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Senior Sleuths Theme Mysteries : A – F

Senior Sleuths… hmm… Just how old does a senior sleuth have to be? Does that mean that the sleuth has to be ten years my senior, or my mother’s senior? As someone who not yet qualifies for the House of Pancakes’ senior discount, but who has a lot of friends who do, I can’t quite decide what the age should be. So, I am just going to leave it to the cozy mystery site readers to decide if the following series qualify as senior sleuths or not. It’s all in the eye of the beholder…

Peter E. Abresch: James P. Dandy Elderhostel Mystery Series

Margot Arnold:  Penny Spring & Sir Toby Glendower Series

Marian Babson:  Trixie Dolan & Evangeline Sinclair Series

Donald Bain:  Jessica Fletcher Series

Deb Baker:  Yooper Mystery Series

M. C. Beaton:  Agatha Raisin Series

Mike Befeler:  Paul Jacobson Geezer-Lit Mystery Series

Nancy Bell:  Biggie Weatherford Series

Mary A. Berger: Mattie Mitchell Mystery Series

D. B. Borton:  Cat Caliban Series

Allen B. Boyer: Bess Bullock Retirement Home Mystery Series

Simon Brett:  Fethering Mystery Series & Melita Pargeter Series

Emily Brightwell:  Mrs. Jeffries Series

Rita Mae Brown:  Sister Jane Arnold Mystery Series

Dorothy Cannell:  Ellie Haskell Series (Hyacinth &  Primrose)

Heron Carvic:  Miss Emily D. Seeton Series

Hampton Charles:  Miss Emily D. Seeton Series

Nora Charles:  Kate Kennedy Mystery Series

Agatha Christie:  Miss Marple Series

Joyce Christmas:  Betty Trenka Mystery Series

Ann Cleeves:  George and Molly Palmer-Jones Series

Barbara Colley: Charlotte LaRue Msytery Series

B. Comfort:  Tish McWhinny Series

Lesley Cookman: Libby Sarjeant Mystery Series

Alisa Craig: Grub-and-Stakers Series

Elizabeth Spann Craig (aka Riley Adams): Myrtle Clover Mystery Series

Hamilton Crane:  Miss Emily D. Seeton Series

Jeanne M. Dams:  Dorothy Martin Mystery Series

Shirley Damsgaard:  Ophelia & Abby Mystery Series

Jana DeLeon:  Miss Fortune Mystery Series

Nora DeLoach:  Mama Detective Agency Series

Hildegarde Dolson:  Ramsdale & McDougal Series

William Doonan:  Henry Graves Mystery Series

Carola Dunn: Cornish Mystery Series

K.J. Emrick: Cookie and Cream Mystery Series

Monica Ferris:  Needlecraft Mystery Series

Christopher Fowler: Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery Series

Shelley Freydont:  Lindy Haggerty Series

Senior Sleuths by Authors beginning with G – P

Senior Sleuth by Authors beginning with Q – W

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦

Also, if you would like me to add another author or series to this list…. Please send me a comment by clicking under the faint gray line.

Comments

    • I’m writing after Bonnie to suggest that middle-aged to senior could be relative, as another reader says. In her short series of mysteries, Dorothy Bower gets around the age thing by saying that “The youngest chief inspector at Scotland Yard, he (Dan Pardoe) was a tall, lithe man of eas carriage and unpretentious good looks whose prematurely white hair belied his forty years.” Of course, forty is no way near senior, but the white hair –, hm. I tend to like the middle-aged suggestion. Do you? In this category I like inspector Purbright in Colin Watson’s Flaxborough Chronicles, although we’re not sure how middle his age is approaching, as Watson says, “His smooth, glowingly healthy face looked about eleven years old. It had set like that, in point of fact, twenty-three years before, when he really was eleven.” Does my math make sense, that Purbright is in fact thirty-three? Again, no way near “senior,” nor even “middle-aged” in some corners!

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  4. Please add Christopher Fowler with his Bryant and May of the Peculiar Crimes Unit. He may not be “cozy” but these books are a great read- a lot of character, great story lines and a lot of interesting info about things British!

