The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Just the Facts, Ma'am

I have looked at many…. MANY…. authors’ sites in order to get this website put together. The websites that I enjoy looking at are the informative ones, not the cutesy ones.

What do I want when I look at an author’s website? I want a little "blip" about the author’s qualifications as a writer. I would like some information about the author’s "previous life"…. Did the author study writing in college? Did the author hone his/her skills as a journalist? Did the author write a different type of book before deciding that cozies (mysteries) were what he/she is passionate about? If the author had a previous occupation, did he/she write as part of his/her duties?

I cannot tell you how many websites I have gone to that do not offer a decent biography…. in which case I have to go to places like Amazon, and try to scrounge up some information about the author. (Amazon sometimes has a little "blip" about the author under the book’s description.)

Another important thing that I am looking for is a list of the author’s books. I want the list to be a chronological list for each of the author’s series… not a mish-mash of chronological publishing dates, regardless of what series the books belong to. I want the lists to be similar to the lists that I try to offer… easy, concise lists that will help me when I go to either purchase or check out the book.

What I really dislike is when I get to an author’s website and see the "BIOGRAPHY" as just a paragraph of "I have always loved writing…" (Do you know many writers who don’t enjoy writing? Well, maybe there are a lot out there…. but take a look at the internet…. there is a reason there are so many blogs floating around…)

Fortunately, most of the websites that I have found have been informative… AND, to top that… a lot of the really informative websites have also been fun … almost cutesy!

Aha! So That's Who He Is!

I continue to work on the Edgar Awards…. the Best First Novel category. Well, I am embarrassed to admit it, but I didn’t know who Richard L. Fish is…. other than I know that there is a special Edgar Award which is given every year in his name. Well, imagine my surprise this afternoon when I discovered that he won the Best First Novel in 1963 (for a novel called The Fugitive.) He wrote many other books…. as Richard L. Fish and Robert L. Pike. Aha! Now I know….

And, I have to admit that there are many other names who don’t mean a thing to me on those lists. But, when I stumble on the names of authors who I do "follow" now….from years ago,  I am gently surprised about the ebb of time… I don’t even remember a time when these authors were not in my repertoire of authors…. but, doing the Best FIRST Novel category…. I am reminded that they weren’t always best selling authors.

Dell Shannon (Case Pending) won the Best First Novel in 1961… now I know I wasn’t reading mysteries back then… no matter how cozy they were!  And how about 1965’s roster of Best First Novel authors…. Harry Kemelman (Friday the Rabi Slept Late) and Amanda Cross (In the Last Analysis.) Tony Hillerman (The Blessing Way) in 1971, and The Thomas Berryman Numbers introduced James Patterson in 1977. A few years later, another Patterson came into the mystery book world with his first novel… In 1980, Richard North Patterson won the Best First Novel for The Lasko Tangent.  Five years later, Jane Haddam/Orania Papazoglou was nominated for her Sweet, Savage Death.

I have enjoyed seeing when different authors "pop up" on some of these award lists. It is always interesting to see how a first best novel leads to later best novels, and in some of the authors’ cases… many best novel awards.

Another author I haven't read… yet…

I just added a new author to my list:  Shirley Rousseau Murphy. I belong to a forum, and some of the posting members thought that her Joe Grey Cat Mystery series should have been on my cozy site. I haven’t read any of her books yet, but when I looked her up, yes indeed, her books look like they qualify as cozy.

I know that I have said this before, but I always enjoy hearing about a new author who has a lot of books out. By "new" I mean new to me. Isn’t it fun when you find an author who has… let’s say… seven books out already?

An example of this comes to my mind… When I "discovered"  M. C. Beaton, I started by reading her Agatha Raisin series. It took me a little while to "catch up" with the recently released, and I got a lot of enjoyment from reading those books.  When I read the synopsis of her Hamish Macbeth books, they simply didn’t interest me. I had found, in the past, that when I was a devoted fan of one of an author’s series, I generally didn’t like the other series that author wrote. That had happened on several occasions.

Anyway, I finally "made" myself read the first Hamish Macbeth book. I could NOT believe I had been putting that series off! I absolutely loved it! (And still do!) As a matter of fact, I have found that I much prefer the recent Hamish books over the recent Agatha books. 

Steve Allen… the mystery book author!?!

I have finally tracked down the first book of Steve Allen’s mystery book series! I used to enjoy seeing Steve Allen on his frequent visits to television talk shows. His mind was so quick… very funny, very bright. So, when I discovered that he also wrote a mystery series featuring Steve and his wife, actress Jayne Meadows, I knew that I would have to give his books a try.

I already own four of the seven books in the series, and am so happy that I finally found The Talk Show Murders, which is the first of the series. I just started reading it last night, and I must say that it is really a kick to "see" people who I remember from the 80s… Toni Tennille, Burt Reynolds, and a number of other people… who some of you may also remember.

Allen wrote the mystery novels between 1982 and 1999. I know that I have previously written about how I don’t like reading series out of chronological order, so my four books have just sat on my book shelf…. patiently awaiting the first of the series. And, now that I have it, I can’t wait to make my way through this series. The person who told me about the series loved it, and I have high hopes that I will love it, too. I mean, a book written by Steve Allen that is a mystery…… how couldn’t I love it!

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