Dive Right Into These 7 Cozy Mysteries on the Water

Leaving her harried life on the mainland behind, Whitney Dagner has returned to Saint Catalina Island to help with the family business with the punny name, Nautically Yours.

She’s kept busy between the gift shop and piloting the boat to show off the local marine flora and fauna, so finding a dead body in the water is the last thing she needs.

Then her brother is the police’s main suspect since he has a real motive and no alibi. Plus, her ex-boyfriend, Felix, has shown up working with the police and wanting Whitney back.

It’s the first of three books in the Whit and Whiskers mystery series. Bonus points for the amazing Shakespeare pun.

When her grandmother gets a cancer diagnosis, Chloe Barnes decides to leave her life in Paris behind. It doesn’t hurt that her personal and professional lives have fallen apart and little is keeping her there.

But she doesn’t know what to do with herself back in her home seaside town of Azalea Bay, California. When her Aunt Dawn suggests that Chloe take her baking skills and use them to make Parisian-style cannabis pastries, Chloe decides to try something new. Things aren’t completely rosy; a bully tries to corner Chloe.

When he’s found dead, Chloe realizes that her aunt and future business partner is the main suspect. She can’t half-bake this, she’s got to clear her aunt’s name.

It’s the first in two books so far in the Cannabis Cafe Mystery series. Book Two, A High Tide Murder, focuses on a surfboard competition.

Who doesn’t want to work in a lighthouse library by the sea? Lucy needs a new start after breaking off from her family and sorta-fiance.

Her aunt and uncle encourage her to move to a small North Carolina island town where she gets the perfect job managing a library in a lighthouse. But not everyone is happy with this turn of events; someone thought the job was theirs.

Some rare books are stolen and the library chairman is found dead with a long list of people who disliked him. Lucy will now need to take her library skills and try to get to the bottom of these crimes.

It’s the first of 11 books (so far) in the Lighthouse Library Mystery series.

Lobsters and ballerinas, oh my! Aunt Gully is working to establish her lobster shack, The Lazy Mermaid, in the seaside town of Mystic Bay. She hopes that a win in the local food festival will put her on the map.

She’s helped by her niece, ballet dancer Allie Larkin, who is home with a broken ankle. But something stinks at the festival and one of the judges is poisoned. All eyes and claws are pointed at Aunt Gully.

Now Allie has to clear her aunt’s name to find the true culprit.

It’s one of three books (and several novellas/short stories) in the Lobster Shack Mystery series.

The first in Karst’s new series, An Orchid Isle Mystery, features volcanoes.

Now in retirement, Valerie and wife Kristen are enjoying all the beauties of Hawai’i. They decide to take a boat tour to see the lava flow into the sea.

But when Valerie sees a boot in the lava flow, she realizes that there’s a body, but the evidence quickly disappears. She is convinced that someone has been murdered but without proof, it’s hard to prove.

Can Valerie find out who the victim is and why they ended up in a lava flow?

Adrienne has taken a new job as Media Manager on a cruise ship. Better yet, her BFF Samantha also has taken a job on the same cruise.

However, their inaugural cruise together ends up really stormy when a VIP passenger ends up dead and Sam is thrown in the brig after an altercation. Now Adrienne has to find out who really killed the VIP, which means butting heads with the handsome First Officer Ethan Lee.

It’s the first in the thirteen book Cruise Ship Cozy Mystery series.

After a horrible breakup, Liz Holt decides to recuperate at her family’s hotel, the Indialantic by the Sea, in Melbourne Beach, FL. She loves spending time with her Aunt Amelia, who runs the place with Liz’s dad, who was an actress in the 50s and 60s.

Things seem to be settling down for Liz until a wealthy guest is found murdered in her suite. People think it might have been a bad diamond robbery, but Liz thinks that’s too neat a solution.

While she should be working on her next novel, she decides instead to find out who wanted the unpopular guest dead.

It’s the first of five books in A By the Sea Mystery Series.