January is supposed to be quiet. Reflective. Boring. Which is exactly why it’s perfect for murder.
Here’s why no cozy mystery heroine is ever safe once the calendar flips to January:
1. Everyone Is Hungover and Emotional
Bad decisions love a New Year’s Eve hangover. So do confessions, fights, and people saying things they really shouldn’t. Our amateur sleuth + cupcake baker, Ava Decker starts Book 7 with a headache and ends it with… well. A body.
2. New Year’s Resolutions Make People Reckless
“I’m going to change my life this year” is basically a crime-novel incantation. Quit your job. Leave your spouse. Confront your nemesis. What could possibly go wrong?
3. Empty Buildings Are Creepy
Museums. Town halls. Closed bakeries. January = fewer witnesses + more shadows = terrible outcomes for anyone opening doors too early.
4. Small-Town Secrets Don’t Stay Buried
When it’s cold and miserable outside, people gossip inside. Feuds resurface. Money goes missing. Old grudges thaw just enough to turn deadly.
5. Cozy Towns Are Extra Murdery After the Holidays
All that forced cheer? It snaps. January is when the glitter comes down and resentment takes over. Cozy towns are basically pressure cookers with cupcake frosting.
6. Amateur Sleuths Are Back “Just to Help”
Ava knows the drill. She doesn’t want to investigate… but she also can’t ignore a mystery. Especially when the victim has a pantry’s worth of enemies.
7. Cats Know Something Is Wrong
If the feline sidekick is staring too long at the hallway or sitting directly on your evidence, congratulations—you’re in danger.
Final Thought
January might be quiet… but in a cozy mystery town, it’s never peaceful for long.
If you like:
sarcastic bakers
murder with frosting on top
messy love triangles
small-town drama
and cats who absolutely know who did it
then Buttercream and Bullets is waiting for you.
About the Author
Lisa Siefert is a USA Today Bestselling Mystery Author who writes humorous cozy mysteries. She dedicates all of her free time to testing out different latte flavors at every coffee shop she comes across and has never once skimped on dessert because life is too short not to. She lives in San Diego with Lucky, her own devious but adorable Abyssinian kitten. She excels at recounting every Hallmark Movie plot ever conceived and can also whip up a mean batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Her books feature amateur women sleuths that always believe in silver linings despite all of the murderous clouds surrounding them.
She just wants to sell cupcakes and avoid drama. When a killer strikes close to home, will she whisk up the perfect trap or get burned trying?
Ava Decker is starved for commitment. Unsure what to do about the three men tearing her in different directions, the sarcastic baker is kicking off January with a massive hangover and the urge to eat her feelings. But when she drags herself to the museum to clean up after the town’s New Year’s Eve bash, she discovers not only stale treats but also the editor of the local newspaper … shot to death.
Leaning on forensic skills she’s earned by being an unfortunate corpse magnet, the big-hearted shop owner resumes her role as neighborhood amateur sleuth and starts exploring clues. Yet as she digs up info on feuding co-workers, missing money, and crooked politicians, she realizes the sharp-tongued wordsmith had a whole pantry’s worth of enemies.
Can she celebrate the sweet reward of catching a murderer before this becomes a recipe for disaster?
Buttercream and Bullets is the warmly satirical seventh book in the Frosted Misfortunes Mysteries culinary cozy series. If you like quirky characters with millennial snark, laugh-out-loud humor, and feline sidekicks who steal scenes, then you’ll love Lisa Siefert’s relatable shenanigans.
When everyone’s in costume, even a killer can hide in plain sight…
Sister Bernadette Ohlson planned a quiet weekend in Seattle catching up with her old friend Sister Eleanor—not tracking down her murderer. But when Eleanor improbably turns up dead after having a cocktail with a cosplaying character during Comic Con, Sister Bernie refuses to return safely home and pray for answers. With the clock ticking before the convention ends and thousands of possible suspects scatter, Bernie teams up with her former student, Detective AJ Lewis, to uncover the truth behind a killer hiding behind a mask.
From movie characters to anime icons, every cosplayer could be a suspect—and every clue seems to lead to a dead end. AJ worries his favorite nun is in over her head, but Bernie’s faith in human nature and her unholy habit of ignoring good advice may be the only things standing between justice and a perfect crime.
Fans of witty amateur sleuth mysteries, fun-loving characters, and page-turning whodunits will love this lighthearted mystery set amid the chaos and cosplay of Comic Con. Perfect for readers of Richard Osman, Jeanne M. Dams, and Jana DeLeon.
Look, I’m not saying cupcakes are magical. I’m just saying I’ve never seen anyone eat a fresh, still-warm vanilla cupcake and say, “Wow, that made everything worse.”
