Whimsical Whodunits: Cozy Fantasy Mystery Books

Esme Addison is no stranger to the cozy mystery genre. Her debut series, the Enchanted Bay mysteries, follows a water witch who comes into her powers while solving crimes in coastal North Carolina. A Brew for Chaos is the latest installment, and it just came out in September.

In An Intrigue of Witches, a historian named Sidney Taylor receives an anonymous invitation to hunt for treasure in her grandmother’s hometown. As she investigates, she uncovers a secret society of witches with ties to her family history.

The Accidental Alchemist mystery series has been running for over a decade, with the latest (A Gargoyle’s Guide to Murder) out this month! In the first book, readers meet Zoe Faust, a herbalist who discovers a three-foot-tall gargoyle stowed away in her moving bags. His name is Dorian, and he has a job for Zoe: help him decipher an ancient text with ties to his origins (and possibly a local murder, too).

If you like your whimsy with just a dash of spookiness, The Bookshop Below is the story for you. Disgraced bookseller Cassandra Fairfax is granted a chance to restore her reputation and run her late mentor’s shop. But Chiron had his enemies, including collectors who will resort to murder to get what they desire.

Despite their differences, Arthur and Sal have spent many years together. Nearly a century, in fact—not too shabby for a vampire couple. They aim for a quiet and happy marriage running a B&B in small town Oregon. But when they find the mayor drained of blood in their garden, they must investigate to prove their innocence (and keep their undead status a secret).

When Felicity Jin begins selling homemade fortune cookies, she’s proud to follow the footsteps of her mother’s magical bakery. She even substitutes some of the generic fortunes with her own. But after a customer drops dead, Felicity’s oddly specific prediction falls under suspicion. Is it possible her cookies (and her powers) are to blame?

This mystery series is like if Agatha Christie wrote The Wind in the Willows. Shady Hollow and its woodland inhabitants may seem peaceful, but a killer lurks among them. It’s up to journalist Vera Vixen to solve the murder of the curmudgeonly Otto Stumf before other villagers turn up dead.