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

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – September 2025

Death by Bubble Tea (L.A. Night Market Book 1) September is over, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozies that we read this month! I’m even further behind on this this month, but at least I did actually review a Cozy 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 Jennifer J. Chow’s LA Night Market 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 September? 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 September 2025 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

Esme Addison: Enchanted Bay Mystery Series

Ginger Bolton: Deputy Donut Mystery Series

Jennifer J. Chow: Night Market Mystery Series

Agatha Christie: Tales of the Supernatural

Nancy Coco (aka Nancy J. Parra and Nell Hampton): Candy-Coated Mystery Series

Lauren Elliott: Beyond the Page Mystery Series

Sarah Osborne: Ditie Brown Mystery Series (first entry Too Many Crooks Spoil the Plot) AND Flo and Maude Mystery Series (first entry Flo and Maude Christmas Capers)

Deanna Raybourn: Lady Julia Grey Mystery Series

Marty Wingate: First Edition Library Mystery Series

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.

Jennifer J Chow (JJ Chow): LA Night Market Mystery Series

Death by Bubble Tea (L.A. Night Market Book 1) I am once again very late, but at least “this” month (this is actually September’s book), I’ve managed to actually read a Cozy for my long-running series on the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery Series, mostly taken from reader suggestions.

Today I’ll be discussing Death by Bubble Tea, the first in the L.A. Night Market Mystery Series by Jennifer J. Chow. Unfortunately, this is a rather brief series – it’s the first of two, and it seems unlikely to receive more entries as the author has moved on to another series. So why did I read this one? Well, first, it was the most recommended of her series – no more specific reason than that.

Having recently lost her job at an Ervine, California bookshop due to declining sales in walk-in customers, Yale Yee has suddenly found herself at loose ends when her father asks her to pick up her cousin, Celine, who is visiting suddenly from Hong Kong. Yale finds her suddenly asked to pick up her glamorous social media influencer cousin from the airport, who she feels little connection with, and doesn’t particularly like – unsurprising, as Celine immediately ditches Yale upon arriving. The next day, she’s asked to man the family’s food stall at a night market in Eastwood Village, near Yale’s apartment. The offer includes being able to split the profits, so Yale feels obliged to accept, despite the fact she hasn’t cooked much since leaving the family business years ago.

Celine ends up in charge of marketing, while Yale is responsible for serving the pre-prepared foods and making drinks, including bubble tea. Celine actually does a good job, somewhat surprising Yale, and the stall ends up a great success, many customers enjoying the bubble tea in particular, which Celine had ‘fancied’ up by adding gold flake garnish and serving in light bulbs repurposed as glasses. Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, one of those customers turns up dead, and the nearby light bulb is eventually connected to Yale and Celine.

Death by Bubble Tea is a really well-written Cozy in the modern style. Despite many familiar elements – a bookish sleuth, recently losing her job, hard up for work, suddenly accused of murder after a chance encounter related to food, etc., there are also a lot of parts that help keep this book from blending in with the normal Cozy crowd. In particular, I really appreciate that this focuses on a less Euro-centric theme than most Cozies. Mysteries in general and Cozies specifically tend to be very focused on small American towns, usually in the mid-west or the northeast, or going back a bit further, quaint little English countryside villages. Yale is Chinese-American, a fact that often influences the flavor elements of the book, as does the fact that the mystery is set in a large city. Don’t get me wrong – I do love more traditional Cozy settings as well, but being able to see a different voice, culturally, is a very welcome change of pace.

I also appreciated the interactions between Yale and Celine, who ends up far more sympathetic than her introduction or Yale’s initial impressions of her would suggest at the beginning of the novel.

If you’re looking for a modern Cozy with traditional elements and a very different cultural lens than you normally get from Cozies, I can strongly recommend Death by Bubble Tea.

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.

PS: For those who are interested, there are a few recipes at the end of the book, specifically Grapefruit Green Tea with Boba and Spicy Cucumber Salad.

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIES – October 2025

Oh my gosh, FALL is finally here! I have to keep reminding myself that it’s autumn, since, as I type this, it’s 97* >>> but wait for it, our temperature has one more forecasted degree to go. Yikes!

