The Cozy Mystery Census 2026
≈4,000
About 4,000 new cozy mysteries are published in English every year. The Library of Congress catalogs about 3% of them.
In 2025, CozyMystery.com recorded 3,992 new cozy books; the Library of Congress “Cozy mysteries” genre heading covered 115. Source: data provided by CozyMystery.com, September 2026; Library of Congress catalog, 2025.
Ask an AI assistant how many cozy mysteries come out each year and you get a different answer every time. In September 2026 ChatGPT guessed 500 to 1,000. Asked again in October, it said about 2,000, and Gemini gave no number at all. The real number is about 4,000, and until now nobody had put it in one place. I review cozy mysteries on this site and I am writing one, so I wanted the basic numbers: how many are published, who publishes them, who solves the murders, and how many have a cat.
So I counted. The Cozy Mystery Census combines the yearly figures shared by CozyMystery.com, the largest edited database of the genre, with my own sample of 946 new releases and 150 randomly drawn series. Every number below has a source, a sample size and, where it matters, a margin of error.
Key findings
- About 4,000 new cozies a year. CozyMystery.com recorded 22,894 new cozy mysteries between 2020 and 2025, with a peak of 4,267 in 2023. [1]
- New series fell 34% in two years. 725 new cozy series started in 2023 and 482 in 2025, while the number of books dropped only 6%. [1]
- About half of the “cozies” that reach CozyMystery.com are AI-written, by the site’s own rough estimate: around 5,000 rejected a year against about 4,000 accepted. [1]
- 70% of cozy series are self-published. Only 15% of the series with an identifiable publisher come from publishers that pay advances (Census sample, 109 series).
- 91% of sleuths are amateurs and 83% are women. The most common day job is journalist or writer (13%), followed by food and drink (11%) (Census sample).
- 38% of cozy titles contain a word about death, but only 12.5% are true puns (Census sample, 946 titles).
How many cozy mysteries are published each year?
Between 3,179 and 4,267 new cozy mysteries were published in English each year from 2020 to 2025, according to CozyMystery.com. The count rose by a third to a peak in 2023 and has stayed close to 4,000 since: 3,912 in 2024 and 3,992 in 2025. Over the six years that adds up to 22,894 books. [1]
| Year | New books | New series | New series ÷ new books | Book 1s, weekly sample | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 3,179 | 544 | 17.1% | 20.1% | CozyMystery.com [1]; sample |
| 2021 | 3,656 | 633 | 17.3% | 19.8% | CozyMystery.com [1]; sample |
| 2022 | 3,888 | 681 | 17.5% | 20.7% | CozyMystery.com [1]; sample |
| 2023 | 4,267 | 725 | 17.0% | 20.1% | CozyMystery.com [1]; sample |
| 2024 | 3,912 | 557 | 14.2% | 12.8% | CozyMystery.com [1]; sample |
| 2025 | 3,992 | 482 | 12.1% | 12.5% | CozyMystery.com [1]; sample |
A second count agrees on the size. I saved 12 randomly chosen weeks of CozyMystery.com’s new-release lists by hand, two from each year, and they average 78.8 new books a week. That projects to about 4,100 a year, close to the database’s six-year average of 3,816. The two counts are not fully independent, since both start from the same site, but they were made separately.
Sales point the same way. BookNet Canada reported that cozy book sales in Canada grew 57% between 2022 and 2025, then fell 22% in 2026 up to mid-September, while library borrowing of cozies rose 11% on the year before. [5]
Why other counts are so much lower
| Source | What it counts | 2025 | Share of CozyMystery.com | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CozyMystery.com | Every new cozy its editors accept, without box sets and titles containing “novella” | 3,992 | 100% | [1] |
| Goodreads list | Books readers added to the community list “2025 Cozy Mystery New Releases” | 229 | 5.7% | [4] |
| Library of Congress | Catalog records carrying the genre heading “Cozy mysteries” | 115 | 2.9% | [3] |
| ChatGPT | Its own estimate: in a September 2026 test, and again in October, from one month’s release roundup | 500–1,000+ (Sept.); about 2,000 (Oct.) | 13–50% | own tests |
| Gemini | Asked in October 2026: no figure, only “multi-thousands” | – | – | own test |
Each source counts something different. The Library of Congress mostly catalogs books that publishers send in, and few self-published cozies get there. Marian, who runs CozyMystery.com, said the low number did not surprise her. A Goodreads list grows only as fast as volunteers add to it. The most visible public counts therefore undercount the genre by a factor of 17 to 35. The AI assistants lean on the same small public lists, which is why their answers change from month to month and stay at half the real number or below.
Are fewer cozy mystery series starting?
Yes. New cozy series dropped from 725 in 2023 to 482 in 2025, a fall of 34%, while the number of new books fell only 6%. Authors are still publishing, but fewer of the new books open a series; more of them continue a series that already exists. [1]
Until 2023, about one new cozy in six was the first book of a series. In 2025 it was one in eight.Source: CozyMystery.com (17.0% in 2023, 12.1% in 2025); Census weekly sample (20.1% and 12.5%).
My weekly sample, counted separately, shows the same break: first books were about 20% of new releases from 2020 to 2023 and 12.5–12.8% in 2024 and 2025. Three explanations fit, and the data can’t separate them. The market may be crowded enough that authors prefer to extend a series readers already know. CozyMystery.com may be screening out more AI-written books (next section). Or, as Marian suggested herself, the way the database collects titles may play a part.
