The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Anne George’s Southern Sisters Mystery Series

Murder on a Girls' Night Out: A Southern Sisters Mystery (Southern Sisters Mysteries Book 1) Among the often recommended mystery series on the Cozy Mystery blog’s monthly recommendations, is the delightful “Southern Sister” series by Anne George. This series features the very amusing sisters – Patricia Anne (“Mouse”) and Mary Alice (“Sister”). The eight books in this series follow the adventures of some of our favorite sleuths, Mouse and Sister.

Mouse and Sister are quite different in appearance and personality. In the first book, we meet Mouse who is 60 years old and a retired school teacher. Sister is her elder by five years. Sister is the opposite of Mouse in most ways. Sister is quite large and Mouse is very skinny. Mouse has been married to one man for nearly 40 years while Sister has been widowed three times >>> and all of her husbands were rich, as in rich! Sister is the type of woman who dresses and acts flamboyantly. When she enters a room she gets attention. Mouse is a more quiet woman, but much of the humor in the books is due to Mouse’s sharp tongue and quick wit. Despite their differences, the sisters obviously love each other very much.

At the beginning of the first book in the series, Murder on a Girls’ Night Out, Sister has just bought a dance hall >>> the “Scoot & Boot” where she and her current boyfriend have been line dancing once a week. When Sister takes Mouse to see the place, they discover a body and the mystery begins.

The books are set in and around Birmingham, Alabama which is not exactly a small town, but the sisters and their families provide a Cozy atmosphere. Each has several children, with the travails of their unmarried daughters featuring prominently.

This series is a fun read. The only thing wrong with the series is that there are only eight books, released from 1996 through 2001. Unfortunately, Anne George passed away before she could give us more Mouse and Sister sleuthing adventures.

I can say without hesitation that Anne George is one of my favorite authors. If you are looking for a Cozy full of lots of fun and a great funny-but-warm relationship between the main characters, I highly recommend you try this series. I like this series so much that way back in 2007 I featured it in another post! And, this series is so popular that a few years ago we created an entry “Authors Similar to Anne George” which has a number of good recommendations. However, Anne George, was truly one of a kind.

P.S. If you’re interested in other entries about some highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can see them on the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

Donna Andrews: Meg Langslow Mystery Series

Murder With Peacocks (Meg Langslow Mysteries Book 1) I’ve been trying to go back and revisit some of the most popular Cozy (and sometimes semi-Cozy) mystery series. Some of the previous posts on these sort of topics were my post on Spencer Quinn’s Chet & Bernie Mystery Series and Laura Childs’s Tea Shop Mystery Series. The most recent classic Cozy Series I’ve revisited is Donna Andrews‘ hit series, the Meg Langslow Mystery Series, specifically the first book in the series, Murder with Peacocks.

In Murder with Peacocks, we are introduced to Meg Langslow, a blacksmith by trade, who earns her living by creating metal sculptures. Meg is definitely a bit of an odd one out in her family >>> everyone else in her family runs the gamut from absentminded to eccentric, while Meg herself definitely seems the “sensible and reliable” sort. She’s also a very different body type from the rest of her family, not only large for a woman but also in decent shape due to the physical demands of her work.

Perhaps this is why Meg ends up planning not one but three weddings for her close family and friends. It should give you what sort of demands they present when I mention that one of these weddings intends to include the title peacocks. This does give us an idea of how demanding Meg’s family can be >>> Meg (unfortunately!) seems very pliable to end up managing three weddings in quick succession, all at the same time. But let’s face it, almost every family has one member who is always there to pick up the slack when the others don’t want to do something. And in this case, Meg doesn’t even seem to get much help from the actual brides!

As in most Cozies, someone dies. In this case a talkative newcomer to the small Virginia town who seems to already know all the secrets of the town and seems equally intent on sharing them around a bit. 

I have to admit that normally I’m a bit hesitant when I hear that the characters in a book are zany, wacky, or kooky. When overplayed, eccentric characters can often become annoying. Fortunately Donna Andrews is a deft hand when doling out the oddball characters, and none of them really pass the barrier between interesting and annoying. Some of you may be a little irritated that the mystery itself often takes a back seat to the wedding subplots. However, Meg Langslow’s Murder with Peacocks is an interesting start to one of the very popular modern classic Cozy Mystery series.

P.S. If want to read some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can see them on the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen Mystery Series

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen series Book 1) The Hannah Swensen Mystery Series (sometimes called the Cookie Jar Mystery Series) by Joanne Fluke is another of the most recommended series by Cozy Mystery site readers on the monthly Cozy recommendation lists. The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (published in 2000), is the first in what now extends to more than 20 mystery novels and novellas.