Those of you who have been with me for a while know that I will be telling you about the Turner Classic Movies (TCM)channel’s mystery and crime movies this month, but that I will not just be watching the mystery movies, but I’ll be DVR-ing my old horror/science-fiction movies to watch during Halloween’s month. That’s right, I am a fan of the old Dracula-type movies… Luckily, TCM has a bunch of old movies starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi… and probably some other actors I have missed. (Neither my daughter nor my son have inherited my penchant for those old scary movies, and my husband doesn’t watch them either, so it’s a solitary enjoyment for me!)

There are several Alfred Hitchcock mystery movies that will be showing this month, and some old crime movies will also be sprinkled in during October 2025. Something that I think will be new for TCM during October is a showing of a bunch of old “Man from U.N.C.L.E. movies from the 1960s. (They star Robert Vaughn and David McCallum.)

Rashomon (The Criterion Collection) [DVD] ***** ***** ***** *****

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIES – September 2025

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

WEDNESDAY, October 1

6:30d AM Rashomon (1950)
In medieval Japan, four people offer conflicting accounts of a rape and murder.
Dir: Akira Kurosawa. Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Takashi Shimura
88 mins
*****In Japanese*****

8:15 AM Gun Crazy (1950)
Two disturbed young people release their fascination with guns through a crime spree.
Dir: Joseph H. Lewis. Cast: Peggy Cummins, John Dall, Berry Kroeger
87 mins

10:00 AM The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled master criminal Erwin “Doc” Riedenschneider 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

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

THURSDAY, October 2

1:30 AM Torn Curtain (1966)
A U.S. scientist pretends to defect to follow his mentor behind the Iron Curtain.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, Lila Kedrova
128 mins

1:15 PM Our Mother’s House (1967)
Afraid of being separated, a family of children keep their mother’s death a secret.
Dir: Jack Clayton. Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Brooks, Pamela Franklin
105 mins

4:30 PM Over the Edge (1979)
Neglected suburban teens turn to crime as an outlet.
Dir: Jonathan Kaplan. Cast: Michael Eric Kramer, Pamela Ludwig, Matt Dillon
95 mins

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

FRIDAY, October 3

6:15 AM Thirteen Women (1932)
A mysterious Eurasian tries to murder the 12 boarding school roommates who treated her like an outsider.
Dir: George Archainbaud. Cast: Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond
60 mins

8:15 AM Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Detective Philip Marlowe’s search for a two-timing woman leads him to blackmail and murder.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Cast: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley
95 mins

10:15 AM My Forbidden Past (1951)
A beauty with a skeleton in her closet seeks revenge on the suitor who jilted her.
Dir: Robert Stevenson Cast: Robert Mitchum, Ava Gardner, Melvyn Douglas
81 mins

11:45 AM The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
A frustrated wife seduces a drifter into murdering her husband.
Dir: Tay Garnett. Cast: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway
113 mins
*****Excellent movie*****

1:45 PM Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
In the early 1930s, a car thief and the daughter of his intended victim team up to become America’s most feared and ruthless bank robbers.
Dir: Arthur Penn. Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard
111 mins

3:45 PM Out of the Past (1947)
A private eye tries to escape his past by running a gas station in a small town, but it catches up to him.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
97 mins

10:00 PM Another Man’s Poison (1951)
A mystery writer’s real life turns to intrigue when her criminal husband escapes from prison.
Dir: Irving Rapper. Cast: Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Emlyn Williams
89 mins

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

SATURDAY, October 4

1:45 AM And Soon the Darkness (1970)
Two young English women go on a cycling tour of the French countryside. When one of them goes missing, the other begins to search for her. But who can she trust?
Dir: Robert Fuest. Cast: Pamela Franklin, Michele Dotrice, Sandor Elès
99 mins

Rear Window ***** ***** ***** *****

SUNDAY, October 5

8:00 PM Rear Window (1954)
A photographer with a broken leg uncovers a murder while spying on the neighbors in a nearby apartment building.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey
112 mins

10:00 PM Spellbound (1945)
A psychoanalyst falls in love with her new boss, and it is soon discovered that he has difficulty with remembering things as he is a troubled amnesiac, who may also be a killer.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Michael Chekhov
111 mins