AI-written books: how many cozy mysteries are written by AI?
By CozyMystery.com’s own rough estimate, about 5,000 books a year are rejected as AI-written, against about 4,000 accepted cozies. That means roughly half of the books that reach the site as cozy mysteries are written by AI. The site keeps no year-by-year count, so whether the share is growing is unknown. [1]
Roughly one in two books that reach CozyMystery.com as cozy mysteries is AI-written, by the site’s own estimate.Source: CozyMystery.com, October 2026 (about 5,000 rejected as AI-written, about 4,000 accepted a year).
Marian gave these figures “in rough numbers”. Her team sets aside about 60% of the books that come in, around 6,000 a year. About two thirds of those are obviously AI-written. The rest split roughly evenly between AI and other reasons, most often a book sold as cozy whose hero is a police officer or a detective. Many books are skipped even before this stage, and how many of those are AI-written she can’t say. [1]
The screening methods are not public. Two signals she mentioned are a sudden jump in output, such as an author who goes from two books a year to two a week, and an author with no online presence beyond the books themselves. [1]
This matters for the trend in the previous section. If the screening grew stricter in 2024 and 2025, part of the drop in new series would be books removed by the filter, not books never written. Without yearly counts I can’t tell how big that part is. No author in this Census is linked to AI, and none should be inferred from this section.
Who are the cozy mystery publishers?
Most cozy mysteries are self-published. Of the 109 sampled series with an identifiable publisher, 69.7% are self-published, 15.6% come from small presses, 11% from mid-sized publishers and 3.7% from the big publishing groups. Even if every unidentified series were traditionally published, self-publishing would still be 52%.
| Publisher type | Series | Share | 95% margin | Examples in the sample | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-published (incl. 6 author-owned imprints) | 76 | 69.7% | ±8.6 pp | “Independently published”, author imprints | Census sample, n = 109 |
| Small press | 17 | 15.6% | – | Level Best Books, Tule, Beyond the Page, Secret Staircase | Census sample, n = 109 |
| Mid-sized publisher | 12 | 11.0% | – | Kensington (6 series), Severn House, Joffe Books, Thomas & Mercer | Census sample, n = 109 |
| Big publishing group | 4 | 3.7% | – | Berkley and Vintage (Penguin Random House), One More Chapter (HarperCollins), Constable (Little, Brown) | Census sample, n = 109 |
| Publishers that pay advances (mid-sized + big) | 16 | 14.7% | ±6.6 pp | Census sample, n = 109 |
This also explains the Library of Congress gap: self-published books rarely enter its catalog. Thomas & Mercer, Amazon’s own imprint, counts as mid-sized here because it pays advances. The cozies you find on a bookshop table, such as Jenn McKinlay’s Library Lover’s Mysteries or Krista Davis’s Domestic Diva Mysteries, both from Berkley, belong to the 4% at the top. Another 36 sampled series name no publisher I could verify, and they are left out of the shares above.
Who is the typical amateur sleuth?
91% of cozy sleuths are amateurs and 83% are women, based on the sampled series with known details. The most common day jobs are in the media (journalist, writer, reporter) at 13%, followed by food and drink at 11%, and inns and hotels and shops at 8% each.
| Occupation group | Series | Share | Example from the sample | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Media (journalist, writer, reporter) | 15 | 13.2% | journalist (The Lakeside Cottage Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
| Food and drink | 13 | 11.4% | runs the family clambake business (The Maine Clambake Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
| Inns, B&Bs and hotels | 9 | 7.9% | innkeeper (The Amish Inn Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
| Shops | 9 | 7.9% | flower shop owners (The Thorne Sister Sleuths Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
| Libraries and bookshops | 8 | 7.0% | village librarian (The Fencross Parva Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
| Arts and antiques | 7 | 6.1% | auctioneer (The Stamford Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
| No occupation | 7 | 6.1% | former socialite (The Lovely Lethal Gardens Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
| Crafts | 6 | 5.3% | works at a quilt shop (The Someday Quilts Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
| Office and business | 6 | 5.3% | accountant (The Charlie Parker Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
| Garden and farm | 5 | 4.4% | beekeeper (The Honey Bear Mysteries) | Census sample, n = 114 |
Women lead 102 of the 123 series with a known sleuth, couples 11 and men 7. Only 9% of sleuths are police officers, private investigators or other professionals, or retired ones. That share describes what is left after CozyMystery.com has filtered out many police-led books, so across the whole market it is probably higher. The librarian sleuth has a reputation bigger than her numbers: libraries and bookshops account for 7%, behind the journalists and the bakers and café owners of culinary cozies.
What are cozy mysteries about? Themes and pets
A quarter of cozy series have a paranormal element, such as witches, ghosts or psychics. Pets play a central part in about one series in five or six: CozyMystery.com has tagged roughly 1,350 of its 7,400 series with an animal theme, or 18.2%. The real share is probably higher, because the tags cover whole series, not single books. [1]
Among sampled series with one clear hook, paranormal leads with 23%, ahead of culinary and historical at 11% each. Pets are the main hook in 6%, gardening and travel in 5% each, crafts and books in 4% each, and 30% don’t fit any single theme. If magic is your thing, the witch cozies and the wider paranormal cozy mysteries are the biggest single shelf. 89% of the series are set in the present day, and the historical cozies make up the rest. Of the series with a known country, 65% are set in the United States, 22% in the United Kingdom and 6% in Canada.
