The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

October 2016 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in October 2016:

October 2016

Kathy Aarons: Behind Chocolate Bars (This will be the 3rd in the Chocolate Covered Mystery Series.) (This is a Halloween themed mystery.)

Victoria Abbott (aka Mary Jane Maffini & Victoria Maffini): The Hammett Hex (This will be the 5th in the Book Collector Mystery Series.)

Tasha Alexander: A Terrible Beauty (This will be the 11th in the Lady Emily Mystery Series.)

Margaret Atwood: Hag-Seed (This will a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.)

Jenna Bennett (aka Jennie Bentley & Bente Gallagher): Scared Money (This will be the 13th in the Savannah Martin Mystery Series.)

Heather Blake (aka Heather Webber): The Witch and the Dead (This will be the 7th in the Wishcraft Mystery Series.)

Rita Mae Brown: Cakewalk (This will be the 5th in the Runnymede Series. This is not a mystery)

Catherine Bruns: Burned to a Crisp (This will be the 3rd in the Cookies & Chance Mystery Series.)

Leslie Budewitz: Killing Thyme (This will be the 3rd in the Seattle Spice Shop Mystery Series.)

D.W. Buffa: Hillary (This will be a Stand Alone mystery.)

Maia Chance: Teetotaled (This will be the 2nd in the Discreet Retrieval Agency Mystery Series.)

Laura Childs & Terrie Farley Moran: Crepe Factor (This will be the 14th in the Scrapbooking Mystery Series.) (This is a Winter Holiday mystery.)

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell): Seeds of Deception (This will be the 10th in the Orchard Mystery Series.)

Kieran Crowley: Shoot (This will be the 2nd in the F.X. Shepherd Mystery Series.)

Clive Cussler: Built to Thrill: More Classic Automobiles from Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt (This non fiction follows his “Built for Adventure” book.)

Barbara Early (aka Beverly Allen): Death of a Toy Soldier (This will be the 1st in the NEW Vintage Toy Shop Mystery Series) (This is a Christmas themed mystery.)

Kathleen Ernst: A Memory of Muskets (This will be the 7th in the Chloe Ellefson Mystery Series.)

Sharon Farrow (aka 1/2 of D.E. Ireland): Dying for Strawberries (This will be the first in the NEW Berry Basket Mystery Series.)

Ann Granger: The Dead Woman of Deptford (This will be the 6th in the Lizzie Martin Mystery Series.)

John Grisham: The Whistler (This will be a Stand Alone mystery.)

Charlaine Harris: All the Little Liars (This will be the 9th in the Aurora Teagarden Mystery Series.)

Carolyn Hart: Ghost Times Two (This will be the 7th in the Bailey Ruth Mystery Series.)

Veronica Heley: Murder in Style (This will be the 17th in the Ellie Quicke Mystery Series.)

Dorothy Howell: Pocketbooks and Pistols (This will be the 12th in the Haley Randolph Mysteries Mystery Series.)

Melanie Jackson: Death Drop (This will be a Stand Alone mystery.)

P.D. James: The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories (This will be a collection of four of the best Christmas stories that P.D. James wrote for newspapers. Two of them star a young Adam Dalgliesh.) (This is a Christmas themed mystery collection.)

Linda O. Johnston: Unlucky Charms (This will be the 3rd in the Superstition Mystery Series.)

Tonya Kappes: Get Witch or Die Trying (This will be the 3rd in the Spies and Spells Mystery Series.)

Sofie Kelly (aka Sofie Ryan): Paws and Effect (This will be the 8th in the Magical Cats Mystery Series.)

Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Putting on the Witch (This will be the 3rd in the Retired Witches Mystery Series.)

Karen MacInerney: Fatal Frost (This will be the 2nd in the Dewberry Farm Mystery Series.)

Susan Elia MacNeal: The Queen’s Accomplice (This will be the 6th in the Maggie Hope Mystery Series.)

Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, & Barbara Ross: Egg Nog Murder (This will be a Christmas themed anthology including: Lucy Stone Mystery Series, Hayley Powell Food & Cocktail Mystery Series, & Maine Clam Bake Mystery Series.)

Ann Myers: Feliz Navidead (This will be the 3rd in the Santa Fe Café Mystery Series.)

Sandra Orchard: Another Day, Another Dali (This will be the 2nd in the Serena Jones Mystery Series.)

James Patterson: Filthy Rich (This will be a True Crime Stand Alone.  – John Connolly & Tim Malloy)

James Patterson: Kill or Be Killed (This will contain four “BookShot” – Amazon describes these as “Novels you can devour in a few hours” – previously only available as e-books.)

James Patterson & Richard DiLallo: French Kiss (This will be a Stand Alone “BookShot” – Amazon describes these as “Novels you can devour in a few hours”)

Paula Paul (aka Paula Carter): A Killer Closet (This will be the 1st in the NEW Irene Seligman Mystery Series.)

