There are so many cozy mystery book authors who can be found in the "M" list. I discovered Charlotte MacLeod (aka Alisa Craig) years ago, and I have remained a loyal reader of hers through the years. I am an avid fan of seasonal books, and the first mystery in her Peter Shandy series "Rest You Merry" is a wonderful cozy Christmas mystery book.

The Roderick Alleyn series written by the very famous Ngaio Marsh is a classic cozy mystery series. If you get a chance to see the BBC "Inspector Alleyn Mysteries" shows (with Patrick Malahide).... ENJOY! The cozy mystery book translates exceptionally well to the television and/or movie screen.

Jill McGown writes a "very British" mystery book series that is really enjoyable reading. When a reader devotes hours to reading a book, it's always a treat to find a really good author who is able to deliver "good reads" every time.

Marianne Macdonald    Macdonald, previously a professor in both Canada and England, writes the Dido Hoare Mystery Series which features a single mother, antiquarian bookshop owner/sleuth...

Karen MacInerney    MacInerney writes two series: the Gray Whale Inn Mystery series (for which she was nominated for an Agatha Best First Novel Award) and she will be releasing the first book in her Tales of an Urban Werewolf series in 2008. (MacInerney finished the second Barbara Burnett Smith's Beading mystery series.)

Jeanne Mackin    aka Anna Maclean... As Mackin, she writes historical novels.  As Maclean, she pens a cozy mystery series that features Louisa May Alcott, before she became a novelist.

Anna Maclean    aka Jeanne Mackin... Maclean pens a cozy mystery series that features Louisa May Alcott, before she became a novelist. As Mackin, she writes historical novels.

Charlotte MacLeod   aka Alisa Craig  Several good cozy series to pick from... She is one of the main reasons I am such a devoted cozy mystery fan.

Debbie Macomber    Macomber has been recommended to me by several different site readers. Not all of her series are mysteries, although one site reader has told me that her Cedar Cove Series does indeed fall into the mystery category. Her Blossom Street Series is a knitting series, and she also has a number of Holiday Theme books. Her Angelic Intervention series features three angels who are sent to earth to help people...

Rett MacPherson   MacPherson lists genealogy as one of her passions, so it shouldn't surprise you that her series has a genealogist as it's main character.

Molly MacRae    MacRae writes the Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery Series which takes place in Tennessee. The series features Kath
Rutledge, who inherites her grandmothers wool shop. Along with the shop, Kath inherits a tenant - a not-so-happy ghost.

Ada Madison  (aka Camille Minichino & Margaret Grace)    Madison writes the Sophie Knowles Mystery Series which features a college professor/beader/sleuth in Massachusetts. As Minichino she writes the Periodic Table Mystery Series which is also set in Massachusetts, with several books taking place (as trips) in California. As Grace, she writes the Miniature Mystery Series which is set in California.

Mary Jane Maffini  (aka Victoria Abbott - writing duo Mary Jane Maffini & daughter Victoria Maffini)  Maffini, a librarian by trade, also (co-)owned a mystery book shop before becoming a full-time cozy author. She has three series featuring unusual sleuths... one is a failed romance writer and another is a professional organizer. As Abbott, both mom and daughter Maffini write the Book Collector's Mystery Series. This series features Jordan Kelly as the sleuth. Jordan is a researcher for a rare mystery book collector in New York.

Paul Magrs    Magrs is a British professor of Creative Writing who writes the Brenda & Effie Mystery Series which is set in the UK, and features two best friends who involve themselves in supernatural investigations. He has also written several Doctor Who novels, as well as (+/-) dozen Stand Alones.

G. M. Malliet    Malliet is a Malice Domestic Grant Winner, as well as a copywriter and journalist. She pens the St. Just Mystery Series and the Max Tudor Mystery Series. Max Tudor is a very unlikely sleuth... He's an ex-spy turned village vicar.

Valerie S. Malmont   What better occupation for your cozy mystery book's main character/sleuth to be than an author.... of horror.....

Blanche Day Manos & Barbara Burgess   Blanche Day Manos (an ex-teacher) and Barbara Burgess (a retired trial court administrator) co-author the Darcy / Flora Mystery Series. This series features a daughter/mother sleuth team in a friendly and small town in Oklahoma.

Lindsay Maracotta   Marcotta writes the Lucy Freers Mystery Series which is set in Hollywood. Its sleuth is a wife of a Hollywood producer who also is a filmmaker... when she's not sleuthing.