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

MONDAY, October 6

3:45 PM The Drowning Pool (1975)
Harper, the wisecracking private investigator, goes to Nmkew Orleans to help out an old flame, Iris Deveraux. After the murder of her mother- in-law, someone implicates Iris.
Dir: Stuart Rosenberg. Cast: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Tony Franciosa
106 mins

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

WEDNESDAY, October 8

2:45 AM Thief (1981)
A safecracker tries to outrun the mob so he can retire.
Dir: Michael Mann. Cast: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson
123 mins

8:00 PM Laura (1944)
A hard-boiled detective falls hard for a murder victim. Every man who knew her fell in love with her, and now that she’s dead, the obsessed detective can’t get her out of his mind.
Dir: Otto Preminger. Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb
88 mins

11:30 PM Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
A defense lawyer takes on a case of a man accused of murdering a bartender who apparently raped his wife.
Dir: Otto Preminger. Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara
160 mins

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

THURSDAY, October 9

2:30 AM Angel Face (1953)
A woman murders her family for their money.
Dir: Otto Preminger. Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman
91 mins

6:15 AM Cast a Dark Shadow (1955)
A wife-killer marries an innocent barmaid and plots her death.
Dir: Lewis Gilbert Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Dirk Bogarde, Kay Walsh
85 mins

7:45 AM A Cry in the Dark (1988)
The true story of a woman put on trial for the murder of her baby who maintains the child was in fact taken by a wild dingo.
Dir: Fred Schepisi. Cast: Meryl Streep, Sam Neill, Dale Reeves
121 mins

2:15 PM I See a Dark Stranger (1946)
An Irish woman who hates the English turns Nazi spy.
Dir: Frank Launder. Cast: Deborah Kerr, Trevor Howard, Raymond Huntley
112 mins

6:15 PM Footsteps in the Dark (1941)
An aspiring mystery writer stumbles on to a real murder.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon Cast: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Ralph Bellamy
96 mins

He Ran All the Way ***** ***** ***** *****

FRIDAY, October 10

8:00 AM The Women (1939)
It’s all about men! In the eternal battle between the sexes, one side holds an overwhelming advantage: Armed with razor-sharp wit and wielding gossip as a weapon, victory can only go to The Women. Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell enter the skirmish as Mary Haines, Crystal Allen and Sylvia Fowler – whose …
Dir: George Cukor. Cast: Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell
132 mins
*****Not a mystery – but it’s really a good movie.*****

8:00 PM He Ran All the Way (1951)
A crook on the run hides out in an innocent girl’s apartment.
Dir: John Berry. Cast: John Garfield, Shelley Winters, Wallace Ford
77 mins

11:30 PM The Haunting (1963)
You may not believe in ghosts…but you cannot deny terror! Hill House has a reputation for evil. The mysterious New England mansion has been the scene of grisly murders. But when four people spend the night, they find themselves trapped by The Haunting. Anthropologist Dr. John Markway, who seeks to disprove the legends; …
Dir: Robert Wise. Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson
112 mins
*****I’m not too sure this is a mystery, but it sure is Halloween fare!*****

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

SATURDAY, October 11

5:00 AM Night Watch (1973)
Ellen Wheeler is an unhappy housewife who settles her fraying nerves with alcohol while staring out her window. When she witnesses what she thinks is a murder through a neighbor’s window, she calls the police, who find nothing when they investigate. With her neglectful husband skeptical and unsupportive, Ellen turns to …
Dir: Brian G. Hutton Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Harvey, Billie Whitelaw
105 mins

6:45 AM Cat People (1942)
A newlywed fears that an ancient curse will turn her into a bloodthirsty beast.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur. Cast: Simone Simon, Tom Conway, Jane Randolph
73 mins

6:15 PM Kansas City Confidential (1952)
To commit the perfect crime, a former detective keeps his colleagues’ identities secret from each other.
Dir: Phil Karlson. Cast: John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster
98 mins

10:15 PM Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
A sleazy PR man who will do anything to get his clients mentioned in the column of a powerful journalist, gets involved in a plot to break up the journalist’s sister’s relationship with a jazz musician.
Dir: Alexander Mackendrick. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison
96 mins

