Penny Brannigan Mystery

The Penny Brannigan Mystery series is a series of novels by former journalist and college Professor turned cozy mystery author, the Canadian Elizabeth J. Duncan. The first of the Brannigan Mysteries was the award-winning, The Cold Light of Mourning, published in 2009 to much critical acclaim and commercial success. Set in the fictional town of Llanelen in North Wales, the novels feature Penny Brannigan a manicurist and expatriate from Canada. Penny moved to the small town in Wales alongside her friend Victoria to set up a small manicure shop. She is first introduced as an ordinary manicure shop owner who has been living in an enchanting out-of-the-way town of Llanelen for over 25 years. Over the course of the series, she finds herself in the center gruesome tales of murder and intrigue, in which she acts as an amateur sleuth, assisted by her sidekick and business partner Victoria Hopkirk. The novels see the protagonist seek absolution and justice for strangers, friends, herself, and her business as either a matter of necessity, chance or when she is invited to. In these mysteries reminiscent of the cozies by Louise Penny and M.C. Beaton, Elizabeth Duncan writes narratives full of colorful characters in the vivid and bucolic Welsh settings that would delight any traditional cozy mystery enthusiast.