These mysteries are so popular with Cozy readers for good reasons, which is why the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel chose to feature Hannah in their rotating series of mystery movies. Hannah is a classic Cozy Mystery character. Hannah is an (almost) thirty-ish woman who moved back to her hometown, Lake Eden, after her father who had owned the town’s hardware store passed away. Hannah came back to Lake Eden at the request of her younger and more glamorous sister, Andrea, who along with her even younger sister Michelle, could not cope with their mother who was a “basket case” when their father died. Moving back to town was okay with Hannah since she was tired of pursuing her PhD in English (maybe because of at least one failed romance!).

Lake Eden is a small town in Minnesota which borders on Eden Lake. The distinction between Lake Eden and Eden Lake confuses visitors to the town, and there are a lot of visitors because the lake is a vacation draw in the summer. The town swells in the summer months to nearly four times its normal population of 3000.

All of the elements of a great modern Cozy series are here. After Hannah moved back to town, she opened a bakery/coffee shop at the suggestion of her sister, Andrea. Andrea is conveniently married to a police officer (hopefully soon to be a detective), Bill. With her frizzy red hair, ultra casual dressing style, and 20 pounds or so to lose, Hannah considers herself frumpy and unsophisticated next to her glamorous sister (who sells real estate); and yet, the eligible men in Lake Eden seem to circle around Hannah like bees around flowers.  To Hannah’s annoyance, her mother frequently interferes in Hannah’s life. Her mother is especially concerned with what her mother considers Hannah’s lack of a love life. And, Hannah has a half-blind 25 pound tomcat, Moishe, who features prominently in her home life.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder is a fun read. Hannah gets involved in solving the murder mystery because she discovers the body (who was eating one of her chocolate chip cookies when he died) and to help her brother-in-law, Bill, who is trying to make detective. Between her coffee shop, the Cookie Jar, and her catering refreshments to every club, group or meeting in Lake Eden, Hannah has ample opportunity to gather information by talking to what seems like nearly everyone in Lake Eden.

The mystery is the type I especially enjoy because it is fair to the reader; all the clues are given to the reader who has an equal chance with Hannah to solve the case. The main characters are interesting and the setting has the charm of a small town. Finally, the icing on the cake (yes, pun intended!) are the many detailed recipes (cookies and candy in the first book) scattered around the books.

The Kindle edition currently includes a Christmas novella, Candy for Christmas, which is a cute little Cozy Mystery that does not include a murder. I guess the novella is really the icing on the icing!

I know we have lots of other Hannah Swensen readers, so if you’d like to add something to this entry, please post a comment. (Please try not to give away too many things from future Hannah Swensen books >>> since some people will be starting the series.) Thanks!

P.S. If you’re interested in other entries about some highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can see them on the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

Carola Dunn’s Daisy Dalrymple Mystery Series

Death At Wentwater Court: The First Daisy Dalrymple Mystery (Daisy Dalrymple Mysteries Book 1) I know it’s been a while since I last did one of these, but I thought I’d take the time to discuss another of the most recommended Cozy Mystery series that people really love >>> and for good reason! (I’m amongst the people who love it.)

This time I’ll be discussing a delightful period piece mystery series set in England during the 1920s, the Daisy Dalrymple Mystery Series by Carola Dunn. Daisy Dalrymple is a young upper-class woman who could be living in her family’s estate supported by relatives. Instead she works for a living, as a journalist >>> at least partially because she doesn’t want to be taking money from said relatives.

Still, she isn’t too proud to trade on her family name to help ensure at least a moderate amount of success >>> as she does in the first book in the series, Death at Wentwater Court, where she uses her family name to arrange an opportunity to begin a series of articles on country manor houses, beginning with a Christmas visit to Wentwater.

Of course, she isn’t the only guest for the holidays – the thoroughly unpleasant Lord Stephen Astwick also makes a surprise visit, half-invited by one of the sons of the household. As with any unlikable guest in a Cozy Mystery, it quickly develops that almost everyone in the house has a reason to dislike Lord Astwick >>> so it’s no surprise when he turns up dead in a tragic early morning skating accident. Of course, not all is as it seems, and when young Chief Inspector Alec Fletching turns up, Daisy is quick to point out that this just might not have been an accident at all.

One thing I particularly like about this series (beyond the setting – I’m partial to British Cozies, regardless of their time period) is that the relationship doesn’t seem particularly forced between Daisy and Alec. Death at Wentwater Court in particular does a fairly good job of working Daisy and Alec into a somewhat believable relationship, where Daisy’s involvement in the case seems to develop almost organically, without her necessarily pushing forward. Instead, pressed by a lack of manpower due to the holiday season and presented with a fellow “outsider” who seems reliable, the pair are forced to work together in a relatively natural fashion.

Since Carola Dunn’s Daisy Dalrymple Mystery Series is one of the most recommended Cozies in our monthly recommendations, I know there are lots of other Daisy Dalrymple-readers. If you’d like to add something to this entry, please post a comment. (I know it’s difficult to not add spoilers, but since some people will be starting the series, please try to not give away any of the future books’ action.) Thanks!

P.S. If you’re interested in other entries about some highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can see them on the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

MENU