Notorious (The Criterion Collection) [DVD] ***** ***** ***** *****

SUNDAY, October 12

12:00 AM New York Confidential (1955)
A top syndicate crime boss and his corrupt politicians make multi-million dollar deals and order murders until the vicious pattern finally catches up to them.
Dir: Russell Rouse. Cast: Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, Anne Bancroft
87 mins

10:00 AM New York Confidential (1955)
A top syndicate crime boss and his corrupt politicians make multi-million dollar deals and order murders until the vicious pattern finally catches up to them.
Dir: Russell Rouse. Cast: Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, Anne Bancroft
87 mins

8:00 PM Notorious (1946)
A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains
101 mins

10:00 PM The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
International spies kidnap a doctor’s son when he stumbles on their assassination plot.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie
119 mins

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

MONDAY, October 13

6:00 AM To Trap a Spy (1964)
Secret agents try to stop the assassination of an African leader touring the U.S.
Dir: Don Medford. Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Luciana Paluzzi
92 mins

7:45 AM The Spy with My Face (1966)
Enemy agents turn one of their own into a dead ringer for Man from U.N.C.L.E. Napoleon Solo.
Dir: John Newland. Cast: Robert Vaughn, Senta Berger, David McCallum
88 mins

9:30 AM One Spy Too Many (1966)
U.N.C.L.E. agents Napoleon Solo and Ilya Kuryakin try to keep a madman from conquering the world.
Dir: Joseph Sargent. Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Rip Torn
102 mins

11:15 AM One of Our Spies Is Missing (1966)
An enemy agent appeals to an aging British statesman with promises of a youth potion.
Dir: E. Darrell Hallenbeck. Cast: Robert Vaughn, Norman Felton, Sam Rolfe, Alfred Ryder
60 mins

1:00 PM The Spy in the Green Hat (1966)
Secret agents fight to keep a criminal mastermind from altering the course of the Gulf Stream.
Dir: Joseph Sargent Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Maxie Rosenbloom
92 mins

2:45 PM The Karate Killers (1967)
The men from U.N.C.L.E. fight off karate-chopping henchmen to track down a secret formula.
Dir: Barry Shear. Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Jill Ireland
89 mins

4:30 PM The Helicopter Spies (1968)
Two government agents try to stop a band of would-be sorcerers from using a deadly weapon.
Dir: Boris Sagal. Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Julie London
92 mins

6:15 PM How to Steal the World (1968)
Secret agent Napoleon Solo fights to stop a top-secret plot to conquer the world.
Dir: Sutton Roley. Cast: Robert Vaughn, David McCallum, Barry Sullivan
86 mins

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

TUESDAY, October 14

9:15 AM Detour (1945)
A hitchhiker takes on a dead man’s identity only to face blackmail by an unscrupulous woman.
Dir: Edgar G. Ulmer. Cast: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake
68 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

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

THURSDAY, October 16

8:00 PM 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

10:00 PM 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, Angela Lansbury
110 mins

The Manchurian Candidate (Special Edition) ***** ***** ***** *****

FRIDAY, October 17

12:00 AM The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
A Korean War hero doesn’t realize he’s been programmed to kill by the enemy.
Dir: John Frankenheimer. Cast: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury
126 mins

2:15 AM Kind Lady (1951)
A con artist and his criminal cohorts hold an old lady hostage in her own home.
Dir: John Sturges. Cast: Ethel Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Angela Lansbury
78 mins

7:45 AM The Thirteenth Chair (1929)
A phony medium tries to prove her protege innocent of murder.
Dir: Tod Browning. Cast: Conrad Nagel, Leila Hyams, Margaret Wycherly
72 mins

2:00 PM I Confess (1953)
Based on a 1902 play, a Jesuit priest is wrongly accused of murder and cannot defend himself because he has vowed to protect the confession of the real criminal.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden
95 mins

8:00 PM Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
A beautiful neurotic will stop at nothing to hold onto her husband’s love.
Dir: John M. Stahl. Cast: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain
110 mins

10:00 PM Black Widow (1954)
The murder of a scheming female writer throws a group of theatrical friends into turmoil.
Dir: Nunnally Johnson. Cast: Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney
95 mins

