I just reread one of The Body in the Transept, the first book in Jeanne M. Dams‘s Dorothy Martin Mystery Series. as part of my ongoing and long-standing series on the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series.

This is a series that started in the mid-90s and that is still regularly getting new entries, with the 24th entry due out in less than a week. In many ways, this and other series like it in the mid-to-late-nineties really established the current Cozy formula, and many of the modern elements can be seen in The Body in the Transept.

Dorothy Martin is a retired, recently widowed woman who has uprooted her life to make a move to a new town – though the move is further than in many cases – across the Atlantic, from a midwestern American town to the (fictional) small town of Sherebury, in southeast England. Unlike the majority of her neighbors, Dorothy isn’t a life-long member of the town, and has only been a member of the community for a year – long enough that she has a wide network of acquaintances, but not long enough to have forged many truly strong friendships or rivalries.

Still, this is a benefit in at least one way, in that she hasn’t yet had the time to truly come at odds with one of the local priests, Canon Billings – a difficult man that most of the community seems to have had one argument or another over the long years. Unfortunately, she has one unforgettable brush with him when she discovers his dead body in the cathedral, as she is leaving midnight mass by one of the back exits that leads to a faster route to her home. Between the death – and the appearance of a ghostly monk, supposedly one who has appeared periodically for hundreds of years, Dorothy is quite busy for the holiday season.

On the other hand, there are also several very important divergences from modern Cozies. First, at least at the beginning of this first novel, Dorothy is still having difficulty acclimating both to her new surroundings and to the recent death of her husband. Modern Cozies often minimalize the transitions that their protagonists go through, but this one does a much better job of portraying a “semi-realistic” portrayal of the sort of grief and discomfort an individual would experience in such a situation.

As a result, The Body in the Transept is an interesting mixture of older and newer Cozy trends, offering a sort of transition between some of the older Cozes of the past and the newer Cozy series on the market today. I thoroughly enjoyed rereading this book, and can strongly recommend it to enthusiasts of both classic and modern Cozies.

If you’re interested in reading more of these brief revisits of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

I just finished reading (and enjoying!) Dying for Strawberries, the first book in Sharon Farrow‘s Berry Basket Mystery book series. I am writing about this book as part of my series of posts highlighting some of the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series. Sharon Farrow is also one half of the D.E. Ireland writing duo (along with Meg Macy) 

The Berry Basket Mystery Series features a young (thirty-ish) sleuth named Marley Jacob. (Yes, her parents knew about the Dickens character — Jacob Marley — and named Marley after him for some crazy reason!)

Recently, Marley returned to her original hometown, Oriole Point, a small town bordering on Lake Michigan to open a berry theme-related shop — the Berry Basket. Oriole Point attracts a lot of tourists during the summer months and Marley’s shop does a booming business with them.

In a somewhat unusual and refreshing twist, when the story begins, Marley is already engaged. This is in contrast to most Cozies that I have read recently in which the sleuth has returned to her hometown after a failed engagement. So, at least at the beginning of this series, the sleuth is not (overtly at least) fought over by two or more suitors. This book had me hooked as soon as I read about her fiancé — I guess I am an easy mark!

As the story opens, the town is preparing for a new festival — the Strawberry Moon Bash – which is designed to promote local businesses by attracting even more visitors to Oriole Point. Marley’s friend Natasha, who is in an abusive marriage, goes missing and Marley begins her sleuthing even before there is a murder.

Of course, there is a murder (but not until quite some way into the book), and Marley — along with just about everybody who is anybody in town — is a prime suspect. Marley takes it upon herself (along with a friend or two who are roped into helping her) begins her sleuthing in earnest as soon as the murder is discovered.

Oriole Point is a charming small town — so much so that it is easy to suspend one’s disbelief about the viability of a shop that specializes in all things berry-related. The mystery is interesting with just enough clues spread around that the reader can figure out who the killer is just about a few pages before Marley does. And, in another refreshing moment, Marley figures it out just a moment before the killer confronts her (not the moment after that happens). 

I enjoyed Dying for Strawberries, and I intend to return to Oriole Point to follow Marley’s continuing adventures soon.

If you’re interested in reading more of these brief revisits of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

PS: This series does feature recipes – as you may guess, berry related ones!

Today, I’ll be discussing Meet Your Baker, the first book in the series Bakeshop Mystery Series by Ellie Alexander is the next book that I have read to continue my posts about the most popular and recommended mystery series.

Juliet Montague Capshaw (who goes by “Jules”) is returning to her hometown of Ashland, Oregon, a quaint town most known for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which brings in plenty of academics and acting professionals alike as well as a slew of tourists. Coming off of a rough breakup from her husband of ten years, Jules wants to spend a bit of time recovering and deciding on a new direction for her life, as continuing her profession as a dessert baker on cruise ships feels less attractive without her partner of ten years.

While a lot has stayed the same in the years Jules has been gone from Ashland, many things have also changed. Though there is still a place for her in her family’s bake shop, Torte, and she still knows a significant number of the locals who grew up in town, she is less familiar with many of the newer faces who have arrived in the last decade, including newcomer Nancy Hudson. Nancy is the newest board member of the festival, as well as a very significant financial backer, plus is dating a local who has been working for years to buy up as much of the local businesses as possible, including Torte.

No one much likes Nancy… which, needless to say, makes it much harder to pin down just one suspect when she turns up dead in Torte, having been bludgeoned, apparently by one of Jules own jam jars. Jules feels that it’s in both her own and her family’s best interest to solve the case as quickly as possible – though it’s a nice plus that this gives her time to spend with her former highschool boyfriend, now a deputy also investigating the crime.

Ashland is a relatively grounded setting, with relatively few over-the-top or “wacky residents. The characters are still interesting, but few are as exaggerated as the genre often uses for supporting cast.

Another aspect of the book that I really appreciated was that the murder was relatively “front-and-center”, occurring in the first few chapters of the novel. A lot of modern Cozies have a tendency to sort of slowly move toward the crime, sometimes taking up to half the novel on preliminaries.

All told, I can recommend Meet Your Baker to any Cozy fan who likes relatively grounded settings, those who are interested in a murder starting up relatively quickly in the book, or anyone who has a love of detailed descriptions of scrumptious-sounding baked goods.

As a side note, Ellie Alexander has also written under the name Kate Dyer-Seeley.

If you are interested in reading some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on the site.

PS: For anyone who is a bit of a chef themselves, it’s worth noting that the book does include a number of delicious-sounding recipes at the end!