I’m happy to welcome back multi-published Canadian author Jo-Ann Carson. Today, Jo-Ann shares her love of Canadian cozy mysteries and her new release, One Cookie Short of Christmas.

Here’s Jo-Ann!

When people think of cozy mysteries, they tend to imagine the quaint English villages of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple stories, or Joanne Fluke’s small-town American tales. They envision settings with tea shops, nosy neighbors, and a dash of danger. While I like all those stories, I believe Canada provides a perfect setting for cozy crime. In fact, I’d go as far as to saying that the Canadian landscape is a delicious backdrop for murder. Here are ten reasons to try a cozy Canadian crime for your next read.

1. Picturesque Small Towns

From Prince Edward Island fishing villages on the east coast, to secluded mountain hamlets in British Columbia on the west coast, Canada is full of postcard-perfect communities that practically beg for a bookshop, bakery, or craft store sleuth. Consider for a moment, Louise Penny’s Three Pines series, which has captivated readers worldwide with its idyllic (yet murder-prone) Quebec village. Could her stories happen anywhere else? I think not. They are quintessentially Canadian.

2. Seasons That Steal the Scene

Cozy readers love atmosphere, and Canada delivers in spades. Think curling up with a maple latte while snowflakes swirl outside or attending a sunny lakeside summer festival where a suspicious death interrupts the pie-eating contest. In Vicki Delany’s Year-Round Christmas Mysteries, the perpetual holiday setting in Rudolph, New York, was inspired by her Canadian roots, proof that winter coziness translates beautifully to the mystery genre.

3. Foodie Heaven

Cozy mysteries often shine when food is involved, and Canadian has its own unique cuisine. Imagine your sleuth solving crimes between batches of butter tarts, Nanaimo bars, poutine, or salmon chowder. Canadian author Elizabeth J. Duncan does this wonderfully in her Penny Brannigan Mysteries, where food and friendship ground the story even as murder lurks nearby.

4. Quirky Communities

Cozy readers adore eccentric locals, and to be honest Canadian towns are full of them. Whether it’s the fisherman who swears he’s seen Ogopogo (a sea monster who lives in B.C.), the gossiping neighbor with a basement full of homemade wine (we have them from coast to coast), or the moose that keeps wandering into the hardware store, you’ll find quirky people and animals everywhere.

5. Festivals and Folklore

Every Canadian community has its unique traditions and festivals, from maple syrup celebrations to winter carnivals. Add in folklore, or ghostly legends, and you’ve got a perfect recipe for mysterious goings-on. Vicki Delany’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mysteries often feature themed events that show how celebrations can add both charm and chaos to a cozy.

6. Close-Knit Settings

In cozy mysteries, everyone knows everyone, and this is also true in Canadian small towns. A single crime can ripple through the whole community, stirring gossip at the local Timmies, tension at the hockey rink, and suspicion at the town hall. Louise Penny has built her career on showing how a shocking event unsettles even the warmest of towns.

7. Multicultural Flavor

Canada’s cultural diversity allows amateur sleuths and suspects to come from many different backgrounds. This not only enriches character interactions but also allows the writer to explore diverse food, traditions, and culture. With more readers craving diversity in cozy mysteries, Canada offers endless possibilities.

8. Unique Law Enforcement

While cozy sleuths often operate outside official investigations, Canada’s mix of RCMP, provincial, and local police adds complications and intrigue to the process of crime fighting. Picture a friendly Mountie reluctantly teaming up with your amateur sleuth and how the interaction can add humor and heart. Delany, Penny, and other Canadian writers have already proven readers enjoy these unique dynamics.

9. Armchair Travel for Readers

We all know that reading cozy mysteries doubles as a mini vacation. Readers will love visiting the Niagara wine country, Quebec’s cobblestone streets, or Yukon’s wildflower meadows from the safety of their armchair. Penny’s Three Pines novels, in particular, have become global bestsellers partly because international readers fall in love with the setting as much as the sleuths. Joanne Guidoccio’s Ontario cozies have the warmth of a wood fire in the winter. My Vancouver Island mysteries draw on life in small towns surrounded by ocean, mountains and rugged wilderness.

Which brings me to number 10:

10. A Perfect Blend of Cozy and Wild

Canada’s charm lies in its balance of small, friendly communities surrounded by vast, sometimes untamed landscapes. That contrast heightens the coziness while leaving room for danger lurking just beyond the garden fence. Few places do “cozy with an edge” quite as well as Canada does.

My latest release is called One Cookie Short of Christmas.

When retired nurse Anna Maple hears the school’s Christmas baking table is short on cookies, she volunteers to help. But her holiday cheer quickly crumbles when she discovers one of Santa’s elves, murdered. It’s up to Anna to sift through the suspects and serve up justice before the killer strikes again.

This is a heartwarming, small-town, Canadian mystery with no gore, swearing, or sex. Filled with festive fun, a dash of danger, and cookies.

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An Early Review

5 stars by My2Doxie, posted on Goodreads, Bookbub, and Barnes & Noble

“One Cookie Short of Christmas is Book 3 in the Anna Maple Cozy Mystery by Jo-Ann Carson. I love holiday stories. Christmas is such a magical time of the year. Anna jumps in when she learns the school Christmas baking table needs more cookies. Unfortunately, she was not expecting to find one of Santa’s elves dead! I felt that Anna was a great main character. Get your cocoa and a candy cane and jump into the wonderful small town Canada mystery.”

About Jo-Ann Carson

Jo-Ann Carson writes powerful stories filled with evocative settings, strong characters, and fast-paced plots. Her stories fall into two main genre categories: supernatural suspense and cozy mystery.

Currently she is working on two projects. The open-ended Anna Maple Cozy Mystery series which is about a retired nurse who keeps tripping over dead bodies. The second is an urban fantasy series called Fangsters, which is the story of a book nerd sorceress blackmailed into running an academy for delinquent, teenage vampires.

To date, Jo-Ann Carson has published 37 stories. Her latest fantasy series include: Fangsters, the Dial Witch Trilogy, The Perfect Brew Trilogy, the Ghost & Abby Mysteries, and the Gambling Ghosts Novellas.

A firm believer in the magic of our everyday lives, Jo-Ann loves watching sunrises, walking the beaches with her poodle near her home in the Pacific Northwest, and reading books by a crackling wood fire. You can find more about her on her Substack website