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  5. What a find! Your website, that is. Names of authors, names of books- whee! It’s as good if not better than browsing through a bookstore or a library. Thanks much!

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  8. Rita Lakin – main character is a 75 yr old retired librarian. She and her friends (also seniors) help solve the problems/crimes of other seniors. First in series is – Getting old is murder. Book has humor and romance.

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  10. Carola Dunn’s two-book series, Cornish Mysteries, features Eleanor Trewynn. I really enjoy the characters in this short series and hope it continues. The first two books are Manna From Hades (2009) and A Colourful Death (2010).

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    • Thank you, Jean. I have just added Carola Dunn’s Cornish Mystery Series to this Senior Sleuths list.

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    • Kay, this is weird… I just checked, and the last one in the series (Death Rides the Surf) is the only one available in Kindle format. I wonder why they wouldn’t have started with the first in the series…

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      • That is one of the problems that I had when I first started buying ebooks – I like to read series in order and frequently the older titles in a series are not available as ebooks. My understanding is it comes down to a question of who owns the ebook publication rights of backlist titles. For the newer books, it will be spelled out in the initial contract – but it was never thought of in the older contracts.

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        • Judith, this is exactly what happens over at audible.com. Eventually, though, they sort of flesh-out their inventory to include the earlier mystery books…

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  12. Hello.
    Lesley Cookman’s sleuth, Libby Sarjeant, qualifies as a senior sleuth. She’s retired and around sixty.
    XXX Valerie

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  13. Elizabeth Spann Craig – she writes the Myrtle Clover mystery series. She’s 80 or so, and it takes place in a small town in the South.

    I’m getting back into mysteries again (my first love when I was a teenager), and I’m gravitating towards cozies.

    Thanks for this website! Now I can indulge a little bit. 🙂

    Reply

    • Thank you, Nancy, for reminding about adding Elizabeth Spann Craig’s Myrtle Clover Mystery Series to the Senior Sleuths theme list. I try to add them as the authors start the series, but I don’t always remember to do it. Thanks, again…

      (Welcome back to the wonderful world of mystery reading – especially the Cozy Mystery genre!)

      Reply

  14. Thanks for the ‘Senior Sleuth’ author list.. I have stumbled onto gold I think.. (BTW: The Peter Abresch link is broken..)

    I am looking for mystery series for my 86 year old mom.. she loved the Rita Lakin ‘Getting Old’ series.. She reads faster than I can keep up with finding her interesting reads..

    Suggestions of similar reads would be greatly appreciated..

    Reply

    • David, I hope you find a Senior Sleuth who your mom enjoys reading.

      And, thank you for telling me about that link. I know exactly when I must have broken it: I added an “E” to his name when I noticed that all of his mysteries are written as Peter E. Abresch.

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  16. OH my — I never knew this “category” existed! — But you know Agatha Raisin is gonna send a hit man after you if she ever finds out that you consider her a “senior” sleuth!!!! 😉

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    • Stash, some time, when you have some time, you ought to take a look at the Cozy Mysteries by Themes page on the Cozy Mystery site. We have compiled lots of themes over these past nine years! (Make sure to take your time while looking through the Miscellaneous themes at the bottom of the page. I wasn’t sure where to place these themes, but there are some pretty good ones in that list.

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  18. I am so delighted to find you!!! I read voraciously and I have run out of ideas for authors. Thank you.

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  19. I get around the specific “age” thing in my Mattie Mitchell Humor Mysteries by referring to my M.C. as mid-lifer, or fifty-something. That way no one can make snide remarks about what Mattie does “at that age.”

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  20. You’re welcome, Danna. Hope you might add my series to your senior sleuths listings. I’ve written three and working on two more.
    Thank you!

    Reply

  23. My new Favorite Senior Sleuths: Garden Girls Cozy Mysteries by Hope Callaghan. Reminded me of smiles watching The Golden Girls.

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  24. What about Laurien Berenson’s new Peg and Rose series? The first book, which got released last year, is Peg And Rose solve a murder.

    Reply

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