My own sample can’t give a pet share, because authors mention a pet mainly when the series is about one. Among the 51 series where they do, dogs (23) and cats (20) are nearly level, which matches the two shelves on this site: cozy cat mysteries and dog mystery books.
What do cozy mystery titles have in common?
38% of new cozy titles contain a word about death, and 19% use the word “murder” itself. The pun title the genre is famous for is rarer than its reputation: with a strict definition, only 12.5% of titles are puns. “Christmas” is the third most common word in cozy titles, after “murder” and “death”.
| Title contains | Share | 95% margin | Example | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A death word (murder, death, dead, kill, poison…) | 38.1% | ±3.1 pp | Death of a Flapper | Census sample, n = 946 |
| The word “murder” | 19.1% | ±2.5 pp | Christmas Cupcake Murder | Census sample, n = 946 |
| The “Murder/Death at/on/in…” formula | 9.7% | ±1.9 pp | Murder at the Paris Fashion House | Census sample, n = 946 |
| A Christmas or holiday word | 7.7% | ±1.7 pp | A Christmas Carol Murder | Census sample, n = 946 |
| Witch, ghost, curse or magic | 6.7% | ±1.6 pp | Witch Is Where Clowns Go To Die | Census sample, n = 946 |
| A food or drink word | 4.9% | ±1.4 pp | Pecan Pie Predicament | Census sample, n = 946 |
| A strict pun (see definition below) | 12.5% | ±4.6 pp | Bread Over Troubled Water | Census sample, n = 200 |
I counted a title as a pun only if it takes a fixed phrase, swaps one word and keeps the original meaning while adding a second one: Bread Over Troubled Water, Rage Before Beauty, The Lies that Bind. Sound-alike titles and loose parodies didn’t count. The five most common words are murder (170 titles), death (59), christmas (45), deadly (17) and case (16). Many titles also work by making you ask a question (Murder Buys a One-Way Ticket: why one-way?), but I found no objective way to measure that, so it stays an observation.
How long do cozy mystery series run?
The median cozy series has 6 books. 29% reach at least 10 books, 9% reach 20, and the longest series in the sample has 34: Jenna St. James’s Witch in the Woods Mysteries. A quarter stop at three books or fewer.
Among the 116 series with a known status, 81% are ongoing, 13% have had no new book since 2023 and 6% have been formally concluded. Publishers rarely announce that a series has ended, so the dormant share is a minimum. Long series keep selling: in the weekly sample, 21% of new releases were book 10 or later. Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen series, which began with Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, had reached 30 books by the end of 2025, and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum is past 30 as well.
Just for fun: the Cabot Cove murder rate in real cozy towns
If every book in a series has at least one murder, the real towns behind long cozy series become very dangerous places. Westerham in Kent would have at least 67 murders per 100,000 people a year, about 78 times the rate for England and Wales. Albuquerque is the one exception: the real city is far deadlier than its cozy.
| Series and town | Books | Rate in the books (min.) | Real rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Paranormal Investigation Bureau (Dionne Lister) Westerham, England, pop. 4,498 | 21 in 7 years | ≥66.7 | 0.86 (England & Wales) | [8][11] |
| The Lin Coffin Mysteries (J. A. Whiting) Nantucket, USA, pop. 14,789 | 22 in 11 years | ≥13.5 | 0 (no murders, 2022–2024) | [7] |
| The Silver and Simm Mysteries (Cynthia E. Hurst) Witney, England, pop. 29,632 | 22 in 8 years | ≥9.3 | 0.86 (England & Wales) | [8][11] |
| The Lovely Lethal Gardens Mysteries (Dale Mayer) Kelowna, Canada, pop. 144,576 | 26 in 6 years | ≥3.0 | 0.80 (Kelowna metro) | [9][10] |
| The Charlie Parker Mysteries (Connie Shelton) Albuquerque, USA, pop. 558,745 | 23 in 31 years | ≥0.13 | 19.1 (city police) | [7] |
| Murder, She Wrote (TV) Cabot Cove, fictional, pop. 3,560 | 5.3 murders a year | 149 | 5.0 (USA) | [12][6] |
Book counts and years: Census sample. Real rates and populations: the sources in brackets.
How I counted: one murder per book, spread over the years in which the books came out. Most cozies have more than one body, and story time rarely matches publication time, so these are minimums and a joke, not criminology. Nantucket police reported no murders at all in 2022, 2023 or 2024, while J. A. Whiting’s landscaper Lin Coffin has solved 22 cases on the island since 2015. [7] In Albuquerque the books are about 140 times safer than the city, where the police reported 107 homicides in 2024. [7] For comparison, the United States as a whole had about 5 murders per 100,000 people in 2024, England and Wales 0.86 and Canada 1.91. [6][8][9]
Real rates per 100,000 people: USA about 5.0 (FBI, 2024), England and Wales 0.86 (ONS, year to March 2025), Canada 1.91 (Statistics Canada, 2024).
What counts as a cozy mystery?
In this Census, a cozy mystery is a book or series that CozyMystery.com’s editors accept as cozy and that neither the author nor the publisher sells as a thriller or noir. The starting point is the Library of Congress genre heading “Cozy mysteries” (gf2019026071, 2019), which defines the genre as “mystery fiction that features amateur sleuths, socially intimate settings, and a light-hearted tone”. [2] A professional detective does not rule a series out here (think of Hamish Macbeth or Mma Ramotswe), but CozyMystery.com screens out many police-led books, so few of them appear in the sample.
