A while back, Linda M. asked a very interesting question:

Have you ever thought about adding a category where the hero is a bad guy? I’m just finishing Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr’s series (a very likeable burglar) and I loved them! I can think of a few others just now – such as Mary Anna Evans’ Faye Longchamp who in the first few books dug for artifacts to sell on the black market to keep her crumbling plantation house from falling down. Also, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher (definitely NOT a cozy). I would like to find more in this category and I can’t – but I’m sure there are some. I get tired of the goody-goody heroes and these are exciting and refreshing – something different! Anyway, just a suggestion – and I could just click on this category and there they would all be!

Angela replied:

Hailey Lind (aka Juliet Blackwell) writes the art lovers series. Her main character is the granddaughter of an international art forger and while she’s “gone good” she has a past as an art forger that haunts her. Meanwhile her frequent sidekick is an art thief and her art forging grandpa and his friends make appearances often as well. There’s only 4 books in the series now but I am hopeful she’ll write more. Might be one you’d like to check out as part of your “bad guy” idea.

My question for all of you is this: Can you think of any other Cozy Mystery series that feature a sleuth with criminal (past or present) tendencies? If so, please post a comment below.

Sleuth with Criminal History:

Lawrence Block: Bernie Rhodenbarr Mystery Series AND John Keller Mystery Series

Simon Brett: Mrs. Pargeter Mystery Series

Leslie Charteris: Simon Templar, the Saint Mystery Series

Lee Child: Jack Reacher Mystery Series (not Cozy)

Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg: Fox and O’Hare Mystery Series

Mary Anna Evans: Faye Longchap Mystery Series

Jonathan Gash: Lovejoy Mystery Series

Bruce Graeme: Blackshirt the Burglar Series

E.W. Hornung: Raffles Series

Maurice LeBlanc: Arsene Lupin Series

Hailey Lind (aka Juliet Blackwell): Art Lover’s Mystery Series

Wyndham Martyn: Anthony Trent Series

J. Michael Orenduff: Pot Thief Mystery Series

Frank L. Packard: Grey Seal Series

Elaine Viets: Dead-End Job Mystery Series

If you’re interested in finding all sorts of other mystery themes, make sure to visit the Cozy Mystery by Themes page on the site.

I was talking to my husband the other day, and I asked him how he was doing with his “project” to read (or re-read) all of Agatha Christie’s books from the beginning. Over the years he has read or listened to many of Christie’s books, but he never completed any of her series. So, now that he has more time on his hands (early retirement), he decided to begin again and to read them all the way to the end in the series’ chronological order (not as a marathon – but with taking breaks here and there to read other books.)

He told me he had finished the first Miss Marple, the first two Poirot, the first Tommy and Tuppence and the first Inspector Battle books. He is now taking a break from Christie but will resume his little “project” in a week or so. In our discussion, he mentioned that one of the things that makes Christie great is her creation of two of the greatest sleuth characters in mystery fiction – Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. And, that both of these classic characters are quite different even though they both rely on insight into human nature as the primary means to solve mysteries.

Of course, Christie’s other main sleuths, Tommy and Tuppence and Inspector Battle are also classic characters in mystery fiction, but, in my opinion they don’t measure up to Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot as truly great creations. I haven’t read the Battle books in a long time, but the Tommy and Tuppence stories are in a way more like adventure stories than they are straight mysteries (at least that is the way I remember them.)  The first Battle book actually has very little of Inspector Battle and is more along the lines of the Tommy and Tuppence stories.  Marple and Poirot are more “classic” Agatha Christie, in my view. At the least, their popularity is reflected by their having been portrayed in movies and TV far more often than Christie’s other characters.

Anyway, this conversation got me thinking about making a list of other authors who have created two or more memorable sleuths who are wildly different the way Miss Marple and Poirot are and that will (possibly) stand the test of time and be thought of as classic mystery sleuths in the future.

So, I wanted to pose the question – which Cozy Mystery authors do you think have created two or more classic sleuths (in two or more of the author’s different series) who are so good that you feel compelled to read both (or more) of the author’s series from beginning to end? I’ll take the easy way out and start the list with Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. (I told you I was taking the easy way out!)

I started compiling a list of the Cozy Mystery authors who write two or more series with sleuths who are very different from each other, but there have been so many comments that I have decided to stop listing them and let the comments speak for themselves. I encourage you to read all of the comments below.

A Cozy Mystery reader recently wrote in a request to make a new sub-category for Amish themed Cozy Mysteries. I also decided to add Quaker, Shaker, and Mennonite themed mysteries to the list as well. Most of these are Amish themed – if I don’t say that it is Quaker, Shaker, or Mennonite >>> then it’s Amish. Here’s what we have so far, mostly provided by the requester. (Thank you, Ty, for this great Cozy Mystery theme idea!)

Amish, Quaker, Shaker, & Mennonite Cozy Mysteries:

Isabella Alan (aka Amanda Flower): Amish Quilt Shop Mystery Series

Susan Wittig Albert (aka 1/2 Robin Paige): Wormwood (book #17 of China Bayles Mystery Series) (Shaker)

Irene Allen: Elizabeth Elliot Mystery Series (book #1 Quaker Silence)

Madelyn Alt: Hex Marks the Spot (book #3 Bewitching Mystery Series

Annie’s Amish Inn Mystery Series

Tace Baker (aka Edith Maxwell & Maddie Day): Speaking of Mystery Mystery Series (Quaker Linguistics professor)

Laura Bradford (aka Elizabeth Lynn Casey): Amish Mystery Series

Linda Castillo: Kate Burkholder Series (book #1 Sworn to Silence) (thriller, not Cozy)

Vannetta Chapman: Amish Village Mystery Series AND Shipshewana Amish Quilt Shop Mystery Series

Mindy Starns Clark writes Amish non-mystery books and has written at least one Lancaster County mystery.

Jacqueline Fiedler: Amish Butter (story found in Unholy Orders: Mystery Stories with a Religious Twist anthology)

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Appleseed Creek Mystery Series

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Amish Matchmaker Mystery Series

P.L. Gaus: Ohio Amish Mystery Series

Shelley Shepard Gray: Secrets of Crittenden County Series (book #1 Missing)

Karen Ann Harper: Maplecreek Amish Trilogy & Home Valley Amish Mystery Series

Eleanor Kuhns: Will Rees Mystery Series (book #1 A Simple Murder & book #3 Cradle to Grave) (Shaker)

Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day & Tace Baker): Carriagetown Mystery Series  (Quaker)

Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day & Tace Baker): Quaker Midwife Mystery Series

Nancy Mehl: Harmony Mystery Series Trilogy & Road to Kingdom Mystery Series (Mennonite)

Emma Miller: Amish Mystery Series

Tamar Myers: Pennsylvania Dutch Inn Mystery Series (Mennonite)

Marta Perry: Three Sisters Inn Series (Amish)

Sugar Creek Amish Mysteries (Amish)

Deborah Woodworth: Shaker Mystery Series (Shaker)

Barbara Workinger: Amish Country Mystery Series (book #1 In Dutch Again)

Ron Yeakley: Death Takes a Buggy Ride

Can you think of any Amish, Quaker, or Shaker themed Cozies to add to the list? Let me know in the comments below!

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