Lately I’ve been going through some of the most recommended Cozy Mystery series as suggested by visitors to the site, and most of the time they are authors I’ve already read. But sometimes great authors do “slip through the cracks” >>> there are only so many hours in the day after all!

So this month, the first book I’ll be highlighting is one that I actually haven’t read before, but now I can see why this series is so doggone popular! As you probably already could tell by the title of the blog post, I’m talking about the first entry in E.J. Copperman‘s very successful Haunted Guesthouse Mystery Series, Night of the Living Deed.

As you can likely tell from the title of the series, this is a “paranormal” Cozy Mystery Series, specifically a ghost paranormal. Some of you may know that I have somewhat mixed feelings about paranormal themed Cozies. At their worst, they can feel like “cheats” – if the sleuth just psychically “knows” who the killer is, why is solving the crime impressive? And how exactly do you expect to convict a criminal on the expert testimony of “my magic cat told me he did it”? (Yikes! I actually enjoy reading several paranormal Cozies that feature magical cats!)

Fortunately, these sort of shortcuts aren’t present in this particular Cozy. The ghosts in this entry are bound to follow rules – in this case, the most important is that they aren’t able to leave the location in which they died. So in the years since their unfortunate demise (by poison, so they never saw the killer directly), they’ve been frustrated and unable to follow the clues that might lead to the reason they were killed.

Well, you might ask: In that case, what use is it to even have a ghost? Fortunately one of the deceased individuals who is haunting is a private detective, so while he isn’t able to directly influence the world outside the house or personally gather evidence, he’s able to help guide the star of the Cozy, Alison Kerby (divorced single mom and guest house owner).

As a result, there’s a good mixture of why the crime needs to be solved (these ghosts just won’t leave Alison alone otherwise!) and expertise that many beginning Cozy sleuths might lack (fortunately one of them actually knows a bit about investigating crime). Of course, stakes are raised significantly when Alison begins getting threatening messages, and the local police don’t necessarily seem too invested in quickly solving the crime – but isn’t that always the case in the surprisingly dangerous world of small town Cozy settings?

All told, I found E.J. Copperman’s Night of the Living Deed a very enjoyable read. I hope that people keep recommending it for years to come >>> by then I may be all caught up with this very good series!

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

P.S. E.J. Copperman also writes the Asperger’s Mystery Series and the Mysterious Detective Mystery Series. As Jeffrey Cohen he writes both the Double Feature Mystery Series and the Aaron Tucker Mystery Series.

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.