The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Two New Holiday Themed Cozies Coming August 2015 – Ellery Adams: Murder In the Paperback Parlor, Leslie Meier: Candy Corn Murder

I love this time of year. Well, actually not so much the sweltering days of July, but I love the Cozy Mystery releases that start at this time of the year. It seems like August is when a lot of our holiday themed Cozies start being released, and it looks like we’ll have two new Holiday themed Cozy Mysteries to look forward to this coming August – one Valentine’s Day themed and one Halloween themed!

First is Ellery Adams‘s Murder in the Paperback Parlor, which takes place near Valentine’s Day. This second entry in the Book Retreat Mystery Series will see the return of amateur sleuth Jane Stewart, manager of the Storyton Hall Book Resort in the hills of western Virginia. When one of the prominent authors visiting the resort is killed, she’ll need to once again help get to the bottom of the case if she wants to keep her beloved resort afloat! Ellery Adams writes multiple other popular Cozy Mystery series, including the Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery Series, the Books by the Bay Mystery Series, and the Supper Club Mystery Series, among others!

Second is the Halloween-themed Candy Corn Murder by Leslie Meier. Halloween will once again be coming to Tinker’s Cove! This Cozy is the 22nd in the holiday themed Lucy Stone Mystery Series, and will be the third Halloween themed mystery in the series. Homemaker Lucy Stone’s plans for a festive Halloween are ruined when her husband Bill’s friend Evan turns up dead – and Bill is the primary suspect, since he’s the last person who saw Evan alive, Expect even more holiday mystery and fun in this continuation of the Lucy Stone series!

In case you’re interested in more mysteries in both of these themes, you can click on these links to go to the corresponding pages on my Cozy Mystery site:

Halloween Theme Mysteries

Valentine’s Day Mysteries

Three New Cozy Mystery Series Coming August 2015 – Peg Cochran (aka Meg London): Cranberry Cove, Shelley Freydont: Newport Gilded Age, Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Pumpkin Patch

I love telling you about new Cozy Mystery series when some of our favorite Cozy Mystery authors launch them. And it looks like we’ll have three new Cozy Mystery series to look forward to in August by established authors on the site. They look like some real good ones, too!

First is Peg Cochran‘s (aka Meg London) Cranberry Cove Mystery Series, which will have its debut book, Berried Secrets, releasing in August. This upcoming novel will star Monica Albertson, who has come to the small town of Cranberry Cove, located on Lake Michigan, to help her half-brother Jeff run his cranberry farm. When Jeff comes under suspicion for the untimely death of his former farm manager, Monica will need to help make sure that his good name is cleared. Peg Cochran also writes the Gourmet De-Lite Mystery Series starring gourmet caterer Gigi Fitzgerald, the Lucille Mystery Series starring a middle-aged Jersey girl and Home Shopping Channel devotee, as well as the Sweet Nothings Vintage Lingerie Mystery Series under the pen name Meg London.

Next will be Shelley Freydont‘s A Gilded Grave, which will be the first book in her Newport Gilded Age Mystery Series. This series will be a period piece set toward the end of the 19th century, starring Deanna Randolph, a wealthy young woman of the American elite spending her first season in Newport, Rhode Island. When a young maid turns up dead and a young man she turned down for marriage becomes the primary suspect, Deanna knows he isn’t a killer. Shelley Freydont is also the author of several other Cozy Mystery series, including the holiday-focused Celebration Bay Mystery Series, the Sudoku Mystery Series starring a Sudoku champion and mathematician, and the Lindy Haggerty Mystery Series starring an ex-dancer in New Jersey.

Finally, Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant) will be releasing Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About, the first book in their new Pumpkin Patch Mystery Series. When attorney Sarah Tucker goes home to sell the old family farm in Misty River, Virginia, it brings back memories of when she was a young girl and her grandparents mysteriously disappeared just before she arrived for a vacation at the farm. When a man dies after claiming to know something about what happened to them, she won’t be able to go back home until she has finally reached the bottom of their mysterious disappearance. The Lavenes are also the authors of many other Cozy Mystery Series, including the Missing Pieces Mystery Series, the Renaissance Fair Mystery Series, the Taxi For the Dead Mystery Series, the Peggy Lee Garden Mystery Series, the Retired Witches Mystery Series, and the Sheriff Sharyn Howard Mystery Series… plus several others!

Of course, all of these series (and more, including this month’s upcoming new Cozy Mystery Series releases) can be found on the New Cozy Mystery Book Series page on the site.

August 2015 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in August 2015:

Ellery Adams (aka Jennifer Stanley, J.B. Stanley): Murder in the Paperback Parlor (This will be the 2nd in the Book Retreat Mystery Series.) (This is a Valentine’s Day theme mystery.)

