Nothing says “curl up by the fire” quite like a Christmas cozy mystery. Small-town parades, cookie exchanges, Victorian tea parties gone wrong — the holidays give cozy authors so much to work with.
We rounded up 12 Christmas cozy mysteries to get you through the season, from long-running series favorites to one Agatha Christie classic. Every book below can be read on its own, even if it is the tenth book in a series.
Quick picks
- Best small-town Christmas: Mistletoe Murder by Leslie Meier
- Best with recipes: Christmas Caramel Murder by Joanne Fluke
- Best parade mystery: Six Geese A-Slaying by Donna Andrews
- Best for book lovers: The Twelve Books of Christmas by Kate Carlisle
- Best anthology: Candy Cane Murder
- Best classic: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
Small-town Christmas mysteries
1. Mistletoe Murder
Leslie Meier · Lucy Stone Mystery #1
The book that started it all. In small-town Maine, homemaker Lucy Stone looks into the death of the wealthy founder of a mail-order company, right as the town gears up for Christmas. A great low-stakes way to meet Lucy from the very beginning.
Best for: readers who want to start the long-running Lucy Stone series in order.
2. Christmas Cookie Murder
Leslie Meier · Lucy Stone Mystery #6
Tinker’s Cove’s annual Cookie Exchange turns deadly when a local woman is found strangled, with accusations of recipe theft swirling around the suspects. A cozy classic for anyone who has ever taken a cookie exchange a little too seriously.
Best for: fans of small-town rivalries and holiday baking drama.
3. Six Geese A-Slaying
Donna Andrews · Meg Langslow Mystery #10
Meg Langslow is organizing her town’s Christmas parade in small-town Virginia when the man playing Santa is murdered. Meg has to solve the case while keeping the parade on schedule and fending off a reporter looking for a scandal. Warm, funny, and full of holiday chaos.
Best for: readers who like their cozies with a strong dose of humor.
Bakers, divas and holiday parties
4. Christmas Caramel Murder
Joanne Fluke · Hannah Swensen Mystery #20
Bakery owner Hannah Swensen gets pulled into a case connected to a local radio station right as the holiday rush hits her shop. As always in this series, expect a handful of dessert recipes tucked between chapters.
Best for: Hannah Swensen fans, and anyone who wants recipes with their reading.
5. The Diva Wraps It Up
Krista Davis · Domestic Diva Mystery #8
Event planner Sophie Winston loves the holidays, but a string of “accidents” around a Christmas cookie swap start to look less like bad luck and more like murder. Full of decorating and entertaining tips in the Domestic Diva tradition.
Best for: readers who like a lighter, funnier cozy with holiday party ideas.
6. Twisted Tea Christmas
Laura Childs · Tea Shop Mystery #23
Charleston tea shop owner Theodosia Browning is hosting a Victorian Christmas tea party when a wealthy socialite is murdered and valuables go missing. Theodosia ends up investigating multiple suspects, finding a second body, and adopting a few stray dogs along the way.
Best for: Laura Childs fans and anyone who loves a Victorian holiday setting.
Christmas trees, cookies and rare books
7. Twelve Slays of Christmas
Jacqueline Frost · Christmas Tree Farm Mystery #1
Holly White comes home to her family’s Christmas tree farm after a canceled wedding, only to find a local woman murdered with one of her father’s tree stakes. With her father as the prime suspect, Holly has to clear his name before Christmas.
Best for: readers who want a fresh series to start this holiday season.
8. The Christmas Cookie Killer
Livia J. Washburn · Fresh-Baked Mystery #3
Retired teacher Phyllis Newsom enters a Christmas cookie contest in her small Texas town, only for a neighbor to turn up strangled and surrounded by cookies. A gentle, food-focused mystery with a slightly older amateur sleuth.
Best for: readers who enjoy a sleuth who is past the usual “20-something” cozy heroine age.
9. The Twelve Books of Christmas
Kate Carlisle · Bibliophile Mystery #17
Book restorer Brooklyn Wainwright and her husband travel to a Scottish castle for a New Year’s wedding, and end up in the middle of a locked-room mystery involving missing rare books. A cozy for book lovers who want their Christmas mystery to also be about books.
Best for: bibliophiles, and anyone who loved our library and bookshop picks.
Anthologies and a classic
10. Candy Cane Murder
Joanne Fluke, Leslie Meier & Laura Levine · three novellas
Three cozy mystery authors, three holiday novellas in one book: a Hannah Swensen story, a Lucy Stone story, and a Jaine Austen story. A quick way to sample three long-running series over the holidays.
Best for: readers who want to try several series before committing to one.
11. Christmas Cupcake Murder
Joanne Fluke · Hannah Swensen Mystery, recent release
A newer entry in the Hannah Swensen series: Hannah is baking holiday cupcakes when a man is found near death in an empty storefront near her shop, with no memory of who he is. Hannah has to help identify him before whoever hurt him tries again.
Best for: longtime Hannah Swensen readers who want to catch up with the series.
A Christmas classic
12. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Agatha Christie · Hercule Poirot
On Christmas Eve, a difficult, wealthy patriarch gathers his family at his country estate, only to be found murdered behind a locked door. Hercule Poirot is called in to untangle a family full of grudges and secrets. First published in 1938 and adapted for television with David Suchet as Poirot.
Best for: classic mystery fans who want a darker, more traditional whodunit for the holidays.
Do you need to read these in order?
No. Every book on this list wraps up its mystery by the end, so you can start with the Christmas book even if it is not the first in the series. If you enjoy the characters, you can always go back and read the earlier books afterward.
Frequently asked questions
Are Christmas cozy mysteries only about murder?
The mystery is always there, but most of the page time goes to holiday traditions: parades, cookie exchanges, tea parties, decorating and gift-giving. The murder is the reason the characters get together to solve a puzzle, not the focus of the book.
Do these books include recipes?
Several do. The Hannah Swensen series (Joanne Fluke) is famous for including full recipes between chapters, and cozy anthologies like Candy Cane Murder often include a few as well.
Which one should I read first?
If you want to start a series from book one, Mistletoe Murder and Twelve Slays of Christmas are both series openers. If you love books about books, try The Twelve Books of Christmas.
Save this list for later 📌
Your turn
What is your favorite Christmas cozy mystery? Tell us in the comments — we would love to add more to this list. ☕🎄