The first book I’m going to be covering this month for the monthly most popular & recommended mystery series is Leslie Meier‘s Lucy Stone Mystery Series. The first book in this series is Mistletoe Murder – a Christmas themed mystery, which is no surprise since the Lucy Stone Mystery Series is a holiday themed series, with each entry revolving around a different holiday. This series began in 1991, and I’ve been reading it for almost that long! It is Leslie Meier’s only series >>> which means she can devote all of her writing time to keeping her fans (like me!) happily reading.

With the holidays approaching, Lucy Stone is about as busy as you can expect for a mother of three children (son Toby and daughters Elizabeth and Sara), though her husband Bill picks up some of the slack. She works nights at the Country Cousins mail order phone support line. When she discovers the body of Sam Miller, owner of the company, dead in his car with a hose running from his exhaust pipe into a window, she thinks it’s suicide>>> but in a small community like Tinker’s Cove, Maine, it doesn’t take long for word to get out that Sam Miller was murdered.

One of the things I liked about this entry in the series is how the murder investigation needed to bend around Lucy’s schedule, instead of Lucy just deciding to drop everything to pursue something that isn’t really her job. Lucy Stone is a wife with three children and visiting relatives, and at the same time is casually investigating the owner of the company she works at. It’s only natural that something is going to have to give – and during the more thoroughly “holiday” part of the book, she’s definitely in full on “mom mode”, and investigating a murder just has to fade into the background to the practical details of shopping, hosting family guests, managing meals, and child care. This is one of the reasons I enjoy the series so much >>> Lucy isn’t able to just start investigating mysteries while her family is busy doing something else. Her family seems real.

The Lucy Stone Mystery Series takes place in a quaint town in Maine (the fictional Tinker’s Cove) which provides a great Cozy atmosphere. The people are very much like people who you would know. And, as many of you who have been with me a while know, I love different yearly seasons. Tinker’s  Cove is perfect for seasonal fun. You’ll “feel” the winter cold while you enjoy the snow, and the fall has its vibrant leaves >>> things I truly miss down here in San Antonio. I very much rely on the Cozy Mysteries I read to provide the seasonal atmosphere that I miss so much down here.

Another thing I really like is that this particular mystery did keep me guessing pretty far into the book. A lot of the time, I’m able to make a pretty educated guess as to “whodunit”, but in this case I actually wasn’t sure. At the same time, when the mystery did resolve, it was obvious in hindsight >>> the clues were all there. To me that’s one of the hallmarks of a really really good mystery.

There are some elements that some Cozy readers may not like. For example, the death of a family pet is a plot point in the novel in an unpleasant fashion, and this is definitely something that I would be surprised to see in a lot of the Cozies released today.

As I said earlier, this series started years ago and I’ve been a fan for many of those years. I definitely recommend this series. This specific book is (in my opinion) the beginning to a “modern classic” Cozy Mystery series. It’s a Cozy Mystery series that should be read chronologically, so you can grow with Lucy and her family and friends.

As always, if you’re interested in seeing more highlights of some of the most recommended or popular Cozy Mystery authors/series, visit the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

The next series I’m going to cover from the monthly most recommended mystery series is Lea Wait’s Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series. Twisted Threads is the first book in this very popular series. Lea Wait writes both the Mainely Needlepoint Series and the Shadows Antique Print Mystery Series. (This link lists all the books from these two series.)

As you might guess from the series title, Twisted Threads, is set in a small fictional town on the coast of Maine, Haven Harbor. The story begins when Angie Curtis, a private investigator working in Arizona, receives a call from her grandmother telling her it is time to come home because her mother has been found. Angie’s mother disappeared almost 20 years earlier when Angie was almost ten. Now her body has been found and Angie returns to town after a ten-year (or so) absence.

Of course, Angie’s mother had been murdered. So Angie, trained as a private investigator, naturally wants to help solve the mystery of how her mom came to be killed.

While Angie was away, her grandmother’s needlepointing has turned into a sort of co-op business with Charlotte (her grandmother) arranging for custom work for Haven Harbor’s handful of needlepointers. Things had been going well with the Mainely Needlepoint group until a man convinced Charlotte to let him represent the group by gathering orders all around New England and collecting the earnings for them. This arrangement worked fine until the man stopped bringing the money around to Charlotte to distribute to the group.

So, Angie volunteers to find the man and see what she could do to retrieve what the group was owed. And, not long into the story, another murder occurs, giving Angie’s private investigator training a real workout!

Twisted Threads is a typical modern Cozy with a few somewhat unusual elements. Not too many Cozy Mystery sleuths carry a gun, for example. Angie is a bit on the harder side of Cozy sleuths with the suggestion that she has lived a relatively wild life (for a Cozy sleuth!) both before and after she left Haven Harbor. The town is full of interesting characters including a minister who has a large Ouija board collection which he uses on occasion. (Some readers may be bothered by the minister using a Ouija board.)

Another warning is in order. The book includes some references to pedophilia that happened years ago in the town. I know some Cozy readers do not want a Cozy to deal with such serious issues, but this one does.

Despite its more serious and hard-edged undertones, the book is a fast read and has a lot of Cozy elements. The story is set in an interesting small town on the coast of Maine. The characters are varied, and Angie’s grandmother is a three-dimensional character with some surprises of her own. And, there is hint of possible romance to come for Angie. And for many Cozy Mystery readers, the setting is particularly attractive!

P.S. If you’d like to see more highlights of some of the most recommended or popular Cozy Mystery authors/series, visit the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

Lately I’ve been going through some of the most recommended Cozy Mystery series among this site’s visitors. Some of the earlier posts on these topics covered the Kate Carlisle Bibliophile Series and the League of Literary Ladies Series by Kylie Logan. This time I’m focusing on Lorna Barrett‘s Booktown Mystery Series. As long time visitors might know, I’ve been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to interview Lorraine Bartlett (aka Lorna Barrett & L.L. Bartlett). (It was a WOW occasion in my life!)

So I finally got around to rereading Murder is Binding, the first book in Lorna Barrett’s Booktown series. This book is the introduction to Tricia Miles, owner of the Haven’t Got a Clue mystery bookstore, in the town of Stoneham, New Hampshire. Tricia is a big city former upper class woman who has moved to Stoneham following her amicable divorce >>> to start-up her dream shop, a mystery bookstore. (Something I’m sure a lot of us would love doing!)

Tricia opened her store on the main street area of small town Stoneham as part of an effort to revitalize the town’s flagging economy to help develop the town as a stop for local tour buses. She wasn’t the only one, though. There were others who follow suit and opened book-related shops as well. Unfortunately, not all the locals are pleased to have so many out of towners coming in to take over prominent real estate area >>> and this conflict is an important part of some of these early books, and part of the reason Tricia finds local law enforcement less than cooperative when she finds an unpleasant neighbor dead.

Tricia’s problems aren’t limited to dying neighbors though, as she also has to contend with her sister (Angelica) coming to town. Tricia and Angelica never got along terribly well as children, so Tricia is less than completely happy when Angelica’s stay turns out to be a more or less indefinite duration. Fortunately Angelica does turn out to give some helpful advice and help in getting to the bottom of the recent murder >>> including suggesting actually getting a lawyer, a completely reasonable step to consider when potentially faced with a serious murder charge!

Another interesting touch to this particular series is that since the protagonist is an unabashed fan of mystery novels, she also does often bring up other mystery authors that the reader might already read – or might be interested in reading afterward! And from the names that she lists, it does sound like Tricia might be a fan of Cozy Mysteries in particular…

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.