Liz Mugavero Books in Order
Explore Liz Mugavero books in order, including her Cate Conte mysteries, with quick summaries, series guides, and easy help on where to start.
Last updated: July 7, 2026
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Publication Order
20 books
Kneading to Die
by Liz Mugavero
2013
After losing her PR job, Kristan Connor starts baking organic pet treats in Frog Ledge, Connecticut. But when the local vet is found dead and Stan becomes the obvious suspect, her dream business comes with a murder investigation.
A Biscuit, a Casket
by Liz Mugavero
2014
Stan's pet treat business is taking off when a Halloween dog costume party at an organic dairy farm ends with the farmer dead in a corn maze. The deeper she digs, the more enemies she finds.
Murder Most Finicky
by Liz Mugavero
2015
Stan's new pet pastry venture leads her to a celebrity chef weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. When one chef is murdered and another vanishes, she has to sort through kitchen egos before the killer serves seconds.
The Icing on the Corpse
by Liz Mugavero
2015
Frog Ledge's Groundhog Day celebration goes dark when the town historian is found dead in the museum basement. Stan's search for answers uncovers an old cold case and some not-so-harmless local ghosts.
Custom Baked Murder
by Liz Mugavero
2016
Summer is busy in Frog Ledge, and Stan is juggling business plans, family wedding news, and life with Jake McGee. Then a ruthless executive coach turns up dead, and Stan has to dig into messy local politics and ambition.
Cat About Town
by Liz Mugavero
2017
Back on Daybreak Island after her grandmother's death, Maddie James plans a new beginning until a stray cat leads her to a corpse. Opening a cat cafe is hard enough without becoming the island's newest murder suspect.
Purring Around the Christmas Tree
by Liz Mugavero
2017
Frog Ledge's holiday festival turns bizarre when Santa arrives dead in his sleigh. With Jake's missing uncle also unaccounted for, Stan faces two mysteries before Christmas cheer disappears for good.
Purrder She Wrote
by Liz Mugavero
2018
The grand opening of Maddie's cat cafe should be a fresh start, until a volunteer clashes with a demanding adopter and the woman turns up dead. To protect her staff and her business, Maddie has to solve the crime fast.
Murder, She Meowed
by Liz Mugavero
2019
Stan's wedding is close, but her bachelorette party ends with a dead stripper and her own kitchen knife at the scene. To make it to the altar, she must investigate a case that suddenly puts friends and guests under suspicion.
The Tell Tail Heart
by Liz Mugavero
2019
Off-season plans on Daybreak Island collapse when a famous writer is found dead in the canal and a strange woman claims JJ the cat. Maddie soon learns the case is tangled up with old island secrets.
A Whisker of a Doubt
by Liz Mugavero
2020
While volunteering with a feral cat colony before Christmas, Maddie James gets pulled into a neighborhood feud that turns murderous. When her friend Katrina is blamed for killing a wealthy resident, Maddie races to prove she is innocent.
Witch Hunt
by Liz Mugavero
2020
Violet Mooney's life upends when a town official is murdered with her scarf after a public argument. Suddenly a suspect and newly informed witch, she must clear her name while stepping into a hidden magical family legacy.
Claws for Alarm
by Liz Mugavero
2021
JJ's House of Purrs is thriving when a rescue league fundraiser ends in murder. After her sister finds the victim strangled with a cat leash, Maddie James digs into the rescue world before another good cause turns deadly.
Witch Trial
by Liz Mugavero
2021
Violet Mooney is still learning the witch powers she never knew she had when a reporter is magically trapped and a crystal shop customer turns up dead. To clear herself, she must solve two linked crimes in both mortal and magical circles.
Gone but Not Furgotten
by Liz Mugavero
2022
Summer on Daybreak Island turns grim when Maddie James checks on a possible animal hoarding case and finds a woman dead. With her friend Cass under suspicion and cats needing rescue, she has to untangle a tight-knit community's secrets.
Nine Lives and Alibis
by Liz Mugavero
2023
Halloween takes over Daybreak Island when Maddie's sister books a celebrity medium for the season's festivities. After he is killed near the haunted inn and his cat disappears, Maddie gets drawn into old mysteries and fresh danger.
