Mystery Bookshop Books in Order

The Plot Is Murder starts with a life change that could have gone in a very sad direction. Samantha Washington has lost her husband, left her job as an English teacher, and decided to follow through on their shared dream of opening a mystery bookstore in North Harbor, Michigan. That sounds like enough to handle already. Then a murder lands close to home, the police focus on someone in Sam's orbit, and she finds herself solving crimes while trying to build a business and a future.

And yes, each book gives you two mysteries to follow.

That is the signature twist of this series. Alongside the modern case, Sam is also writing a British historical mystery set in the late 1930s. Those chapters run through the books and become their own ongoing story, following the Marsh family through country house problems, social tension, and very English murders. The structure lets Burns play with two different mystery traditions at once, a contemporary American cozy and a classic style whodunit, without making the books feel fussy.

In the present day, Sam is never alone for long. Her grandmother Nana Jo and the women from Shady Acres Retirement Village are essential to the series, not just comic extras. They gossip, poke around, remember things other people forget, and refuse to sit quietly when someone they care about is accused. That gives the books a loose, lively group energy. The cases often grow out of ordinary life, family weddings, football fever, bus trips, book clubs, travel, and small town grudges, which makes the murders feel woven into the community rather than dropped in from nowhere.

Sam herself is a big part of the appeal. She is grieving at the start, but the books are really about what she builds after that loss. She becomes a bookseller, then a writer in her own right, and all the while she keeps learning how to trust her instincts. If you like series where the main character's personal life moves forward at a steady pace, this one does that well.

If you enjoy nosy retirees, this series knows exactly how to use them.

Across Read Herring Hunt, The Novel Art of Murder, Wed, Read and Dead, Bookmarked for Murder, and beyond, the tone stays smart, friendly, and very bookish. There is plenty of humor, but the murders still matter. Expect shelves full of references to classic mysteries, plenty of family chaos, and a strong sense that solving the case is something Sam does with her people, not all by herself.