Carrie Doyle’s It Takes Two to Mango treats readers to a tropical mystery full of twists and turns.

When high-powered editor Plum Lockhart is suddenly terminated from her job at a luxury travel magazine, she spirals. She has no future employment prospects, her self-worth is at an all-time low and the bitter New York City winters are certainly not helping. When an unexpected job as a villa broker at a resort comes her way, she packs her Prada and flies down to Paraiso, a small fictional island in the Caribbean that I dearly wish I could visit.

Plum is used to the fast-paced city life and harsh deadlines, not Paraiso’s relaxed saunter. With humidity messing with her hair and an office rival messing with her bookings, she becomes desperate to regain control and score a win at work. So she rents her assigned villa, the dingy and dismal Casa Mango, to a bachelor party, despite her boss’s wishes. All seems to be going according to plan, and Plum’s ego is restored—until the best man turns up murdered. Frustrated with the shoddy police work and eager to solve the crime, Plum partners up with the resort’s dashing head of security and takes matters into her own hands. Together they navigate Paraiso’s multitude of mysteries while a possible romance between them blooms.

The paradise of Paraiso is the perfect setting for a cozy mystery, and the resort features an outrageously entertaining cast of colorful characters. In her trusty golf cart, Plum meets uber-wealthy villa renters, social media influencers, yoga die-hards and eccentric staffers. The heart of this story, however, is Plum’s own self-discovery as she transitions from cruel and untethered to confident and kind. But she never loses that spark, that drive, that makes her who she is. It Takes Two to Mango is a fantastic start to a new series, and readers will be eager to return to Paraiso for Plum’s next adventure.

Angela M. Sanders’ first book in a new cozy mystery series, Bait and Witch, balances paranormal whimsy and small-town charm.

Josie Way had her dream job in the Library of Congress but had to drop out of sight after overhearing a conversation that pointed to political corruption. She essentially creates a do-it-yourself witness protection program by taking a job in the library of rural Wilfred, Oregon, hoping to lie low until things resolve back in Washington, D.C. She’s barely unpacked her bags when a body is discovered on the library property, and her concern that she may have been the intended target prompts her to investigate. Oh, and the books on the shelves at Wilfred’s library? They’re able to talk to her—no big deal.

Sanders fills the town of Wilfred with eccentric locals and blends in a plot about the library property being sold and potentially converted into a retreat center. These elements all collide when Josie’s life back east catches up with her. However, the story’s real heart derives from Josie’s gradual discovery that she’s a witch. From becoming fast and intimate friends with a local cat to developing an ability to recommend books she’s never read or even heard of, Bait and Witch is playful yet grounded, setting up a final confrontation when the decision to refuse or embrace her powers is critical.

Sanders’ light touch leaves lots of possibilities for Josie’s future stories. There’s a potential romance simmering on a back burner, as well as Josie’s commitment to stay and help bring Wilfred’s library into the modern era without alienating any longtime patrons. Most evocatively, Bait and Witch ends with Josie receiving her grandmother’s grimoire, or book of spells, and preparing to learn more about her powers. Some of us think all librarians are at least a little witchy (in the best way), but it’s a delight to read about someone whose powers derive in part from stories and the feelings that readers attach to them. This is a fine debut that promises more bookish fun to come.

British TV presenter, producer and director Richard Osman adds "novelist" to his resume with The Thursday Murder Club, an imaginative and witty whodunit set in the luxurious Coopers Chase Retirement Village in Kent, England.

Solving cold-case murders isn’t an activity listed in the retirement community brochure, but it’s quite popular with a quartet of whip-smart resident septuagenarians—Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron—who are dedicated to the cause. The group meets in the Jigsaw Room; the time slot is “booked under the name Japanese Opera: A Discussion, which ensured they were always left in peace.”

Little do they know that Coopers Chase developer and owner Ian Ventham has built the place with ill-gotten money, and he’s got plans to expand while, er, taking care of some criminal-underworld-related issues. When Ventham’s business partner Tony Curran, a talented builder and prolific drug dealer, is murdered, the club seizes the opportunity to work on something fresh and exciting (even if their help isn’t necessarily welcome). Not long after, there is another murder, plus the discovery of human bones that don’t belong in the cemetery where they were found. The investigation’s urgency ratchets up accordingly—and the number of viable suspects increases, many of them right there in Coopers Chase.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Richard Osman shares why he loved writing from the perspective of a 76-year-old woman.

Through some hilariously masterful manipulation, the group unearths clues and teases out witness testimony, no small thanks to Elizabeth’s impressive network (she just possibly might be a former spy) and the club members’ talent for using stereotypes about the elderly to their advantage. Joyce, the group’s newest member, chronicles the club’s hijinks in her diary with a tone of hesitant glee, and also muses on motherhood, mortality and romantic love.

Osman’s careful attention to the realities of life in a retirement village ensures that The Thursday Murder Club is a compassionate, thoughtful tribute to a segment of the population that’s often dismissed and ignored. It's also an excellent example of the ways in which a murder mystery can be great fun.

Anyone who grew up on the TV series these novels are based on will hear Angela Lansbury’s voice while reading. It’s an association the publisher encourages, as she’s pictured in character on the cover. Murder, She Wrote: A Time for Murder is book 50 in the series, and it’s quite a golden anniversary, telling two stories in tandem.

Jessica Fletcher is interviewed by a high school student and reminisces about the first murder case she was involved in 25 years ago. But another body has turned up in the present day, and we skip back and forth between these two stories that ultimately intersect. Jon Land, who shares author credit with Fletcher, gives the story plentiful twists, including when a member of the Boston mafia manages, despite being incarcerated, to send two accomplices after Jessica. They’re intimidating at first, but ultimately a source of comic relief.

