Cover Image: Cozy Case Files, A Cozy Mystery Sampler, Volume 9

Cozy Case Files, A Cozy Mystery Sampler, Volume 9

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This is a great way to discover new to you authors! This includes the first few chapters of each book, so you'll have to buy another book or two or three to finish it/them, but that's okay! Definitely worth checking out!

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This book served the purpose of sampling various authors and stories. Each selection starts at the beginning of the book and gives you a good idea about the characters and setting, taking you through an introduction to the mystery at hand with no spoilers. Each story excerpt was substantial enough to make a decision whether or not to buy the book and continue reading. Author bio and list of their books included.

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This book is a teaser. It only contains a few chapters from each book and none of them are complete books. But the few chapters from each book are very intriguing.

1. The Devil's Bones by Carolyn Haines
Sarah, Cece and Tinkie decide to spend the Easter weekend away on a girl's trip to Lucedale. But this weekend doesn't pan put the way they had planned. The trio find a dead body of a local lawyer - Perry.

2. Sugar and Vice by Eve Calder
A skeleton has been found in the backyard of her best friend's house.. Kate knows that Maxi, her best friend couldn't hurt a fly. Kate has to dawn on her sleuthing cap and get to the bottom of this mystery.

3. Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison
Evie is now a proud owner of a hotel left behind by her husband. She along with her sister Margot visit the hotel in the remote Scilly Island. What follows next, read it to know it.

4. The Falcon always Wings Twice by Donnna Andrews
Meg's grandmother hosts a Faire at her craft center. Her grandfather discovers a pair of Falcons. An actor found dead, a mistreated falcon, Meg's grandfather becomes a prime suspect.

5. Nothing Bundt Trouble by Ellie Alexander
Finding her father's old case notes, Jules has set her heart to solve a crime from the past.

6. The Secret of Bones by Kylie Logan
What happens when a puppy discovers skeleton at a school?

7. The Art of Deception by Leonard Goldberg
A crazy person on the loose, breaking into art galleries and home private home slashing valuable painting of women. But what is the criminal trying to look for?

8. A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair
Gwen and Iris lurk in the Prince's past without causing too much of a trouble to get the information that is required. But what is it and why?

9. The Fate of a Flapper by Susanna Calkins
What happens when Gina is called by the Police after having discovered a body?

All the mentioned mysteries seem intriguing. I definitely would want to pick them up and read since I love thrillers/mysteries.

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Great sampler in my favorite genre, cozy mysteries. Several of my favorite authors, are included in this sampler, but also authors I have never read before. I strongly recommend this book to see which books you want to read in full.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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This series is a great way to sample different "cozy" author styles. I recommend this series for any library to help patrons try out the genre or if they are familiar with the genre, to find another favorite author. Once a patron locates a favorite, it makes my job easier to suggest titles and series!

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Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the chance to read these excerpts. Other readers please note the Cozy Case Files series is available as a free e-book on retail sites so everybody has a chance to sample these mysteries.

THE DEVIL'S BONES by Carolyn Haines is a Sarah Booth Delaney mystery. This series is very Southern and features colorful characters, particularly the ghost Jitty that follows our heroine Sarah Booth around (she's a little much for me but maybe she grows on you if you've read the series from the beginning). This excerpt was interesting in its religious bent, as everyone is excited to see the local tourist attraction in the town they're visiting, a miniature recreation of the Holy Land, and they're attending a sunrise service for Easter.

SUGAR AND VICE by Eve Calder is a Cookie House mystery. The heroine and her friend Maxi are planting a garden when Maxi's dog Oliver finds a skeleton. Is it a pirate captain from the town's past, or is this a more recent event?

DEATH AT HIGH TIDE by Hannah Dennison is the first in the Island Sisters series. The description of the book was really intriguing--the heroine inherits a mysterious old hotel on an island, but things are odd when they arrive and then the town traps them--but unfortunately we don't get quite that far in the excerpt, as Eve and her sister Margot are still just trying to get there when the excerpt cuts off. Most of the excerpt is about Eve's deceased husband's will, and how Roger was less well off than she thought, and meanwhile Margot is some bigshot Hollywood producer that is very pushy and impatient and over the top.

