Here it is the new year – a time when I thought there would be all sorts of Cozy Mystery news, and I only have a little news to share with you. However, it’s good news!

Julie Chase (aka Jacqueline Frost and Julie Anne Lindsey) will be bringing us Cat Got Your Crown – which is the fourth Cozy in her Kitty Couture Mystery Series. This time the Furry Godmother pet boutique owner and sleuth Lacy Marie Crocker will be attending the New Orleans National Pet Pageant where a murder may take place! (Some of you may have just read the first mystery in this author’s new Christmas Tree Farm Mystery Series which she writes as Jacqueline Frost – Twelve Slays of Christmas.)

Cozy Mystery author Leslie Karst has a very varied educational background. Not only is she a twenty year attorney, but she also has a culinary degree, which is great news for fans of her Sally Solari Mystery Series. Her main sleuth is an ex-lawyer who manages an Italian eatery and the series includes recipes. Anyway, back to the good news: Sally will be back sleuthing! The third book (Death al Fresco) will be released in March AND there’s a fourth Sally Solari mystery on its way, too!

Elaine Viets is the author of several series, including the very popular Dead-End Job Mystery Series (which features sleuth Helen Hawthorne, a woman very familiar with “dead-end jobs”) and the very popular Mystery Shopper Mystery Series (featuring plain-clothes detective Josie Marcus). Here’s the good news for Elaine Viets’ fans: Elaine Viets will be releasing A Deal with the Devil and 13 Short Stories. This will be a collection which will include some of her series’ favorite characters. Good news indeed!

I have just a few Cozy Mystery news tidbits to share with you this month. All six of these authors have pages on my Cozy Mystery site. (That’s how I determine what news items to tell you about each month.)

Great news for those of us who follow the sleuthing exploits of Cora (from the Cora Crafts Mystery Series) and Annie (from the Cumberland Creek Mystery Series). Mollie Cox Bryan will be starting a new Cozy Mystery series, and it will feature a sleuth who is a cheese cream maker in Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley. The first book looks like it will take place during Christmas – so I’m hoping it will be out by next year’s holiday season.

Some of us have been reading Cozies by Laurie Cass since way back in 2010 when she released her first Cozy in the PTA Mystery Series (as Laura Alden). And a lot of us follow Minnie as she solves mysteries with Eddie, her bookmobile-riding rescue cat in Laurie Cass’s Bookmobile Cat Mystery Series. Here’s some really terrific news: Laurie Cass has just gotten the go-ahead for at least two more Bookmobile Cat Cozies. Yahoo!

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell) has been busy, busy, busy releasing Cozies for us to enjoy reading. Connolly is the author of the very popular Orchard Mystery Series (featuring apple orchard owner Meg Corey), Museum Mystery Series (which stars Nell, a museum fundraiser), Relatively Dead Mystery Series (with ghost-seeing Abby), and the County Cork Mystery Series. (And, as Sarah Atwell, she released the Glassblowing Mystery Series , which features Em, the owner of a glassblowing shop in Tucson.) Well, it looks like County Cork’s Bostonian Maura Donovan will be able to continue to sleuth in Ireland at least two more times. That’s right… Sheila Connolly will be releasing at least two more County Cork Mysteries!

Fans of Denise Dietz‘s Diet Club Mystery Series are in for a very welcome surprise. Deni Dietz will be releasing a historical mystery (with a lot of romance!) that will take place during the 1950s. She will be releasing this as Mary Ellen Dennis. [I’m not entirely sure, but I wonder if Cirque (the name of the book) could possibly be her Dream Dancer book that she released as Deni Dietz…]

 

Now here is some terrific news for all the Cozy Mystery readers who enjoy Paige Shelton‘s books. Most of us already know that Shelton writes several very popular Cozy series: the Scottish Bookshop Mystery Series (starring Delaney – a rare book & manuscript expert in Scotland), the Dangerous Type Mystery Series (featuring printing press shop expert Clare Henry), the Farmers’ Market Mystery Series (with Becca, a sleuth who makes jams), and the County Cooking School Mystery Series (with Betts & Gram running their cooking school). Here’s some great Paige Shelton news: she’s going to be releasing Murder on Ice which is not a part of any of the previously listed series. This book will feature an author who is trying to rid herself of a stalker, and it is set in Alaska. (Let’s hope this is the beginning of a new series!)

Leslie Wheeler has her Bachelor’s from Stanford (in English and History) and her Master’s from UC Berkeley (in English) which she puts to great use writing the Living History Mystery Series. She will be starting the new Berkshire Hilltown Mystery Series with Rattlesnake Hill. The series will have, as it’s sleuth, a curator of a Boston library.

This wraps up my Cozy Mystery news for December 2017. I hope one of your favorite authors can be found amongst the above authors!

I wasn’t quite sure if I would have any Cozy Mystery news to tell you about, but it seems I do! And it involves some very big names in the Cozy Mystery genre!

First for some very sad news. Donald Bain passed away last month. He brought so many hours of reading pleasure to a lot of us – as we followed Jessica Fletcher’s crime-solving adventures in the Murder, She Wrote book series.

***** ***** ***** *****

Rhys Bowen just released On Her Majesty’s Frightfully Secret Service, the 11th book in her Royal Spyness Mystery Series – in August. (The 12th in the series will be released in August 2018.) Here’s the great news: Rhys Bowen has just signed to write books 13, 14, & 15. Georgie is in no danger of not having more mysteries to solve. Hmmm… that doesn’t mean she will definitely not be in danger! (Here’s the link to Rhys Bowen‘s page on my Cozy Mystery site.)

It appears like Mollie Cox Bryan will be (possibly) starting a new Cozy Mystery series with the release of The Jean Harlow Bombshell. A lot of us are fans of her Cora Craft Mystery Series as well as her (scrapbooking) Cumberland Creek Mystery Series, so this is really good news! (To see Mollie Cox Bryan‘s page on my site, click on her highlighted name.)

 

It seems like it’s been a long time since JoAnna Carl (aka Eve K. Sandstrom) released her 16th Chocoholic Mystery Series book – The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha. (I just checked, and since it was an Easter Cozy, some of us didn’t read it until April of this year!) Anyway, getting back to the really terrific news, JoAnna Carl got the go-ahead for two more Chocoholic mysteries! (To visit JoAnna Carl‘s page on my site, click on the link.)

Diesel and Charlie will busy, busy, busy solving crimes! Miranda James  (aka Honor Hartman, Jimmie Ruth Evans, & Dean James) has just been given the green light to write four more mysteries in the Cat in the Stacks Mystery Series. I know there are a lot of us who read this New York Times bestselling series. I know this is great news, and I feel a little greedy about admitting this, but I hope we get some similar news about Miranda James’s Southern Ladies Mystery Series! (Here’s the link to the Miranda James page on my site.)

And finally, only because I do these news tidbits alphabetically, Victoria Thompson will be continuing her new Counterfeit Lady Mystery Series after the November 2017 release of City of Lies. Victoria Thompson has signed on to release City of Secrets, which is terrific news for those of us who are fans of her Gaslight Mystery Series. (Click here if you would like to visit Victoria Thompson‘s page on my Cozy Mystery site.)

Was I correct in saying there were some really big names in the Cozy Mystery genre in the Cozy Mystery News for November 2017?!