The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

2017 Agatha Awards

Just last month, mystery book lovers found out who wrote books during 2017 that other mystery lovers thought deserved special recognition. I have just updated all of the Agatha Award pages as well as the Edgar Allan Poe Award pages on the Cozy Mystery site.

It’s such an honor for those mystery authors who were nominated by other mystery readers, and of course, a great honor for those who won in their categories. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL NOMINEES AND WINNERS!

I’m going to start off by writing about the Agatha Awards, since those are specifically given for the Cozy Mystery genre. I will be posting the Edgar Awards in a later blog entry, but if you absolutely cannot wait to see them, feel free to visit my site and click on their corresponding pages! (Here’s the Mystery Book Awards page on my site.)

Although these Agatha Awards were given this year, they are for mystery books that were published in 2017. They were awarded on Saturday, April 28, 2018 at the Malice Domestic Convention, which took place in Bethesda, Maryland.

Again, CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!

2017 Agatha Awards

Best Contemporary Novel
2017:  Glass Houses by Louise Penny (Winner)
Death Overdue by Allison Brook
A Cajun Christmas Killing by Ellen Byron
No Way Home by Annette Dashofy
Take Out by Margaret Maron

Best First Novel
2017:  Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett (Winner)
Adrift by Micki Browning
The Plot Is Murder by V.M. Burns
Daughters of Bad Men by Laura Oles
Protocol by Kathleen Valenti

Best Historical Novel
2017:  In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen (Winner)
Murder in an English Village by Jessica Ellicott
Called to Justice by Edith Maxwell
The Paris Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal
Dangerous to Know by Renee Patrick

Best Short Story
2017:  “The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn” by Gigi Pandian(Winner)
“Double Deck the Halls” by Gretchen Archer
“Whose Wine Is it Anyway” by Barb Goffman
“The Night They Burned Miss Dixie’s Place” by Debra Goldstein
“A Necessary Ingredient” by Art Taylor

Best Children’s/Young Adult
2017:  Sydney Mackenzie Knocks ‘Em Dead by Cindy Callaghan (Winner)
City of Angels by Kristi Belcamino
The World’s Greatest Detective by Caroline Carlson
Audacity Jones Steals the Show by Kirby Larson
The Harlem Charade by Natasha Tarpley

Best Nonfiction
2017:  From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon by Mattias Boström (Winner)
The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards
American Fire: Love, Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse
Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction by Jess Lourey
Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier by Tatiana de Rosnay

2017:  Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Parnell Hall

P.S. If you want to take a look at the winners from past years, be sure to click on the links on my Mystery Book Awards page. I bet you will recognize a lot of the past winners!

New Releases – May 7 to May 13, 2018

Here is the list of new releases for May 7 to May 13!

Rebecca Barrett: Trouble in Paradise (This will be the 6th in the Familiar Legacy Mystery Series.)

Kathi Daley: Sixth Cabin (This will be the 6th in the Writers Retreat Mystery Series.)

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Flowers and Foul Play (This will be the 1st in the NEW Magic Garden Mystery Series.)

Agatha Frost: Blueberry Muffins and Misfortune (This will be the 12th in the Peridale Cafe Mystery Series.)

Gemma Halliday & Anne Marie Stoddard: Hollywood Homicide (This will be the 5th in the Hollywood Headlines Mystery Series.)

Betty Hechtman: On the Hook (This will be the 12th in the Crochet Mystery Series.)

Linda O. Johnston: Picks and Chews (This will be the 4th in the Barkery & Biscuits Mystery Series.)

Clare O’Donohue: Beyond the Pale (This will be the 1st in the NEW World of Spies Mystery Series.)

Rhonda Pollero: Dating to Death (This will be a spin-off of the F. A. T. Mystery Series)

Three Holiday Themed Cozy Mysteries Coming June 2018

June looks like it will be a good month for holiday themed Cozies, with three new releases – with one each of Christmas, Fourth of July, and Halloween mysteries!

First, Leslie Budewitz will be releasing As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles, which will be a Christmas themed mystery and the 5th in the Food Lovers’ Village Mystery Series. Erin Murphy is preparing for the holiday season, and has a new friend in the form of a young woman with a checkered past who had managed to turn her life around. But it seems that her past has caught up to her, as Erin’s new friend is found dead, Christmas lights around her neck. Leslie Budewitz also writes the Spice Shop Mystery Series.

Next up, Lynn Cahoon will be releasing a Fourth of July themed, novella length mystery as the 9th entry in the Tourist Trap Mystery Series entitled Rockets’ Dead Glare. South Cove is preparing for their annual Fourth of July fireworks displays, but the new volunteer fire chief is pressing for harder fire codes. When he dies in a training exercise, coffee and bookshop owner Jill Gardner feels that the work related accident might actually be murder. Lynn Cahoon also writes the Cat Latimer Mystery Series and the Farm-to-Fork Mystery Series.

Finally, Eva Gates will be releasing The Spook in the Stacks, a Halloween themed mystery and the 4th in her Lighthouse Library Mystery Series. Librarian Lucy Richardson has stumbled on yet another body, this time while the library is holding a lecture on ghostly legends in its rare books section. Eva Gates also writes as Vicki Delany, under which she has written the Year-Round Christmas Mystery Series, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery Series, the Ashley Grant Mystery Series, the Ray Robertson Mystery Series, the Constable Molly Smith Mystery Series, and the Klondike Mystery Series.

For more holiday-themed Cozies, be sure to check the relevant theme pages:

Christmas Holiday Cozy Mysteries

Fourth of July Holiday Cozy Mysteries

Halloween Holiday Cozy Mysteries

Two New Cozy Series Coming June 2018

June will have two great looking new Cozy series starting.

First, Sheila Connolly‘s Murder at the Mansion, the first novel in her Victorian Village Mystery Series. Kate Hamilton is between jobs at the moment, having been laid off from her a position at a high-end hotel in Baltimore when the hotel was acquired by a chain, when she is asked back to her small hometown of Asheford, Maryland, by her old high school best friend. Agreeing to help keep the town from going bankrupt by encouraging tourism for nearby Civil War battle sites, but the plans go awry when Kate’s high school nemesis turns up dead at the potential hotel site. Sheila Connolly also writes the Orchard Mystery Series, the Museum Mystery Series, the County Cork Mystery Series, and the Relatively Dead Mystery Series, as well as the Glassblowing Mystery Series under the name Sarah Atwell.

The other new series will be Nora Page‘s Bookmobile Mystery Series, which will begin with Better Off Read. Senior citizen librarian Cleo Watkins finds her position threatened when a young mayor begins plans to shut down her library in small town Catalpa Springs, Georgia, when storm damage makes it less viable to repair than replace. However, her campaign to save the library is interrupted with the sudden death of a major benefactor – who happened to have recently requested a number of books on how to get away with murder. What’s worse, Cleo’s best friend seems to be implicated in the benefactor’s death. Nora Page has also written (under the pen name Ann Myers) the Santa Fe Cafe Mystery Series.

For more upcoming Cozy Mystery series, be sure to visit the  Soon to be Released Mysteries or the New Cozy Mystery Book Series page on the site.

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