The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

New Releases – January 30 to February 5, 2017

Here is the list of new release for January 30 to February 5!

Christy Barritt: Shadow of Suspicion (This will be a Stand Alone mystery.)

Stephanie Blackmoore: Murder Wears White (This will be the 2nd in the Wedding Planner Mystery Series.)

Julianna Deering (aka DeAnna Julie Dodson): Murder on the Moor (This will be the 5th in the Drew Farthering Mystery Series.)

Kate Ellis: The Mermaid’s Scream (This will be the 21st in the Wesley Peterson Mystery Series.)

Karen Harper: Drowning Tides (This will be the 2nd in the South Shores Mystery Series.)

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: Old Bones (This will be the 19th in the Bill Slider Mystery Series.)

Ellen Hart: Fever in the Dark (This will be the 24th in the Jane Lawless Mystery Series.)

Emma Miller: A Love for Leah (This will be the 4th in the non mystery Amish Matchmaker Series.)

Carol J. Perry: Murder Go Round (This will be the 4th in the Witch City Mystery Series.)

Dani Pettrey: Still Life (This will be the 2nd in the Chesapeake Valor Mystery Series.)

PS: Note that I am still collecting January Recommendations!

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – January 2017

It’s the end of the first month of the year, so this will be our first Cozy Monthly recommendations for 2017! If you read a great Cozy in January, be sure to post it here! I haven’t had as much time as I would like to read unfortunately, so I only have one recommendation – Lucy Burdette‘s Key West Food Critic Mystery Series.

If you’re interested in reading why I’m recommending these series, you can go to the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my Cozy-Mystery site for my full write-ups on each of these great Cozy series.

So, what have you been reading that you can recommend in January? Please be sure to tell us why you liked these Cozies so much. I know we’re all always on the lookout for more particularly good Cozy Mystery authors! (If you have a lot of Cozies you think are great, please post the ones you like the most at the top of the list.)

As always, please do not tell us about the Cozy Mysteries you did not like.

What really good Cozy Mystery did you read during January 2017 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

Here are the current recommended authors who some of you have read and recommended this past month:

Victoria Abbott (writing duo Mary Jane Maffini & daughter Victoria Maffini): Book Collectors Mystery Series

Ellery Adams (aka J. B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): Book Retreat Mystery Series

Mary Angela: Professor Prather Mystery Series (first book An Act of Murder)

Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity Mystery Series

Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib): Key West Food Critic Mystery Series

Ellen Byron: Cajun Country Mystery Series

Lynn Cahoon: Tourist Trap Mystery Series

Joanna Carl (aka Eve K. Sandstrom): Chocoholic Mystery Series

Jane K. Cleland: Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery Series

Nancy Coco (aka Nancy J. Parra and Nell Hampton): Candy Coated Mystery Series

Sheila Connolly  (aka Sarah Atwell): County Cork Mystery Series

Leighann Dobbs: Lexy Baker Mystery Series

Elizabeth J. Duncan: Shakespeare in the Catskills Mystery Series

Carola Dunn: Daisy Dalrymple Mystery Series

Kate Dyer-Seeley (aka Ellie Alexander): Pacific Northwest Mystery Series

Victoria Hamilton (aka Amanda Cooper): Merry Muffin Mystery Series

A. W. Hartoin: Mercy Watts Mystery Series (first book A Good Man Gone)

Betty Hechtman: Crochet Mystery Series

Delia James: Witch’s Cat Mystery Series

Kate Kingsbury  (aka Rebecca Kent & Allison Kingsley): Pennyfoot Hotel Mystery Series

T. E. Kinsey: Lady Harcaslte Mystery Series (first book A Quiet Life in the Country)

Amanda Lee (aka Gayle Trent & Gayle Leeson): Embroidery Mystery Series

Catherine Lloyd: Kurland St. Mary Mystery Series

Karen Macinerney: Dewberry Farm Mystery Series

Susan Elia MacNeal: Maggie Hope Mystery Series

Molly MacRae: Highland Bookshop Mystery Series

Catriona McPherson: Dandy Gilver Mystery Series

Jenn McKinlay (aka Josie Belle & Lucy Lawrence): Library Lover’s Mystery Series and Hat Shop Mystery Series