There are simply some situations in life that baked goods were scientifically designed to handle, and as someone who writes culinary cozy mysteries… I feel qualified to create this list.
Here we go.
1. Bad day? Eat a spoonful of cookie dough. Instant reboot.
You know that feeling when the whole day is a mess and you’re two seconds from snapping at someone who doesn’t deserve it?
Solution: A scoop of cookie dough the size of your face.
Chocolate chip works wonders. Oatmeal raisin is for people who need to feel like they made a responsible decision.
2. Someone’s being dramatic? Offer them a cupcake.
Cupcakes defuse tension like nothing else on earth.
No one can fight while holding a cupcake. It’s science. (Probably.)
3. You said something awkward and want to disappear.
Cake. Preferably layered.
The more layers, the less you think about that thing you said that now lives rent-free in your head at 3 a.m.
4. You need to bribe someone? Croissants work.
Flaky pastries are basically currency.
Need a favor? Croissant.
Need forgiveness? Chocolate croissants.
Need someone to forget you asked a highly suspicious question like “Where were you last night between 8 and 10?” Almond croissants.
5. You’re avoiding your problems? Donuts help with the avoidance.
Sometimes you’re not ready to solve your problems. Sometimes you’re only ready to eat about it.
Since this week is Thanksgiving and, with that, Black Friday, I wanted to highlight Shop Small Saturday for this blog post. Because, after all, my protagonist, Wren Winters, is the owner of the Cardboard Shop, the local board game shop in Hollow’s Way. Like Wren and her friends, I live in a small town. We have lots of local festivals, a walkable Main St., and a sense of community that feels magical, especially this time of year. I grew up in a much larger area and had never felt the kind of close-knit community that I experience here. Whether I’m going to the local YMCA, taking a walk in the park, or going to an event at the local arts community center, I almost always run into someone I know. But being in a small town does sometimes have its downsides. We have few big stores and limited access to things like specialized healthcare. I often drive over sixty miles one-way to see a doctor, and when I do, I combine trips, going to stores that we don’t have here to make the trip “worth it” (e.g. Target, Joann Fabrics when it was still around, etc.).
In my town, there are a few storefronts that have changed a dozen times over the years I’ve lived here: a toy shop became a fabric store only to become a burger place. The old Woolworth’s (you can still see the Woolworth’s name engraved on the metal door handle) became a karate dojo, and is now a glass-blowing workshop space. Similarly, some restaurants in town have changed palettes and cuisines umpteen times. Bye-bye cute date-night bistro, and hello delicious bakery. I’m always sad when a beloved place closes, wondering if we had just gone there a few more times, if that could have made a difference. RIP Neptune’s Diner, a classic chrome-bedecked greasy spoon with a gigantic menu and black-and-white cookies the size of pies. RIP the little corner deli where my husband and I bought subs the day we closed on our house and ate them in our new, empty home to celebrate. RIP the cute toy store where I bought my nephew so many presents before they closed and often chatted with the owner about designing crossword puzzles. These stores and local businesses are more than mere places to shop – they are the heart of our communities, they are part of our family traditions and memories.
This Shop Small Saturday, I’ll visit my cozy local bookstore and game store to start stock-piling Christmas and birthday presents for my nephew. Eight years old, he loves to read and has a vivid imagination. And I’m happy to play the indulgent aunt card and spoil him with books, science experiment kits, magic sets, and whatever else he might be into this month (it keeps changing…) in order to feed his voracious imagination all the more.
What small, local businesses in your town do you want to celebrate or remember? Is there a go-to store on your list or maybe a place no longer in business that you’ll always remember fondly? A yarn shop? A vintage clothing boutique? A funky bookstore cafe?
About the author
Shelly Jones is a professor by trade and a nerd by design. Woefully introverted, their pockets are full of post-it notes and their head is full of (unsaid) witty come-backs and un-won arguments from years past. When they aren’t grading papers or writing new cozy mysteries, Shelly can often be found hiking in the woods or playing a board game while their cats look on. Connect with Shelly on her website: shellyjonesauthor.com.
Mistletoe, mochas, and murder. When a Christmastime killer strikes, can one amateur sleuth save the festivities from chocolate-covered ruin?
Ava Decker craves clarity. Stuck in limbo while her maybe-boyfriend takes flight overseas, the sarcastic pastry chef buries her insecurities inside her cupcakes. But as her town immerses itself in yuletide cheer, she pushes herself to re-enter the world and celebrate… only to discover a fellow confectioner’s body floating in a lake of fudge.
