I've 'discovered' several good mysteries while reading books I consider to be another genre and wondered about others.

chick lit - Meg Cabot's Heather Wells mysteries. funny, LOL in places, good mystery

romance - the now defunct :-( Harlequin Next series has several really good (IMHO) mystery series. I thought these were 'romance' but this line deals with women in late30's and up up up! dealing with a life-change of some sort. some are funny, sad, or a mystery. From what I've read here are some good ones: Hank Phillippa Ryan's Prime Time(have the 2nd, Face Time in my TBR), Charlotte Douglas's Maggie Skerritt - older female character (I think late 40's early 50's but can't remember for sure), Stevi Mitman's 'Life in Long Island Can Be Murder- begins with 'who makes up these rules, anyway?' and all titles have 'anyway ' in the title. needs to be read in order pretty  much for the ongoing 'romance' but the first really  needs to be read first because it sets the background for the entire series. a few individual light mystery type them: debra webb's 'life happens' very interesting occupation for the woman! and leslie kelly's 'grin and bear it' -lightly funny and silly but a 'who done it' type read.

inpirational romance - not my usual cup of tea but 'murder by mushroom' a love inspired romantic suspense was an interesting storyline mixed in withe the 'moral lectures'! also from this same line, inn at shadow lake was good and seemed there would be a sequel or two but a not at the end stated the author had passed away before the book was published so no hopes of a sequel.

There are two mysteries that I love by Margaret Dumas--Speak Now and How to Suceed at Murder.  They are supposedly the beginning of a series (in that order) and feature a woman (Charley) and her husband (Jack Fairfax) whom she married after knowing him for six weeks and she slowly discovers he must have been some kind of secret spy in his past, as they get embroiled in dangerous situations.  They're great mysteries and very romantic, too.

the only new mystery series I follow are the MC Beaton ones.  I love the Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisins books.

Some favorite 'new' series (with only a few books) that are relatively unknown are Sean Chercover's Ray Dudgeon series--amateur sleuth (private eye), the first one is called Big City, Bad Blood and the second is to be released later this year.

Karen E. Olson writes a series about a reporter named Annie Seymour set in New Haven, CT, the first one is called Sacred Cows. There are two other books that follow it with the fourth coming out in November. 

And Craig Johnson has a series about a rather crusty old sheriff in Absaroka County WYO (Walt Longmire) and the first one is A Cold Dish. This one also has three books currently with a fourth to be released later this year.

None of these are "cozy" but I found them to be excellent, well-written with strong, believable "real" characters.

Cheryl

I like Margaret Dumas too! I found the first one by accident at ubs one night and thought it sounded good. They're just light and funny. I wish she'd write more and put them in paperback..the first one I have in pb but the other I think is still only in hardback.