So it’s on with my winter/Christmas theme reading…
I enjoyed Marian Babson’s Twelve Deaths of Christmas so much, that I am now embarking on Marian Babson‘s Murder on a Mystery Tour. I should point out that Murder on a Mystery Tour is not a Christmas mystery book, but it is a winter theme book, which is helping to get me in more of an end-of-December mood. (We’re back to 70* days again…)
I have to admit that Marian Babson is an author who I tried reading years ago, and when I finished that particular book, I just couldn’t decide whether to continue reading her books, or not. Every once in a while, I read an author who I am just not that sure about, so I put him/her on the back burner for a while (in this case, a long while!) and try reading them again. Most of the time, when I try the author again, I still don’t like him/her. But, every once in a while my perseverance pays off.
I am delighted I REtried Marian Babson. I’m glad I kept her mystery books. She is now on my list of favorite authors!
susie says
It’s always so great to try an author again, and discover someone great. A LONG time ago, when I was a kid, I tried Dorothy Sayers, but I couldn’t get into the characters. But then when I was in my early 20s, I tried one again out of sheer boredom (at home on a visit) and I loved it, and then read all of her books. I haven’t read Marian Babson yet.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Exactly, Susie >>> I know the mood I am in when I read an author has got to affect how much I am going to enjoy him/her.
Patricia Bremmer says
I’m intrigued. I’ll have to find a Marian Babson mystery and give it a try. December is such a crazy month. The cold weather takes away my energy, but yet there are so many tasks to perform. In the past I would prepare two weeks worth of meals and pop them into the freezer. I would declare a two-week holiday for myself from being a wife and mother and curl up with a couple good books to read uninterrupted. I wish I could return to that, but my life just keeps getting busier and busier….so maybe I’ll find one of her books and read it while I’m on my treadmill. Maybe I’ll forget I’m exercising and can be whisked away if only in thought for two weeks. Thanks for sharing a new author’s name.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Patricia, two weeks of homemade meals in the freezer sounds great to me! Both my son and daughter (as well as my husband) will be “depending” on me for some great holiday fare >>> We just discovered Papa Murphy’s pizza, so at least I have one night taken care of!
Monday will be a large haul at the grocery store for me!
linda says
Danna & gang, Maybe just reading, say 25 pages a day or something might help with hard to read authors. Or, maybe try reading hard to read authors while reading a favorite author. I go along the aisles of the library and I see that certain authors have quite a few books on the shelves I think somebody has enjoyed these writers for some reason or there wouldn’t be so many published. So I do try some of their books. Sometimes this will work for me but then sometimes I wonder how these writers get so many books published when other more interesting authors can’t seem to find a publisher.. Beats me.
I think some publishers must go by previous sales only. I sometimes wonder maybe if some publishers even bother to read some of the books they publish!!??
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Linda, years ago, that is exactly how I discovered Charlotte MacLeod. We used to go to the library every three weeks, and I would spend a lot of time going through the mystery book aisles searching through books. Of course, that was before the computer, when I had to actually go through each book to see when they were first published in order to see which book I should read next.
Judith says
I love Marian Babson – particularly her Trixie and Evangeline books and Perkins and Tate books. A fun New Year’s read is Queue Up for Murder (or Line Up for Murder) as the action takes place while waiting on line for the New Year’s Day sale at a major department store.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Judith, I am so pleased you told us about Queue Up for Murder (aka Line Up for Murder) >>> My copy is in the mail!
Chris Donner says
I will have to try Marian Babson. She doesn’t have a lot available on Kindle, though. I have turned into a digital snob. No more piles of books everywhere.
I am having fun re-discovering cozy mysteries. I used to live off of them… I collected Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh. But then I contracted a severe case of adult-itis and switched to business books, history all the serious stuff. Thank God I’m finally over that! I’m amazed at how many new writers there are out there after my twenty year hiatus. This is a great site. I’m glad I found it.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Chris, I must warn you about Marian Babson’s Murder on a Mystery Tour . It can get a little confusing at times. The setting is a hotel, in which the tourists are enacting a mystery “play”… So, you read about the characters in their real personas and also, you read about the characters taking on the identities of the characters in the play. I finally folded a corner of the page that lists the play’s characters, so I could refer to it whenever I wondered who the book was talking about!
Julia says
You have just named two of my all-time favorite books – I reread The Twelve Deaths of Christmas every December, and I special-ordered a hardcover copy of Murder on a Mystery Tour because I misplaced my paperback version and couldn’t bear the idea of not having a copy. I have (I think) all the standalone Marian Babson’s published in the states, but I admit I don’t really care for her cat-centered ones. Another good one of hers is Guilty Party, where a young artist moves into a small English village and becomes involved in investigating a murder that most of the villagers swear never happened.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Thank you, Julia, for mentioning Marian Babson’s Guilty Party. It sounds like the perfect mystery book to me, and my copy is already making its way to me. I love small English villages with secrets!
Since I am just beginning to enjoy Babson’s mysteries >>> Are her (as you say) “cat-centered”) mysteries all of the books with the words “Cat/Cats,” “Whiskers,” “Paws,” “Kitties,” and “Nine Lives,” in the titles?