Leslie Meier: Lucy Stone Mystery Series

Charlotte Moore:  Kate & Kylie Mystery Series (first book A Body in the Bargain)

Diana Orgain: Love or Money Mystery Series

Louise Penny: Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Series

Carol J. Perry: Witch City Mystery Series

Barbara Ross: Maine Clambake Mystery Series

Samantha Silvers: Cassie Coburn Mystery Series (first book Poison in Paddington)

Karen Rose Smith: Caprice de Luca Mystery Series

Diane Vallere: Material Witness Mystery Series

Radha Vatsal: Kitty Weeks Mystery Series (first book A Front Page Affair)

Lea Wait: Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series

[If you click on the author’s name (blue) link, it will take you to his/her page on the Cozy Mystery site. The pages have all of the authors’ books listed chronologically.]

I will list the authors and series that have been recommended, but I urge you to read the comments below so you can see the reasons other Cozy Mystery readers thought these were their best reads of the month.

♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦

P.S. I usually don’t comment on your recommendations since they speak for themselves.

Lucy Burdette: Key West Food Critic Mystery Series

The next in the series of most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series is Lucy Burdette‘s Key West Food Critic Mystery Series.

I haven’t had as much time to read this month as I would have liked – to be honest I’m really not sure where the time has gone. That said, I’m glad that I’ve finally had the time to reread one of the most recommended Cozy series by site visitors, which begins with An Appetite for Murder.

This series stars Hayley Snow, who has recently uprooted her life to move to Key West, Florida, to live with a man she knew only a bit. When she found him in bed with another woman, she also found herself virtually homeless as well, living off of the kindness of friends in town.

In an attempt to bring her life back under control, she applies for the job as a food critic for a new local newspaper. Unfortunately, she already has an unpleasant history with one of the site’s owner, who is the woman her boyfriend was sleeping with. Naturally, the would-be boss dies suspiciously, and Hayley quickly becomes a prime suspect. Hayley needs to not only prove her innocence, but keep up her job application – just because she’s being considered for murder doesn’t mean life doesn’t go on, after all.

In this instance, the setting is of particular interest to me – as I was actually born in Key West. I haven’t spent much time there —> my parents didn’t live there, and I was only born there because it was the closest American hospital to where my father was stationed at the time. So it’s interesting to hear different perspectives and descriptions of Key West, as I haven’t had as much time to form an impression of the city as I would like.

It doesn’t hurt that another key component of the series is another personal favorite – food. It’s easy to connect with readers over the topic of food, simply because it is one of the few absolute common points that all humans have in common – we all have to eat, and we want to enjoy what we eat whenever possible. The murder mystery’s backdrop of food, particularly Hayley’s visits to local restaurants to help ensure her resume for the food critic position rises to the top. There are plenty of mouth-watering descriptions of various delicious dishes that Hayley patronizes throughout the mystery – particularly seafood, since Key West is a big fishing town after all!

If you’re interested in reading more of these brief revisits of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

New Releases – January 16 to 22, 2017

Here is the list of new release for January 16 to  22!

Catherine Bruns: Death of the Big Kahuna (This will be the 6th in the Aloha Lagoon Mystery Series.)

Mary Feliz: Scheduled to Death (This will be the 2nd in the Maggie McDonald Mystery Series.)

Parnell Hall: A Puzzle to Be Named Later (This will be the 18th in the Puzzle Lady Mystery Series.)

Karen MacInerney: Whale of a Crime (This will be the 7th in the Gray Whale Inn Mystery Series.)

Sara Paretsky: Taste of Life (This will be a Stand Alone mystery story. It was included in Paretsky’s Brush Back mystery novel.)

James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein: Robot Revolution (This will be the 3rd in the House of Robots series for children.)

Suzanne Trauth: Time Out (This will be the 2nd in the Dodie O’Dell Mystery Series.)

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