The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Can You Solve the Mystery Through the Author’s Clues?

DetectingRecently I’ve noticed that I am not solving a lot of the crimes in the Cozy Mystery books I read. For some reason, the person who committed the crime comes as a total surprise to me.

I sometimes find myself making a conscious decision to solve the mystery using all of the clues the sleuth has provided (through the author). However, I have to admit that a lot of the time the culprit is someone I absolutely had no idea would be the person responsible for the awful deed. Yikes! Am I losing my Cozy Mystery deducing skills, or am I just getting lazy?

This got me thinking >>> surely I’m not the only one who sometimes is totally surprised by the culprit. Other Cozy Mystery readers must have the same thing going-on. I should add that I’m not talking about the Cozies where not only do you know the culprit of the crime, but you also know the victim five or six chapters before the crime was committed. I’m sure lots (if not all!) of you have read a few of those books! (Yikes! We’re not all clairvoyants, yet there are some books that leave us feeling like we are!) Nor am I talking about the mysteries where a character is introduced at the very end of the book, since the author wants that character to be the “surprise” culprit.

I’m talking about the Cozy Mysteries where you go along with the sleuth, as she/he sleuths around the community. You actually pay attention to all of the information the sleuth becomes aware of, and you try to figure out, along with the sleuth, who was responsible for the crime. It bothers me that I’m just not very good at this, and I wonder if everyone else is!

Is this a skill you lose if you read too many Cozy Mysteries? Are the Cozy Mystery authors not providing enough clues to make the mystery solvable? Or, is it just me?

So I’m asking:

Are you actually able to solve the mystery through all of the author’s clues?

Please leave a comment if you are able to solve most of the mysteries you read before the author does the big reveal. Also, leave a comment if you are like me, and find this skill something which you don’t have! Thanks!

Cozy Mystery Book Recipe Finds…

RecipesThe other day we all talked about our Favorite Cozy Mystery Themes, which got me thinking of a comment that MJ posted quite a while back.

MJ:

… a possible future idea for a post on this blog: What is your favorite recipe you’ve made from a cozy mystery?

With so many of us liking the culinary/cooking/recipes Cozies, do any of us try the recipes the authors include in their books? I know I don’t >>> but that’s because I don’t like to cook/bake. Even though I have never tried one of the recipes, I read through them all. That’s right! I read through the recipes, perhaps thinking I will one day cook/bake them.

All of this got me wondering: Have you ever tried a recipes from a Cozy Mystery? Do you try out the Cozy Mystery recipes on a regular basis? Have you tried a recipe that turned out to be fabulous? If so, would you mind telling the rest of us about it, and please be sure to include the author’s name and the book it came from.

P.S. Thanks, MJ, for a great entry idea! I hope to see lots of favorite Cozy Mystery book recipes >>> and perhaps I’ll finally try one!

Also, here’s the Mysteries with Recipes AND Recipe Books by Mystery Authors theme if you want to take a look at it.

Thank You, ALL, for All Your Comments!

Thank you, ALL! I cannot get over how many of you helped find the answer for Libby yesterday! You ALL were able to whittle it down to just two authors for Libby to choose from, either Jeanne M. Dams or Lyn Hamilton.

I heard from Libby late last night, and you found her missing author!

Shadows of Death! That’s it! Thank you so very much! I am going to get more books by Jeanne Dams.

I am so grateful.

I know I have said this before, but I’m going to repeat myself now: Cozy Mystery readers are a great group of people, who are always willing to help other Cozy Mystery readers!

 

Also, I noticed that there are some people who are interested in the archaeological theme, and thought I would post this entry we worked on a few years ago:
Mystery Books with Anthropologists and Archaeologists as Their Sleuths…

Thank you, again, for all of your suggestions. I love it when you all are able to help!

Edie Claire’s “Never Steal a Cockatiel” Is Released Tomorrow!

As some of you who have been with me for a while know, Edie Claire is one of my very favorite Cozy Mystery authors. Way back in 1999, Never Buried (FREE in Kindle format) was the first of her Leigh Koslow mysteries to be released. Once I read it, I was hooked!

I am not caught up with many of my favorite Cozy Mystery series; but this one, I am! I preordered tomorrow’s release, Never Steal a Cockatiel, and plan to start reading it tomorrow. That’s how much I love Edie Claire’s Leigh Koslow Mystery Series! (This is the 9th book in the series.)

I found this new Cozy while I was updating my Soon to be Released Mysteries page, which I just finished doing this afternoon. You might want to go take a look at that page, some of your favorite Cozy Mystery authors may have Cozies that are going to be released. I found and posted several other Cozies that also look really good.

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