The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Mystery Identity of Mystery Authors, Books &/or Series

I have accumulated a few more questions about the following mysterious authors/books/series. If you think you know who the Cozy Mystery reader is looking for, please post a comment below. Thank you!

Robin:

knitQuestion I am looking for the author and series of a yarn shop set in the French quarter in New Orleans that she does mysteries and owns the shop also. She does a knitting circle also once a week with a class and there is talk of different types of yarn, one being Alpaca yarn a lot in it. There is always talk about the walks during Halloween and such of the houses and historical things on the streets just like the books with Laura Childs ones with her Tea mysteries in Charleston.

Lyn:

recorder`1I’m looking for a mystery series, probably written in the 80’s- ’90’s, about a musician in an early music group who keeps solving crimes. There’s wonderful writing about the performances of this group as well as well constructed plots. Maybe about 5 books in the series. The protagonist is, I think, a recorder player. There are also a viol de gamda player, a harpsichordist, and a violinist in this New York City group. Help

Chai:

petuniaI’m looking for a mystery novel I read in high school years ago, and all I can remember is that the protagonist was a fuller figured lady who called her growling tummy Petunia! It was probably published some time between the 60s and 80s, and in one book I read, her main love interest was, if I recall correctly, a Japanese-American. Does this ring any bells?

Carolyn:

TVstudioA while back, I found a cozy that opened with a murder in a TV studio. I should have written it down by author or title, but I didn’t. Now, I’m looking for it again, but I’ve searched online for cozies that take place in TV studios and on your web site by theme and even through the A and B authors (because I remember that’s as far as I got in my original visit to your site.

As I mentioned above, if you think you may possibly know the answers to these questions, please post a comment.

Thank you!

They’re Finally a Couple >>> Does He Have to Leave Town Now?

luggageLast month, in the recommendations, MJ brought up a point that I have wondered about in the past. MJ was referencing Kate Carlisle’s Bibliophile mysteries and here’s her comment:

This author does a fantastic job of keeping the relationship between Brooklyn and Derek relevant and vibrant. They work beautifully together and their rapport adds to a pleasurable read. As with several cozy relationships, it started out antagonistic and developed into a ‘couple’ relationship. MANY, many other cozy authors (some of my favorites) send the significant other (once they become a couple) on trips and their part in the story is reduced to a few phone calls. KUDOS to this author for her creativity!!! (This might be a topic worth discussing sometime — do you want the male half of the couple to remain an integral part of the story or not?)

I didn’t respond at the time, instead I decided to take her advice and ask you all about this. Once a sleuth is in a “couple relationship” >>> have you noticed her (his) partner leaves town a whole lot? If so, how do you feel about the partner’s part being reduced to a few phone calls? Please post a comment. Thank you!

Mystery Novel vs. Mystery BookShot

Those of you who have been with me for a while know that I am not crazy about this new “300 page” (or equivalent word count) quota that authors seem to have now. When I look at my Agatha Christie books, I can see that she didn’t have a certain word/page limit imposed on her. Don’t get me wrong, I still read 300 page Cozy Mysteries >>> but I do wonder why authors’ seem to write only 300 page Cozies. I don’t mean to imply they have a 300 page quota, because I don’t know if they do. However, if an author’s books all have 300 pages (+/-) then I start to wonder… I’m just not crazy about artificial 300 page book limits.

In my Saturday entry I mentioned that James Patterson was going to appear on the CBS News Sunday Morning show. (Although James Patterson doesn’t write Cozy Mysteries, he does write some mystery series that I know a lot of us read.) I hope some of you were able to watch that segment. I was delighted to hear James Patterson talk about his new idea for books: BookShots.

If you didn’t see the segment, you may be asking: What’s a BookShot? Well, they’re books that are 150 (+/-) pages long that cost less than $5.00. Yep, that’s right! Less than $5.00 for both the Kindle format AND the paperback editions! The BookShots official website touts these as “ALL THRILLER. NO FILLER.” (Don’t worry though >>> he’ll continue to release his regular length mysteries, too!)