THE FALCON ALWAYS WINGS TWICE by Donna Andrews is part of the Meg Langslow series. This one is set in a Renaissance Faire where everything is enthusiastically participating in a complicated roleplay with political intrigue and love affairs and whatnot, though one of the actors is annoying hammy and sleazy to boot. I'm guessing he will meet an untimely end and we'll have a plethora of suspects.

NOTHING BUNDT TROUBLE by Ellie Alexander is a Bakeshop mystery, and certainly succeeded in making me hungry with its elaborate descriptions of everything from wedding cakes to the new deep-dish pizzas going on the lunch menu. I'm also intrigued by the mystery that the heroine unearths when she finds her deceased father's diary, describing a mysterious local case that he might have gotten too far into.

THE SECRETS OF BONES by Kylie Logan is the second in the Jazz Ramsey series. This cover doesn't look like your average cozy, as it's photorealistic and foggy rather than the classic cartoon covers with little skull icons woven into an everyday scene. I wonder how well it fits into the subgenre of cozy rather than the broader mysteries. But the excerpt is interesting, with the professional cadaver dogs, and the trope of this nice Catholic girl's school having all these murders all the time certainly fits into the cozy genre! (Think of how Cabot Cove is the most dangerous place in the US.)

THE ART OF DECEPTION by Leonard Goldberg is part of a series about the daughter of Sherlock Holmes. It seems like Sherlock Holmes is gone, but his daughter Joanna has married Watson's son, and Joanna exhibits the same deductive skill as her father. We get some classic Holmesian demonstrations in this excerpt and learn about a mysterious vandalism of paintings that may have ties to a long-ago case.

A ROYAL AFFAIR by Allison Montclair is a Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery. The eponymous women run a matchmaking agency in postwar Britain, and apparently have done some "background check"-type investigations as part of their work before. Now someone with connections to the Crown is coming and asking them to, with extreme discretion, investigate the Greek royal who is courting Princess Alice but also potentially blackmailing her.

THE FATE OF A FLAPPER by Susanna Calkins is the second in a series about a 1920s Chicago speakeasy. It's the height of Prohibition, so there's lots of work to avoid the Feds, and there's all kinds of sketchy clientele. This excerpt is mostly worldbuilding, and not much happens.

Overall, I enjoyed the variety in setting (including 3 historicals) and tone, from Renaissance Faire hijinks to cadaver dogs. Out of these I may check out NOTHING BUNDT TROUBLE and THE SECRETS OF BONES. I was interested in the description of DEATH AT HIGH TIDE but with the series being called Island Sisters, plural, I expect the irritating Margot will continue playing too large a role for my taste.

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I received this Cozy Mystery Sampler from #NetGalley. It is difficult to actually review since it is a sampler and each author gives just a few short chapters to see if the reader might be interested. But this is an excellent way to find cozy series old and new.
Carolyn Haines includes a new Sarah Booth mystery, The Devil's Bones. I read Bone Appetit years ago and I like the characters and premise. Sarah is a private investigator in the south. In this installment her friends convince her to travel to Mississippi to a miniature Holy Land for Easter weekend and to celebrate her friend's pregnancy. But everyone knows a private investigator never rests and can always sniff out a murder.
In Eve Calder's Sugar and Vice A Cookie House Mystery, Kate McGuire is expecting more work during the town's annual pirate festival but she doesn't expect her friend and fellow shop owner's dog to dig up a pirate! They must all work together to prove their innocence and find out how he ended up in their backyard. I also like the apparent budding romantic interest early on.
The first in new cozy series, An Island Sisters Mystery, Death by High Tide, Evie's older husband has suddenly died leaving her, well, with not much more than a mystery. Evie's sister Margot is on the job to rescue Evie and help her settle into her new life and dire circumstances. Death by High Tide by Hannah Dennison will be available August 18, 2020.
The Falcon Always Wing Twice by Donna Andrews is a Meg Langslow Mystery and takes place at Meg's grandmother's Renaissance Faire. Unfortunately her whole family gets more involved than expected and Meg's duties expand to include finding a killer.
Ellie Alexander is well known in the cozy community and Nothing Bundt Trouble is her latest in the Bakeshop Mystery Series with Jules and her baking friends and family. When Jules finds her deceased father's journals mentioning her new stepfather and something mysterious she has to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Kylie Logan's The Secrets of Bones is the second in the series featuring cadaver dogs. Jazz is training a new dog and while an old dog is demonstrating his old tricks he unearths an old mystery at St. Catherine's. One no one knew ended in death.
It's a bit unusual to find a male writing a cozy but Leonard Goldberg's Daughter of Sherlock Holmes Mysteries fit the bill. The Art of Deception teams Joanna up with the Watson's to solve another London crime. She uses her inherit skills to see what the authorities do not. Lestraude has come to them for help with what appears to be an art theft. This one was a bit difficult to pick up on in the beginning. Either there was an error in identifying characters or I'm missing something. Ripe with Sherlock clues and talk this is a fun tale.
A Royal Affair is a Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery by Allison Montclair. It is London 1946 and The Right Sort Marriage Bureau girls and ready for a new challenge. This one involves more than marriage. A nice mix of historical fiction and cozy mystery this is a new kind of cozy for me.
The Fate of a Flapper by Susanna Calkins is another mystery set in the past. It is the second of the series set in Chicago. Gina is working double time as a cigarette girl and a crime photographer. When both her jobs are related to the same crime Gina is faced with a murder.
This is a great sampler of a wide variety of new and well known cozy mystery series.