David Rosenfelt: The Twelve Dogs of Christmas (This will be the 15th in the Andy Carpenter Mystery Series.)

Alexander McCall Smith: Precious and Grace (This will be the 17th in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.)

Paige Shelton: A Christmas Tartan (This will be a Scottish Bookshop mini-mystery.) (This is a Christmas themed mystery.)

Wendy Corsi Staub: Something Buried, Something Blue (This will be the 2nd in the Lily Dale Mystery Series.)

Maggie Toussaint: Doggone It (This will be the 3rd in the Dreamwalker Mystery Series.)

Joyce Tremel: Tangled Up in a Brew (This will be the 2nd in the Brewing Trouble Mystery Series.)

Diane Vallere: Masking for Trouble (This will be the 2nd in the Costume Shop Mystery Series.) (This is a Halloween themed mystery.)

Lea Wait: Dangling by a Thread (This will be the 4th in the Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series.)

Lis Wiehl: The Candidate (This will be the 2nd in the Newsmakers Mystery Series.)

***** ***** *****

If you want to see this month’s releases, go to the September 2016 Mystery Book New Releases.

You can find these and many more Cozies scheduled for release soon on the Soon to be Released Mysteries page on my site.

(These are the mysteries by authors who are currently on the Cozy Mystery site.)

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – August 2016

September will be coming up soon, so I think it’s time for me to ask all of you about the best Cozies you’ve been reading in August. As some of you know, I highlighted two Cozy Mystery series (Katherine Hall Page’s Faith Fairchild Mystery Series and E.J. Copperman’s Haunted Guesthouse Mystery Series), both of which are great examples of popular and entertaining Cozies. Instead of repeating myself here, 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 Cozy Mysteries that you’ve read during August do you think stand out from the rest? 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 August 2016 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: Book Collectors Mystery Series

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

Donna Andrews: Meg Langslow Mystery Series

Sandra Balzo: Maggy Thorsen Mystery Series

John Berendt: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Claire Booth: Sheriff Hank Worth Mystery Series (The Branson Beauty, book #1)

Rhys Bowen: Royal Spyness Mystery Series

Simon Brett: Mrs. Pargeter Mystery Series

Issy Brooke: Small Town Murder Bureau Mystery Series (The Case of the Lincoln Imp, book #1)

Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli (aka Elizabeth Lee): Little Library Mystery Series

Kate Collins: Flower Shop Mystery Series

E.J. Copperman (aka Jeffrey Cohen): Haunted Guesthouse Mystery Series

Bill Crider: Dan Rhodes Mystery Series

Waverly Curtis: Barking Detective Mystery Series

Jeanne M. Dams: Dorothy Martin Mystery Series

Leighann Dobbs: Blackmoore Sisters Mystery Series, Mystic Notch Mystery Series, Mooseamuck Island Mystery Series

Wendy Sand Eckel: Rosalie Hart Mystery Series (Murder at Barclay Meadow, book #1)

Monica Ferris (aka Mary Monica Pulver & 1/2 of Margaret Frazer): Needlecraft Mystery Series

Rosie Genova: Italian Kitchen Mystery Series

Chloe Kendrick: Food Truck Mystery Series (Murder To Go, book #1)

Catherine Lloyd: Kurland St. Mary Mystery Series

Charlotte Macleod: Grab Bag (short story collection)

Alyssa Maxwell: Gilded Newport Mystery Series

Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day & Tace Baker): Local Foods Mystery Series

Julie Moffett: Lexi Carmichael Mystery Series

Terrie Farley Moran: Read ‘Em and Eat Mystery Series

Carlene O’Conner: Irish Village Mystery Series

Katherine Hall Page: Faith Fairchild Mystery Series

Michael Robertson: Baker Street Letters Series (The Baker Street Letters, book #1)

Sara Rosett: Ellie Avery Mystery Series

Ann B. Ross: Miss Julia Mystery Series

Linda Wiken (aka Erika Chase): Dinner Club 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.

Cozy Mystery Series With Multiple Themes

When I was writing my entry about Katherine Hall Page’s Faith Fairchild Mystery Series (click here for that entry), I started thinking about Cozy Mystery themes and the way authors sometimes weave more than one theme into many series. As most of you know, I have a number of Cozy Mystery theme lists on my site (click here for the table of contents for those themes).  When I add a new series or book to the site’s lists, I try to update the themes pages >>> I have to admit that a few times times I haven’t been so good about doing that >>> but I try. Anyway, this is not a new series, so I did not have to think about updating the theme pages >>> but what I did start thinking was that even back in the early days of the modern Cozy Mystery books (circa 1990), authors, such as Katherine Hall Page, were already creating series with multiple themes.

