6 Culinary Cozy Mystery Series to Curl Up With

From the author of the two-book L.A. Night Market Mysteries (another foodie favorite) comes the ongoing Magical Fortune Cookie series. The name should tell you everything you need to know, really. Felicity Jin hasn’t exactly inherited the family’s special ability to bake treats that infuse joy into customers’ lives, but when she does finally tap into her own unique culinary magic, it results in her becoming the prime suspect in a murder case. Felicity is a nuanced and believable protagonist, which is interesting given that this culinary cozy includes a dash of magic and features a potentially magical pet rabbit. The mother-daughter dynamic in this series is especially enjoyable, and the family’s Chinese American bakery will have you seeking out your own source for Asian American baked goods.

I love Raquel V. Reyes’ cooking sleuth, Miriam Quiñones-Smith. She’s a Latina food anthropologist (I didn’t even know that was a real thing!) with her own cooking show. I love that Miriam is a smart woman who made an unconventional career move and found another avenue for success. Whether it’s her mother-in-law’s antics or the dead bodies that seem to crop up around her throughout the series, Miriam isn’t going to let anything threaten her loved ones.

Dorian is a centuries-old gargoyle originally made as a prototype for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Zoe Faust is an alchemist who accidentally stumbled upon the elixir of life. In this fantastical culinary cozy, the pair of them has settled in the Pacific Northwest, where Zoe is hoping to build a life. Good thing Dorian is a master of French cuisine, because his incredible bakes and elaborate meals bring in extra money and keep Zoe and her friends nourished as all manner of magical mysteries and murdery mayhem ensue throughout this series. As Dorian’s chef ambitions grow, his and Zoe’s crime-solving capers take readers on adventures that reveal more and more of their long pasts and bring an unusual cast of characters into the modern day.

Bonus: Gigi Pandian’s Secret Staircase Mystery series is another fave of mine, with its former-professional-magician-turned-specialty-home-renovator amateur sleuth protagonist and her culinarily gifted grandpa’s contemporary Indian-inspired cuisine.

Ho-Lee Noodle House forms the backdrop of Vivien Chien’s Noodle Shop Mystery series, which has over 10 books (and counting!) in it so far. It centers on Lana Lee, a young professional who initially returns home to Cleveland to waitress at her mom’s restaurant after losing her job. While the food in this series features a little less prominently than in some of the others on this list, the Noodle House (and the Asian Village shopping center it’s set in) is populated with a quirky cast of characters and offers the perfect plot device for keeping murder on Lana’s doorstep. One of my favorite things about Chien’s series is the inventiveness of the crimes. There’s a lot of variety to the murders — how they happen, the reasons, the murderers — which keeps the series fresh with each new installment.

Abby Collete’s Ice Cream Parlor mystery series follows Bronwyn “Win” Crewse as she renovates her family’s ice cream shop in the hilariously named town of Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Having left her career in marketing after health issues led her to reevaluate her priorities, Win wants to breathe new life into the ice cream shop. As you might expect in a cozy mystery, Win doesn’t get to just work on the business because a suspicious death has the spotlight on her. As if trying to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps wasn’t enough, Win will have to find killers and keep up with her close family and friends — who are some of my favorite parts of this series so far.

Bonus: If you enjoy this culinary cozy series, you might enjoy Collette’s Books & Biscuits series, too!

Mia P. Manansala’s now-complete six-book series features Lila Macapagal, an amateur baker whose family’s restaurant business has prompted her to pursue her passion. Just after she and her best friend Adeena Awan open the Brew-ha Cafe, a bakery and coffee shop, murder strikes the small midwestern town of Shady Palms and threatens everything they’ve worked for. As Lila whips up tantalizing baked goods that incorporate her Filipina heritage, she has to solve the murders before it’s too late.

Lila is a delightful main character with a penchant for dressing her Dachshund — named after a spicy sausage — in trendy clothes, a skill for keeping both the (hot) local dentist and Adeena’s (also hot) lawyer brother in line as they navigate their mutual crushes on her, and the creative mind to cook up inventive business ideas in hopes of ensuring the success of the Brew-ha Café. Shady Palms becomes more real with each book in the series, as do the characters who live there.