Cozy mystery is the weirdest genre. It’s light, fluffy, and usually has punny or otherwise humorous titles, but the fact remains that in the vast majority of these books, someone has been murdered, leaving behind grieving friends and family. Sometimes, the author gets around this by making the murder victim generally unlikeable (which also gives a bigger cast of potential suspects!), but just as often, the victim is a beloved member of their community.
Given this, I don’t read a lot of cozies. That cognitive dissonance throws me off a bit, and so if I’m going for cozy vibes, I’m more likely to drift to a low-angst romance, or a hopepunk sci-fi/fantasy, or something along those lines. But I can’t resist a book with a corgi on the cover, so last year I tried the first Chatty Corgi Mystery by Jennifer Hawkins, and it was cute enough that this year, I read the second book, Murder Always Barks Twice.
One nice thing about cozy mysteries is they tend to be pretty self-contained, and any meta-plot moves slowly enough that I can review this second book without worrying that I’m spoiling anything major about the first book. The basic set-up is this: Emma Reed is a former accountant who moved to a quaint Cornish village to start a tea and cake shop. She has an adorable corgi named Oliver. Also, she can talk to Oliver, Dr. Dolittle style. In each book, Emma, Oliver, and a cast of friendly villagers get caught up in solving a murder.
In Murder Always Barks Twice, the victim is the organizer of the local Daphne DuMaurier literary festival, and since Emma and her business partners (owners of the local B&B) were hired to cater the festival, they end up embroiled in the mystery. There’s missing money, family secrets, and plenty of strange smells for Oliver to investigate.
A pet peeve of mine is when there’s a corgi on the cover of the book, but the corgi is barely present in the story. That isn’t an issue here! Not only does Emma carry on conversations with Oliver, but he gets his own POV chapters as well. Oliver is smart, brave, loyal, occasionally judgmental, and highly food motivated — in short, he’s very believable as a corgi! But these POV sections definitely push this into the more whimsical end of the cozy genre, which means I need to be just in the right mood for it.
One thing I really like about this series is that Hawkins has created a quaint Cornish village that is diverse. The B&B that she runs her tea and cake counter from is owned by a Black family, there’s an older gay couple running the antique store, and the town’s sole police offer is of Southeast Asian heritage (his parents also live in town). These side characters feel relatively well-developed and depicted.
I spoke with a friend who reads more cozies than I do, and we agreed that these books are not the best of the genre, but there’s a whole lot worse out there. That said, I noticed some definite writing and/or editing errors in this one, such as word/phrase repetitions, and one notable scene where a character repeatedly refers to her father as her uncle!
Currently, there are three books in this series, with the most recent one published in 2022. I can’t find any information on whether more books are planned, and the author’s FB page hasn’t been updated since 2023, when she was posting about a historical mystery series she was writing under another name. So if you’re looking for a cozy series and don’t want to commit to a dozen books, and you like corgis, you could check them out — just know that if you get hooked, there may not be more to come.
CWs and TWs: It’s a cozy. There’s murder and brief moments of peril, but it’s pretty light stuff.
Format and Source: I read this as an eBook from Seattle Public Libraries.
Book Bingo Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): Dying for a Mystery. If you’re dying for a cozy mystery, this could very well hit the spot.
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: Cozy. This has all the hallmarks of a cozy: a likeable amateur detective, a slow-burn sweet romantic subplot, a cute pet, a cast of unique supporting characters, and of course, a quaint setting.
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 16 out of 25 prompts complete. 2 bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 14 out of 25 prompts complete. 0 bingos.
SAL/SPL Adult Summer Reading: 8 out of 23 prompts, 0 bingos.