Witch Way Out
by Liz Mugavero
2023
Violet Mooney is trying to grow into her powers when a spring fair turns deadly and an advocate of ethical crystal mining is found murdered. To solve it, she must untangle threats in both the magical realm and everyday world.
Shock and Paw
by Liz Mugavero
2024
Christmas cheer fades fast when a possible sale of the local paper sparks tensions and a woman dies under a tangle of lights. With Becky under suspicion and designer cats causing drama, Maddie investigates another festive murder.
Claws Out
by Liz Mugavero
2025
Spring brings a cat literary festival, a new mobile cat cafe, and family wedding chaos for Maddie James. Then a visiting author is murdered in Provincetown, and evidence points back toward Maddie and her traveling crew.
Purranormal Activity
by Liz Mugavero
2026
Maddie's mobile cat cafe is busy when her mother's old friend returns to Daybreak Island and leads them to a hidden room and a body. The case ties a ghostly legend to disappearances stretching back forty years.
Where should I start?
If you want cozy mysteries with lots of cats: Cat About Town → Purrder She Wrote → The Tell Tail Heart
If you like small-town pets and baking: Kneading to Die → A Biscuit, a Casket → The Icing on the Corpse
If you want witches, crystals, and murder: Witch Hunt → Witch Trial → Witch Way Out
If you want newer Cat Cafe books first: Claws for Alarm → Gone but Not Furgotten → Nine Lives and Alibis
Author bio
Liz Mugavero is a New England mystery writer who also writes as Cate Conte. Her books live in the cozy end of the genre, but they are never just about dead bodies. They are about cats, food, family, small towns, and the messy way ordinary lives keep colliding with crime.
Stories were there early.
On her author site, Mugavero says she used to type chapters of favorite books on her mother's typewriter just to feel like a real writer. She has also shared that her grandfather was a detective, which helps explain why mystery and crime kept pulling her back. That mix of book love and investigative curiosity still feels like the engine behind her work.
She stayed close to home for school, studying English and communications at Salem State University before earning a master's in writing and publishing from Emerson College. Long before publishing novels, she built a career in journalism, public relations, marketing, and strategic communications. She has talked openly about writing while holding demanding day jobs, and that probably helps explain why her fiction has such a steady sense of ordinary life under the sleuthing.
She wrote in the margins.
After years of drafting, revising, pitching, and learning the business, she got the chance to develop a cozy mystery proposal. That project became Kneading to Die, the first Pawsitively Organic Mystery, published in 2013. It was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and introduced readers to Kristan Connor, called Stan, an amateur sleuth who bakes organic pet treats in small-town Connecticut.
That series set the pattern for a lot of what followed. Books like A Biscuit, a Casket, The Icing on the Corpse, and Murder, She Meowed mix murder plots with pets, food, and close-knit community drama. The crimes matter, but so do the businesses, the local rivalries, the family ties, and the animals who always feel like part of the cast.
As Cate Conte, she opened up a second lane. The Cat Cafe Mystery books, starting with Cat About Town, follow Maddie James on Daybreak Island, where a stray cat, a family home, and a new cat cafe pull her into one murder after another. With the Full Moon Mysteries, beginning with Witch Hunt, Mugavero adds witches, crystals, and a black cat familiar without losing the cozy feel that readers come for.
Cats are not background decoration in these books. They are practically coworkers.
Across all her series, readers tend to find the same pleasures. There are capable women at the center, places that feel lived in, recurring side characters who matter, and plots that move quickly without turning harsh. Even when she adds magic, the stories stay grounded in work, family, friendship, and the little pressures of everyday life.
These days, Mugavero still wears more than one hat. Alongside her fiction, she has worked in senior communications roles and has also coached other writers through her creative teaching and mentoring work. Recent bios describe her as living in New England with rescue animals, which feels exactly right for the worlds she writes. Pick up one of her books and you can expect a clever mystery, a strong sense of place, and at least one cat acting like the whole investigation belongs to them.
Edited by
Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.
Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.
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