Whether you’re starting to wind down after a long week or intentionally carving out some quiet time for yourself, a cozy mystery is the perfect companion for a winter night in. These books blend intriguing stories, charming characters, and deeply satisfying puzzles - all with a bit of thrill. 

Here are our top five picks that every introverted reader will adore this season.

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1. In the Day of Trouble by Taj Magruder

On the night of March 17, 1934, in a small town in rural Pennsylvania, a man crept to a window and shot a woman through her heart. Her name was Susan Mummey, but she was better known as the Witch of Ringtown Valley. The shocking true story of her life and murder has never been told, until now.

The cold-blooded shooting of a woman in her home would have been news on its own. But the victim who lay on her sitting room floor wasn’t just any woman. For years, the people of Schuylkill County whispered about how Susan Mummey practiced magic from her isolated farmhouse. She fought with her family, her neighbors, and the law. Death, it seemed, followed in her wake. Then, death claimed her.

The case was taken up by the formidable team of Detective Louis Buono and District Attorney LeRoy Enterline. When they apprehended Susan’s killer and obtained a confession, the startling revelations sent shockwaves far beyond Schuylkill County. For 40 days, this small corner of the world held the nation’s attention. But as quickly as it began, this astonishing story came to an astonishing end. Today, it is the most famous murder you've never heard of.

In the Day of Trouble is an unforgettable look into a misunderstood woman, a disturbed man, and perhaps even ourselves. Pulled from historical records and insights from survivors of those involved in the case, it takes you beyond the headlines to relive one of the strangest chapters of American history.

2. Dead of Autumn by Sherry Knowlton

Alexa Williams is a successful lawyer, volunteers weekly at a women’s clinic, and has a sexy weekend boyfriend—not to mention an endearing best friend in her giant English mastiff, Scout. But one autumn day, when Scout takes off into the Pennsylvania woods, Alexa discovers a nightmare she’d never imagined. From that fateful day, Alexa becomes entangled in a murder mystery—one that she tries to unravel by linking it to experiences and symbols in her own life.

Dewilla Noakes, a child of the Depression, has recently lost her mother. Her father, packs up the girls—and their attractive cousin, Winnie—and hits the road to look for a job on the east coast. Along the way, money becomes tighter, food becomes scarcer, and relationships become strained. Dewilla’s father fears he’s failing his daughters. Running out of options, he begins to consider the unthinkable to end the misery he’s brought upon his family ...

Alexa soon finds herself amidst violence aimed at the clinic where she volunteers, brought on by pro-life extremists. In a bizarre turn of events, she’s almost raped, ambushed by religious zealots who wish to convert her, then taken by surprise as another romance enters her life. Plus, she seems to be seeing quite a lot of the local law enforcement these days.

No matter what else happens in her life, Alexa can’t shake feeling some sort of connection to the mysterious murder victim. She thinks back to the stories she heard as a child, about the Babes in the Woods, who were murdered close to where the victim’s body was found, wondering if that might be why she draws the connection. But when the murderer strikes again, Alexa must rely on her knowledge of local history and terrain in order to save her own life.

DEAD of AUTUMN ties together the struggles faced by females, young and old, past and present, and the degrees of power they embrace to combat their situations. 

3. Picturing the Dark by Linda Cotton Jefferies

When the man who had kidnapped and nearly killed Audrey Markum was arrested and bound for trial, she thought the worst was behind her. Then the panic attacks began.

Throughout the summer Audrey has pushed back against the fear, enjoying her work as a wedding photographer and the growing relationship she has with Detective “Rod” Rodriguez. As August finds Audrey steeling herself to face her attacker in court, the panic returns in the form of a terror that confronts her whenever she tries to step over the threshold of her own apartment. Already battling anxiety and fear, Audrey is suddenly blindsided by the news that one of her friend Sandy’s twin daughters has been kidnapped from her daycare center.

With every hour, the chances of recovering the infant Rosey seem to drop.

Detective Rodriguez and his partner are heading up the manhunt and find a possible lead when they discover that a daycare worker from the same center has also disappeared. However, when a body washes up on the river’s shore, that slim hope plummets.

As the trial begins, Audrey is fighting with time itself. She finds herself urging the hours in court to move as quickly as possible while simultaneously wishing she could lengthen the time she has to spend helping the detectives in the search for Rosey.

Something tells her she can’t have it both ways.

4. Mrs. Goodman’s First Murder by Ginnie Fite

In the Fargo meets Miss Marple darkly comic Mrs. Goodman’s First Murder, Harmon Rutledge’s perfect plan to solve his marriage problem is disrupted by a robbery at his bank. But when Ethel Goodman, recently widowed, retired schoolteacher turned real estate agent, thwarts the robbery and saves him from eternal ignominy, Harmon decides to reward her heroism by engaging her to sell his house. Ethel soon learns Harmon’s wife is missing, however, and her intuition tells her something is wrong. She begins to doubt his good intentions, but her misgivings are overridden by the thought of a big commission. 

Meanwhile, Harmon ensnares the bumbling bank robbers, one of whom is Ethel’s estranged stepson, in his new plan to get away with murder. Charlie and Don, who can barely manage their daily lives, don’t see the danger barreling at them until it’s too late, and their hapless solutions only lead them into more danger.

As clues pile up, Ethel joins Millie Overbee, a young reporter determined to get a breakout story, and Lena, the missing wife’s lover, to investigate the wife’s disappearance. Because, although she has dark secrets of her own, Ethel believes no one should get away with murder.

MRS. GOODMAN’S FIRST MURDER will appeal to fans of Murder She Wrote, An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good, The Silver Ladies of Penny Lane, and Mindful of Murder.

5. The Hawthorne Inheritance by Kate Dike Blair

Author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s sister Louisa drowns in 1852. But was it really an accident?

In 1830, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s cousin John Stephens Dike flees Massachusetts and his abusive stepmother Priscilla and settles in Ohio, where he expands his uncle’s successful Grocery Emporium and marries his beloved Margaretta. Haunted only by occasional debilitating headaches, he considers his painful past to be safely behind him, until in 1883 an unexpected inheritance from his cousin Elizabeth Hawthorne brings John Stephens’ nightmarish boyhood again to the fore.

The inheritance consists of a crate of shabby furniture and a collection of old papers detailing the love affair between John Stephen’s late father John Dike and Hawthorne’s younger sister, Louisa. But it also raises some questions surrounding Louisa’s drowning in the 1852 Henry Clay steamship disaster. The documents include: John Dike’s post mortum treatiss regarding his affair with Louisa and her death; Louisa Hawthorne’s warm and witty diary entries celebrating the clandestine romance with John Dike and her experiences with Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and the Hawthorne, Alcott, Emerson, and Peabody families; and damning letters to a clergyman from the late Priscilla Dike detailing her hellish revenge.

But can John Stephens conquer his childhood terrors and find justice for Louisa? And what other literary bombshells lie hidden within Elizabeth Hawthorne’s bequest? In this meticulously researched historical novel, Kate Dike Blair salutes her Hawthorne cousins and their circles, explores inconsistencies in the Henry Clay accident inquest, and chronicles for the ages John and Louisa’s star-crossed romance.

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Ready for your night in?
Grab a blanket, make a cup of your favorite drink, and dive into one of these gems from Sunbury Press authors and curated favorites.

If one of these titles caught your eye, you can explore all of them- and more cozy, mystery-filled reads- by browsing the Sunbury Press online bookstore. 

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