Hat Shop Mystery Books in Order

The Hat Shop Mystery books begin when Scarlett Parker escapes a public romantic disaster in Florida and heads to London, where her cousin Vivian Tremont wants her help at Mim's Whims, the family's hat shop on Portobello Road. What Scarlett expects is a change of scene. What she gets is a new city, a whole new life, and a murder almost immediately.

These books love fashion, but they are still very much cozies.

Scarlett and Vivian make a great pair. Scarlett is the outsider, funny, impulsive, and still adjusting to British life. Viv is more rooted, more polished, and every bit as capable of attracting trouble. Together they move through London drawing rooms, charity events, wedding plans, and aristocratic tangles while trying to keep the shop running. Harrison Wentworth, the shop's business manager, adds another important thread, especially as Scarlett settles into the city.

The setting is a big part of the charm. McKinlay uses Notting Hill, Portobello Road, stately houses, and later travel to places like Paris and the English countryside to give the series a broader feel than many small-town cozies. But the books still keep the same pleasures: recurring characters, clever setups, and murders tied to very social occasions where everybody has a reason to lie.

The fashion details are fun without taking over. Hats matter because they are the cousins' work, their family inheritance, and their passport into rooms they might not otherwise enter. In Cloche and Dagger, that world opens up with a missing cousin and a dead client. After that, the series keeps building on Scarlett's new place in London and her growing ties to the people around her.

If you want a cozy mystery series with strong atmosphere, a good cousin duo, and a little British sparkle, this is an easy recommendation. Start with Cloche and Dagger and go in order. Scarlett's move to London is the real beginning of the story, and the later books land better when you have watched that new life take shape.