Donna Andrews: Lord of the Wings (This will be the 19th in the Meg Langslow Mystery Series.)

Donald Bain: Margaret Truman’s Internship in Murder (This will be the 3rd in the Capital Crimes Mystery Series.)

M.C. Beaton (aka Marion Chesney): Agatha’s First Case (This is a story in the Agatha Raisin Mystery Series.)

Rhys Bowen: Malice at the Palace (This will be the 9th in the Royal Spyness Mystery Series.)

Simon Brett: Mrs Pargeter’s Principle (This will be the 7th in the Mrs. Pargeter Mystery Series.)

Ellen Byron: Plantation Shudders (This will be the 1st in the NEW Cajun Country Mystery Series.)

Lynn Cahoon: Killer Run (This will be the 5th in the Tourist Trap Mystery Series.)

C. S. Challinor: Murder Comes Calling (This will be the 8th in the Rex Graves Mystery Series.)

P.F. Chisholm: A Chorus of Innocents (This will be the 7th in the Sir Robert Carey Mystery Series.)

Peg Cochran (aka Meg London): Berried Secrets (This will be the 1st in the NEW Cranberry Cove Mystery Series.)

Bill Crider: Between the Living and the Dead (This will be the 22nd in the Dan Rhodes Mystery Series.)

Kathi Daley: Hopscotch Homicide (This will be the 16th in the Zoe Donovan Mystery Series.)

Kathi Daley: Halloween in Paradise (This will be the 6th in the Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mystery Series.) (This is a Halloween themed mystery.)

Vicki Delany (aka Eva Gates): Haitian Graves (This will be the 2nd in the Ray Robertson Mystery Series.)

Leighann Dobbs: Paws and Effect (This will be the 4th in the Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series.)

Mary Anna Evans: Isolation (This will be the 9th in the Faye Longchamp Mystery Series.)

Linda Fairstein: Devil’s Bridge (This will be the 17th in the Alexandra Cooper Mystery Series.)

Shelley Freydont: A Gilded Grave (This will be the 1st in the NEW Newport Gilded Age Mystery Series.)

Rosie Genova: A Dish Best Served Cold (This will be the 3rd in the Italian Kitchen Mystery Series.)

Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames) Fudging the Books (This will be the 4th in the Cookbook Nook Mystery Series.)

Sue Grafton: X (This will be the 24th in the Kinsey Millhone Mystery Series.)

Carolyn Hart: From the Queen (This will be a Death on Demand Mystery Series story.)

Tonya Kappes: A Ghostly Demise (This will be the 3rd in the Ghostly Southern Mystery Series.)

Jonathan Kellerman: The Murderer’s Daughter (This will be a Stand Alone mystery.)

Diane Kelly: Laying Down the Paw (This will be the 3rd in the Paw Enforcement Mystery Series.)

Mary Kennedy: Dream a Little Scream (This will be the 2nd in the Dream Club Mystery Series.)

Laurie R. King: Mary Russell’s War (This will be a Prequel to the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes Mystery Series.)

Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Give ‘Em Pumpkin to Talk About (This will be the 1st in the NEW Pumpkin Patch Mystery Series.)

Kylie Logan (aka Miranda Bliss & Casey Daniels): Revenge of the Chili Queens (This will be the 3rd in the Chili Cook-Off Mystery Series.)

Mary Marks: Gone But Knot Forgotten (This will be the 3rd in the Martha Rose Quilting Mystery Series.)

Margaret Maron: Long Upon the Land (This will be the 21st in the Deborah Knott Mystery Series.)

Carol Ann Martin: Loom and Doom (This will be the 4th in the Weaving Mystery Series.)

Mary McHugh: Cancans, Croissants, and Caskets (This will be the 3rd in the Happy Hoofers Mystery Series.)

Leslie Meier: Candy Corn Murder (This will be the 22nd in the Lucy Stone Mystery Series.) (This is a Halloween theme mystery.)

Carla Neggers: Keeper’s Reach (This will be the 5th in the Sharpe & Donovan Mystery Series.)

Gail Oust: Murder is Dicey (This will be the 4th in the Kate McCall Bunco Babes Mystery Series.)

James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge: Alert (This will be the 8th in the Michael Bennett Mystery Series.)

Louise Penny: The Nature of the Beast (This will be the 11th in the Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Series.)

Peter Robinson: Summer Rain (This will be an Inspector Banks Mystery Series novella.)

Maria E. Schneider: Executive Dirt (This will be the 4th in the Sedona O’Hala Mystery Series.)

Paige Shelton: If Onions Could Spring Leeks (This will be the 5th in the Country Cooking School Mystery Series.)