Methodology
Data collected: 23 September – 4 October 2026. Yearly figures: CozyMystery.com shared its counts of new cozy books and new series for 2020–2025 on 30 September 2026, and its screening estimates on 3 October 2026. The counts exclude box sets and books with “novella” in the title; other novellas are included, and older years can still grow when books are added late. [1]
Weekly sample: 12 randomly chosen weeks of CozyMystery.com’s new-release lists, two per year from 2020 to 2025, saved by hand with the site’s permission: 1,043 entries, of which 946 new books were counted after removing box sets, novellas, duplicates and other entries that were not new books. No automated tool touched CozyMystery.com. Series sample: 150 series drawn at random, with a fixed seed, from the 824 series in those weeks; 145 are cozy and 5 uncertain. For each series I looked up the sleuth, setting, publisher and book count on the author’s and publisher’s own sites, the Cozy Mystery List, Stop, You’re Killing Me!, Open Library, Google Books and the Apple Books store. [13][14][15] Every value has a source URL; without one the field stays empty, and every share above is calculated on the known cases with the base given.
Checks: in 20 random rows the sleuth’s name appeared on all 20 source pages; of 25 random settings, 23 were confirmed, one was partly wrong and corrected, and one source was unavailable. Sources consulted but not used: the paid K-lytics cozy report [16]; Goodreads, FictionDB and FantasticFiction (their terms restrict automated collection), Amazon and BookBub, and bookseriesinorder.com, which states that it blocks scrapers and AI bots.
Limitations: CozyMystery.com is an edited database, not a full market count, and its AI screening may account for part of the 2024–2025 drop. It also filters out many books with police or detective heroes, so the 9% professional-sleuth share applies to the filtered list. Publisher is known for 109 of 145 series, occupation for 114 and country for 98; 15 series exist only as store listings. A share of 30% in a sample of this size carries a margin of about ±8 points. One person classified the pun titles, using the strict definition above. The murder rates are a playful minimum. For the real towns, US populations come from the FBI’s agency data, English ones from the 2021 Census [11] (Witney: City Population) and Kelowna’s from the 2021 Canadian Census [10]. Albuquerque police’s own year-end count (89 cases, 96 victims) is lower than the 107 offenses in the FBI data used here.
Updates: the Census will be updated once a year with new figures from CozyMystery.com and two new random weeks per year. Reuse: the Census figures and the series table are free to reuse under the CC BY 4.0 license, with a link to this page.
Every series in the Census
These are the 145 cozy series in the random sample, from 140 authors. Featured in the Cozy Mystery Census 2026? Every author has a row you can link to: add # and your name to this page’s address, for example #connie-shelton. Click a column heading to sort, or type in the box to search. More authors are on our cozy mystery authors page.
| Author | Series | Sleuth’s job | Setting | Books | First book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. A. Albright | The Museum of Magical Artefacts | works at the Museum of Magical Artefacts | 7 | – | |
| A. A. Albright | The Wayfair Witches Mysteries | witch, working member of the Wayfair coven | Riddler's Cove, Ireland | 16 | 2017 |
| A. C. Monroe | The Rosebriar Mysteries | – | – | ||
| A. J. Fotheringham | The Lamb’s Bay Mysteries | former PI who runs an Internet-based research service from home | Lamb's Bay | 9 | 2020 |
| Addison Moore | The Country Cottage Mysteries | runs the Country Cottage Inn | Cider Cove, USA | – | 2019 |
| Alyn Troy | The Mystic Brews Mysteries | American barista who helps her aunt open the Mystic Brews café | Misty Valley, UK | 10 | 2020 |
| Amanda Flower | The Amish Matchmaker Mysteries | quiltmaker and Amish matchmaker | Harvest, USA | 6 | 2019 |
| Amanda Reid | The Flannigan Sisters Psychic Mysteries | physical therapist (Sunny); cafe/diner owner (Mina); vet tech and… | USA | 0 | – |
| Amber Ward | The Archer’s Corner Mysteries | – | – | ||
| Amelia D. Hay | The James Lalonde Mysteries | journalist / newspaper editor | Oxford, UK | 1 | 2022 |
| Barbara Emodi | The Gasper’s Cove Mysteries | seamstress; manager of the Gasper's Cove Crafter's Co-op,… | Gasper's Cove, Canada | – | 2023 |
| Barbara Ross | The Maine Clambake Mysteries | runs the family clambake business | Busman's Harbor, USA | 12 | 2013 |
| Beate Boeker | The Temptation in Florence Mysteries | lingerie store owner (Carlina) and police commissario (Garini) | Florence | 9 | 2013 |
| Beverly Rachel | The Grace Girls Mysteries | – | – | ||
