Category: Amateur Sleuths
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Edgar Awards 2026: What Mystery Writers Selected as The Best

This year’s winners include an unofficial “problem-solver” in Silicon Valley and a zealous journalist pursuing a fugitive who confessed to killing nine people as a teen. Links to winners, nominees.
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Agatha Award Winners 2026: Celebrating Traditional Mysteries

This year’s winners include an historical mystery where Agatha Christie isn’t the author but a suspect, and Dorothy Sayers’ assistant must prove her innocence. Links to winners, nominees.
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The March Sisters Struggle to Solve The Murder of Their Beloved Beth

I adored this thoroughly modern take on Little Women, featuring the March sisters as amateur sleuths uncovering who killed their beloved Beth. This propulsively written tale grapples with current issues, like social media.
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Agatha Christie’s Housekeeper Stars in this Inventive Series

An unconventional housekeeper to Agatha Christie, who served with her in wartime, solves mysteries in and around the novelist’s home in the English countryside in the 1930s. It’s a series worthy of the Christie references.
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One Author, Two Cozy Mystery Series I’m Loving Now

Author Debra Sennefelder’s two series, which feature a food blogger and a consignment store owner, are a well-written respite from the daily barrage of horrendous news out of our nation’s capital. Learn to rest, not quit.
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Family Matters: A Veteran Author Pens a Cozy with Heart

This fun read pairs a fiery grandmother with her wayward granddaughter as they hunt a killer — and a tortoise — in a blazing hot retirement community. Along the way, some family secrets are laid bare.
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An Archaeologist Contends With An Unbelievable Discovery in this Fast-Moving Tale

Ancient stories and modern politics mix in this series debut about a Pakistani archaeologist faced with the find of a lifetime. But how it is related to her missing niece?
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My Favorite Mysteries Set in National Parks and Wild Places

It’s the time of year when I’m dreaming of adventures in national parks. Here are four books that transport you to these beautiful spaces, via park rangers, a senior sleuth and a rank amateur, with the added spice of murder.
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Edgar Awards 2025: What Mystery Writers Selected as The Best

This year’s winners include a final outing for PI Maisie Dobbs and the story of an aspiring writer who finds her literary idol murdered the day after she gives him her manuscript.
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Agatha Award Winners 2025: Celebrating Traditional Mysteries

This year’s winners include an historical cozy featuring the intrepid sister of the Wright Brothers and a thriller about a Vietnamese-American artist whose picture-perfect life is starting to unravel.
