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Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – January 2025

Dead as a Door Knocker: A House-Flipper Mystery (House-Flipper Mysteries Book 1) January is almost over, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozies that we read this month!

If you read a Cozy mystery this month and want to recommend it to the rest of us, be sure to post it here! For this month, I read the first entry of Diane Kelly’s House-Flipper Mystery Series. For the reasons I want to recommend it, be sure to check out the blog entry!

So, what have you been reading that you can recommend in January? Please be sure to tell us why you liked these Cozies so much. I know we’re all always on the lookout for more particularly good Cozy Mystery authors! (If you have a lot of Cozies you think are great, please post the ones you like the most at the top of the list.)

As always, please do not tell us about the Cozy Mysteries you did not like.

What really good Cozy Mystery did you read January 2025 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

Avery Aames (aka Daryl Wood Gerber): Cheese Shop Mystery Series

Ellery Adams (aka J. B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): Book Retreat Mystery Series

Ellie Alexander (aka Kate Dyer-Seeley): Secret Bookcase Mystery Series

Barbara Allan: Trash ‘n’ Treasures Mystery Series

Leslie Budewitz: Seattle Spice Shop Mystery Series

Paula Charles: Hometown Hardware Mystery Series (first entry Hammers and Homicide)

Ian and Will Ferguson: Miranda Abbott Mystery Series (first entry I Only Read Murder)

Katie Gayle: Julie Bird Mystery Series (first entry An English Garden Murder)

Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames): Literary Dining Mystery Series

Victoria Hamilton (aka Amanda Cooper): Vintage Kitchen Mystery Series

Veronica Heley: Ellie Quicke Mystery Series

Diane Kelly: House-Flipper Mystery Series

Ian Moore: Follet Valley Mystery Series (first entry Death and Croissants)

Korina Moss: Cheese Shop Mystery Series (first entry Cheddar Off Dead)

Elliott Roosevelt: Elanor Roosevelt Mystery Series

Benjamin Stevenson: Ernest Cunningham Mystery Series (first entry Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone)

Cathy Wiley: Fatal Food Festival Mystery Series (first entry Claws of Death) 

I will list the authors and series that have been recommended, but I urge you to read the comments below so you can see the reasons other Cozy Mystery readers thought these were their best reads of the month.

♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦

P.S. I usually don’t comment on your recommendations since they speak for themselves.

Diane Kelly: House-Flipper Mystery Series

Dead as a Door Knocker: A House-Flipper Mystery (House-Flipper Mysteries Book 1)Well, it’s almost the end of the month, so it’s time to discuss my latest reading selection based on site reader recommendations. Today, I’ll be discussing the first entry in Diane Kelly‘s House-Flipper Mystery Series, Dead as a Door Knocker.

This series stars Whitney Whitaker, a property manager and construction fixer-upper in Nashville, Tennessee. Though her day job mostly involves dealing with routine problems occurring on properties she manages for a real estate business, her real passion is in fixing up eviction properties, abandoned houses, and otherwise decaying and mistreated buildings into desirable houses for a profit.

The other protagonist, Sawdust, is her cat. Yes, this is a cat-as-protagonist novel, at least for some chapters – though these chapters are shorter and least frequent than Whitney’s. They’re also told in third person, while Whitney’s are in first person. Some of them are also more relevant than others as well – the first few are mostly about either napping or attacking Whitney’s robot vacuum cleaner.

After evicting a trio of college students far behind on rent, Whitney is offered the opportunity to buy the property by the owner, who doesn’t want to bother with the renovation and repair, instead offering to sell to Whitney for a discount to fix up and flip. Whitney decides to spend some of the time working on the property living on-site, to both simplify travel and deter thieves, taking Sawdust over with her. However, the first night on the property, there is a fire, one that is quickly confirmed to be faulty wiring. Considering the house had been inspected just that morning and given a clean ‘bill of health’, it was a bad sign – one made even worse when Sawdust turns up a body in the flower bed. Naturally, the body belongs to the man who sold Whitney the house – a person that she and many other people had potential grudges against.

The details of the house-flipping business, including design details, are dealt with in relatively close detail, so if you have an interest in interior design or property management, this definitely hits an interesting niche that isn’t often dealt with in as much detail as is present in this book.

As always, if you want to read more of these brief discussions of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page.

