In a world of chaos and confusion, it’s natural to retreat to the comfort and escape of a feel-good movie. For further distraction, make it a movie with a mystery to mull over. Put them together and you have the cozy mystery subgenre. A place where someone may die, but it’ll be relatively bloodless, and those who investigate will be lovable if not questionably able.

In The Thursday Murder Club, those lovable detectives are four seniors living in a retirement home who meet weekly to review cold cases for fun. When their home is threatened by a new developer and a murder occurs right on their doorstep, they suddenly have a real-life investigation on their hands and set out to find the killer. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, the film features friendship, humor, mischief, baking, and, of course, an enticing mystery. 

For a break from life, a cozy mystery movie is the perfect palate cleanser. Below, find our guide to the best of them, including a variety of quaint whodunits, tales of senior friendships, and, of course, plenty of British humor. It’s time to snuggle up, put on the tea kettle, and settle in for a comfy screening!

Wicked Little Letters

Based on a true story in a small British town in the 1920s, Wicked Little Letters follows Edith Swan (Olivia Colman), a dutiful Christian caring for her fragile elderly mother and overbearing father, who receives lewd and threatening hate mail from an anonymous sender. Edith blames her abrasive neighbor, Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley). Rose insists on her innocence, and based on mismatched handwriting, Constable Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) is inclined to believe her. Moss launches a covert investigation to find the vulgar (and rather hilarious) scribe, which leads her to wholly unexpected places.

7 Women and a Murder

What’s cozier than a holiday family reunion … with murder? On a snowy day, Susanna (Diana Del Bufalo) returns home for Christmas earlier than expected — with a secret. At the house is her mother, grandmother, younger sister, aunt, and their surly new maid. When the patriarch of the home is found murdered in his bed, their neighbor, a former lover of his, shows up after getting an anonymous call about his death. Snowbound together in the house, the seven women fly into an amusing frenzy of accusations, spilled secrets, and greedy intentions as they try to figure out which of them is a murderer.

7 femmes

1h 24m   13+   2022

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Enola Holmes

Another fun British mystery based on a book series, Enola Holmes is about Sherlock Holmes’s younger sister Enola (Millie Bobby Brown), who takes after her brother (Henry Cavill) in her proclivity to take charge and investigate a compelling case. Here, it’s the disappearance of her mother. Escaping her two elder brothers who wish to send her to finishing school, Enola takes off for London to follow the clues her mother left behind. Along the way, she encounters a viscount around her age, on the run from a would-be assassin. This leaves Enola to contend with two mysteries — and a little romance. And if this film leaves you feeling warmhearted, continue on to Enola Homes 2. 

Enola Holmes

2h 4m   13+   2020

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

With a little less mystery, but plenty of heart, this 2018 book-based film follows a writer, Juliet Ashton (Lily James), who, in 1946, discovers a quaint book club on a small island that was formed out of necessity during the German occupation in World War II. Juliet travels to the town and meets with the society members where she learns their founding member is technically missing. Inspired by the people and their stories, Juliet determines to write about their experiences and use her connections to help them track down their friend.

The Miracle Club

What’s more mysterious than a miracle? The Irish ladies of The Miracle Club are on the search for miracles of their own. In 1967 Ireland, three women (Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates, and Agnes O’Casey) brought together by their church are given tickets for a trip to Lourdes, France, a place where miracles are said to happen. Joined at the last minute by the estranged daughter (Laura Linney) of their recently deceased friend, the four women embark on a journey that they hope will bring them closer to God, and will definitely bring them closer to one another.

Operation Mincemeat

Operation Mincemeat is primarily an adaptation of the amusing true story of a World War II covert operation, not a murder mystery. However, it does involve a corpse. Acting on a plan to trick the Germans into thinking the Allies are invading Greece, British operatives work together to obtain a corpse and plant documents on it, asserting the fake identity and background of a non-existent Major William Martin. Additionally, the body, which would wash ashore in Spain, would carry “top secret” documents about the intended invasion. Of course, nothing goes as smoothly as they’d like, and the story is as hilarious as it is diverting. 

Murder Mystery

While the foursome of The Thursday Murder Club go looking for murders to solve for fun, Nick and Audrey Spitz (Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston) stumble upon one unexpectedly. Celebrating their honeymoon after 15 years of marriage, Nick and Audrey alter their European vacation plans when they get an enticing invite from the rich and mysterious Charles Cavendish (Luke Evans). They join him on his uncle Malcolm Quince’s yacht to celebrate Quince’s wedding to Cavendish’s former fiancée. Moments after declaring his new wife to be his sole heir, Quince is murdered — and everyone’s a suspect. Using Nick’s experience as a police officer and the knowledge Audrey absorbed from reading mystery novels, the two attempt to find the killer before they end up in prison. For more laughs and intrigue, carry on with Murder Mystery 2.

Murder Mystery

1h 38m   13+   2019

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