Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Confession is Murder | 2012 | Peg Cochran | Buy |
| 2 | Unholy Matrimony | 2014 | Peg Cochran | Buy |
| 3 | Hit and Nun | 2015 | Peg Cochran | Buy |
| 4 | A Room with a Pew | 2015 | Peg Cochran | Buy |
| 5 | Cannoli to Die For | 2017 | Peg Cochran | Buy |
The Lucille Mysteries are set around St. Lucille’s Catholic parish in New Jersey and follow Liz, a freelance magazine writer who keeps finding herself in the middle of murder investigations tied to the church and its community. Confession is Murder (2012), the first book, draws on the parish setting effectively, using the tight-knit community of a church neighborhood as the closed social world a cozy mystery needs.
Subsequent books – Unholy Matrimony (2014), Hit and Nun (2015), A Room with a Pew (2015), and Cannoli to Die For (2017) – each bring a different aspect of parish life into focus. The titles reflect Cochran’s fondness for wordplay, a consistent feature of her series naming across all her books. The recurring characters within the parish give the series a sense of continuity.
The series ran for five books across six years, making it a mid-length cozy series. Readers who enjoy community-centered mysteries with a specific cultural setting will find the Lucille books offer something a little different from Cochran’s more rural Michigan-based series.