I have just added five new mystery authors to the Cozy Mystery site. These authors are some of the authors who you all have recommended to me as belonging on the site. (I haven’t read any of them yet.)

Cassandra Chan writes the Phillip Bethancourt & Jack Gibbons Mystery Series. Bethancourt is the rich friend of Gibbons, a sergeant at Scotland Yard.

Roberta Gellis writes the Magdâline la Batarde Mystery Series. Magdâline is a madame in a London brothel during the 12th century.

Susan Elia MacNeal‘s Maggie Hope Mystery Series is set during the 1940s in London. MacNeal’s series features an American typist who is privy to many secrets.

Bernadette Pajer pens the Professor Bradshaw Mystery Series. This series is set during the early 1900s and has a professor of electrical engineering as its sleuth. Professor Bradshaw not only teaches in Washington (the state), but he is also an inventor.

Debbie Viguié writes the Psalms 23 Mystery Series. The mysteries in this series are set during different holidays, and feature Cindy Preston (a church secretary) and Rabbi Jeremiah Silverman.

This month I am going to try to add at least ten new-to-the-site authors to the Cozy Mystery site. As usual, I plan to add them to the site in batches of four or five. Hy Conrad is one of these authors, but I decided to list him separately because while researching him, I read something really interesting on his website.

When I found out there is a new Mr. Monk mystery book, I quickly went to add it (Mr. Monk Helps Himself) to Lee Goldberg’s page on the site. I then downloaded the cover of the book, which left me baffled. That’s when I discovered that Hy Conrad is the author of the book.

Hy Conrad? Who’s he? Well, I’ll tell you who he is!

Hy Conrad was one of the writers for the long-running Monk television show. He wrote for the show during all eight of its seasons. He is also listed as the co-executive producer of the Monk television show during its last two seasons. And for all of you White Collar television show fans, he was listed as both a writer and consulting producer for that incredibly humorous mystery show.

I have to admit that I didn’t know about Conrad’s involvement with those two shows until I looked at his website. However, I knew that his name looked familiar to me. And the reason for that is that we own two of his “Whodunit” mini-mystery books. He has written several Whodunit mini-mysteries, as well as a mystery series for children. He also writes the Abel Adventures Mystery Series which features Amy Abel, the owner of a travel agency for people who are adventurous. The series also features Amy’s interfering mom, Fanny.

While looking through Hy Conrad’s website, I found his blog post for January 25, 2013 particularly interesting. The title of this entry is: “Wait! I’m a Cozy Writer?” With a title like that, I knew I HAD to read it. And, boy, am I glad I did!

In this blog entry he talks about finding out what a Cozy Mystery is. I love how he describes what books were called before someone came up with the “Cozy Mystery” term… simply mystery novels. He asks about Monk >>> would the networks buy it today? He talks about being someone who grew up reading Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and Nero Wolfe. He then poses the question about people who grow up reading books by Dean Koontz and watching Criminal Minds. (I’m not going to tell you what he thinks they might “probably be nostalgic” for.)

I recommend that you take a look at Hy Conrad’s “Wait! I’m a Cozy Writer?” blog entry. I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. As I read it, I found myself nodding in agreement with him. Being a fan of Monk and White Collar, as well as being so impressed by this blog I quickly bought Rally ‘Round the Corpse – the first in his Abel Adventures Mystery Series. (I’m looking forward to reading it, and will try to let you know what I think about it after I do.)

And to answer his question: Yes, by everything I’ve seen, you are a Cozy Writer!