Peg Marberg    Marberg writes the Interior Design Mystery Series...

Margaret Maron   A North Carolina judge rules her Deborah Knott series, and her Sigrid Harald series features a New York City police lieutenant.

Ngaio Marsh   Very British cozy... Her Inspector Alleyn series was the basis of several made for TV British productions. As a baronet's son, Roderick Alleyn had to make a career for himself, since he wasn't the first son. Who would have known he would become such an accomplished detective?!

Evan Marshall   Marshall (president of his literary management firm) was previously a book editor, who happens to be married to a literary agent. It's no small wonder that his amateur sleuth (Jane Stuart) happens to be... a literary agent. A site reader recommended that his books be added to both the site and the cat theme category. He is also beginning the new Hidden Manhattan Mystery Series...

Edward Marston   aka Keith Miles and Conrad Allen....   Several series to pick from. An Agatha Award Winner....

Allana Martin      Martin writes the Death of a ***** Mystery Series which features Texana Jones, the owner of a trading post and her husband Clay (a veterinarian) in a Texan border town (bordering Mexico)...

J. Wallis Martin    I absolutely loved both of Martin's first two mystery novels, and (luckily) just found out about the next two.... I will be reading them very soon.... A Likeness in Stone and The Bird Yard are very well-written psychological mysteries, with three-dimensional characters. I only wish she would write more great novels!

Lee Martin   aka Anne Wingate & Martha G. Webb.... "All three" write a series that is set in Texas, Wingate's has a police chief, Martin's series features a police detective and Webb writes about a police on the narcotics squad.

Nancy Martin   Martin's Blackbird Sisters series features three privileged sisters who, because of a bad turn of events, have to go find jobs for the first time in their lives. Martin also pens the Roxy Abruzzo Mystery Series which features the owner of an architectural salvage company and her Pitbull-Mastiff-Rottweiler dog.

Rosemary Martin   aka Rosemary Stevens.... As Martin, the author writes the Murder A-Go-Go mystery series which is set during the 1960s in New York. Her Stevens' series is quite different, set during the Regency period (1790-1820) in London.

Sarah J. Mason    See Miss Seeton  books, alphabetized under “Miss Emily Seeton”.....This is the third "part" of the three-author series involving Miss Seeton.  Mason uses the pseudonym Hamilton Crane when writing the Miss Seeton books. She also has a series that is set in a British village, featuring two detectives.

Sujata Massey    Massey is an ex-newspaper journalis, with a degree from John Hopkin's. Several of her works appear on the Agatha Awards pages!

Amanda Matetsky   Main character's name is "Paige Turner!"

Francine Mathews    aka Stephanie Barron…. Mathews writes two series, one about a police detective in Massachusetts, and the other about a CIA analyst.

Stefanie Matteson   Matteson's mystery series features an aging star who enjoys a good mystery.

Alex Matthews    Matthews, a psychotherapist, was previously an English teacher, then journalist. Matthews sets her series in Oak Park, Illinois... very dear to me since my sister and her family have lived there for many years.

Christine Matthews    Imagine collaborating with Robert J. Randisi! That is exactly what Christine Matthews does while writing her popular Gil & Claire Hunt Mystery Series...

Casey Mayes aka Melissa Glazer, Chris Cavender, Tim Myers, Elizabeth Bright    Mayes writes the Math Puzzle Mystery Series. As Myers, there are four series: Lighthouse Inn Mystery Series, Slow Cooker Mystery Series, Soapmaking Mystery Series, and Candlemaking Mystery Series. As Elizabeth Bright, we have the Card Making Mystery Series, and as Chris Cavender, the Pizza Mystery Series. The Clay & Crime Cozy Mystery Series is written by Glazer.  

Archer Mayor    Mayor, a confirmed New Englander, writes the Joe Gunther Mystery Series, which is a police procedural. Along with being the author of the very popular Joe Gunther Series, he is also a deputy for the county sheriff's department and a death investigator for the Vermont's Chief Medical Examiner. He has spent 25 years as a volunteer EMT and firefighter.

Susan McBride    McBride is a journalist whose websites says she "always dreamed of making up stories rather than reporting them." She is the author of the Debutante Dropout Mystery series which features a woman who fled her own debutante season, much to the chagrin of her socially up-there mother. 

Barbara Taylor McCafferty  aka Taylor McCafferty & Tierney McClellan...  McCafferty teams up with her twin Beverly Taylor Herald when writing the Tatum Twin  mystery series.

