Cozy mysteries with cats and dogs
Six series where the cat or the dog is usually the smartest one in the room, plus one goose.
A cozy mystery with a cat or a dog in it has an extra reason to keep reading: somebody on the page is reliably on your side, and they will knock the evidence off a shelf at the right moment. These are the ones I recommend most. Every one is the first book in a series, so if a pairing clicks there's plenty more.
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards
Lilian Jackson Braun · The Cat Who..., book 1 (1966)
Where a lot of us started. Jim Qwilleran, a former crime reporter, has been put on the art beat at a city newspaper, and the art world turns out to be more dangerous than the crime desk. His partner in it is Koko, a Siamese who appears to be able to read backwards. Nobody explains how, and that's half the fun.
Find it on Amazon →Wish You Were Here
Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown · Mrs. Murphy, book 1
Harry Haristeen is the postmistress in Crozet, Virginia, a small town near Charlottesville, which means she sees everyone's mail. Her tiger cat, Mrs. Murphy, and her Welsh corgi, Tucker, talk the case over between themselves, and they usually notice things first.
Find it on Amazon →Murder Past Due
Miranda James · Cat in the Stacks, book 1
Charlie Harris, a librarian, has moved back to his hometown of Athena, Mississippi, with Diesel, a rescued Maine Coon. A best-selling author he never liked comes home as a distinguished alumnus and is dead by dinner. A good pick if you like a gentle, bookish narrator.
Find it on Amazon →Dog On It
Spencer Quinn · Chet and Bernie, book 1
Told by Chet, the dog who works with Bernie, a private investigator with a small agency in the desert Southwest. Seeing a case through a dog's nose is funnier than it has any right to be, and the mystery holds up underneath.
Find it on Amazon →A Pedigree to Die For
Laurien Berenson · Melanie Travis, book 1
Melanie, a Connecticut teacher and single mother, gets pulled into the dog-show world when her uncle dies and his prize standard poodle goes missing. Her Aunt Peg asks her to find the dog, and the search leads somewhere much worse.
Find it on Amazon →A New Leash on Death
Susan Conant · Dog Lover's Mysteries, book 1 (1990)
Holly Winter writes about dogs for a living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and her Alaskan malamute, Rowdy, is a stray she took in. If you know dog-training people, you'll recognize every one of them.
Find it on Amazon →
And one goose
Claire Willowbrook · The Foxglove Nursery Mysteries, book 1: A Body in the Bee Balm
Not a cat or a dog, I admit. Marta Pettibone, a retired hospice nurse, inherits a plant nursery above the harbor in Gullwater, Washington, along with a goose named Custis who won't let her into the barn. Out October 25. Join the letter below and you'll hear the morning it goes live.
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