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What a delightful sampling of this years Minotaur cozy mystery publications. I always look forward to the publication of the Cozy Case Files Vol. #. I always find a book or more that I want to read. A great way to experience new writers or new to me authors along with seeing what’s new from author’s I read.

Bravo and thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Publishing for the volume 9. I am not required to leave a positive review.

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I received this ebook in exchange for an honest and fair review. I didn’t realize this was just samples of several cozy mysteries. I like the idea because I was able to get a taste of writing styles of several authors. One thing that was difficult for me is that the excerpts were of books late in the series. The first book for example confused me because I didn’t know the characters and there was a ghost that totally caught me off guard.

Overall I would recommend this book for those who want to dip their toes into the genre and check out these authors!

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This was my first time reading a sampler, and I'm glad I did. I got tons of great ideas of what to read next, and what to recommend to readers. Thank you Netgalley!

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This was a great preview into these cozy mysteries that are coming soon from 9 authors.

I was really interested in the story by Donna Andrews: The Falcon Always Wings Twice. I've missed Meg and her family, and was looking forward to this sneak peek of her adventures. What I wasn't expecting was to be so interested in all the other books which I've now added to my TBR list! I wish I had known a sampler like this existed sooner as it's a great way to add exciting new mysteries to my bookshelf. I look forward to reading the full novels once they are all in print.

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I have always enjoyed cozy mysteries. I couldn’t believe that I had not read any of these series. I am interested in reading all of them. They were all good.

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This is so cool, samplers from nine authors! Some I’m familiar with already and a few I’m not. The choices are fun and entertaining. Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for an ebook copy. This is my honest review.

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This was my first sampler. I enjoyed reading series that were new to me.
It was a taste of cozy authors fit for advising readers on what to read next. I would recommend to Book Club members and librarians who never read a cozy.
I look forward to reading some of the whole books.

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I always like these cozy samplers! I’ve read sone of the authors in this one, some I haven’t read any of their books yet. I liked the writing style of sone of those new to me authors, so I’ll definitely check out sone of their books. This is a nice introduction if you’re looking for sone new cozies!

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When I requested this book, I was thinking that it was a collection of short stories. It turned out to be excerpts, which I was less thrilled about. If you’re looking for samples of novels, this is perfect.

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This is such a great way to find a new cozy series. I really enjoyed them. I particularly liked the stories by Ellie Alexander and Sheila Connolly. Look forward to reading some of the books.

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Ah, I'm enjoyed this Cozy Mystery sampler a lot! I appreciated the breath of types of cozy mysteries included, and I definitely think you should keep these -- volume 10 when? I only found two books I want to read the full versions of this time, but, again, I really liked seeing the many different types of mysteries included in this.

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What a fun compilation, I enjoyed all the previews and will be picking some of them up. I especially enjoyed Nothing Bundt Trouble, The Secretof the Bones, The Art of Deception, and A Royal Affair. I will also definitely choose the next volume of this series. It’s a great way to find some good reads,

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free review copy.

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Not my cup of tea. I don’t like that you only get so much of every book. The first book was hard for me to get into.

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