If you've been looking for a cozy mystery fresh start, a series that opens with a character rebuilding her life from scratch, finding her people, and stumbling into more trouble than she ever bargained for, you just found it.
Tillie Moore is a divorced empty nester from Alabama who does not intend to spend the second half of her life being quiet about it. When her marriage of twenty-five years falls apart, she takes her divorce settlement, her St. Bernard named Daisy, her opinionated miniature pig named Beans, and what's left of her dignity and moves to Sweet Haven, Michigan. Her plan is simple: open Paw Paw's Bakery, a one-of-a-kind pet bakery on Main Street, and finally build something that belongs entirely to her.
The night before her grand opening, she finds her grumpy next-door neighbor dead on her bakery floor.
That is not part of the plan.
Now the sheriff is asking questions Tillie doesn't love the sound of. The Sweet Haven gossip mill is already running at full speed. And Tillie, who has been in town for approximately five minutes, is somehow the prime suspect in a murder she definitely did not commit. She didn't move all the way to Michigan to become a murder suspect. But with her fresh start, her bakery, and her reputation all on the line, she has no choice but to find the real killer herself.
Good thing she's stubborn.
Biscuits and Bedlam is Book 1 in the Paw Paw's Pet Bakery cozy mystery series — set in the charming lakeside town of Sweet Haven on the shores of Lake Michigan, where everyone knows your name, everyone knows your business, and murder keeps turning up at the worst possible moments. It's a cozy mystery series Michigan readers will recognize in its bones. Small town, tight community, four seasons, and the particular chaos of a town that doubles in size every summer.
If you love an amateur sleuth small town mystery with a protagonist who gets funnier and braver with every book, Tillie Moore is your next obsession. She's not a detective. She has no formal training. What she has is a nose for trouble, a friend group that refuses to let her face anything alone, and two animals who steal every scene they're in. This is a cozy mystery with animal sidekicks. Daisy the St. Bernard is loyal, enormous, and perpetually underfoot. Beans the miniature pig has never once in his life been told no and considers this entirely reasonable.
Over the course of the series, her pets and her found family, become the community she didn't know she needed.
Each book in the series solves a complete mystery with no cliffhangers and no loose ends. The cases range from a murder at a Halloween pet costume contest to a missing jeweled star at the Christmas Jubilee to a dead lawyer with Tillie's name in his pocket. What stays consistent across every book is the warmth, the humor, and the feeling that Sweet Haven is a place worth coming back to.
If you're a fan of books like Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen series or Diane Mott Davidson's Goldy Bear mysteries, cozy, character-driven, and endlessly readable, the Paw Paw's Pet Bakery series was made for you. Start with Biscuits and Bedlam and see how long you last before clicking Book 2.
Series: Paw Paw's Pet Bakery Cozy Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery / Amateur Sleuth / Small Town Mystery
Tone: Lighthearted, warm, witty, clean
Perfect for fans of: Joanne Fluke, Diane Mott Davidson, Rita Mae Brown
