The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Holiday Theme Mysteries… Some Christmas Theme Mysteries & a Halloween Theme Mystery

I went to my veterinarian’s office the other day to pick up some antibiotics for our dog (again!), and I was a little startled to see their Halloween decorations already up on the shelves intermixed with various types of pet shampoos and flea/tick tablets. Although I really liked their new decorations, I wondered what the heck they were doing already displayed…. in August.

Some of you might wonder why the heck I’m already talking about Halloween and Christmas mysteries. (I haven’t yet found any Thanksgiving mysteries… or Easter, which of course is less than a year away!) But the bird who gets the worm usually is an early one….

You cannot imagine how excited (and yes, that is the correct adjective for it!) I was to find some of my very own favorite mystery authors putting out new holiday books. So far, these are the ones I have found  and added to my holiday mystery lists… only one in the Halloween Mystery list, but several in the Christmas Mystery book list.)

I am going to do this alphabetically…. and since C (as in Christmas) comes before H (you know the drill!)… here goes:

New Christmas Mystery Books:
Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M. C. Beaton (an Agatha Raisin novel)

A Carol for a Corpse by Claudia Bishop (an/a Hemlock Falls novel)

Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of Stephen by Emily Brightwell (a Mrs. Jeffries novel)

Peppermint Twisted by Sammi Carter (a Candy Shop Mystery novel)

Sweet Revenge by Diane Mott Davidson (a Goldy Bear Catering novel)

Candy Cane Murders by Joanne Fluke (A Hannah Swensen Cookie Jar novella), Leslie Meier (a Lucy Stone novella), & Laura Levine (a Jaine Austen novella)

Shrouds of Holly by Kate Kingsbury (a Pennyfoot Hotel novel)

New Halloween Mystery Book:
Murder by the Slice by Livia J. Washburn (a Fresh-Baked Mystery novel)

I hope you are as excited by some of these holiday mystery books as I am!

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

Trying to Update… Taking More Time… What's New…

So, I have been trying to update my authors’ chronological book lists on the site, and it is going rather slowly… I have finally worked my way up to (but not yet including) Nancy Atherton. Yep, that’s right… but at least I am towards the end of the A list! I have only come up with one new book for one of "my authors" (Susan Albert Wittig) and I have absolutely no idea how I missed that 2007 release! 

One of the drawbacks to a site like this is that I have to become aware of (what seems like) a jillion new releases. I was recently very pleasantly surprised when one of "my authors" wrote to tell me about a new book that she is putting out so that I could update my list. That sure made my life a whole lot easier!

I would be remiss to not say that if you see one of your authors on the site who I haven’t updated, I’d love to hear from you! Believe me, I don’t think of myself as the "last word specialist with all-knowing powers"!!!  Actually, I have heard from a couple different site viewers who have let me know of "updates" for some of my authors. That is always appreciated!

Well, I think I have taken a long enough break… I am going to go update Nancy Atherton‘s book list…..

Busy with Added Recommendations…

I guess you could say that I have (again) gotten the bug to add new cozy mystery writers to the site…. which is not to say that these authors are new to writing cozies… they are just new to me.

Every once in a while I get a cozy mystery author’s name from a viewer who I have just got to add to my list of authors, even though I haven’t read that particular author yet. Some of the authors might be new to you, too!

I really appreciate the recommendations from viewers of the site. When I first started reading cozy mysteries… years ago… I had a very difficult time coming up with new authors to try. I have to admit to being disappointed with a new author several times, but, I have been pleasantly pleased with many of the authors I try.

Unfortunately for me, as this site takes more and more of my time, I find that I am reading less and less. (What’s that movie title?… Something’s Gotta Give …)

As I was looking up the authors today, I found myself wondering how I had missed reading some of these authors… Why hadn’t I heard of them before?!? 

These are the authors I just posted today:

Lori Avocato… the Pauline Sokol Mystery series
Dana Cameron… the Emma Fielding series
Caroline Cousins… three cousins (together) write this series about cousin sleuths
Peggy Darty… the Cozy Mystery series
Alesia Holliday…the December Vaughn Mystery series
Rita Lakin… the Gladdy Gold series
Martha C. Lawrence… the Elizabeth Chase Mystery series
Peg Marberg… the Interior Design series   
Stefanie Matteson… the Charlotte Grahame Mystery series
Susan McBride… the Debutante Dropout series
Suzanne Price… Grime Solvers Mystery series
Wendy Corsi Staub… not cozy, but her mysteries look very good…
Winona Sullivan… the Sister Cecile Mystery series

Do You Really Use Peoples' Reviews?!?

I know that I have mentioned going to Amazon, Netflix, and other web sites to read reviews by people just like you and me. I spend time looking up an author before I start reading his/her series, and what better place to get peoples’ opinions than those types of sites? Amazon and Netflix reviews help me make decisions on both books and movies. (As well as several blogs which provide reviews that I trust. I also visit the author’s website, and do a general website search for the author before I decide whether or not I want to "invest my time" reading a new author.)

I get cozy mystery author recommendations from the site’s viewers from time to time, and some of the authors who have been recommended, well, I just can’t believe I missed them! When I started this site, I only included authors who I had read, or authors who came recommended by my cozy mystery reading friends. Now, though, I have been very lucky to have gotten some really great author additions from the site’s viewers. Authors who, after I take a look at, look like authors I will enjoy spending time with…

But… be FOREWARNED…

Once you have looked at a lot of reviews, you will possibly find a pattern. By this, I mean, you might see the same reviewers touting almost every book that you look up! I know this sounds impossible…. but, let me assure you, it happens.

There is one particular reviewer who comes to mind… Someone whose name I won’t reveal, but if I see the name with a review, I just skip right on to the next review. This particular reviewer has, if I am able to do the math right…. well over 14,000 reviews on Amazon. That’s a whole lot of books, and a whole lot of reviews! I’m OK with someone reading that many books… I actually think it’s great! But it seems to me (and a few of my friends) that almost every review this particular person has posted for a book has received a five (out of five) star rating. I say "almost every," since I have a seen a very small percentage of four star ratings…. I consider the four star rating from this particular reviewer to be the kiss of death for that book!

The nice thing, of course, is that the reviewer is putting a positive spin on the books, which will help get the book into more people’s hands. (And remember what Thumper’s mom said about saying only positive things!) The bad thing (for me, anyway) is that when I look at reviews, I hope to glean some information that will be useful to me. I don’t want a sugar-coated look at a book… ("Just the facts, ma’am.") I can’t believe that almost every book this reviewer has read deserves a five star rating. And, I can honestly say that I have never seen this reviewer give a three star rating. But possibly, the author of a book garnering a three star review from that reviewer would have the review pulled off of the site immediately… I certainly would!

I realize that everyone has different tastes in their reading likes and dislikes, but I have seen some five star ratings from this reviewer on books I simply couldn’t recommend to anyone! If four stars is the lowest I have seen this reviewer give, then imagine the schlock-of-a-book the three star rating books must be… if there are actually any three star ratings. (Of course, I haven’t seen every review by this person, so I could be wrong… there might just be a three star tucked in every once in a while.

Anyway…

You will continue to hear me talk about "my reviews" that I use, but remember, even after I read the reviews, I use a little common sense in making my decision to either get a book/movie, or not.

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