Well, it’s that time of year again… The "holiday season" is truly behind us, and January marks the time to start celebrating smaller holidays. Now that it is February, we can look forward to Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day has never been a big day for us… Before I was married, and perhaps the first two years of our marriage, Valentine’s Day was a "semi big" holiday. I still have the cards my husband gave (or sent) me… Of course, the chocolates are no longer around, but the lacy cards with their sweet sentiments of love are still here. That was years ago….

We now do not celebrate the day… My husband actually refers to it as a "Hallmark Day"… right there with Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparent’s Day, or any other day he thinks benefits ONLY the card companies….  Oh well…

When our children were in grade school, of course Valentine’s Day included decorating shoe boxes with doilies, glitter, buttons, etc, for their homeroom mailboxes…. cards and conversation candies marked the day back then.

So, what marks my Valentine’s Day now?  Well, I know that my Valentine’s Day ritual won’t include a romantic "Hallmark Day" type of sentiment, but it will include something I actually enjoy even more… Reading a Valentine’s Day Cozy Mystery Book will probably be the way I spend my Valentine’s Day "season." I don’t know if it is because my husband has ingrained the "Hallmark Day" mentality into me, or if it is actually that I enjoy a good cozy more than a beautiful card… but as for the (missing) chocolates…. well, that might be a toss!

A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to put more time into reading, rather than spend most of my "free time" working on this site. With that in mind, I went through all of my TBR books and picked out several authors who I had amongst my books, who I hadn’t read in a long while.

I just finished my first Inspector Wexford novel by Ruth Rendell, and have added those novels to my long list of cozy series to "read my way through." As my last blog said, I was also listening to a Ruth Rendell novel in my car. I enjoyed The Water’s Lovely a lot.  What astounds me is that both books are written by the same person… with some forty years between publishing dates. The Wexford novel definitely falls in the cozy genre… no gruesome details, no truly gratuitous sex, no swearing, etc. One of the cozy guidelines that is absent is the amateur sleuth… The two men who solved this mystery are by no means amateurs… they are detectives on the local police force.

As for The Water’s Lovely, it almost isn’t a mystery at all… To me, it falls into that category of psychological books, where you see what three-dimensional characters are almost "made to do" when, at the lack of a better way to phrase it, life happens. You can almost imagine yourself doing the same (sometimes bizarre) things that the fleshed-out characters in the novel do. (Make a note at the word "almost"… I have it underlined, in bold, and italicized!)

 If you’re looking for a traditional cozy… I definitely recommend From Doon With Death… the first of the Inspector Wexford series!

This doesn’t happen very often… but when it does, it is something I think about… I am listening to the same author on my audio as I am (actually) reading. That, to me, shows me just how much I enjoy an author. I can probably count the times that has happened to an even dozen times, or even less!

The part that amazes me so much is that I am actually reading my first Inspector Wexford novel!  I have read nine of Ruth Rendell’s (aka Barbara Vine’s) novels, but for some reason, not one of her Wexford books. So, over the weekend, when I had a real hankering for a classic cozy, I went through my MANY TBR (To Be Read) novels, and pulled out several authors: Agatha Christie, Heron Carvic, Ruth Rendell, Gladys Mitchell, P. D. James, Patricia Moyes, and even two romantic-classic cozy authors: Victoria Holt and Rae Foley. [I even pulled an E. V. Cunningham (aka Howard Fast) novel out… I haven’t read one of his books in a very long while!] I wasn’t quite sure which one I wanted to begin my "classic" cozy quest with, but, after looking at the information that each book’s cover/flap gave… I thought: What better time to start the Wexford novels!?!

And, I have NOT been disappointed!

What I really find interesting is how an author like Rendell has written books starting in the early 1960s all the way into the 2000s. I know that there are many authors who are able to span that many years, but, it always interests me when I find an author who can do it… and who does it so well that the books at both ends of the time span are equally good!

So, now that I know this, I won’t limit my Ruth Rendell reading enjoyment to just her latest books. Wow! I have a limitless number of Rendell’s work from which to choose!