Recently I posted a blog about some of our favorite cats featured in Cozy Mysteries, and I thought it would only be fair to give the same treatment to our other four-legged friends, dogs. Naturally, we’ve already got a Dog Themed Mysteries List, but here I’m hoping to be both more selective and less in a way – more selective because we’re only talking about our favorites, and less because we can talk about dogs that aren’t necessarily the stars of the show, so to speak, but instead favorite side characters.

To get the ball rolling, I’m going to say one of my current personal favorites >>> Rocky, the adorable Shih Tzu from Diane Vallere‘s Mad for Mod Mystery Series. Rocky is named after one of his owner’s favorite actors, Rock Hudson. (Some of you know that I’m mad for Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies!) Though only a minor character of the series, he helps bring a charm and life to his owner’s time away from murder and intrigue, helping give the series a much more real feeling while also amusing us with his adorable antics.

So, what are some of your favorite dogs in Cozy mysteries? Let me know in the comments below, so I can start up a list of our most favorite canine crime-solving companions!

Here’s a list of our favorite Dogs in Cozy Mystery Series:

Victoria Abbot: Book Collectors Mystery Series: Walter & Cobain

Ellery Adams: Books by the Bay mysteries: Captain Haviland

Isabella Alan (aka Amanda Flower): Amish Quilt Shop mysteries: Oliver

Barbara Allan: Trash ’n’ Treasure mysteries: Sushi

Donna Andrews: Meg Langslow mysteries: Spike

Donna Ball: Raine Stockton mysteries: Cisco

Laurien Berenson: Melanie Travis: Faith and Hope

Heather Blake (aka Heather Webber): Wishcraft mysteries: Missy

Emily Brightwell: Mrs. Jeffries mysteries: Fred

Rita Mae Brown: Mrs. Murphy Mystery Series: Tee Tucker

Rita Mae Brown: Fox Hunting mysteries: Diana

Leslie Budewitz: Seattle Spice Shop mysteries: Arf

Laura Childs: Tea Shop mysteries: Earl Grey

Laura Childs: Scrapbooking mysteries: Boo and Poobah

Margaret Coel: Wind River mysteries: Walks On Three Legs

Krista Davis: Domestic Diva mysteries: Daisy

Krista Davis: Paws and Claws mysteries: Trixie

Janet Evanovich: Stephanie Plum mysteries: Bob

Carolyn Haines: Sarah Booth Delaney mysteries: Chablis

Dashiell Hammett: Thin Man mysteries: Asta

Linda O’Johnston: Pet Rescue mysteries: Zoey

Annie Knox (aka Wendy Lyn Watson): Pet Boutique mysteries: Packer

Amanda Lee (aka Gayle Trent): Embroidery mysteries: Angus O’Ruff

Virginia Lowell: Cookie Cutter Shop mysteries: Spunky

Judi McCoy: Dog Walker mysteries: Rudy

Laura Morrigan: Call of the Wilde mysteries: Moss

Leigh Perry (aka Toni L.P. Kelner): Family Skeleton mysteries: Byron

Spencer Quinn (aka Peter Abrahams): Chet and Bernie mysteries: Chet

Maggie Sefton: Knitting mysteries: Carl

Karen Rose Smith: Caprice DeLuca mysteries: Lady

Diane Vallere: Mad for Mod mysteries: Rocky

Tracy Weber: Downward Dog mysteries: Bella

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

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.