Do-It-Yourself Mysteries Books in Order

The Do-It-Yourself Mysteries are cozy whodunits with sawdust under the fingernails. Each book mixes a small-town murder puzzle with the very real chaos of renovating old houses, juggling clients, and trying to keep a fresh start from turning into a full-blown disaster. If you like mysteries where the sleuth has an actual day job, and the setting feels like a place you could drive to on a weekend, this series leans right into that comfort.

At the center is Avery Baker, a designer who leaves her big-city life behind and lands in Waterfield, Maine. She’s smart, stubborn, and more comfortable picking paint chips than picking fights, until a body turns up and she has no choice. Avery’s new life is tied to old houses, the kind with cranky plumbing, hidden corners, and neighbors who remember every owner who ever walked through the front door. She’s also building a reputation in town, one job at a time, which means every new case has a way of threatening her livelihood as well as her safety.

In Waterfield, a new paint color can come with a new suspect list.

Avery’s closest ally is Derek Ellis, a local handyman and renovator who knows how the town works, and how quickly gossip can ruin someone’s life. Derek helps Avery tackle repairs, dodge red tape, and ask the uncomfortable questions the police might miss. Their relationship grows in the background, not as a separate plot but as part of Avery figuring out what home really means, and what she’s willing to risk for it.

The mysteries often start with something practical, a job, a flip, a design consult, an old property getting a second chance. Then the crime hits, and Avery gets pulled into the messy overlap between the town’s polite surface and what people are hiding behind closed doors. Because the books are rooted in renovation, the clues can come from who had access to a house, who wanted a property, and who could profit from a sudden change in plans. Over time, Avery learns which friendships are real, which deals come with strings, and when a “simple” remodel is anything but.

These stories keep the tone light even when the stakes are serious. There’s humor, a steady stream of community characters, and enough romance to make the personal choices feel as important as the whodunit. You’ll get plenty of satisfying, nuts-and-bolts moments too, contractors, budgets, timelines, and the way one bad decision can snowball into three more. It’s cozy mystery comfort, with a little extra drywall dust.

Start with Fatal Fixer-Upper to meet Avery and Derek at the moment everything changes, then follow the renovations and the investigations from there.