In honor of the start of school today, here are four backlist cozy mysteries featuring schools or teachers or specialists – all titles I’ve especially enjoyed. Here’s to a kind year for all! 

A Skeleton in the Family (Family Skeleton Mystery #1) by Leigh Perry

Georgia Thackery is a single mom of a teenage daughter and an adjunct professor. She’s always struggling to stay afloat so it’s a good thing that she’s offered a position at a local college in her hometown. Her college professor parents are away on sabbatical so Georgia and her daughter can stay rent free in her family home. This also brings her closer to Sid, the family’s talking skeleton. I had a smile on my face the entire time I was listening to this. I am definitely team Sid the talking skeleton. I highly recommend the entire series! 

Back to School Murder (Lucy Stone #4) by Leslie Meier

It’s back to school time in the peaceful Maine town of Tinker’s Cove, and for mother-of-four Lucy Stone it isn’t a moment too soon. But trouble at the local elementary school soon has the sometime crime-solver juggling family, job, and night classes with another mystery to solve. And it starts with a bang. It’s like a trip back in time…I love the everyday-ness of these mysteries!

A Killer Read (An Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery #1) by Erika Chase

For the first meeting of the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society, six friends gather in Molly Mathews’s old Southern mansion-including Lizzie Turner, a reading specialist with a penchant for mysteries. But the mystery book club meeting becomes the scene of an actual murder when a stranger is shot–and nobody knows who the victim is, or how Molly’s antique gun came to be used as the murder weapon. Highly recommend the entire series!

Murder of a Small-Town Honey (A Scumble River Mystery #1) by Denise Swanson 

When school psychologist Skye Denison left Scumble River after high school, she swore she would never return to such a small minded town. But when credit card and boyfriend trouble caused her to slink home, she tries to blend in unnoticed. When she stumbles upon a dead TV personality, the police accuse her brother and she is forced to prove him innocent. This proves to be a daunting task, but Skye is up to the task. She is bright, persistent, gutsy and the perfect amateur sleuth.