Cozy

A delicious exploration into family, culture, and above all, food. We meet early twenties Yale Yee as she is let go from her job in a bookstore—no business—and is thinking of returning to work in her father’s dim sum restaurant. Yale’s a bit of an eccentric: no cellphone, no car (we’re in West Los Angeles), few friends, and still mourning her mother’s death. When Ba, her father, informs her that her rich, spoiled cousin, who she hasn’t seen in 20 years, is arriving from Hong Kong, Yale would rather hide in her apartment with Jane Austen. But instead, at Ba’s suggestion, she and cousin Celine end up running a food stall at the pop-up night market. Celine is everything you’d imagine: beautiful, vain, fashion obsessed, an influencer and foodstagrammer. But these polar opposites end up finding some common ground—at least enough to make the food stall a roaring success. If only there weren’t that dead customer Yale discovers, making the cousins the leading suspects. Off we head into the foodie world of West L.A.–Taiwanese breakfasts and Salvadorean pupusas as Yale and Celine try to clear their names. Chow gets so much right in this book, from the exploration of Asian cultures in L.A. to the growing relationship between the cousins. A fun start to a wonderful new series.

Coffeehouses are a staple of cozy mysteries, but this follow up to Fresh Brewed Murder takes place around a coffee-cart business. It belongs to Sage Caplin, barista extraordinaire, who’s booked to sling her lovingly created coffees at Portland, Oregon’s Campathon Music Festival. The weekend has to be a success as she dreads telling her financial backers that opening a second cart was a bad decision. Business goes fine, but behind the scenes things get tense as Sage finds the dead body of an unpopular manager of some of the bands that are appearing at Campathon. Sage herself is suspected as she found another body in the previous book—can one person really be that unlucky? Both to clear her name and because she’s determined to find the truth, Sage unobtrusively goes about getting information from the many parties that may have been involved, all the while giving readers delicious coffee details with a side of tentative romance—her new boyfriend is a father, and his little son may be moving in. The possible killers and motives are well juggled and Duncan’s (AKA young adult author Kelly Garrett) writing is fresh and realistic. Readers will look forward to more with Sage and her coffee cart friends and family.

A mystery with all the right ingredients, in all the right proportions: compelling crime, eccentric characters, dishy police chief, fascinating location, and above all else, Lana Lewis, a quirky, smart, witty, and sarcastic protagonist. After getting laid off from her job as a journalist in Miami, Lana moved back to her hometown of Devil’s Beach, a barrier island north of the city, and opened Perkatory, a happening coffee shop. When Raina—who owns the hot yoga studio next door—goes missing, Lana dusts off her journalism creds and heads into the contentious, and gossip-ridden, world of yoga to cover the story for the local paper. But finding Raina takes a village, and Lana gets help from a wonderful cast, including her yoga-loving, hippie Dad—whose medical marijuana prescription is always filled—and Noah Garcia, the aforementioned police chief. Lana and Noah’s burgeoning relationship, despite plenty of professional conflict, is a strong element in the novel. But at the book’s heart is Lana, a complex character who’s recovering from a divorce, wary of romance, and uncertain about her career, yet with a great sense of humor. If I can’t spend the afternoon hanging out with Lana in Perkatory, then please get me the next volume in this series ASAP.