Upcoming Mysteries on Turner Classic Movies for February 2025

It seems to me there are fewer mystery movies that are being aired this month. I don’t think it’s because February is such a short month. When I was compiling this list I noticed that the Turner Classic Movies was doing a lot of “theme days” – it seems that none of the theme days were dedicated to mystery movies. However, there still are several really good ones such as Double Indemnity (1944) on February 4, several of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, and Gaslight (1944) on February 25, and several other newer ones.

12 Angry Men (50th Anniversary Edition) with Special Features ***** ***** ***** *****

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIES – February 2025

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – February 1, 2025

4:00 PM 12 Angry Men (1957)
A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty.
Dir: Sidney Lumet. Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley
95 mins

6:00 PM In the Heat of the Night (1967)
A black detective teams up with a racist white sheriff to solve a murder in a small town in the South. Over time, they begin to find respect for one another.
Dir: Norman Jewison. Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates
109 mins

8:00 PM All About Eve (1950)
An ambitious young actress tries to take over a star’s career and love life.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Cast: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders
138 mins
*****Not a mystery. Very good movie.*****

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – February 4, 2025

12:15 AM Double Indemnity (1944)
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client’s death.
Dir: Billy Wilder. Cast: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
107 mins
*****Excellent mystery movie.*****

2:15 AM The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled master criminal gathers several crooks together in Cincinnati for a heist. The robbery is pulled off successfully until an alert night watchman shoots the team’s safe-cracker.
Dir: John Huston. Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen
112 mins

4:15 AM Algiers (1938)
A thief on the run from the law risks his life for love.
Dir: John Cromwell Cast: Sigrid Gurie, Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr
95 mins

8:00 AM Foreign Correspondent (1940)
An American reporter covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall
119 mins

4:00 PM Adam’s Rib (1949)
A happily-married, middle-aged husband and wife strain their marriage while serving as trial attorneys on opposite sides of the same headline-making attempted murder-marital case. He is the prosecutor, and she is the defender.
Dir: George Cukor. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday
101 mins
*****Not really a mystery – a murder trial which is more of a comedy…*****

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – February 5, 2025

7:15 AM The Doorway to Hell (1930)
Despite his efforts to go straight, a young gangster keeps falling back into crime.
Dir: Archie Mayo. Cast: Lew Ayres, Charles Judels, Dorothy Mathews
78 mins

10:00 AM Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
Boyhood friends grow up on opposite sides of the law.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy
93 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday – February 6, 2025

9:15 AM Strangers on a Train (1951)
A man’s joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker
96 mins

Three Billboards ***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – February 8, 2025

10:00 PM Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
Discover what happens after a flinty small-town woman places messages on a trio of billboards asking local police why her daughter’s murder hasn’t been solved.
Dir: Martin McDonagh. Cast: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell
115 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – February 9, 2025

2:30 AM Mildred Pierce (1945)
A woman’s ambitions for her daughter drastically impact her life.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Cast: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott
113 mins

10:15 PM Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
A British lawyer gets caught up in a couple’s tangled marital affairs when he defends the husband for murder.
Dir: Billy Wilder. Cast: Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton
114 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – February 11, 2025

3:45 AM The Bad Seed (1956)
An eight year old girl–a quintessential psychopath–kills a schoolmate, an old woman, an apartment janitor and prompts the suicide of her despairing mother before fate intervenes bringing this “bad seed” to her own premature finish.
Dir: Mervyn Leroy. Cast: Gage Clarke, Jesse White, Joan Croyden
129 mins

5:30 PM North by Northwest (1959)
A suave, successful New York advertising executive finds himself, through a case of mistaken identity, embroiled in a web of intrigue and murder that takes him across the country to prove his innocence to the police.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason
136 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday – February 13, 2025

8:00 AM The Naked City (1948)
A step-by-step look at a murder investigation on the streets of New York.
Dir: Jules Dassin. Cast: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart
96 mins

10:00 AM The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
A man remains young and handsome while his portrait shows the ravages of age and sin.
Dir: Albert Lewin. Cast: George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed
110 mins

11:30 PM Klute (1971)
A low-key small town detective journeys to New York City to investigate the murder of a friend and discovers that both the killer and the victim were clients of the same high-class call girl.
Dir: Alan J. Pakula. Cast: Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi
114 mins