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

SATURDAY, October 18

6:15 PM The Last Run (1971)
An aging gangster insists on pulling one more job for the mob.
Dir: Richard Fleischer. Cast: George C. Scott, Tony Musante, Trish Van Devere
82 mins

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

SUNDAY, October 19

12:00 AM Black Tuesday (1954)
Gangster Vincent Canelli and bank robber Peter Manning escape from Death Row minutes before their execution by electric chair.
Dir: Hugo Fregonese. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jean Parker, Peter Graves
80 mins

10:00 AM Black Tuesday (1954)
Gangster Vincent Canelli and bank robber Peter Manning escape from Death Row minutes before their execution by electric chair.
Dir: Hugo Fregonese. Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jean Parker, Peter Graves
80 mins

2:00 PM 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, Angela Lansbury
114 mins

4:00 PM So Long at the Fair (1950)
A woman searches for her missing brother in Paris despite the fact that nobody believes he exists.
Dir: Terence Fisher. Cast: Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde
86 mins

8:00 PM Vertigo (1958)
A detective falls for the mysterious woman he’s been hired to tail.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
128 mins

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

MONDAY, October 20

6:15 PM The Nanny (1965)
A conniving nanny of a well-to-do family “accidentally” drowns the family’s daughter and blames it on their troubled young son, whom she blackmails into taking the rap for the crime.
Dir: Seth Holt. Cast: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett
93 mins

Suspicion (DVD) ***** ***** ***** *****

FRIDAY, October 24

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

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

SATURDAY, October 25

2:15 PM 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, Angela Lansbury
110 mins

4:15 PM The League of Gentlemen (1960)
An ex-colonel blackmails a group of officers into helping him rob a bank.
Dir: Basil Dearden. Cast: Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Roger Livesey
116 mins

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

SUNDAY, October 26

12:00 AM Southside 1-1000 (1950)
The US secret service goes after a counterfeit ring, whose engraver has covertly constructed his plates while serving a life sentence in San Quentin.
Dir: Boris Ingster. Cast: Don DeFore, Andrea King, George Tobias
73 mins

1:45 AM Murder She Said (1961)
When nobody will believe she witnessed a murder, elderly sleuth Miss Marple takes a job as a maid to ferret out clues.
Dir: George Pollock. Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow
86 mins
****Loosely based on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.*****

3:15 AM Murder Most Foul (1964)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple joins a small-town theatre to investigate a murder.
Dir: George Pollock. Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles Tingwell
90 mins
****Loosely based on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.*****

5:00 AM Murder Ahoy (1964)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple takes to the seas to investigate murder on a naval training ship.
Dir: George Pollock. Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Lionel Jeffries, Charles Tingwell
93 mins
****Loosely based on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple.*****

10:00 AM Southside 1-1000 (1950)
The US secret service goes after a counterfeit ring, whose engraver has covertly constructed his plates while serving a life sentence in San Quentin.
Dir: Boris Ingster. Cast: Don DeFore, Andrea King, George Tobias
73 mins

11:45 AM The Unfaithful (1947)
While her husband is away, a woman gets mixed up in murder.
Dir: Vincent Sherman. Cast: Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott
109 mins

1:45 PM The Gazebo (1960)
A suburban couple tries to cope with a murder victim whose body refuses to stay put.
Dir: George Marshall. Cast: Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Carl Reiner
100 mins

3:30 PM 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

5:45 PM Dead Ringer (1964)
One of a pair of twins, jealous that the other became wealthy and took away her husband, kills her sister and takes over the latter’s identity.
Dir: Paul Henreid. Cast: Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter Lawford
115 mins

8:00 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

10:00 PM Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Young Charlie is a small-town girl consumed with finding out whether her unhinged Uncle Charlie is a serial killer.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, Macdonald Carey
108 mins

Little Caesar ***** ***** ***** *****

MONDAY, October 27

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

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

TUESDAY, October 28

12:15 PM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
A scientist’s investigations into the nature of good and evil turn him into a murderous monster.
Dir: Victor Fleming. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner
113 mins

