I know this is a very busy time of year for a lot of us, but I wonder if you could find the time to tell us about an extremely good Cozy Mystery book you read during December. Also, please tell us why you consider this Cozy to be so good that it stands out from the rest of the Cozies you read during the month. Please only tell us about the Cozies that were much better than the rest of the other Cozy Mystery books you read during December. Of course, if you read only one or two Cozy Mysteries this month, and liked both of them a lot, then please tell us about them.
I’m going to start by saying I’m currently in the middle of an Inspector Wexford mystery by Ruth Rendell. I know he’s an inspector, so he doesn’t qualify for the amateur sleuth category, but I think of these mysteries as more Cozy à la Agatha Christie style than police procedural. Rather than write the reason for my recommendation, I will refer you to two entries I wrote about why I like Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford mysteries so much:
Ruth Rendell: From Doon with Death, Reginald Wexford, Revisited
There’s a reason the Crime Writers’ Association (British) added two of Ruth Rendell’s books to their Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time and the Mystery Writers of America added one of her mysteries to their Top 100 Crime Novels of All Time list!
[As usual, I ask that you don’t tell us about the mystery books you read that you didn’t like.]
What terrific Cozy Mystery book(s) did you read during December 2014 that you think the rest of us would definitely enjoy reading, and why did you enjoy it (them)?
Here are the current recommended books who some of you have read and recommended this past month:
Victoria Abbott (Mary Jane Maffini & Victoria Maffini): Book Collector Mystery Series
Isabella Alan (aka Amanda Flower): Amish Quilt Shop Mystery Series
Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity Mystery Series
Donald Bain: Capital Crimes Mystery Series
Juliet Blackwell (aka Hailey Lind): Haunted Home Renovation Mystery Series
Rhys Bowen: Royal Spyness Mystery Series
Simon Brett: Fethering Mystery Series
Duffy Brown: Cycle Path Mystery Series
Rita Mae Brown: Mrs. Murphy Mystery Series
Molly Cox Bryan: Cumberland Creek Mystery Series
Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib): Key West Food Critic Mystery Series
Lynn Cahoon: Tourist Trap Mystery Series
V.C. Clinton-Baddeley: No Case for the Police
Shelley Costa: Miracolo Mystery Series
Cleo Coyle (aka Alice Kimberly): Coffeehouse Mystery Series
Kathi Daley: Zoe Donovan Mystery Series
Evelyn David: Ghosts of Lottawatah Mystery Series
Krista Davis: Domestic Diva Mystery Series
Cyril Hare: An English Murder (Stand Alone)
Sherry Harris: Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery Series (Tagged for Death – book #1)
Carolyn Hart: Bailey Ruth Ghost Mystery Series
Betty Hechtman: Crochet Mystery Series
Lee Hollis: Hayley Powell Food & Cocktail Mystery Series
Maria Hudgins: Lacy Glass Archaeology Mystery Series
Julie Hyzy: White House Chef Mystery Series
Miranda James (aka Honor Hartman, Jimmie Ruth Evans, & Dean James): Southern Ladies Mystery Series
Miranda James (aka Honor Hartman, Jimmie Ruth Evans, & Dean James): Cats in the Stacks Mystery Series
Diane Kelly: Tara Holloway Death and Taxes Mystery Series
Sofie Kelly (aka Sofie Ryan): Magical Cats Mystery Series
Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Retired Witches Mystery Series
Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Pet Psychic Mystery Series
Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Renaissance Faire Mystery Series
T.C. LoTempio: Nick and Nora Mystery Series (Meow If It’s Murder – book #1)
Charlotte MacLeod (aka Alisa Craig): Peter Shandy Mystery Series
Susan Elia MacNeal: Maggie Hope Mystery Series
Rose Pressey: A Haunted Vintage Mystery (If You’ve Got It, Haunt It – book #1)
Ann Purser: Lois Meade Mystery Series
Spencer Quinn (aka Peter Abrahams): Chet and Bernie Mystery Series
Hannah Reed (aka Deb Baker): Scottish Highlands Mystery Series
Ruth Rendell: Inspector Wexford Mystery Series
Ruth Rendell: The Girl Next Door
Connie Shelton: Samantha Sweet Mystery Series
[If you click on the author’s name (blue) link, it will take you to his/her page on the Cozy Mystery site. The pages have all of the authors’ books listed chronologically.]
♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦
P.S. While I try to respond to all of the comments that are made on the Cozy Mystery blog, I generally don’t respond to the comments on these monthly recommendation entries.
I can hardly believe it is almost December! I don’t know whether this is because the year seems to have gone by so fast, or if it’s because I just remembered to take the recycling out a half hour ago, and I didn’t even need to wear a sweater over my elbow-length-sleeves shirt while running the bin down to the curb. It just doesn’t seem like we should be so close to 2015!
Halloween is less than a week away, which means we will soon be saying goodbye to October. Having said that, I can think of no better time for me to ask you all to tell us about your favorite Cozy Mystery books that you read this October. (Isn’t this 
As it is the end of September, how about if we do our Mystery Book Recommendations list for this month?