8 best books like Only Murders in the Building for more cozy mystery
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If the new episodes of Only Murders in the Building aren’t arriving quickly enough, you’ve got another option to get your fix: excellent cozy mystery books.
These books like Only Murders in the Building are the best I’ve come across for more of the same vibes as the show, including amateur sleuthing, witty banter, true crime, and unlikely friendships.
Dive in and find some new loveable detectives and riveting mysteries to solve in these five-star reads.
The best books with Only Murders in the Building vibes
44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith
Read 44 Scotland Street for… Only Murders in the Building, just in Scotland.
This bestselling cozy mystery series by Alexander McCall Smith is essentially a relocation of Only Murders in the Building to an exclusive area of Edinburgh.
Retreat into these lighthearted books for McCall Smith’s wonderfully charming and witty series about the hilarious hijinks of the residents on a (usually) peaceful street of Edinburgh’s New Town.
If that sounds great to you, wonderful! There are fifteen more books in this series to keep you busy for a while.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Read The Thursday Murder Club for… England’s answer to Only Murders in the Building.
This cozy mystery shares the story of four unlikely friends in a peaceful retirement village who meet up once a week to investigate unsolved crimes. However, when they find themselves in the middle of their first live case, things get real very quickly.
In a Reddit thread about the best book equivalents of Only Murders in the Building, one reader shared: “Of the Thursday Murder Club, Joyce and Ibrahim are a combination of Steve Martin’s character, Elizabeth and Ron are a combination of Martin Short’s character and then Donna is Selena Gomez’s character. Very similar vibes.”
Once you’ve flown through this first mystery, you can look forward to three more books in the series so far (hurray!)
Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
Read Finlay Donovan is Killing It for… a delightfully fast-paced and witty story of a stressed-out mother turned accidental criminal. (And the illustration on the cover looks like Mabel!)
As a stressed-out single mom of two and struggling novelist, it’s fair to say that Finlay Donovan’s life is chaotic. But when Finlay accidentally gets caught up in the world of crime to make ends meet, she discovers that it’s a lot more difficult in real life than the fiction she writes.
The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid #2) by Nita Prose
Read The Mystery Guest for… the upcoming follow-up to Nita Prose’s 2022 bestseller, The Maid, with more coziness and less darkness.
Working hard within the wonderfully decadent walls of the five-star Regency Grand Hotel, Molly Gray has risen through the ranks to the honourable title of Head Maid.
But just as it seems like everything is on track, Molly’s old friend, the world-famous mystery author J.D. Grimthorpe, drops dead on the hotel’s tea room floor. Suspects abound, and Molly knows that only she can uncover the culprit’s identity and protect the hotel’s pristine reputation.
If you’re looking for Only Murders in the Building vibes, this book is a perfect place to start. The Mystery Guest will be published in November 2023, but you can start reading The Maid while you wait.
Disaster at the Vendome Theater (Provençal Mystery #10) by M. L. Longworth
Read Disaster at the Vendome Theater for… mystery with a theater theme like the third season of Only Murders in the Building.
When successful lawyer Jean-Marc Sauvet accepts a small role in the local theater’s summer production of Marcel Pagnol’s Cigalon, he has no idea that one of France’s legendary film stars will be on stage with him. (This might sound familiar to OMITB fans.)
However, when chaos reigns backstage and one of the main actors goes missing, it’s up to the soon-to-be-a-father Verlaque and his police commissioner, Bruno Paulik, to untangle the mystery. This is the tenth book in the Provençal Mystery series, but fine to read as a standalone.
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Read Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers for… a lighthearted new cozy mystery for 2023 about a charming tea shop owner turned murder detective.
Who says you can’t become a detective later in life? This is the heartwarming story of Vera Wong, a lady of a certain age who owns a dark and dingy tea shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Faced with few customers and a lot of free time, she turns her attention to other hobbies, like stalking her son online.
Then one morning, Vera discovers a body in the tea shop. Although she has little faith in the police, as a suspicious mother she has plenty of experience in figuring things out. Helping herself to a little of the evidence before the police arrive, Vera gets to work on her investigation.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Read A Gentleman in Moscow for… a book that’s not a mystery, but does reflect the cozy indoor vibes of Only Murders in the Building wonderfully.
Sentenced in 1922 to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel down the road from the Kremlin, this is the story of how Count Alexander Rostov’s reduced circumstances lead him towards a much more complex emotional universe.
For a novel that’s essentially about a man who’s ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a hotel, A Gentleman in Moscow is an outstandingly beautiful read that explores what it means to live a life of purpose.
None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
Read None of This Is True for… the least cozy book in this list, but the only one with a true crime podcast involved.
Embracing one of the thriller genre’s current darlings – true crime podcasts – this scintillating new thriller for 2023 is the story of popular podcaster Alix Summers.
When she crosses paths with Josie Fair in the local pub, not only does Alix find out that she is her birthday twin, but Josie also pitches her complicated life as a subject for her podcast.
Alix can’t resist investigating, and she soon realises that Josie has already worked her way into Alix’s life – and it’s way creepier than she could’ve imagined.
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