Tea & Treachery, Indeed
A Cape Cod cozy with scones, suspects, and just the right steep.
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Dear Cozy Reader,
It’s the summer of tea! So, a couple of weeks ago, I went through my list of cozy mysteries to find ones focused on tea. And while tea shows up a lot in cozy mysteries—always brewing in the background or offered to calm a suspect—it turns out I hadn’t actually read any where tea was the main feature. I’m talking about books with punny tea titles or series centered around a tea shop.
Clearly, I had to fix that. So this month, I combed through a list of tea-themed cozies I’d collected, and I picked one I thought might work for me: A Fatal Twist of Lemon by Patricia Greenwood. This one is set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and features a protagonist who uses her inheritance to buy a Victorian house and convert it into a teahouse serving high-end afternoon tea.
I enjoyed it at first—there was plenty of tea talk and lots of behind-the-scenes moments running the shop. But the mystery moved so slowly that I kept falling asleep while reading. This, of course, is one of the inherent risks of the genre: sometimes, a cozy is too cozy. I can’t say whether it would be right for you, but for me, it was just too sleepy to keep going, so I DNF’d it (Did Not Finish).
The next book I picked up was recommended by one of our community members: Tea & Treachery by Vicki Delaney. Like A Fatal Twist of Lemon, this one also features a newly opened teahouse. It’s set on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, which was a delight for me, since I grew up near Boston and visited the Cape as a kid. And unlike the first one, Tea & Treachery had just the right pacing to keep me hooked the whole time. For me, it was the perfect blend (pun fully intended) of cozy and compelling.
But what I really want to talk to you about is the tea! Because here’s what I was worried about: that a book with “tea” in the title might not actually have that much tea content. You know how books about books sometimes aren’t really about books at all? And you’re like—“You promised books! Where are they??”
Tea & Treachery, though, absolutely delivered. The protagonist, Lily, works at her grandmother’s bed & breakfast in the mornings, making full English breakfast for the guests. In the afternoons, she walks next door to the teahouse, where she bakes afternoon tea treats and prepares the tea.
The book stays rooted in those two cozy, food-scented spaces—Lily leaves the kitchens only rarely. And when she isn’t trying to save her grandmother from being unjustly accused of murder, she’s thinking about scones, creamy Earl Grey, and what tea set to serve them on. I loved it.
There were even little educational moments, like this gem about the difference between high tea and afternoon tea:
“Afternoon tea, as invented by Anna, Duchess of Bedford, and served at Tea by the Sea, is not to be confused, as it often is in America, with high tea, which is a working family’s or children’s evening meal. In the past, afternoon tea was occasionally called ‘low tea,’ meaning served at a low table in a drawing room, as opposed to the high table in the kitchen, around which a family would gather to have their ‘high tea.’ Just to confuse things more, some places in America refer to afternoon tea as ‘high tea’ when it comes with an additional, more substantial course, such as a soup or salad.”
—Vicki Delaney, Tea & Treachery
There are so many ways to approach tea. There’s the herbal witchy way (which is how I drink tea), the Mma Ramotswe way (of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency) with her always-flowing red bush tea, and then there’s the British way, with its formality and ritual. This book is all about celebrating that classic British afternoon tea, and if that’s your jam, I think you’ll love Tea & Treachery.
Oh—and the mystery itself? Delightful! It’s full of lovable small-town characters and a great sense of place on the Cape’s bluffs. For me, this was a five-star cozy read.
Have you read it? Would you like to? Let me know in the comments—and if you have photos of your favorite tea, tea sets, or tea-related books share them in our new community chat space!
—Emma
Hi there! I’m Emma Veritas, your cozy reading enthusiast. I delight in escaping to small towns filled with endearing characters—and a touch of mystery, dragons, or aliens! When I'm not sharing bookish musings here, you’ll find me crafting fictional tales in my notebooks, spending quality time with my adorable pet bunny, or savoring a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
You might also enjoy my other newsletter, Mystics Reading Society, a welcoming space where books, personal growth, and magic intertwine, nurturing your soul one page at a time. Read the most recent post: A Fresh Start