Laura Childs is one of those cozy authors whose books are easy to mix up at the library, because she keeps three series going at once. Tea in Charleston, scrapbooks in New Orleans, and a cafe in a small town called Kindred. Same warm voice, three very different kitchens.
If you have only read one of them, this is your map to the other two.
Quick answer: where to start
- Tea Shop Mysteries — begin with Death by Darjeeling (May 2001). Penguin Random House numbers the newest title, Buttermint Bomb, as Book 31.
- Scrapbooking Mysteries — begin with Keepsake Crimes (May 2003). Sixteen numbered books, the last few co-written with Terrie Farley Moran.
- Cackleberry Club Mysteries — begin with Eggs in Purgatory (December 2008). Nine books, and the shortest of the three to finish.
Tea Shop Mysteries: Charleston, and a teacup in the wrong hand
Theodosia Browning runs a tea shop in Charleston, South Carolina. In Death by Darjeeling she is catering a historic homes garden party when a guest turns up dead with an empty teacup still in his hand — which makes Theo, inevitably, the person everyone looks at first.
This is the longest-running of the three and the one most people meet first. Penguin Random House lists 32 titles on the series page, with Buttermint Bomb numbered Book 31; Book 30, Death at a Firefly Tea, is listed for 2 February 2027. Expect Lowcountry food, a lot of tea vocabulary you will quietly start using, and a sleuth who is competent rather than clumsy.
Our full list: Tea Shop Mysteries in order.
Scrapbooking Mysteries: New Orleans, Mardi Gras and a craft shop
Carmela Bertrand owns a scrapbooking shop in New Orleans. Keepsake Crimes opens with a prominent citizen killed during Mardi Gras and Carmela’s estranged husband accused of it, which is a brisk way to start a series.
Penguin Random House numbers sixteen books, ending with Mumbo Gumbo Murder, and credits Terrie Farley Moran as co-writer on the later volumes. If the Tea Shop books are genteel, these are louder — parades, jazz, humidity, and craft projects in the back of each book.
Our full list: Scrapbooking Mysteries in order.
Cackleberry Club Mysteries: three widows and a cafe
Three friends, all widowed, open a cafe in the small town of Kindred. In Eggs in Purgatory a murder behind the cafe pulls one of them into her late husband’s secrets. Nine books — the one I would hand to a reader who wants a series they can actually finish.
It is also the most openly comforting of the three. The grief is real and sits under the humour rather than being waved away, which is unusual for the genre and part of why these books have stayed in print.
Our full list: Cackleberry Club Mysteries in order.
Which series should you start with?
Start with Cackleberry Club if you want to try her voice without committing to thirty books. Start with Tea Shop if you want the long comfortable read and do not mind that the early books are now twenty-odd years old. Start with Scrapbooking if New Orleans is the draw.
Do you need to read in order?
Not strictly. Each book solves its own murder and Childs reintroduces her regulars as she goes. But the Tea Shop books in particular build friendships and a slow romance over the years, so reading them in order gives you the payoff. The Cackleberry Club books are the most order-dependent of the three, because the three women’s lives change book to book.
FAQ
Are the three series connected? No. Different cities, different casts. You can read them in any combination.
Who is Terrie Farley Moran? A cozy author credited as co-writer on the later Scrapbooking Mysteries, per the publisher’s book pages.
Is there a Laura Childs book out in 2027? Yes — the publisher lists Tea Shop Book 30, Death at a Firefly Tea, for 2 February 2027, with Buttermint Bomb (Book 31) available for preorder.
Keep reading
Sources
Series numbering, book counts and first-publication dates above were checked against Laura Childs’s publisher pages at Penguin Random House on 29 October 2026:
- A Tea Shop Mystery series and Death by Darjeeling
- A Scrapbooking Mystery series and Keepsake Crimes
- A Cackleberry Club Mystery series and Eggs in Purgatory
We did not line-check every title in all three series against its own publisher page; the counts, the first books and the forthcoming titles are what we verified. Spot an error? Tell us in the comments and we will fix it.
Which Laura Childs series did you read first? Tell us in the comments — and whether you stayed for the recipes.