Cosy crime reads to snuggle up with

Cuddling up with a cosy crime novel is an ideal way to spend a rainy day at home. Here are six recent titles that would perfectly suit such a plan.


A Murder at Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

Armed with a legal education from Oxford, Perveen Mistry has joined her father’s law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. The firm has been appointed to execute the will of Mr Omar Farid, a wealthy mill owner who has left three widows behind, and when Perveen notices something strange in the paperwork it ignites her suspicions and she becomes determined to learn the truth. Set in 1920s Bombay, A Murder at Malabar Hill is a terrific read for fans of Phryne Fisher and Precious Ramotswe.


The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

In a peaceful retirement village off the A21 in Kent, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved killings. But when a local property developer shows up dead, ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ find themselves in the middle of their first live case. A page-turning murder mystery in the tradition of Agatha Christie, and a joyful, laugh-out-loud celebration of modern Britishness and the power of friendship, The Thursday Murder Club is a true classic in the making.


Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is running a small hotel on a Greek island with her long-term boyfriend. But life isn’t as idyllic as she should it would be – exhausted by the responsibility of making everything work on an island where nothing ever does, Susan is beginning to miss her literary life in London, despite the murderous scandal that played a part in it. When an English couple come to visit with tales of a murder that took place in a hotel the same day their daughter Cecily was married there, Susan can’t help but find herself fascinated. And when they tell her that Cecily has gone missing a few short hours after reading Atticus Pund Takes The Case, a crime novel Susan edited some years previously, Susan knows she must return to London to find out what has happened…


Sorry for the Dead by Nicola Upson

Sorry for the Dead is the latest entry in Nicola Upson’s popular series of novels featuring a fictional version of Scottish mystery writer Josephine Tey. Back in the summer of 1915, the violent death of a young girl brought grief and notoriety to Charleston Farmhouse on the Sussex Downs. Years later, Josephine has returned to the same house - now much changed - and remembers the two women with whom she once lodged as a young teacher during the Great War. Past and present collide and our heroine is forced to face the possibility that the scandal which threatened to destroy those women’s lives hid a much darker secret.


Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan

Bombay, New Year’s Eve, 1949. As India celebrates the arrival of a momentous new decade, Inspector Persis Wadia stands vigil in the basement of Malabar House, home to the city’s most unwanted unit of police officers. Six months after joining the force she remains India’s first female police detective, mistrusted, sidelined and now consigned to the midnight shift. And so, when the phone rings to report the murder of prominent English diplomat Sir James Herriot, the country’s most sensational case falls into her lap… This is the first story in an intriuging new series from Vaseem Khan, author of the much-loved Baby Ganesh Detective Agency novels.


The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah

Sophie Hannah continues her string of crime novels featuring the iconic Hercule Poirot with The Killings at Kingfisher Hill. Summoned to the exclusive Kingfisher Hill estate to prove a woman’s innocence, Poirot agrees to conceal his true reason for being there. During his travels to the destination, the coach is forced to stop when a distressed woman demands to get off, insisting that if she stays in her seat, she will be murdered. Although the rest of the journey passes without anyone being harmed, Poirot’s curiosity is aroused, and his fears are later confirmed when a body is discovered with a macabre note attached…

Cover image for The Thursday Murder Club

The Thursday Murder Club

Richard Osman

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