| Bob and Stacey Casselberry | The Genealogy Whodunit | – | – | ||
| C. J. Archer | The Cleopatra Fox Mysteries | niece of a luxury hotel owner, living in the hotel (no profession… | London, UK | 11 | 2020 |
| Candace Havens | The Ainsley McGregor Mysteries | former English professor, owner of the artisan market Bless Your Art | Sweet River, USA | 5 | 2020 |
| Carolyn Ridder Aspenson | The Witches of Holiday Hills Mysteries | cozy mystery ghost writer | Holiday Hills, USA | – | 2020 |
| Cat Preston | The Abby Tennant Mysteries | – | 2015 | ||
| Cate Lawley | The Vegan Vamp Mysteries | Austin, USA | 8 | 2016 | |
| Chauncy Chalmers | The Lauren Gatewood Mysteries | – | – | ||
| Cheryl Dougan | The Northern Lights Mysteries | cafe manager/owner | – | – | |
| Christa Nardi | The Stacie Maroni Mysteries | HR specialist and trauma counselor | 11 | 2018 | |
| Christine Pope | The Familiar Spirits Mysteries | witch and 'familiar whisperer', owner of Full Moon Apothecary | Salem | 5 | 2023 |
| Cindy Bell | The Lakeside Cottage Mysteries | journalist | Newfield, USA | – | – |
| Clare Lockhart | The Holiday Hijinx Mysteries | rookie investigators working as Santa's helpers at a lodge | Canada | – | – |
| Clare O’Donohue | The Someday Quilts Mysteries | works at Someday Quilts shop | USA | 6 | 2008 |
| Colin Conway | The Cozy Up Mysteries | former outlaw motorcycle gang enforcer in witness protection;… | – | – | |
| Connie Shelton | The Charlie Parker Mysteries | accountant (CPA) | Albuquerque, USA | 23 | 1995 |
| Constance Barker | The Myrtle Lake Mysteries | 6 | 2021 | ||
| Corrine Winters | Midlife Magic & Mystery | Fiddler Cove, USA | – | – | |
| Corrine Winters | The Motorcycle Witch Mysteries | 3 | 2022 | ||
| Cynthia E. Hurst | The Silver and Simm Mysteries | clock repairer and his housemaid (a former thief) | Witney, UK | 22 | 2017 |
| D. G. Thomas | The Thorne Sister Sleuths Mysteries | flower shop owners (Blossom & Thorne) | Bloomwood | 8 | – |
| D. S. Lang | The Arabella Stewart Mysteries | former Army Signal Corps operator trying to save her family's resort | USA | 8 | 2021 |
| Dahlia Donovan | The Honey Bear Mysteries | beekeeper | UK | 3 | 2023 |
| Dale Mayer | The Lovely Lethal Gardens Mysteries | former socialite | Kelowna | 26 | 2019 |
| Dan DeKoning | The Codi Cassidy Mysteries | country music star | Quincey, USA | 3 | 2024 |
| Danielle Garrett | The Sugar Shack Witch Mysteries | journalist | Winterspell Lake, USA | 4 | 2020 |
| Danielle Palli | The Music Mysteries | journalist and art model who becomes administrative assistant to a… | Manhattan, USA | 3 | – |
| Daria White | The Bianca Wallace Mysteries | work-from-home mom with her own business | Edenville, USA | 5 | 2021 |
| Dawn Greenfield Ireland | The Katz’ Cat Mysteries | journalist at the Twinkle Independent News | Twinkle, USA | 3 | 2021 |
| Debra H. Goldstein | The Sarah Blair Mysteries | law firm receptionist | Wheaton, USA | 5 | 2018 |
| Denise Jaden | The Mallory Beck Mysteries | widow and home cook who starts a catering business | Honeysuckle Grove, USA | 9 | 2020 |
| Diane Vallere | The Madison Night Mysteries | mid-century modern interior decorator | Dallas, USA | 12 | 2012 |
| Dianne Harman | The Ivy Harlow Mysteries | host of a true crime podcast focused on cold cases | 1 | 2025 | |
| Dionne Lister | The Paranormal Investigation Bureau | photographer | Westerham, UK | 21 | 2018 |
| Donna B. McNicol | The Holiday Corner Mysteries | Holiday Corner, USA | – | 2022 | |
| Donna Doyle | The Another Batch of Baker Mysteries | restaurant owner | Sunny Cove | 10 | 2025 |
| Donnarae Menard | The It’s Never Too Late Mysteries | returns home to the family farm she inherits from her grandmother | 5 | 2021 | |
| E. C. Bateman | The Stamford Mysteries | auctioneer | Stamford, UK | 3 | 2022 |
| E. C. Nevin | The Jane Hepburn Mysteries | mystery author | Hoslewit, UK | 1 | 2025 |
| E. J. Copperman | The Jersey Girl Mysteries | lawyer; former New Jersey prosecutor now working for a family law… | Los Angeles, USA | 6 | 2021 |
| Elizabeth Clover | The Sunrise Flower Shop Mysteries | manages the flower stand at her grandmother's campsite | Sunrise City | 2 | 2025 |
| Ella Marzano | The Cascade Cove Mysteries | – | – | ||
| Elodie Hart | The Wines, Spines, & Crimes Mysteries | works at the island's only library and runs a weekly book club | Marilee Island | 9 | 2023 |
| Emory Keller | The Story Keeper’s Mysteries | inherits the family bookshop from her grandmother | Elkin, USA | 4 | 2023 |
| Fay Lamb | The Visitor Mysteries | USA | – | 2022 | |
| Helena Marchmont | The Bunburry Mysteries | volunteer at Bunburry's community library (no paid job stated) | Bunburry, UK | 20 | 2018 |
| Iggy Sage | The Casters Bay Mysteries | – | – | ||
| Ishwar Chandra Sen | The Big Brah Mysteries | detective at the Waialeale Detective Agency | USA | 1 | 2022 |