(I currently have sixteen of his BookShots posted on the Soon to be Released page of my site, and I see that he will also be releasing James Patterson’s BookShot Flames which will be 150 page romance novels by other authors. He’ll also have a line of non fiction BookShots such as his September release: Clinton vs. Trump: In Their Own Words.)

With this in mind, I am posing this question: Would you like to see some of your favorite Cozy Mystery authors adopt the BookShots idea? Do you think you’d be interested in reading your Cozy Mysteries even if they were only half as long, (as well as a lot cheaper)? Obviously, if the author changed her/his books from 300 pages to 150 pages (or equivalent word count quota), there would have to be less of something such as descriptive passages or perhaps subplots. >>> Would you miss those?

P.S. These are not novella length novels. Usually you’re lucky if a novella is 90 pages long!

Realtor Sleuths in Cozy Mysteries

home8A while ago, Terri asked me to post a Realtor themed entry:

… Could you do a list of cozies with professions of Realtors (as this series is) or Real Estate Appraisers (“Appraisal for Murder” by Elaine Orr, series Jolie Gentil Cozy Mysteries)- or maybe a combined list? Kathleen Delaney’s “Ellen McKenzie mysteries” would also fit. …

I keep a list of possible themes which I try to add to whenever I start the posting process for a new-to-the-site author, so I already had the theme going. So, the realtor sleuth theme now will join some of the many themes I have on my site such as Librarians Sleuths in Cozies, Culinary Cozies with Recipes, Cozies with Cats, etc.

Realtor Sleuths in Cozy Mysteries:

Jenna Bennett (aka Jennie Bentley & Bente Gallagher): Savannah Martin Mystery Series – Savannah is a divorced Southern Belle who is a realtor in Nashville, Tennessee.

Catherine Bruns: Cindy York Mystery Series

Ann Charles: Deadwood Humorous Mystery Series – Violet “Spooky” Parker, is a single mom of twins who wears purple cowboy books and is a real estate agent in a little town called Deadwood (South Dakota). Violet has a tendency to sell haunted houses, so watch out!

Cheryl Crane: Nikki Harper Mystery Series – Nikki is a celebrity realtor in Hollywood.

Vicki Doudera: Darby Farr Mystery Series – Darby is a realtor on an island off of Maine’s coast.

Charlaine Harris: Aurora Teagarden Mystery Series – At the beginning of the series, Aurora (Roe) is a librarian. She later becomes a real estate agent in Georgia.

Traci Tyne Hilton: Mitzy Neuhaus Mystery Series – Mitzy is a top-selling realtor in Portland, Oregon. (These are billed as “cozy Christian” mysteries.)

Nancy Lynn Jarvis : Regan McHenry Real Estate Mystery Series – Regan is a realtor/sleuth and her husband Tom is an ex-computer programmer, in Santa Cruz, California.

Barbara Lee: Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series

Tierney McClellan (aka Barbara Taylor McCafferty & Taylor McCafferty) : Schuyler Ridgway Mystery Series – Schuyler is a realtor in Louisville, Kentucky.

Elaine Orr: Jolie Gentil Mystery Series – Jolie is a real estate appraiser in an east coast beach town called Ocean Alley, in New Jersey.

Maggie Sefton: Kate Doyle Mystery Series – Kate is a divorced realtor in a Colorado college town. (Well, actually there is only one book in this series.)

Nina Wright: Whiskey Mattimoe Mystery Series – Whiskey, a widow, works as a realtor in a resort town in Michigan. Abra is her Afghan Hound.

If you’re interested in finding other themes of Cozy Mystery series, I have lots and lots of themes on the Cozies by Themes page of my Cozy-Mystery site.

By the way, if you know of any other Cozy Mystery Realtor Sleuths, please post a comment. Thank you!

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