The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Mystery Books that Take Place in Kansas

21191966[1]Here are some fun Kansas facts:

The state capital is Topeka.
The largest city is Wichita.
State motto is “Ad astra per aspera” (To the stars through difficulties.)
State nickname is Sunflower State.
State flower is the Sunflower .
State bird is the Western Meadowlark .
State animal is the buffalo.
Kansas got its name for the Konza (aka Kaw or Kansa) Native Americans who lived there.

Mystery authors who are found on the Cozy Mystery Site and who feature Kansas locations in their books:

Sally Goldenbaum: Queen Bees Quilt Mystery Series (wrote first 3 in series)

Marnette Falley: Queen Bees Quilt Mystery Series (continued series at book 4)

Nancy Mehl: Ivy Towers Mystery Series (Mehl is on the Heartsong Presents Mysteries page)

Nancy J. Parra (aka Nancy Coco): Baker’s Treat Mystery Series

Charlene Weir: Police Chief Susan Wren Mystery Series

Please feel free to contact me if you see an author from the Cozy Mystery Site who belongs on this list, or if you have any comments.

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦

Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations – January 2013

Here it is: 2013, a brand new year!

Please tell us about a few of your very favorite Cozy Mystery reads of January 2013. This should be authors who you think the rest of us absolutely have “got to know” about, so that we can also enjoy their Cozy Mystery books. Please include WHY you enjoyed these authors.

*****

I’m going to start by recommending Margaret Grace. She writes the Miniature Mystery Series, of which I am a fan. I have to admit that I am not all caught up with the series. There are six mystery books in the series, and I am currently reading the fourth. I consider Grace’s Miniature Mystery Series a truly Cozy series. Grace has a vocabulary that is rich enough for her to be able to convey, let’s say anger, without having to rely on graphic language. Her characters are more like people to me, people who I would enjoy hanging out with.

Gerry (Geraldine) Porter is the main sleuth. She is a retired English teacher, who primarily does her sleuthing when her granddaughter (Maddie) is visiting. They have a terrific relationship, which seems very real to me.

I find the writing to flow very easily. Grace has a lot of secondary reoccurring characters, who she weaves into each book’s plot. Grace also gives us red herrings which make sense, and are not just plopped into the story line.

Margaret Grace is also known as Camille Minichino and Ada Madison. I have read (and enjoyed) all eight of Minichino’s Periodic Table Mystery Series. As a matter of fact, since I enjoyed this series so much, I thought I probably wouldn’t enjoy Grace’s Miniature Mystery Series. I find that I usually only like one series an author writes, but this time I was wrong. In fact, since I enjoy Grace’s and Minichino’s Cozy Mystery series so much, I’m planning on trying Madison’s Sophie Knowles Mystery Series.

I will add the recommended authors to this entry as they come in. (Please do not tell us about the authors you did not like.) Thank you!

What Cozy Mystery book (or author) have you read during January 2013, and why did you enjoy it (or him/her)?

Here are the current authors who some of you have read this past month, and wanted to tell the rest of us about:

Barbara Annino: Stacy Justice Mystery Series

Donald Bain (w/ “Jessica Fletcher”): Murder, She Wrote Mystery Series

Maggie Barbieri: Murder 101 Mystery Series

Lorna Barrett (aka Lorraine Bartlett & L. L. Bartlett): Booktown Mystery Series

Ella Barrick (aka Lila Dare & Laura DiSilverio): Ballroom Dance Mystery Series

Jessica Beck: Classic Diner Mystery Series

Janet Bolin: Threadville Mystery Series

Ali Brandon (aka Diane A.S. Stuckart): Black Cat Bookshop Mystery Series

Duffy Brown: Consignment Shop Mystery Series

Karen Cantwell: Barbara Marr Mystery Series

Elizabeth Lynn Casey (aka Laura Bradford): Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series

Bailey Cates (aka Cricket McRae): Magical Bakery Mystery Series

Erika Chase: Ashton Corners Book Mystery Series

Laura Childs: Tea Shop Mystery Series

Patricia Cornwell: Kay Scarpetta Mystery Series (not cozy)

Cleo Coyle (aka Alice Kimberly): Coffee House Mystery Series

Elizabeth Spann Craig (aka Riley Adams & Elizabeth Craig): Myrtle Clover Mystery Series

