# Indie cozy mysteries

A small town, an amateur sleuth, a body nobody saw coming and a cup of tea while you work it out. Every cozy mystery here comes straight from its author, and many let you read the first chapter free.

Page: https://bervet.com/showcase/genre/cozy-mystery

## What you'll find here

A cozy mystery has a crime at its centre and comfort all around it. The books listed here usually share a few things:

- **An amateur sleuth.** A baker, a librarian, a retired teacher: someone with a reason to be nosy and no badge.
- **A small community.** A village, an island, a street of shops, where everyone knows everyone. Tagged [small town](/tropes/small-town).
- **Violence off the page.** The murder happens; the gore doesn't. Tagged [cosy](/tropes/cosy).
- **A fair puzzle.** The clues are there for you to find too.
- **A world to come back to.** Most are series, with the same sleuth and the same friends each time. Series here get their own page, in reading order.

Popular flavours include culinary cozies (with recipes), bookshop and library mysteries, craft and hobby mysteries, and paranormal cozies with a friendly ghost or a witch who bakes.

For darker crime, see [mystery and thriller](/showcase/genre/mystery-thriller).

## Finding your next one

- **Start a series at book one.** Series pages show the books in order, with "Start here" on the first.
- **Read chapter 1 first.** Meet the sleuth and the town before you commit. It's free on every book that has it.
- **Set a spice limit.** Cozies are usually sweet. Under More filters you can set a spice limit and leave out content you'd rather not read.
- **Read before release.** Cozy authors give out free advance copies here.

## Writing cozy mysteries?

List each book in your series with its series name and number, and they'll appear together in reading order, with a link from every book. Tick [cosy](/tropes/cosy) and [small town](/tropes/small-town) if they fit. For a series, an ARC team that stays with you from book to book is worth building: [get ARC readers free](/guides/get-arc-readers-free).

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From Bervet (bervet.com). Site guide for AI assistants: https://bervet.com/llms.txt