Alexander McCall Smith   Alexander McCall Smith is a professor of medical law, with a passion for music. I am a fan of both of his "mystery" series: the Number One Ladies' Detective Agency and the Isabel Dalhousie (Sunday Philosophy Club) series. He is also the author of the Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria Von Igelfeld trilogy, as well as the author of the the 44 Scotland Street goings-on.... both of which I am a fan.  His Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series is the closest to being a mystery series, although I'm not sure if it would truly qualify as that... To me, it is more like a delightful work of fiction which happens to take place in a detective agency. (I have Alexander McCall Smith under both the "M" and "S" pages, since a viewer of this site thought he should be on the "M" page...)

Lorena McCourtney    McCourtney, armed with a college degree in agriculture, is listed under "Christian Mysteries" on her site... She writes several mystery series, some of which feature senior citizen sleuths, and she even has a birdwatching mystery series. McCourney also writes the Cate Kinkaid Files Mystery Series which has, as its sleuth, a private investigator.

Judi McCoy   McCoy writes the Dog Walker Mystery Series which features Rudy and Ellie, Yorkie and faithful owner, who happens to be able to communicate telepathically with her charges.

K. D. McCrite For all of you Annie's Attic Mystery Series fans, you'll be happy to see that one of its authors writes her own mystery series. That's right, K. D. McCrite (a psychologist) writes the Eastgate Mystery Series, as well as being a contributing author to Annie's Attic.

Sharyn McCrumb   McCrumb is probably most recognized as the author of the very successful Appalachian series. She has several other series from which to pick.

Michael McGarrity    Armed with a masters in clinical social work, McGarrity has held several very interesting jobs... including deputy sheriff in Santa Fe county, college instructor, and even investigator for the Public Defenders Office. His series features a retired police chief, in where else, but beautiful Santa Fe.

Neil McGaughey    McGaughey's Stokes Moran series is about a mystery book reviewer....

Jill McGown    aka Elizabeth Chaplin..... Very British police procedural... Chief Inspector Lloyd and Sergeant Judy Hill are some of my all time favorite mystery characters.

Ralph McInerny  aka Monica Quill.... As McInerny, he writes the Father Dowling series, the (lawyer) Andrew Broom series, and a Notre Dame series...

Hope McIntyre  (aka Caroline Upcher)   McIntyre (the pseudonym for her crime fiction) writes about something she knows first-hand... ghostwriting. Having been a ghostwriter (as well as several other professions---including editor) she now writes the Lee Bartholomew Mystery Series featuring a ghostwriter...

G. A. McKevett     The Savannah Reid series.....

Jenn McKinlay (aka Lucy Lawrence & Josie Belle)    McKinlay writes the Cupcake Bakery Mystery Series and as Lawrence she writes the Decoupage Mystery Series. As Josie Belle she writes the Good Buy Girls Mystery Series.

Staci McLaughlin   McLaughlin writes the Blossom Valley Mystery Series, which features a sleuth who has moved back in with her mother, who is a recent widow. The sleuth (Dana Lewis) is a junk food "addict" working at a Californian organic farm and spa.

Donna McLean    McLean writes the Sparrow Falls Mystery Series. This series takes place in Sparrow Falls, a quaint, little town in North Carolina. The two main sleuths are Addie McRae, who goes to the town searching for her Scottish roots, and Tilda
MacArdan, a "spunky Southern Lady."

Ann McMillan    McMillan writes the Civil War Mystery Series, set (quite obviously) during the Civil War... in Virginia. It features an herbalist...

Catriona McPherson   McPherson writes the Dandy Gilver Mystery Series. Dandy (Dandelion Dahlia) is the sleuth in this mystery series which is set in Scotland during the 1920s.

Cricket McRae    (aka Bailey Cates) McRae used to have a soap making company, in which she performed pretty much all of the duties (from manufacturing to marketing.) With this knowledge under her belt, it is no small wonder that the first book in her Home Crafting Cozy Mystery Series is called "Lye in Wait." As Cates she writes the Magical Bakery Mystery Series.

Amy Patricia Meade   Meade, with her degrees in English and Business, writes  the Marjorie McClelland Mystery Series. This series is set during the 1930s in Connecticut and features a mystery author. Meade also writes the Pret' Near Perfect Mystery Series which features Stella Thornton Buckley, an ex-museum curator, who moves to a village in Vermont with her forest ranger husband. The latest mystery series by Amy Patricia Meade is the Rosie the Riveter Mystery Series. This series is set in New York City, (obviously) during WW II.

