Are you ready for a cozy read on a cool autumn evening? Stop by the Fuquay-Varina Community Library and pick up a stack of delicious “who-dun-its” for the holiday. You deserve a break after all that cooking and entertaining!

Staff Picks for Adults

Love a good mystery without the gory details? Enjoy quirky, intelligent heroines in small town settings? Look for tea, books, gardens or cats in your stories? Try a cozy mystery!

Fiction

• “Tragic Toppings” by Jessica Beck

When one of her regular customers goes missing, her ex-husband disappears and she finds a corpse in the park, donut shop owner Suzanne Hart soon discovers that donut-making can be a dangerous business. The first book in the series is “Glazed Murder.”

• “The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers” by Lilian Jackson Braun

While Moose County is in an uproar over a string of lucrative inheritances, Polly departs for Paris, Koko the irrepressible Siamese meets a piano tuner, Qwill writes a play and a mysterious bee sting-related death occurs. The first book in the series is “The Cat Who Could Read Backwards.”

• “The Trouble With Harriet” by Dorothy Cannell

All Ellie Haskell wants is a romantic getaway with her husband. Their bags are all packed for a trip to France, until the arrival of Ellie’s long-lost father, toting the ashes of his platinum blonde lady love, Harriet. But when an accident makes her father a murder suspect, Ellie wonders: is he a pawn in a deadly game? The first book in the series is “The Thin Woman.”

• “The Chocolate Castle Clue” by Joanna Carl

When a dusty old trophy awarded to her aunt’s old high school singing group turns up and brings back memories of an old unsolved murder, chocolate shop manager Lee McKinney Woody realizes it is actually a clue to a present-day killing. The first book in the series is “The Chocolate Cat Caper.”

• “To Catch a Leaf” by Kate Collins

Flower shop owner Abby Knight, while dealing with her future mother-in-law, works to clear her assistant, Grace Bingham, of a murder charge when she is accused of killing a wealthy dowager who has left her a large sum of money. The first book in the series is “Mum’s the Word.”

• “The Alpine Winter” by Mary Daheim

Christmas is anything but quiet in Alpine, Wash., after a body turns up in a cave and Emma Lord and her beau, Milo, are stalked by a killer. The first book in the series is “The Alpine Advocate.”

• “Crunch Time” by Diane Mott Davidson

Caterer and amateur sleuth-extraordinaire Goldy Schulz digs into a deadly smorgasbord that includes a heaping helping of murder, a double dose of arson … and nine adorable beagle puppies! The first book in the series is “Catering to Nobody.”

• “Plum Pudding Murder: a Hannah Swenson Mystery” by Joanne Fluke

Rumor has it that “Lunatic Larry” Jaeger is in the red—an idea that takes a sinister turn when Hannah discovers the man himself dead in his office. It seems quite a few people would have liked to fill Larry’s stocking with coal. With so many suspects to investigate and the 12 days of Christmas ticking away, Hannah’s running out of time to nab a murderous Scrooge who doesn’t want her to see the New Year. The first book in the series is “Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.”

• “English Tea Murder” by Leslie Meier

Murder follows Lucy Stone across the Atlantic to England when she, while on a girls getaway to London, investigates the murder of their tour guide, Professor George Temple, who died mid-flight after suffering a supposed asthma attack. The first book in the series is “Mistletoe Murder.”

• “Butter Safe Than Sorry” by Tamar Myers

Mennonite innkeeper Magdalena Yoder investigates after she and her son witness a bank robbery by armed bandits posing as Amish men. The first book in the series is “Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth.”

• “Murder of a Creped Suzette” by Denise Swanson

School psychologist Skye Denison becomes immersed in honky-tonk murder and mayhem when Suzette Neal, a rising country star, is found murdered after asking her to investigate her mother’s suspicious death, which occurred 27 years earlier. The first book in the series is “Murder of a Small-Town Honey.”

DID YOU KNOW? …

You can join us in celebrating National Novel Writing Month. In conjunction with NaNoWriMo, our regional libraries are hosting a variety of lectures and workshops on the art of writing. Check out the list of events on our webpage at www.wakegov.com/libraries. Just click on the rotating graphic “Write On @ Your Library” for the list of programs and locations.