Much like the show, there are emotional stakes at play—the present-day story involves a family whose luck is so awful they appear to be cursed—but also a lot of discussion over pie and coffee with friends and locals. There’s a fabulously over-the-top action sequence at the climax, but flashbacks to a young, married Jessica moving into her dream home with her husband and nephew grab at the heartstrings and pull.

A character doesn’t persist through 50 books if she’s not an all-star, and this volume shows just why that’s the case.

Eleanor Wilde is back in Potions Are for Pushovers, a new installment in Tamara Berry’s series that finds the village witch running low on funds and dodging raindrops as her aging thatch roof gives way. Her not-entirely-legitimate business selling elixirs to the townsfolk would be almost enough to keep her afloat, but when neighbor Sarah Blackthorne turns up dead—from poison, no less—Ellie must find the culprit, less as a matter of justice than to keep her own doors open.

Berry (Séances Are for Suckers) has fun with the contradictions at play in Ellie’s life: She’s a fraud, taking advantage of her friends and neighbors, yet they love and accept her as one of their own. Her boyfriend is flush with cash, but she turns down his offers of help even as her roof collapses. The village and its townsfolk are a conundrum as well; the story is contemporary, but the rural English setting makes things feel old-fashioned, adding to the overall charm. When a young girl defies her mother and basically apprentices herself to Ellie without so much as asking permission, it’s not only funny but also moves the story forward in unexpected ways.

For a witch with no real powers, Ellie still has some connection to the paranormal via her dead sister, with whom she communicates. Their exchanges can be humorous but primarily serve as a more serious, grounding subplot to a story that otherwise bubbles along like a hot cauldron.

Semi-starving Los Angeles freelance writer Jaine Austen (no relation to the famed author) is thrilled to be reuniting with her ex-husband despite the protestations of her cat, Prozac, and neighbor, Lance. When she lands a gig ghostwriting a smutty novel for an heiress, it feels like everything’s coming up roses. Not so fast, though. Death of a Gigolo is a humorous whodunit that’s as zippy as a triple-shot latte.

Laura Levine’s latest Jaine Austen mystery takes flight when a young man named Tommy woos Jaine’s new boss, Daisy Kincaid. Daisy’s staff hates Tommy, and with good reason; he’s bleeding her dry financially while hitting on the women who work for her. When he turns up with a knife in his neck, nobody’s sorry to see the last of him, but that means everyone’s a suspect. So Jaine tries to get to the bottom of things while also cranking out Daisy’s proposed bestseller, Fifty Shades of Turquoise. Subplots about Jaine’s parents (told entirely via emails) and the oddball guru her ex-husband has fallen in with are funny additions to the main story that weave together at the end. Running commentary and strategic hairballs from Prozac add to the fun while Jaine tries to pin down the killer.

This mystery has a deep bench of suspects and eliminates them with the precision of Agatha Christie. It would be equally at home beside the swimming pool or next to the fireplace on a dark and stormy night.

Stella Reid has barely corralled the seven young ones who call her “Granny” when disaster threatens their beloved fall tradition. Murder in the Corn Maze, G.A. McKevett’s second Granny Reid mystery, brings small-town heart to an especially tough case.

Granny has barely sorted the kids into who is and is not going through the annual corn maze in McGill, Georgia, when granddaughter Savannah (who, as an adult, stars in McKevett’s other cozy series) finds a skull in the mud. There are signs that this body may be the mother of Stella’s dear friend and that the killer may have been behind the murder of her own mother. No wonder Stella protects her grandkids with such ferocity.

Stella struggles with the ghosts of her past while dealing with the challenge of keeping food on the table for seven kids, to say nothing of refereeing their squabbles. She’s stern but sets a good example that they try their best to follow. It’s a special treat to see young Savannah deal with her early childhood trauma by channeling all her energy into the study of law enforcement, digging in to help solve the case while compartmentalizing the traumatic nature of her discovery.

The story incorporates heavy topics like the legacy of slavery and mistreatment of Native Americans without overwhelming what is ultimately a small-town page turner. The conclusion is chilling, but readers will be hungry for the next installment of this warm-hearted, 1980s-set series.

Anna Gerard’s Peach Clobbered introduces Nina Fleet, new to Cymbeline, Georgia, and tentatively converting her gorgeous home into a B&B. Harry Westcott claims the house as his rightful inheritance, though he may have hurt his credibility a bit by showing up to argue his case in a penguin suit, then collapsing with heatstroke. Next thing you know, half a dozen displaced nuns are living chez Nina, and someone wearing the same penguin suit has been murdered. Nina, the sisters and Harry try to solve the crime, but what happened is far from black and white. Nina is a spirited lead, and the town is full of supporting characters that add to the mosaic of Cymbeline. Peach Clobbered is a perfect armchair vacation of a book.

The English village of Finch has been beset by an ice storm instead of the usual picture-perfect Christmas snow, but Lori Shepherd insists on a bit of cheer by making a run to dear friend Emma’s annual party. While she’s there, a car hits the ice and lands in a ditch outside. They invite the frazzled driver, Matilda “Tilly” Trout, inside, where she is able to answer a question that has long puzzled Emma—the odd-looking room in Emma’s home is a former Roman Catholic chapel. Lori, Emma and company find a compartment inside the chapel that contains actual treasure, but how did it get there? There are no murders to solve in Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold, just a story in need of unraveling. Nancy Atherton’s series finds kindness and human connection in frosty times, and the good hearts of Finch will warm yours.