There are a lot of good Cozy mystery series out there, many of them new even to me despite running this website. Still, sometimes, instead of trying out something new, I have the urge to go back to a series that I have particularly fond memories of, both to see how it holds up today and to have an opportunity to present it to an audience that may not be as familiar with it. Today I’ll be revisiting an old favorite, a mystery series that started in the 1990s, making it something of a “blast from the past” now, almost thirty years later – which certainly makes me feel old, as I believe I was reading most of these as they came out originally! Specifically, the book I’ll be discussing is The Good Friday Murder, the first entry in Lee Harris’s Christine Bennett Holiday Mystery Series.

As in so many other modern Cozies, Christine Bennett is in the middle of a change of lifestyle, but not from the now-normalized transition from “big city professional” to “small town hobby-shop owner”. Instead, Christine has recently left convent life, having spent the last fifteen years of her life as a nun at St. Stephen’s. Though she had planned to leave the convent for a year, when the book begins she has only recently moved to Oakwood, New York, where her recently deceased Aunt Meg left her a house.

One of the reasons she is determined to stay in Oakwood is that her cousin Gene, a mentally disabled man living in the nearby community of Greenwillow. Greenwillow wants to move to Oakwood, but the Oakwood city council objects on a number of reasons – the largest of which is that, forty years ago, another resident of the community was accused of the murder of his mother. Christine doesn’t believe that the murder was committed by the resident, and agrees to try to change the council’s mind – even if that means investigating a murder now over forty years old.

As you can probably tell from the above description, this particular brand of Cozy is a bit less “kooky” and “zany” than many of its modern equivalents. There’s a far more restrained atmosphere to Oakwood than most modern Cozy neighborhoods – the residents are mostly sympathetic, but hardly as “colorful” as is often the case nowadays.

All told, I’d recommend this book as both a “blast from the past” and an “oldie but goodie”. It’s definitely not quite in the same mold as modern Cozies, but if you’re looking for something with a bit of a more serious angle to it, this is definitely a great series to pick up.

One thing I’ll warn readers is that some of the terminology in the book is quite dated. Now the term “retarded” is generally intended as a juvenile insult, but it was considered an accurate medical term both at the time that the novel was written and in the era that the murder took place, so please keep that in mind when reading.

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Sometimes I come across a Cozy that is especially satisfying. Possibly because of the year that we just had, or maybe for other reasons that are mostly mysterious to me, I was looking to read a Cozy this month that has an especially strong  sense of a small community of friends who I could fantasize that I was a part of. Sally Goldenbaum’s Death by Cashmere, the first book in her Seaside Mystery series, was just the right book for me – and I recently re-read it so that this series could be the next in my Most Popular and Recommended series of blog posts.

Death by Cashmere is set in the small fictional town of Sea Harbor, Massachusetts. And, as the name of the series suggests, one of the main characters in the series, Izzie Chambers, is the owner of a shop that sells knitting supplies and teaches knitting classes. Izzie opened her shop after returning to the town she grew up in and after having left a big-time job as an attorney.

Izzie, her aunt Nell, and their friends Cass and Birdie form the Thursday-night knitting group. This close group of friends gets together at Izzie’s shop for a pot-luck dinner and some knitting every Thursday evening after Izzie closes the store. (This is a group I’d enjoy being in!)

Pretty soon there is a murder in Sea Harbor, and the friends become sleuths as well as knitters. One of the charms of this mystery is that the author does a much better job than average of explaining why the friends start their sleuthing career. Sometimes the sleuth in a Cozy seems to start investigation almost as soon as the police do. In this book, the group of friends seems to get involved largely because it slowly dawns on them that life in their small village will not return to normal until the case is solved. They don’t just jump into the case, instead, clues turn up naturally that they feel compelled to follow up.

I know it isn’t real, but the writing makes it seem as though it could be, and I was drawn to the knitters. A fantasy group set in a fantasy setting — but I felt it was real and want to join. And, the food — with a lot of seafood being featured — on top of the friendship and the knitting  — makes me want to drop everything and head to Sea Harbor!

The author, Sally Goldenbaum, has an interesting background which includes having worked for the PBS station that hosted Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, spending a short time as a nun, and teaching creative writing. Her website is a model that I wish all authors would try to copy. Instead of a jumbled and disorganized Facebook page, her site provides a lot of useful information and a comprehensive bio — brava Sally Goldenbaum! Check out her site here at Sally Goldenbaum.com.

P.S. I forgot to tell you that instructions for a knitting project are included.

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