turns complex as Caius uncovers the family’s shady past and Mona’s contested will. As he adjusts to his own changing inheritance, social pressures mount – and he must decide what’s more dangerous: the body on the floor or the skeletons in the closet?
After making a name for themselves playing fictional detective Dahlia Lively on screen, actresses Posy Starling and Caro Hooper are now starring in two very different plays. Their fellow Dahlia, Rosalind King, senses tension – Caro has grown close to Luke Burrows, a man from Posy’s troubled past. But before Rosalind can get to the bottom of what’s going on, Luke is found dead in Posy’s dressing room. To clear her name, the Three Dahlias must hunt for truth among actors with hidden motives.
27-year-old Jet Mason is attacked on Halloween and suffers a catastrophic brain injury. The doctors warn a deadly aneurysm will kill her within seven days. Rather than risk surgery, Jet chooses to spend her final days investigating who tried to murder her. With only Billy, a childhood friend, for support, she digs into her family, old relationships, and enemies she never saw coming. Time is short, but Jet is determined.
Once, Sue and Mal Eastwood ran The Case Is Altered, a rural pub famed for its Monday quiz nights. Now the pub lies abandoned, its landlords missing, a body retrieved from a nearby river, and a new quiz team appeared and began winning every round at the weekly pub quiz, sparking suspicion. They must have been cheating, but no one could figure out how… until Sue and Mal’s nephew, Dominic, begins piecing together the truth.
After a humiliating breakup and job rejection in the big city, Nia returns to her sleepy hometown of Cinnamon Falls, hoping for peace. The town is buzzing with preparations for its annual Fall Fest – apple bobbing, pumpkin carving and fireworks. But just days before opening night, a body is found in the local diner, alongside a note: Who will be next? Teaming up with the residents of Cinnamon Falls, including her tall, dark and handsome high school ex-boyfriend, Jesse, Nia must root out the killer before they strike again.
Anthony Wistern, wealthy in every way, meets a dramatic end at his 60th birthday party – impaled by a spike on a sculpture. Suddenly dead, he watches the chaos that follows from beyond the grave, as his entitled wife schemes, their four ambitious children circle like vultures and assorted hangers-on all vie for his fortune. Lies, rivalries and secrets erupt, revealing just how toxic privilege, inheritance and family really are.
