Home › Lesbian Books › Mystery & Thriller › Cozy Mysteries
Clues, suspects and sapphic sleuths, with the amount of romance spelled out.
10 books · 9 with full LRR reviews · 4 series starters · 1 established couple
The best lesbian cozy mystery books are A Curious Woman by Jess Lea, a funny small-town Australian whodunit, Sunny Side Up by Missouri Vaun and VK Powell, about a retiring police chief and her wife, and Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite, a cozy mystery on a spaceship. For a sapphic whodunit with a central romance, try Proper English.
Cozy means the story focuses on clues and community rather than gore, but a murder is still a murder. Each card says how much romance there is and whether the book starts a series.
Nine of the ten have full LRR reviews.
Lesbian Cozy Mysteries at a Glance
A cozy mystery has a death and a puzzle, but the focus is on clues, community and the sleuth rather than gore. Here is how each one balances the mystery and the romance.
| Book | Sleuth and setting | Romance | Series |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Curious Woman | Two mismatched women, small Australian town | Light | Book 1 of a series |
| Sunny Side Up | Retiring police chief and her wife | Established couple | Standalone |
| Murder by Memory | Detective in a borrowed body, on a spaceship | Secondary | Book 1 of 3 |
| Nobody’s Baby | Dorothy Gentleman, locked-ship puzzle | Ongoing | Book 2 |
| Proper English | Markswoman at a 1902 country house | Central | Standalone |
The Best Lesbian Cozy Mystery Books
Five sapphic whodunits with real puzzles and very different amounts of romance.
A Curious Woman
Jess Lea · Ylva · 2019
Bess and Margaret are very different women whose lives collide with a murder in a quirky Australian coastal town.
Funny, eccentric and a good ice queen at the center. Five readers made a point of warning that the romance is light, so pick it for the mystery and the town.
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Sunny Side Up
Missouri Vaun and VK Powell · Bold Strokes Books
A small-town police chief on the edge of retirement and her long-married wife, Sunny and Kate, get pulled into one more case in a town worth moving to.
The warmest pick here and the only one about a couple who are already together. The first half is slow and detailed, so settle in.
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Murder by Memory
Olivia Waite · Tordotcom · Dorothy Gentleman #1
Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that is not hers aboard the ship Fairweather, with a death to investigate.
Speculative rules inside a cozy puzzle, from the author of The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics. Mystery comes first here, romance second.
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Nobody’s Baby
Olivia Waite · Tordotcom · Dorothy Gentleman #2
Dorothy is back with a new case and a real idea about who gets to count as a person.
Clever and warm. The puzzle is slighter than book one, and the sapphic romance is still building, so read Murder by Memory first.
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Proper English
K.J. Charles · 2019
Champion markswoman Pat Merton goes to a country-house shooting party and falls for her best friend’s fiancée, Fen. Then a guest is murdered.
The pick if you want the romance to matter as much as the mystery. It is set in 1902, so Edwardian rather than Victorian.
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More Sapphic Whodunits
Five more from our reviews, from a 1989 classic to a YA magical mystery. Not all of them are strictly cozy, and the cards say why.
Hallowed Murder
Ellen Hart
The first Jane Lawless mystery, set around a sorority house. Historically important and the start of a long series.
Ending: Self-contained case.
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Fortune Favors the Dead
Stephen Spotswood
A knife-throwing bisexual narrator and a brilliant detective. Romance is a side thread.
Ending: Case resolves.
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A Restless Truth
Freya Marske
An ingénue and an actress on an ocean liner with a murder aboard. Magic and real heat.
Ending: Romance resolves happy for now. Trilogy book 2.
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The Worst Spy in London
Anne Knight
A young lady and her modiste stumble on a plot to prolong the war with Napoleon.
Ending: HEA.
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Charmed and Dangerous
Shelly Page
Two Black lesbian leads, a love charm gone wrong and a well-hidden culprit.
Ending: Not confirmed in our summary.
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What Cozy Means Here
Cozy does not mean nothing bad happens. Someone usually dies. It means the story stays focused on the puzzle, the community and the people solving it rather than on graphic violence. A comforting romance without a mystery is not a cozy mystery, however nice the cover.
If you want the romance front and center, start with Proper English. If you want a long series to settle into, start with A Curious Woman or Hallowed Murder. For more suspense, our lesbian mystery and thriller guide goes darker.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best lesbian cozy mystery books?
A Curious Woman by Jess Lea, Sunny Side Up by Missouri Vaun and VK Powell, and Olivia Waite’s Dorothy Gentleman series starting with Murder by Memory.
Is there a sapphic cozy mystery series?
Yes. A Curious Woman starts a series, Hallowed Murder starts the long Jane Lawless series, and Murder by Memory starts the Dorothy Gentleman books.
Do lesbian cozy mysteries have romance?
Some do. Proper English has a central romance, A Curious Woman has a light one, and Sunny Side Up follows a married couple.
Is there a cozy mystery with an established lesbian couple?
Sunny Side Up, about a retiring police chief and her long-married wife.
Are these contemporary?
Not all. Proper English is 1902, A Restless Truth is 1909 and Murder by Memory is set on a spaceship.
Related Genres and Guides
For the darker side, see lesbian mystery and thriller books. For laughs without the murder, lesbian rom com books. Mysteries in space continue in sapphic space opera.
How We Chose These Books
This selection uses our own full reviews wherever LRR has reviewed a book, plus author and publisher descriptions where a specific trope needs direct support. Every card says why the book fits this exact trope. Cards marked “LRR full review” link to a review where we went through Goodreads, StoryGraph, trade reviews and reader discussion before scoring it. Cards marked “Publisher description” or “Author description” are researched picks that we have not reviewed yet, and we say so rather than pretend otherwise. Ending notes come from our review or from an explicit promise in the book’s own description. Theme notes are not complete content warnings.
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