Several of the themes that I was thinking about about when re-looking at A Body in the Belfry were the Culinary – Cooking theme (there are so many cooking theme mysteries that this is actually a link to our “where to start with culinary mysteries” discussion), the Religious theme and the Rich Sleuths theme >>> not to mention our Cozy Mysteries by state lists with this series mostly fitting in the Massachusetts list.

For the Religious theme, Faith is a daughter of a minister and the new wife of a minister. Goings on in and around the church are a big part of the Body in the Belfry, and not much happens in the story where the church and the congregation are not discussed.

Also, for the Rich Sleuths theme, although Faith has a “modest but adequate” (as she calls it) trust fund, she is not normally spending  extraordinary amounts of money in these books. Her husband Tom, much like Darren in Bewitched not wanting Samantha to use her special powers, doesn’t want Faith to spend her trust money. (What’s with these husbands?!?) The only concessions he has given Faith are for her wardrobe and her kitchen >>> which are both lavish. Nevertheless, Faith is lucky to have the money when she needs it (or just really wants it).

And finally, the Culinary Theme is pretty restrained, at least in the first book in the series. Yes, I know that the series does veer much more towards culinary issues later when Faith gets her “Have Faith” catering service going again, and Katherine Hall Page is one of the authors on the Mystery Authors with Cookbooks list with her Have Faith in Your Kitchen cookbook of Faith Fairchild’s favorite recipes.

So, I found it interesting to think about how many themes Katherine Hall Page managed to squeeze into the first book in this very popular series even way back at the dawn of what I think of as the modern Cozy. I imagine it would probably be a very long list if we were to discuss every Cozy series that has multiple themes, so I won’t be trying to make a complete list.

But, I thought I might throw it open for discussion as to what your favorite Cozy series are that have multiple themes. Please leave a comment with your favorite Cozy series with multiple themes – please tell us the author, series and what themes you think the series fits in. Thank you!

Katherine Hall Page: Faith Fairchild Mystery Series

Katherine Hall Page is one of the earliest of what I consider to be the new classic, contemporary Cozy Mystery authors. The first book in her Faith Fairchild mystery series, The Body in the Belfry, was first published way back in 1990 (for me at least, it is hard to believe how long ago that was now.) The Faith Fairchild series is the next in my list of the most popular and recommended series that I am highlighting.

In this first book, we meet Faith Fairchild, a mid 20s-something new mother of a four month old boy (Benjamin). Faith grew up in Manhattan. Her father is a minister and her mother is a lawyer. She moved when she married Tom Fairchild (also a minister) to Aleford, Massachusetts, a small town which is about as far from the hustle and bustle of her native New York as is possible – while only being a few hundred miles away. In New York, Faith had operated a catering business, “Have Faith”, but since her move to Aleford and her new baby, she has not yet re-started her business (although she plans to do so soon.)

The book opens with Faith, carrying Benjamin in a snuggie, climbing the highest hill in the town to the belfry seeking a peaceful place to eat her bagged lunch. There Faith discovers the murdered body of Cindy Sheppard slumped over on a bench. Faith does the logical thing and rings the town’s bell (an act which in itself upsets some of the town’s old-timers). The town’s police force responds, and the whodunit begins.

It turns out that Cindy was one of the least-liked, or some might say most-hated, young women in the town. Cindy had a very mean streak and most of the women and many of the men in Aleford had one reason or another to want Cindy out of the way. Just what I like: plenty of suspects!

Since Faith has yet to re-start her catering business and finds life a little slow in Aleford, Faith (naturally!) gets involved in trying to solve the mystery. Let’s face it >>> she found the body so she is already in the middle of the investigation (at least she thinks so.)

The Body in the Belfry is a very satisfying Cozy Mystery read. Being an “early” modern Cozy, it has several themes (for example, minister’s wife and culinary), but it does not dwell on them to the point of having the themes dominate the sleuthing. Aleford provides a nice small community with a number of eccentric (but not “zany”) characters. The people are richly drawn, providing a very interesting Cozy background for the mystery.  And, Faith travels back to New York and to her aunt’s house in New Jersey for a few days which provides a nice, temporary change of scene.

Faith has a “small but adequate” trust fund from her grandfather. Although her new husband, Tom, normally does not want her to spend the money, Faith has re-done her kitchen to bring it up to her high standards and to get it ready for her to start her “Have Faith” catering company again.

The Body in the Belfry is a great start to the Faith Fairchild series. The series, which began in 1990, is still going strong with the 2016 release of The Body in the Wardrobe, the 23rd book in the series. I know I’m not alone in saying: Here’s hoping Katherine Hall Page keeps this series going for another 23 books!

If you’re interested in seeing more highlights of some of the most recommended or popular Cozy Mystery authors/series, visit the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

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