10:45 PM Night Nurse (1931)
A nurse discovers that the children she’s caring for are murder targets.
Dir: William A. Wellman. Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell
72 mins

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

WEDNESDAY, October 29

1:45 AM Heat Lightning (1934)
A lady gas station attendant gets mixed up with escaped murderers.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Aline MacMahon, Ann Dvorak, Preston Foster
63 mins

3:00 AM Three on a Match (1932)
A woman’s childhood friends try to rescue her from gangsters.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Cast: Virginia Davis, Joan Blondell, Dawn O’Day
64 mins

4:00 PM The Prowler (1951)
A policeman’s obsession with a married woman leads to murder.
Dir: Joseph Losey. Cast: Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxwell
93 mins

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

THURSDAY, October 30

8:00 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

In Cold Blood (The Criterion Collection) [DVD] ***** ***** ***** *****

FRIDAY, October 31

2:15 AM The Woman in White (1948)
Classic mystery about the adventures of a young tutor sent to a ghostly country estate.
Dir: Peter Godfrey. Cast: Alexis Smith, Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet
109 mins

8:00 PM In Cold Blood (1967)
Two vagrants try to outrun the police after committing a savage crime in this real-life shocker.
Dir: Richard Brooks. Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe
134 mins
 
***** ***** ***** *****

If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed TV specials coming up in October, 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 September television mystery movies schedule:

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for September 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.

Cozy Reader Questions

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post like this, so I’ve accumulated quite a few questions… unfortunately many of them are quite vague… still, hopefully we can come up with a few answers at least!

From Simon:

Hello – I am trying to locate an Author or Title of a book that had a young lady who was running a Scottish shop for a relative. If you can think of the book I would really appreciate it.

EDIT: Laura, Paige, Beverly, Rebecca, and r all suggested this could be the Scottish Emporium Series/Liss MacCrimmon Mystery Series by Kaitlyn Dunnett. Cindy thinks it might be the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mysteries by Vicki Delany. BG thinks it could be the Magic Garden Mysteries by Amanda Flower. Laner and Jill both think it could be the Scottish Bookshop Mystery Series by Paige Shelton.

From Yvonne:

I am looking for an author? In a Historical Book, a woman’s husband dies and she takes in two boys. They become friends with a Duke they all solves mysteries together.

EDIT: Jane, Cheryl, Nancy, SuzyF, Andrea, Deb, and Marjo all think this could be the Wrexford and Sloan Mystery Series by Andrea Penrose  – as Jane points out, it’s an earl, not a duke, but otherwise the details provided fit.

From Maria:

I am looking for a murder mystery series that features a male pi who is a former cop. He inherits half of a mansion that he shares with the son of the deceased who is a lawyer.

EDIT: Linda, Rebecca, and Sandy all suggested this could be the Milo Rathkey Series by D. B. Elrogg.

From Maisha:

Hi I am looking for an author or book where the main character is a landscaper or gardener and she is working on a garden project with her friend who turns out to be the killer. The end has a plot twist where her friend was manipulated to kill by someone else, but I cannot for the life of me remember the author or title of the book. If anyone knows what I’m talking about I would really appreciate being reminded.

(This is a hard one to search for as so many of the ‘clues’ are in the solution, which isn’t as written about for ‘spoiler’ reasons…)

EDIT: Ellen thinks this one could be Julia Henry‘s Garden Squad Series, Marty Wingate‘s Potting Shed Mystery Series, or Naomi Hirahara‘s Mas Arai Mystery Series.

And finally, from Janet:

I am looking for an author who is an antique dealer who has met a man and moved to either England or Scotland. I have read several of her books and have really enjoyed them.

EDIT: Roni thinks this could be the Scottish Bookshop Mystery Series by Paige Shelton. Kitty, Sprite, Jill, SuzyF, and r all think it might be the Kate Hamilton Mystery Series by Connie Berry.

(Obviously a rather vague one with many ‘maybe this is the answer!’ sort of guesses.)

PS: I don’t give individual responses to comments on this particular type of post since it would usually boil down to ‘that’s a good possible suggestion!’ or some variant of that.

EDIT: Lots of great suggestions so far! Thanks for everyone who has contributed so far!

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