The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton

Hold onto your hats. This cozy takes place in the quaint English village of Carsely. Agatha Raisin is our detective, who cheats in a quiche baking contest and loses. In fact her quiche is the suspected murder weapon.

Agatha can't let this fly. There's no way she had anything to do with this murder. She has to solve it! Are you curious about life as an old British lady? Do you like cottages, pubs, fairs, morris-men, and bicycle rides in the English countryside? If so, this is the cozy for you.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

Since I read a lot this past fall and winter, I decided it was imperative to read some "cozies", and this one sounded the most cozy. It's about a bakery owner in Minnesota who bribes people with cookies, has a big snuggly cat, drives a suburban, drinks jug wine, and solves a murder. For weeks, it inspired me to mix an egg with my coffee grounds and make scandinavian style coffee. What a treat!

The book, though. It was okay. There were cookie recipes accompanying most chapters. I didn't use any of them. The murder didn't have anything to do with chocolate chip cookies. I know I'm supposed to get all excited about figuring it out before the book tells me who did it. Really, you can only ever guess up until a certain, anticipated point. I never thought, "Oh man, if only that guy hadn't been murdered in cold blood."

I think it's wrong to ignore the grave consequences of killing. Joanna Fluke doesn't think it's a big deal to kill innocent people. Murder provides mysteries and in the end, everything is actually better than it ever was before. Cozy!