The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Robert B. Parker :Jesse Stone Mystery Series, Spenser Mystery Series, & Sunny Randall Mystery Series…

Sandra wrote to me with this very sad news about Robert B. Parker:

“FYI: Robert B. Parker, one of my top 5 all time favorite authors passed away suddenly while sitting at his desk in Cambridge, Mass on Jan. 18th. He was 77 yrs old and it was reported this A.M. that the cause of death was heart attack.

While not “cozy”, Mr. Parker wrote over 50 books mostly in the Jesse Stone (tv shows starred Tom Selleck) and Spenser private detective very long series which were the basis for the 1980’s tv series, Spenser for Hire. A less known fact is that a smaller book series “Sunny Randall” was created for actress Helen Hunt(at her request) to star in but the shows never materialized but Parker continued to write the book series.

The latest Spenser novel was just released, The Professional, top 10 on the NY Times list now. I just today finished this book and wow, it was as good as any of the others that I have enjoyed.

His last Jesse Stone novel will be released 2/23/10, Split Image. He completed this but alas never got to see it published.

If you go to his website, www.robertbparker.net you can find so much info and good interviews but an added little treasure is in the “press room” button where you can listen to “Moon River” as sung by Robert B. Parker and his son Dan Parker.

Danna, if you could post news on Mr. Parker’s death, I am sure others would like to know and comment. Thank you, Sandra”

I know that he will be missed by many!

Carole Buggé, Jana DeLeon, B. B. Haywood, and Mary Kennedy … Four Mystery Authors Added to the Site

The four latest mystery book authors who some of you have recommended to be included on the site are:

Carole Buggé: Claire Rawlings Mystery Series which has an editor in New York as its sleuth (who is helped by her young ward) AND the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Series which involves the fictional Holmes character as the sleuth… 

Jana DeLeon: Ghost-in-Law Mystery Series takes place in Louisiana and features a botanist and her best friend who are the sleuths. They happen to be helped by the botanist’s mother-in-law… that’s dead mother-in-law… 

B. B. Haywood: Candy Holliday Mystery Series features a sleuth who returns home to Maine to co-manage Blueberry Acres Farm. Blueberry-based recipes are included…

Mary Kennedy: Talk Radio Mystery Series features an ex-clinical psychologist who takes to the air waves as a talk show radio hostess in Florida. (Mary Kennedy is a psychologist who has also worked as a radio copywriter…)

February 2010 Mystery Book New Releases

The following mystery books will be released in Feb. 2010:

Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity Down Under (This will be the 15th in the Aunt Dimity Mystery Series…)

Kate Carlisle: If Books Could Kill (This will be the 2nd in the Bibliophile Mystery Series…)

Laura Childs: The Teaberry Strangler (This will be the 11th in the the Tea Shop Mystery Series…) (Actually March 2…)

Kate Collins: Sleeping with Anemone (This will be the 9th in the Flower Shop Mystery Series…)

Clive Cussler & Jack Du Brul: Corsair (This will be the 6th in the Oregon Files Series…)

Krista Davis: The Diva Paints the Town (This will be the 3rd in the Domestic Diva Mystery Series…)

Joanne Fluke: Apple Turnover Murder (This will be the 13th in the Hannah Swensen Mystery Series…)

Parnell Hall (aka J. P. Hailey): The Puzzle Lady vs. the Sudoku Lady (This will be the 11th in the Puzzle Lady Mystery Series…)

B. B. Haywood: Town in a Blueberry Jam (This will be the 1st in the NEW Candy Holliday Mystery Series…)

Betty Hechtman: A Stitch in Crime (This will be the 4th in the Crochet Mystery Series…)

Sue Ann Jaffarian: Corpse on the Cob (This will be the 5th in the Odelia Grey Mystery Series…)

Tamar Myers: Butter Safe than Sorry (This will be the 18th in the Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery Series…)

Robert B. Parker: Split Image (This will be the 9th in the Jesse Stone Mystery Series…)

James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge: Worst Case (This will be the 3rd in the Michael Bennett Mystery Series…)

J. D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts): Fantasy in Death (This will be the 31st in the Eve Dallas Mystery Series…)

Dana Stabenow: A Night Too Dark (This will be the 17th in the Kate Shugak Mystery Series…)

Mary Stanton (aka Claudia Bishop): Avenging Angels (This will be the 3rd in the Beaufort & Company Mystery Series…)

Penny Warner: How to Host a Killer Party (This will be the 1st in the NEW Party Planning Mystery Series…)

Heather Webber: Truly, Madly (This will be the 1st in the NEW Lucy Valentine Series…)

Melinda Wells: The Proof Is in the Pudding (This will be the 3rd in the Della Cooks Mystery Series…)

♦To go back to the Cozy Mystery Book New Releases page click here♦

Mystery Book Series I Would Dearly Love to Catch Up With…

Do you have any favorite authors you aren’t caught up with? I DO!!! (Notice that I use the word “favorite” to describe the authors. I am finding that as I get older, I simply will not spend time reading a mystery book that I don’t thoroughly enjoy. Thus the word “favorite!”)

I have several authors right now who I absolutely would love to catch up with, my problem is that I now read more slowly than I did before. By trying to focus on just those favorite mystery authors with whom I want to catch up, I won’t have time to try reading an author with whom I’m not familiar, or even have time to slip in a book my another favorite author. (I sure wish that all of my life’s “dilemnas” were like this!)

I would love to make a 2010 resolution: “I will catch up with the following authors!” But I hate to make a new year’s resolution that I know I won’t be able to meet. My intentions are good… I am going to try, try, try to catch up with the following favorite authors of mine: Susan Albert Wittig, Carola Dunn, Monica Ferris, and Hazel Holt. They are all authors who I really (really!) enjoy, but somehow I just didn’t keep up to date with their heroines/sleuths.

This is not to say that I don’t have other favorite authors who I am (also) not caught up with. It also doesn’t mean that I don’t have other favorite authors who I am already caught up with.

For example, I love Patricia Moyes… but I am so far behind with her mysteries that I am slowly making my way through her Inspector Tibbett mystery series, one book at a time. I slip the Inspector Tibbett books into my reading queue whenever I feel like I miss the Inspector. I do the same with Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford mystery series.

I’m caught up with authors like Alexander McCall Smith (I know he’s not technically a mystery author), Dorothy Gilman, Ann Granger, the Charlaine Harris series that I follow… and the list goes on and on.

I am, however, caught up with a lot of authors. Of course this means that any time one of them puts out a new book, I simply have to read it. There lays the problem… Too many books, too little reading time! (And what very little time is left over: housework!)

So>>> Hopefully I won’t start out 2011 with the same problem of being way behind with some of my favorite authors… and if I do (since this isn’t a commitment like a “real” resolution would be!), at least two of my 2010 chosen favorite authors (Susan Albert Wittig, Carola Dunn, Monica Ferris, and Hazel Holt) won’t make that list!

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