| J. A. Whiting | The Lin Coffin Mysteries | landscaper | Nantucket, USA | 22 | 2015 |
| J. C. Eaton | The Wine Trail Mysteries | screenwriter overseeing her family's Two Witches Winery | Penn Yan (Seneca Lake), USA | 9 | 2018 |
| J. C. Layne | The Fashion Writer Mysteries | fashion writer | – | 2020 | |
| Jan Jones | The Fencross Parva Mysteries | village librarian | Fencross Parva, UK | – | 2023 |
| Jenna Bennett | The Pippa Darling Mysteries | Bright Young Thing (no profession stated) | UK | 8 | 2023 |
| Jenna St. James | The Witch in the Woods Mysteries | game warden and witch | Enchanted Island | 34 | 2021 |
| Jennifer Ash | The Robin Hood Club | writer and creator of a hit TV series | Buxton, UK | 1 | 2024 |
| Jennifer Shaw Wolf | The Emerson Fox Mysteries | inherits a bookshop and the island that comes with it | Sharp Island, USA | 3 | 2023 |
| Jo Williams | The Mayor’s Office Mysteries | – | – | ||
| Joanne Fluke | The Hannah Swensen Mysteries | owner of The Cookie Jar bakery | Lake Eden, USA | 30 | 2000 |
| Josie Damico | The Amish Inn Mysteries | innkeeper of the Olde Mansion Inn bed-and-breakfast (former Boston… | Pleasant Creek, USA | – | 2016 |
| Judith Jackson | The Mistletoe Falls Mysteries | 1 | 2023 | ||
| Julia Koty | The Mira Michaels Mysteries | works at the Soup & Scoop diner | Pleasant Pond, USA | – | 2021 |
| K. E. O’Connor | The Feline Files Mysteries | cat familiar (talking cat sleuth) | 3 | 2025 | |
| Karen MacInerney | The Snug Harbor Mysteries | bookseller, owner of Seaside Cottage Books | Snug Harbor, USA | 4 | 2020 |
| Karen Musser Nortman | The Frannie Shoemaker Campground Mysteries | retiree (camps with a group of retired friends) | USA | 11 | 2012 |
| Kathleen Suzette | The Rainey Daye Mysteries | works at Sam's Diner | Sparrow, USA | 18 | 2018 |
| Kelly Hashway | The Traumatic Temp Agency Mysteries | temp worker placed by a temp agency (a new job in each book) | Rockland | 9 | 2022 |
| Kitty Newbold | The Monroe Manor Mysteries | inherits and runs Monroe Manor, a historic bed and breakfast | Key West, USA | – | 2024 |
| L. C. Richards | The Julia Lives in a Van Mysteries | divorcee living as a nomad in a camper van (no occupation stated) | USA | – | – |
| L. C. Turner | The Petal Pushers Mysteries | takes over her mother's flower shop, Petal Pushers | Hunter's Hollow | 10 | 2023 |
| L. E. Gordon | The Baker’s Dozen Mysteries | – | – | ||
| Larry Bergsgaard | The Pelican Falls Chronicles | pastor (Grace Lutheran Church) | Pelican Falls, USA | 4 | 2014 |
| Laura Jenski | The Motorhome Mysteries | couple travelling cross-country in a motorhome (no occupation stated) | USA | 5 | 2020 |
| Lauren Carr | The Nikki Bryant Mysteries | investigative journalist | Pine Grove, USA | 2 | 2020 |
| Laurie Stewart | The Andie and Max Mysteries | – | – | ||
| Leanne Baker | The Layers of Mystery | Bishop, USA | 3 | 2022 | |
| Leighann Dobbs | The Blackmoore Sisters Mysteries | sellers of crystals and herbal remedies | Noquitt, USA | 10 | 2013 |
| Liz Lamar | The Doggone Cupcake Mysteries | – | 2025 | ||
| Liz Turner | The Josephine Paquet Mysteries | runs a successful detective agency | Gordes | – | 2024 |
| Lizzie Josephson | The Cozy Cruise Mysteries | new owner of a cruise line inherited from a great uncle | 21 | 2020 | |
| Lori Hanson | The Mysteria Way Mysteries | Evers Edge, USA | – | 2024 | |
| Louise Carson | The Maples Mysteries | young artist (teaches an art class at home) | Lovering, Canada | 8 | 2017 |
| Louy Castonguay | The Maine Mysteries | retired paramedic and widow | Farmington area, USA | 6 | 2018 |
| Lucy Lakestone | The Bohemia Bartenders Mysteries | mixologist (bartender with the travelling Bohemia Bartenders team) | USA | 8 | 2020 |
| Lucy Ness | The Haunted Mansion Mysteries | manager of the Portage Path Women's Club | Portage Path, USA | 2 | 2020 |
| Lynn Cahoon | The Haunted Life Mysteries | owner of an antique store and design studio (interior designer) | New Orleans, USA | 5 | 2022 |
| M. K. Crane | The Eve Swift Wartime Mysteries | librarian | Norwich, UK | 6 | 2020 |
| M. K. Scott | The Way Over The Hill Gang | senior citizens in an assisted living community | 7 | 2018 | |
| M. Louisa Locke | The Victorian San Francisco Mysteries | boardinghouse owner; pretend clairvoyant 'Madam Sibyl', later… | San Francisco, USA | 8 | 2009 |
| M. S. Peke | The Happy Camper Mysteries | no fixed town (motor-home travel: Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, Napa), USA | 3 | 2022 | |
| Magda Alexander | The Kitty Worthington Mysteries | debutante (amateur detective) | London, UK | 13 | 2021 |
| Maia Ross | The Beaver Island Mysteries | retired spy (retired intelligence agent) and a 'nerdy' tech-savvy… | Beaver Island, Canada | 8 | 2020 |
