10 Cosy Christmas Mysteries To Curl Up With This Winter

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“When someone stabs you it’s not your fault that you feel pain.”

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There’s something particularly comforting about cosy Christmas mysteries at this time of year. When the nights draw in, and the world feels a little colder, a festive whodunit offers the perfect escape – familiar settings, gentle suspense, and just enough intrigue to keep the pages turning without stealing your sense of serenity. Whether you love snow-covered villages, small-town secrets, or amateur sleuths solving mysteries between cups of mulled wine, cosy Christmas mystery books are perfect winter companions. These holiday mystery books blend seasonal charm with classic cosy mystery tropes, making them perfect books to read at Christmas or during a quiet winter evening by the fire. From festive classics to newer Christmas cosy mysteries, if you’re looking for comforting winter mystery books to curl up with, you’ve come to the right place! 

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Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen – Vicki Delaney

Kicking off our list of the best cosy Christmas mysteries is Vicki Delaney’s holiday-themed read, Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen. As the owner of Mrs Claus’ Treasures, Merry Wilkinson knows how to decorate homes for the holidays. That’s why she thinks her float in the semi-annual Santa Claus parade is a shoo-in for best in show. But when the tractor pulling Merry’s float is sabotaged, she has to face facts: there’s a Scrooge in town. 

Merry is prepared to point fingers, especially when there’s a journalist in town writing a puff piece about Rudolph’s Christmas spirits. But when she happens upon the reporter’s body on a late-night dog walk – and police suspect he was poisoned by a gingerbread cookie crafted by her best friend, Vicky, Merry will need to put down the jingle bells and work out who’s really been grinching about town, before she too winds up on Santa’s naughty list. 

A Fatal Grace – Louise Penny

No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, nor her spineless lover, not her pathetic – and certainly none of the other residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death. When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is called to investigate, he soon realises he’s dealing with something extraordinary. De Poitiers was electrocuted in a frozen lake in front of the whole village. 

With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache begins to dig beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. As the bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself. 

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Deck The Donuts – Ginger Bolton

It’s Christmastime in Fallingbrook, Wisconsin. Emily has truly decked the halls of her doughnut shop and decorated her doughnuts with festive designs. For the annual Ice and Lights Festival, she’s commissioned a sculpture with three ice-carved doughnuts to form a holey snowman. She has one wish this year – to spend some time under the mistletoe with a certain detective. 

But when a tour bus on its way to the festival crashes in a snowstorm, Emily and her friends open their doors to the stranded and shaken passengers. The driver is admitted to the hospital. However, the following morning, Emily discovers his body – buried beneath her sculpture. With the motives for murder piling up, it will take a Christmas miracle for Emily to solve this crime in this cosy festive mystery by Ginger Bolton. 

Mistletoe, Moussaka, And Murder – Tina Kashian

Not even her impending nuptials can keep Lucy Berberian, manager of her family-owned Kebab Kitchen, from the Jersey Shore’s annual Polar Bear Plunge. But her dive into the icy ocean is especially chilly when she finds a fellow swimmer doing the dead man’s float… for real. 

When Lucy learns the victim is Deacon Spooner, the reception hall owner who turned up his nose at her wedding plans, she can’t help but wonder who wouldn’t kill this pompous caterer. Nevertheless, Lucy will need to get to the bottom of this cold-hearted business in time for Kebab Kitchen’s mouthwatering Christmas celebration – and before her hometown spirit washes out to sea…

The Twelve Books Of  Christmas – Kate Carlisle

In the middle of a wonderful Christmas holiday in Dharma. Brooklyn and Derek receive a frantic phone call from their dear friend Claire in Loch Ness, Scotland. The laird of the castle, Cameron MacKinnon, has just proposed to her. They plan to wed on New Year’s Day, and they want Derek and Brooklyn to be their witnesses. And, while they’re visiting, Claire hopes that Brooklyn will be able to solve a little mystery that’s occurred in the castle library – twelve very rare books have vanished. 