Marty ***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – February 14, 2025

10:00 PM Marty (1955)
A lonely butcher finds love despite the opposition of his friends and family.
Dir: Delbert Mann. Cast: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti
94 mins
*****Not a mystery. Very good movie.*****

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – February 15, 2025

7:00 AM The Big House (1930)
An attempted prison break leads to a riot.
Dir: George Hill. Cast: Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone
80 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – February 17, 2025

4:45 AM Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
On one of the hottest days of August 1972, three amateur bank robbers plan to hold up a Brooklyn bank. A nice simple robbery: Walk in, take the money, and run. Unfortunately, the supposedly uncomplicated heist suddenly becomes a bizarre nightmare as everything that could go wrong does.
Dir: Sidney Lumet. Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Carol Kane
130 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – February 19, 2025

8:00 AM Odd Man Out (1947)
A wounded IRA man faces betrayal on all sides when the British put a price on his head.
Dir: Carol Reed. Cast: James Mason, Robert Newton, Kathleen Ryan
116 mins

10:00 AM Z (1969)
A political assassination uncovers a hotbed of corruption.
Dir: Costa-Gavras. Cast: Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin
125 mins

6:00 PM Bullitt (1968)
A detective is sent by a politician to catch a big-time gangster so he can procure him before a Senate crime committee for selfish gain. When the gangster is killed before this can happen, the detective and the politico clash with each other.
Dir: Peter Yates. Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset
114 mins

Bad Day at Black Rock ***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday – February 20, 2025

12:15 PM Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero’s family.
Dir: John Sturges. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis
81 mins

4:00 PM The Thin Man (1934)
In New York, a detective, his wife and his dog solve the murder case of an eccentric inventor.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke. Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan
91 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – February 22, 2025

12:00 PM The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
100 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – February 23, 2025

8:00 PM All the President’s Men (1976)
Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s investigation of a seemingly minor hotel room break-in uncovers the greatest political scandal in United States history and leads to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.
Dir: Alan J. Pakula. Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards Jr.
138 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – February 24, 2025

8:00 PM Suspicion (1941)
A young woman marries a charming man after a brief romance but then comes to believe that he is only after her money and will do anything to get it.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, Sir Cedric Hardwicke
99 mins

10:00 PM Psycho (1960)
A woman on the run gets mixed up with a repressed young man and his violent mother.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin
109 mins

Gaslight ***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – February 25, 2025

12:00 AM Gaslight (1944)
Young Paula Alquist has given up a promising singing career to marry Gregory Anton. Deeply in love, she refuses to believe – then cannot convince anyone else – that her new husband is a thief who murdered her aunt, that everyone in her household is plotting to kill her…and that something evil will happen every time she …
Dir: George Cukor. Cast: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten
114 mins

2:00 AM Wait Until Dark (1967)
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who’ve invaded her home.
Dir: Terence Young. Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna
108 mins

4:00 AM Night Must Fall (1937)
A charming young man worms his way into a wealthy woman’s household, then reveals a deadly secret.
Dir: Richard Thorpe. Cast: Robert Montgomery, Rosalind Russell, Dame May Whitty
117 mins

6:00 AM Little Caesar (1930)
A small-time hood shoots his way to the top, but how long can he stay there?
Dir: Mervyn Leroy. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Glenda Farrell
80 mins

11:30 AM Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
An aging American judge presides over the trial of Nazi war criminals.
Dir: Stanley Kramer. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark
190 mins

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (Anniversary Edition) ***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – February 28, 2025

11:30 AM What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
A crazed, aging star torments her sister in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Dir: Robert Aldrich. Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono
132 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – March 1, 2025

9:00 AM Crossfire (1947)
A crusading district attorney investigates the murder of a Jewish man.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan
85 mins

2:15 AM Key Largo (1948)
A returning veteran tangles with a ruthless gangster during a hurricane.
Dir: John Huston. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall
101 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed TV specials coming up in February, be sure to leave a comment below!

In case you’re interested in seeing the rest of this month’s television mystery movies, here’s the January television mystery movies schedule:

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for January 2025 on Turner Classic Movies channel

And here is the page on my site with plenty of entries about movies and television shows you may enjoy:

Cozy Mystery List TV and Movie Section – all you have to do is click on the link to go to that page on my site.

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