Two cozy mysteries for TWOsday

Purrs and Peril: Norwegian Forest Cat Café Cozy Mystery (Book 1 of 23) ~ by Jinty James, 2018, cozy mystery (California), 228 pages, 9/10

Lauren Crenshaw and her Norwegian Forest Cat Annie run their own certified cat café in the picturesque small town of Gold Leaf Valley in Northern California.  Lauren’s fun cousin Zoe helps out as well.

Lauren, Annie, and Zoe are shocked when one of their favorite customers is poisoned.  Steve came into the café nearly every day – but who wanted him dead?

The trio find themselves suspecting their customers – even elderly Mrs. Finch, whom Lauren thinks of as a substitute grandmother, doesn’t escape their scrutiny.  The new (and attractive) police detective warns them off the case.  But Annie, the Norwegian Forest Cat, seems to have a nose for sniffing out trouble.

Can Lauren, Annie, and Zoe catch the killer before the killer catches them?  This is a humorous cat cozy mystery with female amateur sleuths – and a gorgeous Norwegian Forest Cat.

Murder in the Bookshop: Miss Merrill and Aunt Violet Mysteries (Book 1 of 2) ~ by Anita Davison, 2023, cozy mystery, 274 pages, 6/10

1915, London: Working in the dusty bookshop that her Aunt Violet mysteriously inherited, Hannah Merrill is accustomed to finding twists in every tale.  But discovering her beloved best friend Lily-Anne – with a paperknife through her heart – in the middle of the bookshop, is not a plotline she saw coming.

The case is anything but textbook.  With the discovery of a coded German message, and Hannah’s instinct that Lily-Anne’s husband is keeping secrets, she determines to get to the bottom of it.

She can’t do it alone though.  To crack this case, Hannah will need to enlist the help of her outrageous, opinionated, only-occasionally-objectionable Aunt Violet.

They think they’re making progress until one of their chief suspects is found dead, and Hannah realizes that she is herself now in the murderer’s sights.  Will the final chapter be the ending of a killer – or just a killer ending?