| Marsha DeFilippo | The Cozy Quilts Club Mysteries | Glen Lake | 7 | 2023 | |
| Mary Winters | The Lady of Letters Mysteries | countess and secret advice columnist ('Lady Agony') | London, UK | 4 | 2023 |
| Matilda Swift | The Slippery Spoon Mysteries | waitress by day, detective at the Slippery Spoon detective agency | UK | 4 | 2022 |
| Max Parrott | The Ruff McPaw Mysteries | barista at Lake House Coffee (part-time) and hobby farmer | Hummings Hollow | 12 | 2023 |
| Mike Befeler | The Omnipodge Mysteries | varies: retired maintenance man (book 2); driftwood creations shop… | Omnipodge, USA | 3 | 2022 |
| Miranda Rose Barker | The Sycamore Grove Mysteries | Sycamore Grove | 10 | 2022 | |
| Mollie Cox Bryan | The Victoria Town Mysteries | Victorian B&B operator (helps her aunt run the Sweet Victoria B&B) | Victoria Town, USA | 0 | 2020 |
| Nancy J. Cohen | The Bad Hair Day Mysteries | hairstylist, salon owner | USA | 18 | 1999 |
| Nancy Warren | The Abigail Dixon Mysteries | news reporter (from Chicago) | Paris | 2 | 2020 |
| Nancy Warren | The Vampire Knitting Club Mysteries | knitting shop owner (inherits her grandmother's shop, Cardinal… | Oxford, UK | 15 | 2018 |
| Norman Russell | The Oldminster Mysteries | detectives | Oldminster | 5 | 2019 |
| Nyx Halliwell | The Confessions of a Closet Medium | takes charge of her murdered aunt's business (business type not… | Thornhollow, USA | 10 | 2020 |
| Patti Larsen | The Whitewitch Island Mysteries | retired Guild Artemis Inquisitor (paranormal crime investigator) | Whitewitch Island | 17 | 2021 |
| Peter Bartram | The Headline Hero Mysteries | crime reporter | Brighton, UK | 10 | 2015 |
| Reagan Davis | The Bellbrook Murder Mysteries | runs a concierge business | Canada | 4 | 2022 |
| Renae Janecek | The Short Diner Mysteries | – | 2022 | ||
| Rosemary Shrager | The Prudence Bulstrode Mysteries | celebrity chef (retired TV chef) | varies (Cotswolds manor; Yorkshire village Scrafton Busk; Cornwall school), UK | 3 | 2022 |
| Rosie A. Point | The Mission Inn-possible Mysteries | spy in hiding working as maid/waiter at her grandmother's inn | Gossip, USA | 6 | 2020 |
| Ruth J. Hartman | The Kitty Beret Cafe Mysteries | owner of the Kitty Beret Cafe (cat cafe that rehomes rescued cats) | Crooked Creek, USA | – | – |
| Ruth J. Hartman | The Seneca James Mysteries | raises and sells Monarch butterflies; owns the Painted Wings Cafe… | Maple Junction, USA | 3 | 2023 |
| Sally Goldenbaum | The Seaside Knitters Society Mysteries | owner of knitting shop (yarn shop owner) | Sea Harbor, USA | 8 | 2017 |
| Sarah F. Noel | The Tabitha & Wolf Mysteries | widowed countess and the new earl, a former thief-taker | London, UK | 13 | 2023 |
| Sarina Dorie | The Vega Bloodmire Wicked Witch Mysteries | teacher at a magical boarding school | 31 | 2020 | |
| Sharon Hanson | The Mysteria Way Mysteries | Evers Edge, USA | 2 | 2024 | |
| Stephanie Ayers | The Coven Mysteries | – | – | ||
| Summer Prescott | The Farm Fresh Mysteries | 7 | 2024 | ||
| Summer Prescott | The Fish Camp Mysteries | 4 | 2024 | ||
| Susan Santangelo | The Baby Boomer Mysteries | retired | Fairport, USA | – | 2009 |
| T. E. Kinsey | The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries | eccentric widow (retired spy) and her lady's maid | Littleton Cotterell, UK | 12 | 2016 |
| T. Thorn Coyle | The Seashell Cove Mysteries | bookshop owner (witch) | Seashell Cove, USA | 6 | 2021 |
| Tessa Aura | The Penelope Sinclair Mysteries | boutique owner | Bath, USA | 6 | 2025 |
| Timbre Quinn | The Truffle Hunter’s Mysteries | Rosebud, USA | 2 | 2024 | |
| Tina Radcliffe | The Hope Street Church Mysteries | office machine repair woman, member of the Sunrise Bible Study Group | Richmond, USA | – | – |
| Traci Hall | The Scottish Shire Mysteries | owner of a specialty sweater shop (Cashmere Crush) | Nairn, UK | 7 | 2020 |
| Tracy Donley | The Rosemary Grey Mysteries | history professor at the local university | Paperwick, USA | 4 | 2021 |
| Trixie Silvertale | Harper and Moon Investigations | partners in their own investigation agency (Harper and Moon… | Pin Cherry Harbor | 7 | 2023 |
| Valerie Brandy | The Rebecca Orange Castle Mysteries | animal trainer at Monrovia Castle | Atwood (village), Monrovia | 8 | 2025 |
| Violetta Armour | The Dangerous Pastimes Mysteries | – | 2018 | ||
| Wendy Day | The Sally and Pearl Mysteries | senior citizens (best friends) | 3 | 2022 | |
| Wendy Heuvel | The Faith and Foils Mysteries | owner of a country decor shop (Olde Crow Primitives) and landlord | Banford, Canada | 5 | 2020 |
| Wendy Neugent | The Key West Mysteries | antique shop owner | Key West, USA | 1 | 2024 |
Books: novels published by 31 December 2025, where known. Source: Cozy Mystery Census 2026, from authors’ and publishers’ sites and the sources listed below.