Once in Scotland, Brooklyn begins working on the mystery of the missing books. But when one of the fellow guests is poisoned, and an arrow kills another through the heart, Brooklyn and Derek know this is not the work of any Ghost of Christmas Past. Now they must race to find a killer and a book thief before another murder occurs and their friends’ bright future turns dark and deadly. 

Mrs. Claus And The Santaland Slayings

Love is full of surprises – though few compare to realising that you’re marrying the real-life Santa. April Claus dearly loves her new husband, Nick, but adjusting to life in the North Pole is not all sugarplums and candy canes. Especially when a cantankerous elf named Giblet Hollyberry is killed – felled by a black widow spider in his stocking – shortly after publicly arguing with Nick. 

Christmastown is hardly a hotbed of crime, aside from mishaps caused by too much eggnog, but April disagrees with Constable Crinkle’s verdict of an accidental death. As she sets out to find the culprit, it’ll mean putting the future of Christmas on the line – and hoping her own name isn’t on the lethal naughty list in this wonderfully festive cosy Christmas mystery. 

Murder In Christmas River – Meg Muldoon

Every year at Christmas River’s annual Gingerbread Junction Competition, pie-baking extraordinaire Cinnamon aims to win, taking down any competition who gets in her way. But when she finds a dead body in the woods behind her pie shop just days before the big competition, Cinnamon realises that there’s much more to worry about than cookies, frosting, and gumdrops. 

In this cosy Christmas mystery, someone’s out to bring Cinnamon down. And they’re playing dirty. Only Cinnamon and a mysterious stranger who walks into her life one snowy evening can work out this mystery. But can they solve it before Cinnamon’s chances of gingerbread competition glory crumble? 

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Sleigh Spells – Bella Falls

Aurora Hart hates everything Christmas, but how could she turn down the opportunity to serve one year of probation in Holiday Haven versus a full sentence for her crimes? Saddled with a talking squirrel roommate, Aurora is doing her best to keep a low profile. She’s doing a fine job, too, until Santa’s sleigh is stolen.

Now, all eyes are on her and the other town Humbugs, and it’s up to Aurora to keep her away from ending up back in jail. With the help of a very important person from the North Pole, she finds herself hot on the trail of the true culprit. But, it will take her having to do something she’s never done before – accepting new friends and their help. Sleigh Spells is a whimsy tale where the magic and mystery of Christmas proves to be snow joke. 

Silent Night – Deanna Raybourn

After a year of marriage – and numerous adventures – Lady Julia and Brisbane hope for a quiet, intimate Christmas together – until they find themselves at their father’s ancestral estate, Bellmont Abbey, with her eccentric family and a menagerie of animals. 

Nevertheless, Julia looks forward to a lively family gathering – but amongst the celebrations, a mystery stirs. There are missing jewels, new faces at the Abbey, and a prowling ghost that brings back unwelcome memories from a previous holiday – one that turned deadly. Is a new culprit recreating crimes of the past? And will Brisbane let Julia investigate them? 

I’ll Be Home For Mischief – Jacqueline Frost

Another one of the best new cosy Christmas mystery books, I’ll Be Home for Mischief opens in Misletoe, Maine, where the Historical Society has launched a widespread campaign to celebrate the town’s 150th anniversary this Christmas. Descendants of the founding family, the Snows, have returned for the first time, and innkeeper Holly White is determined to make the family’s visit magical. She attempts to break a record by baking the world’s largest gingerbread man, but her plans are whisked away when Mr Snow’s body ends up in batter. 

When Mr Moore, the local mistletoe farmer, is accused of murder, Holly reprises her role as an amateur sleuth to protect this sweet older man. Between hosting the inconsolable Mrs Snow and other guests at the inn, receiving threatening messages telling her to stop investigating, and preparing for her first wedding anniversary with Sheriff Evan Gray, she might just need a Christmas miracle to survive. Can Holly uncover the killer before someone else gets burned, or is her involvement a recipe for trouble? 

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