Connie Shelton: Sweets Forgotten (This will be the 10th in the Samantha Sweet Mystery Series.)

Clea Simon: Code Grey (This will be the 9th in the Dulcie Schwartz Mystery Series.)

Alexander McCall Smith: The Revolving Door of Life (This will be the 10th in the 44 Scotland Street Series – it is not a mystery.)

Leann Sweeney: The Cat, the Sneak and the Secret (This will be the 7th in the Cats in Trouble Mystery Series.)

Robert K. Tanenbaum: Trap (This will be the in the 27th in the Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi Mystery Series.)

Charles Todd: A Pattern of Lies (This will be the 7th in the Bess Crawford Mystery Series.)

Diane Vallere: Crushed Velvet (This will be the 2nd in the Material Witness Mystery Series.)

Lea Wait: Threads of Evidence (This will be the 2nd in the Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series.)

Ayelet Waldman: And Murder Makes Three (This is an omnibus of the first 3 Mommy Track Mystery Series: Nursery Crimes, The Big Nap, and Playdate with Death.)

Lauren Willig: The Lure of the Moonflower (This will be the 12th in the Pink Carnation Mystery Series.)

Since these releases are a month early, here are this month’s releases: July  2015 Mystery Book New Releases.

If you would like to see lots and lots of Cozy Mystery books that are scheduled to be released, please click on this link to go to the Soon to be Released Mysteries page on the site.

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

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – June 2015

This is one of my favorite monthly entries of the Cozy Mystery site. I absolutely love to read about the Cozies that you ALL consider your best finds for the designated month. I find most of my new-to-me Cozy authors from this entry. I can get a pretty good feel of whether I’ll enjoy a book from reading your reasons for liking your recommended Cozies.

We’d love to read about your favorite Cozy Mystery books for the month of June. If you have more than one Cozy you think is particularly good, please put the one you liked the most at the very top of your list.

Please do not tell us about the Cozy Mysteries you did not like.

What really good Cozy Mystery book did you read during June 2015 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:

Barbara Allan: Trash ‘N’ Treasures Mystery Series

Lorna Barrett (aka Lorraine Bartlett & L. L. Bartlett): Booktown Mystery Series

Jenna Bennett (aka Jennie Bentley & Bente Gallagher): Savannah Martin Mystery Series

Claudia Bishop (aka Mary Stanton): Hemlock Falls Mystery Series

Lawrence Block: Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery Series

Duffy Brown: Consignment Shop Mystery Series

Kate Carlisle: Bibliophile Mystery Series

Nancy Coco (aka Nancy J. Parra): Candy-Coated Mystery Series

Kate Collins: Flower Shop Mystery Series

J.J. Cook (aka Joyce and Jim Lavene & Ellie Grant): Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mystery Series

Isis Crawford (aka Barbara Block): Mystery with Recipes Mystery Series

Mary Daheim: Emma Lord Mystery Series

Jeanne M. Dams: Dorothy Martin Mystery Series

Krista Davis: Domestic Diva Mystery Series

Hannah Dennison: Honeychurch Hall Mystery Series

Mae Fox & Jan Fields: Vineyard Quilt Mystery Series

Emma Jameson: Lord and Lady Hetheridge Mystery Series (Ice Blue, book #1)

Sofie Kelly (Sofie Ryan): Magical Cats Mystery Series

Annie Knox (aka Wendy Lyn Watson): Pet Boutique Mystery Series

Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Missing Pieces Mystery Series

Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J. J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Peggy Lee Garden Mystery Series

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

Julie Moffett: Lexie Carmichael Mystery Series (No One Lives Twice, book #1)

Tim Myers (aka Elizabeth Bright, Melissa Glazer, Chris Cavender, Casey Mayes, Jessica Beck, & D.B. Morgan): Candlemaking Mystery Series

Kathryn O’Sullivan: Colleen McCabe Mystery Series (Foal Play, book #1)

Katherine Hall Page: Faith Fairchild Mystery Series

Nancy J. Parra (aka Nancy Coco): Baker’s Treat Mystery Series

Penny Pike (aka Penny Warner): Food Festival Mystery Series

Linda Reilly: Deep Fried Mystery Series (Fillet of Murder, book #1)

M.L. Rowland: Search and Rescue Mystery Series (Murder Off the Beaten Path, book #2)

Annelise Ryan (aka Allyson K. Abbott): Mattie Wintson Mystery Series

Jeff Shelby (aka Jeffrey Allen): Moose River Mystery Series

Ashley Weaver: Murder at the Brightwell

[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 try to respond to all of the comments on the Cozy Mystery blog except for the comments on the monthly recommendation entries because they speak for themselves!

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