Leslie Meier    Meier writes the Lucy Stone Mystery Series, which is a fun, Cozy Mystery holiday-themed series of novels...

D. R. Meredith    Meredith's most current series involves a librarian/sleuth who believes that every librarian should be a mystery reading group member...

Barbara Mertz   aka Elizabeth Peters & Barbara Michaels.....  The Amelia Peabody series is probably her most popular series. Amelia is a British Egyptologist, as is Mertz.

Annette Meyers (aka 1/2 of Maan Meyers)   Meyers writes a series about Wall Street headhunters, and is very familiar with that world. She worked in the "brokerage industry," so she knows how far people are willing to go for money... and for the things money can buy! She also writes with her husband Martin, using the name "Maan Meyers."

Maan Meyers   Martin & Annette Meyers are a husband & wife writing duo who write the Dutchman Historical Mystery Series which has a very interesting plot time line: Each novel centers around a different generation of the same family as they make their way from New Amsterdam to New York.

Barbara Michaels   aka Elizabeth Peters & Barbara Mertz....  Michaels has her doctorate in Egyptology, and her series reflects her interest in all things archaeological...

Kasey Michaels    Michaels writes the Maggie Kelly Mystery Series as well as historical romances. She is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author...

Keith Miles  aka Edward Marston & Conrad Allen..... See Marston above....

Margaret Miles   Miles writes the Bracebridge Mystery Series which is set in a little village in Massachusetts during the colonial years...

Rosalind Miles    Historical Fiction.....

Margaret Millar     I have to be honest and say that I have never read a Millar novel, although I plan to….  A very good friend of mine suggested Millar’s name when I told her I was going through a phase of wanting to read more novels by “classic” mystery authors. While researching for some information about Millar I read that she is known for her surprise endings…. which I happen to enjoy a lot! (On the Crime Writers' Association Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time) (On the Mystery Writers of America Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time)

Marlys Millhiser   Millhiser holds her Masters in history and taught high school before deciding to devote her time to writing novels. She writes a series about a (female) literary agent in Los Angeles.

Camille Minichino (aka Margaret Grace & Ada Madison)   Minichino is a true-life physicist, so who better to write a series about a physicist/sleuth? As Grace, she is beginning a new series set amidst dollhouses and miniature settings. As Madison, she writes the Sophie Knowles Mystery Series - which features a college mathematics professor/beader/sleuth.

Miracles of Marble Cove Series: A Guideposts series that revolves around four very different friends who live in a seaside village called Marble Cove. (Lighthouse enthusiasts may enjoy this series.)

Miss Emily D. Seeton     Miss Seeton is a retired British teacher who "sleuths" whenever there is a need....... of which there are many! This series of books has been written by three different authors since Heron Carvic began the series in 1968. Hampton Charles and then Sarah J. Mason were the next two authors. (Mason uses the pseudonym Hamilton Crane.)

Miss Read    Miss Read is a collection of NON mystery novels which "star" Miss Read, a single teacher. The rather long series of books take place in three cozy British villages. (Several site readers have likened her to Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver.)

Gladys Mitchell (aka Malcolm Torrie)   The wonderful Dame Diana Rigg played British Mrs. Bradley in the PBS shows. I haven't read any of the Mitchell novels yet..... but am planning to do so soon.

Miriam Grace Monfredo   The Seneca Falls Historical series and the Cain Trilogy.....

Yvonne Montgomery   Montgomery writes the Finny Aletter Mystery Series which features a stockbroker as its sleuth.

Mary Moody   Moody has her MBA, and writes the Lucy St. Elmo Antiques Mystery Series, which features an antique shop owner/sleuth in Massachusetts.

Marie Moore   Moore, an ex-science teacher as well as a writer and managing editor of a newspaper, also owned her own travel agency. She writes the Sydney March Mystery Series, which features a travel agent. Moore has a lot of first-hand experience in the travel agency field, including guiding tour excursions, and going on many, many cruises.

Deborah Morgan     Morgan writes a series about an ex-FBI agent who solves mysteries while buying and then reselling antiques.

Kaye Morgan   Morgan writes the Sudoku Mystery series which features an ex-Hollywood resident who now creates the Sudoku puzzles for her (current Oregon) newspaper.

Diane Morlan   Morlan, a social worker/author, writes the Jennifer Penny Mystery Series which is set in Minnesota. Jennifer is a sleuth who also roasts/brews coffee...