FAQ
How many cozy mysteries are published each year?
About 4,000 in English. CozyMystery.com counted 3,992 new cozy mysteries in 2025, 3,912 in 2024 and a peak of 4,267 in 2023. Over 2020–2025 the total was 22,894. The Library of Congress catalog holds only 115 cozies for 2025, because most of the genre is self-published and never reaches it. [1][3]
Are cozy mysteries still growing in popularity?
Output grew by a third between 2020 and 2023 and has stayed near 4,000 books a year since. New series, however, fell 34% from 2023 to 2025. In Canada, BookNet reports that cozy sales rose 57% from 2022 to 2025 and fell 22% in 2026 up to mid-September, while library borrowing kept growing. [1][5]
What percentage of cozy mysteries are self-published?
About 70% of cozy series with an identifiable publisher are self-published, with a margin of about ±9 points, in a random sample of 150 series. Small presses publish 16%, mid-sized publishers such as Kensington 11%, and the big publishing groups 4%. Even counting every unidentified series as traditional, self-publishing is still above 50%.
How many cozy mysteries are written by AI?
CozyMystery.com estimates that it rejects about 5,000 AI-written books a year while accepting about 4,000 cozies, so roughly half of the books that reach it as cozy mysteries are AI-written. The site calls this a rough figure and has no yearly breakdown, so it is not known whether the share is rising. [1]
What percentage of cozy mysteries have a cat or a dog?
About 18%, if you count series rather than books. CozyMystery.com has tagged roughly 1,350 of its 7,400 series with an animal theme. Single books are not tagged, so the real share of cozies with a pet in them is probably higher. Where authors in our sample name a pet, dogs and cats are close to even. [1]
How many books does a cozy mystery series usually have?
The median is 6 books, based on 107 sampled series with a known book count. 29% reach at least 10 books and 9% reach 20, while a quarter end at three or fewer. The longest series in the sample, Jenna St. James’s Witch in the Woods Mysteries, had 34 books by the end of 2025.
Sources
- CozyMystery.com, yearly counts of new cozy mysteries and new series (2020–2025) and screening estimates, data provided by the site’s editor, 30 September and 3 October 2026. https://www.cozymystery.com/
- Library of Congress, genre/form term “Cozy mysteries” (gf2019026071), 2019. https://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms/gf2019026071.html
- Library of Congress Online Catalog, records with the genre heading “Cozy mysteries”, counted by year (retrieved 24 September 2026). https://catalog.loc.gov/
- Goodreads Listopia, “2025 Cozy Mystery New Releases” (retrieved 24 September 2026). https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/219034.2025_Cozy_Mystery_New_Releases
- BookNet Canada, “What’s trending for cozy books”, 22 September 2026. https://booknetcanada.ca/blog/2026/09/22/whats-trending-for-cozy-books/
- FBI, “FBI Releases 2024 Reported Crimes in the Nation Statistics”, 5 August 2025. https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2024-reported-crimes-in-the-nation-statistics
- FBI Crime Data Explorer, homicide offenses and population for Albuquerque Police Department (NM0010100) and Nantucket Police Department (MA0100100), 2022–2024 (retrieved 4 October 2026). https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/
- Office for National Statistics, “Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2025”, 5 February 2026. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/homicideinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2025
- Statistics Canada, “Counts and rates of homicides, by census metropolitan area, 2014 to 2024”, The Daily, 2 December 2025. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/251202/t003a-eng.htm
- Government of Canada, “Economic profile: Kelowna, British Columbia” (2021 Census population). https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/campaigns/immigration-matters/local-economies/kelowna.html
- City Population, Westerham and Witney civil parishes, ONS Census 2021 figures. https://citypopulation.de/en/uk/southeastengland/admin/sevenoaks/E04012400__westerham/
- The Drum, “Murder She Wrote tops BBC body count index” (reporting BBC Radio 4’s More or Less), 22 August 2012. https://www.thedrum.com/news/2012/08/22/murder-she-wrote-tops-bbc-body-count-survey
- Cozy Mystery List, author and series pages. https://www.cozy-mystery.com/
- Stop, You’re Killing Me!, author and series pages. https://www.stopyourekillingme.com/
- Open Library, publisher records. https://openlibrary.org/
- K-lytics, cozy mystery market report (October 2025). Paid report, named for completeness, not used. https://k-lytics.com/cozy
Last updated: October 2026. Census sample and series data: Cozy Mystery Census 2026, collected by the author.