Philip R. Craig: Martha’s Vineyard Mystery Series

Kyra Davis: Sophie Katz Mystery Series

Monica Ferris: Needlecraft Mystery Series

Shelley Freydont: Celebration Bay Mystery Series

Erle Stanley Gardner: Perry Mason Mystery Series

Margaret Grace (aka Camille Minichino & Ada Madison): Miniature Mystery Series

M.K. Graff: The Blue Virgin

Sue Grafton: Kinsey Millhone Mystery Series

Elly Griffiths: Ruth Galloway Mystery Series

John Grisham: The Appeal

Julie Hyzy: White House Chef Mystery Series

John Dunning: Cliff Janeway Mystery Series

Sophie Kelly: Magical Cats Mystery Series

Alice Kimberly (aka Cleo Coyle): Haunted Bookshop Mystery Series

Mary Lou Kirwin: Librarian Mystery Series

Jill Marie Landis: Tikki Goddess Mystery Series

Victoria Laurie: Psychic Eye Mystery Series

Amanda Lee (aka Gayle Trent): Embroidery Mystery Series

M. Louisa Locke: Victorian Mystery Series

Charlotte MacLeod (aka Alisa Craig): Peter & Helen Shandy Mystery Series

Molly MacRae: Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery Series

G. M. Malliet: Max Tudor Mystery Series

Lorena McCourtney: Ivy Malone Mystery Series

Jenn McKinlay (aka Lucy Lawrence & Josie Belle): Library Lover’s Mystery Series

Wendy Roberts: Latte, Espresso, Cappuccino & Murder Mystery Series

Dorothy L. Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery Series

Rochelle Staab: Mind for Murder Mystery Series

Teresa Trent: Pecan Bayou Mystery Series

Elaine Viets: Mystery Shopper Mystery Series

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

Patricia Driscoll, Maureen Jennings, Sharon Rose, & Lauren Willig – Four Mystery Author Additions to the Cozy Mystery Site

Here are four mystery author additions to the Cozy Mystery site. They have been recommended by some of you because you think they belong on the site, and want to get the word out to the rest of us.

Patricia Driscoll: Grace Oliver Mystery Series – Grace is an ex-probation officer (as is author Driscoll) who now owns an antique lamp shop in Cape Cod.

Maureen Jennings: Detective Inspector Tom Tyler Mystery Series – Tyler is one of the few police inspectors in England during WW II.
Murdoch Mystery Series – William Murdoch is a Canadian police detective during the 1890s.
Christine Morris Mystery Series – Christine is a Canadian forensic profiler working in Scotland.

Sharon Rose: Parson’s Cove Cozy Mystery Series – Mabel Wickles and Flori Flanders are two senior citizen sleuths in Parson’s Cove.

Lauren Willig: Pink Carnation Mystery Series – Willig is a Harvard Law grad who now devotes her time to this New York Times bestselling series which features a Ph.D.  candidate working on her dissertation on Napoleonic era spies.

February 2013 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in February 2013:

Avery Aames: To Brie or Not to Brie (This will be the 4th in the Cheese Shop Mystery Series.)

Lucy Arlington (aka 1/2 Sylvia May & 1/2 of Ellery Adams): Every Trick in the Book (This will be the 2nd in the Novel Idea Mystery Series.)

Lorraine Bartlett (aka Lorna Barrett & L. L. Bartlett): One Hot Murder (This will be the 3rd in the Victoria Square Mystery Series.)

Lawrence Block (aka Paul Kavanagh): Hit Me (This will be the 5th in the John Keller Mystery Series.)

Rhys Bowen: The Face in the Mirror (This is a story in the Molly Murphy Mystery Series.)

Alan Bradley: Speaking from Among the Bones (This will be the 5th in the Flavia de Luce Mystery Series.) (Actually, January 29)

Ellen Byerrum: Veiled Revenge (This will be the 9th in the Crime of Fashion Mystery Series.)

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell): Buried in a Bog (This will be the 1st in the NEW County Cork Mystery Series.)

E. J. Copperman (aka Jeffrey Cohen): Chance of a Ghost (This will be the in the Mystery Series.)

Elizabeth Craig (aka Riley Adams & Elizabeth Spann Craig): Knot What It Seams (This will be the 2nd in the Southern Quilting Mystery Series.)

Deborah Crombie: The Sound of Broken Glass (This will be the 15th in the Kincaid & James Mystery Series.)

Stephen Dobyns: The Burn Palace (This will be a Stand Alone.)

Chrystle Fiedler: Scent to Kill (This will be the 2nd in the Natural Remedies Mystery Series.)

Amanda Flower: A Plain Scandal (This will be the 2nd in the Appleseed Creek Mystery Series.)

Joanne Fluke: Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (This will be the 16th in the Hannah Swensen Cookie Jar Mystery Series.)

Kerry Greenwood: Out of the Black Land (This will be a Stand Alone.)

B. B. Haywood: Town in a Pumpkin Bash (This will be the 4th in the Candy Holliday Mystery Series.) (This will be a Halloween theme mystery.)

Maddy Hunter: Bonnie of Evidence (This will be the 8th in the Passport to Peril Mystery Series.)

Linda O. Johnston: Oodles of Poodles (This will be the 4th in the Pet Rescue Mystery Series.)

Jonathan Kellerman: Guilt (This will be the 28th in the Alex Delaware Mystery Series.)

Sofie Kelly: Cat Trick (This will be the 4th in the Magica Cats Mystery Series.)

Deryn Lake (aka Dinah Lampitt): Dead on Cue (This will be the 2nd in the Rev. Nick Lawrence Mystery Series.)

Staci McLaughlin: All Natural Murder (This will be the 2nd in the Blossom Valley Mystery Series.)

James Patterson: Alex Cross, Run (This will be the 20th in the Alex Cross Mystery Series.)

J. D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts): Calculated in Death (This will be the 37th in the Eve Dallas Mystery Series.)

Wendy Roberts: Dead Suite (This will be the in the Mystery Series 4th in the Ghost Dusters Mystery Series.)

David Rosenfelt: Airtight (This will be a Stand Alone.)

Dana Stabenow: Bad Blood (This will be the 20th in the Kate Shugak Mystery Series.)

To go back to the Cozy Mystery New Book Release page, click here.

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