Gilbert Morris    Morris was a pastor for ten years and then went on to be a professor of English. He has written many novels, including the Jacques & Cleo, Cat Detectives Mystery Series, the Lady Trent Mystery Series which is set in 19th century London, and the Danielle Ross (aka Dani Ross) Mystery Series...

John Mortimer    Rumpole of the Bailey series. (On the Mystery Writers of America Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time)

Fiona Mountain    Mountain received the 2007 Mary Higgins Clark Award for the second novel in her Natasha Blake Ancestor Detective Mystery Series, which is about a genealogist sleuth who lives in the Cotswolds.

Patricia Moyes   Very British..... with Scotland Yard Inspector Henry Tibbett.... very Cozy!

Marcia Muller   Muller has a masters in journalism and has written several California cozy series.  Her San Francisco P. I. Sharon McCone is probably the most recognizable to cozy readers. Muller co-authors the Carpenter & Quincannon, Professional Detective Services Mystery Series with her husband, mystery writer, Bill Pronzini. It is set in San Francisco during the 1890s and features an ex-Pinkerton operative and an ex-Secret Service agent.

Katy Munger   aka Gallagher Gray...   Munger's series is based in North Carolina with an unlicensed private investigator in her 30s, while Gray's series is about a retired personnel manager who "sleuths" with his octogenarian aunt, living in New York. Munger also writes the Dead Detective Mystery Series, which features a dead policeman as its sleuth.

J. J. Murphy   Murphy writes the Algonquin Round Table Mystery Series, with Dorothy Parker as its main sleuth. The Algonquin Round Table was a 1920s group of writers, "wits", actors, and critics who got together every day for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel. Many times, their repartee found its way into the leading newspapers. (Dorothy Parker was an author and poet.)

Shirley Rousseau Murphy  As a devoted lover of cats, Murphy writes the Joe Grey Cat Mysteries. I have not read any of the books (yet!), but I am impressed by how much some of the members of a book forum I belong to absolutely love the series. Murphy has also written books for children, as well as fantasy novels for both adults and young adults.

Donna Huston Murray    The Ginger Barnes Mystery series set in Philadelphia......

Lynne Murray    Murray writes a series with Josephine Fuller as the full-figured sleuth. I like her books a lot.

Amy Myers  Myers writes the Auguste Didier Mystery Series, which is a historical series set in the 1800s, with a master chef sleuth. She also writes the Tom Wasp Mystery Series which has, as its sleuth, a chimneysweep in Victorian London. Myers' latest mystery series is the Jack Colby, Car Detective Mystery Series which is set in the English county of Kent.

Beverle Graves Myers   (aka Joanne Dobson) Myers, a psychiatrist with a love for opera and a background in History, has been able to combine all three of these fields to pen her mystery series featuring a (Castrati) opera singer/sleuth. Myers also writes the Helluva War Mystery Series with fellow author, Joanne Dobson. This series takes place in the USA, right after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Tamar Myers   Magdalena Yoder is the owner of a Mennonite Inn in a Pennsylvania-Dutch locale, and Abigail Timberlake owns the Den of Antiquity antique shop in North Carolina. Myers also writes the Amanda Brown Mystery Series, which features a 1950s missionary in the Congo.

Tim Myers   (aka Elizabeth Bright, Melissa Glazer, Chris Cavender, & Casey Mayes)  Myers writes four series: Lighthouse Inn Mystery Series, Slow Cooker Mystery Series, Soapmaking Mystery Series, and Candlemaking Mystery Series. As Elizabeth Bright, he writes a card-making series, and as Chris Cavender, he has the Pizza Mystery Series. As Glazer, he writes the Clay & Crime Cozy Mystery Series. As Mayes, he writes the Math Puzzle Mystery Series.

Mysteries of Sparrow Island Series    This is a Guideposts mystery series which has several authors who contribute to the book list. Mysteries of Sparrow Island Mystery Series features Abigail Stanton, an ornithologist (bird specialist) who relocates to Sparrow Island (Washington) with her sister Mary and her service dog, Finnegan. This is a Christian theme mystery series...

Mystery and the Minister's Wife  Mystery and the Minister's Wife Series is unique in that each book is written by one of several different authors. This mystery series takes place in Copper Mill, Tennessee and features Kate and Paul Hanlon (the minister and his wife) who move to the Great Smoky Mountains' foothills to head the church in the small town. It is not written to follow a chronological order... the books can be read out of sequence without losing any necessary details. Hooray! (However, one of the authors did suggest reading the first book in the series first.) It is an inspirational mystery series...

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