Grieving and prepping for the magical winter festival, the witty entrepreneur is dumbfounded by the news that she’s inherited the cocoa master’s decadent empire. And as a disgruntled relative contests the will and traces of embezzlement surface, Ava mixes a batch of relentless sleuthing with a pinch of help from her forensic accounting background.
Will refusing to walk away get her yule cake crumbled or put a grinch behind bars? Candy Canes and Crimes is the quirky sixth book in the Frosted Misfortunes Mysteries culinary cozy series. If you like strong female leads with self-deprecating humor, loveable animal sidekicks, and small-town holiday charm, then you’ll adore Lisa Siefert’s entertaining adventure.
Lisa Siefert is a USA Today Bestselling Mystery Author who writes humorous cozy mysteries. She dedicates all of her free time to testing out different latte flavors at every coffee shop she comes across and has never once skimped on dessert because life is too short not to. She lives in San Diego with Lucky, her own devious but adorable Abyssinian kitten. She excels at recounting every Hallmark Movie plot ever conceived and can also whip up a mean batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Her books feature amateur women sleuths that always believe in silver linings despite all of the murderous clouds surrounding them.
When I’m not writing murder mysteries, I’m teaching (or grading…) mostly first generation college students. To keep my classes engaged and interactive, I incorporate a lot of different games into my lessons. Anything from Jenga to Clue to some more obscure games like MicroMacro (think: Richard Scarry books or Where’s Waldo meets a whodunit) or Sign, which is a cooperative roleplaying game or storytelling game about creating a shared language. I like bringing in these alternative activities to make my classes more dynamic, to meet my students where they’re at, and to get them to apply the ideas we’re talking about onto different texts.
This past week was a double whammy for games. In my lower level literature class, I brought in different versions of Clue and we examined the box art and settings in order for them to consider how they will complete their Clue(re)do assignment in which they modernize the game for their world. We talked about closed circle mysteries (in which there is a limited number of suspects, each with a motive, means, and opportunity to commit the crime: think a class Agatha Christie like Murder on the Orient Express or And Then There Were None). Then my students came up with alternative isolated locations that could serve as backdrops for their own Clue boards. Some suggestions were a summer camp, a movie theater, and a fraternity/sorority house – all excellent possibilities for a whodunit.
In my upper level communication class, we’ve been playing a roleplaying game that requires students to collaboratively tell a story based on prompts they pick. They then need to write letters to each other’s characters, expressing what has happened based on the prompt cards and how their characters feel. After they write their letters, they then create a keepsake, remediating their story into their crafted object. Some draw pictures, some use pipe cleaners, feathers, and felt, some use modeling clay. (My office has become a mini-Michaels chockful of art supplies…) Today, as they were sharing their stories, one student was surprised how quickly she had adopted talking about her character in the first person (e.g. “I did this” instead of “my character did this”). This is pretty common when playing a roleplaying game, but it also got me thinking about how we do this in writing too.
With all of my characters, there has to be some point of empathy, some point of identification where I can understand who they are and what their motivations are. Writing and roleplaying often go hand in hand as we try to understand who our characters are and what makes them tick. Sometimes I get asked how much of myself x,y,z character is. None of them are photocopies of me on the page. They’re more like a kaleidoscope of different characteristics I’ve plucked from people (some who I know, some who I’ve merely people-watched and jotted down a memorable quirk or a phrase…). For example, Wren and I are both pretty loyal to our friends, possibly to a fault. But then again, I’m also very much like Charlie: to the point and a bit more introverted (okay, a lot more introverted). Like Jo, I can be very logical (though I may rush to conclusions faster than her…). And while Esther and I are the most different, I can be pretty blunt just like her (though far less charismatic! And far less extroverted). But each of the characters have shiny shards of this and that, refracting together to form their unique identity.
Aside from playing a roleplaying game, the way Wren and the gang are doing in Murder, She Rolled, another great way to express ourselves or to have some fun trying out a new identity is to dress up in costume or cosplay. With Halloween just around the corner (eeks!), I need to start planning my outfit. Last year I was a sheet of notebook paper (because what could be scarier for a writer than the blank page?). This year I might cut out some felt letters and pin them to my costume so I can go as a work in progress…
What might you dress up as (or roleplay) for Halloween? Are you a more traditional ghost or witch? A Marvel superhero? A classic literary figure ala Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple? Or do you have a favorite costume from your childhood (Snoopy for me) or one that your children or grandchildren wore?
About the author
Shelly Jones is a professor by trade and a nerd by design. Woefully introverted, their pockets are full of post-it notes and their head is full of (unsaid) witty come-backs and un-won arguments from years past. When they aren’t grading papers or writing new cozy mysteries, Shelly can often be found hiking in the woods or playing a board game while their cats look on.
