The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – February 2021

We’re just about at the end of February, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozies that we’ve read this month!

If you read a Cozy mystery this month and want to recommend it to the rest of us, be sure to post it here! For this month, I read the first entry of Ellie Alexander Bakeshop Mystery Series. For the reasons I want to recommend it, be sure to check out the blog entry!

So, what have you been reading that you can recommend in February? Please be sure to tell us why you liked these Cozies so much. I know we’re all always on the lookout for more particularly good Cozy Mystery authors! (If you have a lot of Cozies you think are great, please post the ones you like the most at the top of the list.)

As always, please do not tell us about the Cozy Mysteries you did not like.

What really good Cozy Mystery did you read during February 2021 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

Cathy Ace: WISE Inquiries Agency Mystery Series

llery Adams (aka J. B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): Secret, Book & Scone Mystery Series

Ellie Alexander (aka Kate Dyer-Seeley): Bakeshop Mystery Series

Winnie Archer (aka Melissa Bourbon & Misa Ramirez): Bread Shop Mystery Series

Emily Brightwell: Mrs. Jeffries Mystery Series

Duffy Brown: Consignment Shop Mystery Series

Leslie Budewitz: Food Lovers’ Mystery Series

Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib): Key West Food Critic Mystery Series

Lynn Cahoon: Kitchen Witch Mystery Series

Laurie Cass: Bookmobile Cat Mystery Series

Maia Chance: Fairy Tale Fatal Mystery Series

Vivien Chien: Noodle Shop Mystery Series

Laura Childs (aka Gerry Schmitt): Scrapbooking Mystery Series

Nancy Coco (aka Nancy J. Parra and Nell Hampton): Oregon Honeycomb Mystery Series

Kate Collins: Goddess of Green St. Mystery Mystery Series

Vicki Delany (aka Eva Gates): Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery Series

Carola Dunn: Daisy Dalrymple Mystery Series

Monica Ferris: Needlecraft Mystery Series

Victoria Gilbert: Book Lover’s B&B Mystery Series

Dorothy Gilman: Mrs. Pollifax Series

Margaret Loudon: Open Book Mystery Series (first entry Murder in the Margins)

Jenn McKinlay (aka Josie Belle & Lucy Lawrence): Hat Shop Mystery Series

Carlene O’Connor: Irish Village Mystery Series

Amy Stewart: Kopp Sisters Mystery Series (first entry Girl Waits With Gun)

Charles Todd: Bess Crawford Mystery Series

I will list the authors and series that have been recommended, but I urge you to read the comments below so you can see the reasons other Cozy Mystery readers thought these were their best reads of the month.

♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦

P.S. I usually don’t comment on your recommendations since they speak for themselves.

Ellie Alexander: Bakeshop Mystery Series

Meet Your Baker: A Bakeshop Mystery Today, I’ll be discussing Meet Your Baker, the first book in the series Bakeshop Mystery Series by Ellie Alexander is the next book that I have read to continue my posts about the most popular and recommended mystery series.

Juliet Montague Capshaw (who goes by “Jules”) is returning to her hometown of Ashland, Oregon, a quaint town most known for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which brings in plenty of academics and acting professionals alike as well as a slew of tourists. Coming off of a rough breakup from her husband of ten years, Jules wants to spend a bit of time recovering and deciding on a new direction for her life, as continuing her profession as a dessert baker on cruise ships feels less attractive without her partner of ten years.

While a lot has stayed the same in the years Jules has been gone from Ashland, many things have also changed. Though there is still a place for her in her family’s bake shop, Torte, and she still knows a significant number of the locals who grew up in town, she is less familiar with many of the newer faces who have arrived in the last decade, including newcomer Nancy Hudson. Nancy is the newest board member of the festival, as well as a very significant financial backer, plus is dating a local who has been working for years to buy up as much of the local businesses as possible, including Torte.

No one much likes Nancy… which, needless to say, makes it much harder to pin down just one suspect when she turns up dead in Torte, having been bludgeoned, apparently by one of Jules own jam jars. Jules feels that it’s in both her own and her family’s best interest to solve the case as quickly as possible – though it’s a nice plus that this gives her time to spend with her former highschool boyfriend, now a deputy also investigating the crime.

Ashland is a relatively grounded setting, with relatively few over-the-top or “wacky residents. The characters are still interesting, but few are as exaggerated as the genre often uses for supporting cast.

Another aspect of the book that I really appreciated was that the murder was relatively “front-and-center”, occurring in the first few chapters of the novel. A lot of modern Cozies have a tendency to sort of slowly move toward the crime, sometimes taking up to half the novel on preliminaries.

All told, I can recommend Meet Your Baker to any Cozy fan who likes relatively grounded settings, those who are interested in a murder starting up relatively quickly in the book, or anyone who has a love of detailed descriptions of scrumptious-sounding baked goods.

As a side note, Ellie Alexander has also written under the name Kate Dyer-Seeley.

If you are interested in reading some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on the site.

PS: For anyone who is a bit of a chef themselves, it’s worth noting that the book does include a number of delicious-sounding recipes at the end!

Upcoming Mysteries on Turner Classic Movies for March 2021

I don’t know if Turner Classic Movies is saluting Alfred Hitchcock this month or not, but you will see that Hitchcock’s movies are sprinkled throughout the month. And speaking of Alfred Hitchcock movies, on Monday, March 15 his 1956 The Man Who Knew Too Much will be airing. Doris Day is the female lead in this movie, and she is also the star in both of the mystery movies before and after this one airs. I usually think of Doris Day as the star of upbeat musicals. I have seen both the movie before and after The Man Who Knew Too Much, as well as several others that follow this line-up. I never thought about how diverse Day’s movies actually were. Don’t expect all of her movies this month to be “happy”!

Turner Classic Movies will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on Wednesday (March 17). What a line-up of Irish-themed movies! And if it isn’t cold enough for you where you live, then be sure to take a look at TCM’s online schedule if you’re in the need of a “brrrr-it’s-cold” movie on the 18th!

***** ***** ***** *****

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIES – March 2021

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – March 1, 2021

7:00 AM
Storm Warning (1951)
A model on vacation discovers that her sister’s husband is a murderous Ku Klux Klansman.
Dir: Stuart Heisler. Actors: Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, Ronald Reagan.
93 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – March 2, 2021

6:45 PM
Smart Blonde (1936)
An ambitious reporter forces her policeman boyfriend to let her help with a murder case.
Dir: Frank McDonald. Actors: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Wini Shaw.
59 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – March 3, 2021

6:00 AM
Quicksand (1950)
Petty theft leads a mechanic into a life of crime.
Dir: Irving Pichel. Actors: Mickey Rooney, Jeanne Cagney, Peter Lorre.
79 mins

10:00 PM
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Detective Philip Marlowe’s search for a two-timing woman leads him to blackmail and murder.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk. Actors: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley.
95 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – March 5, 2021

2:00 AM
Rope (1948)
Two wealthy young men try to commit the perfect crime by murdering a friend.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: James Stewart, Farley Granger, John Dall.
81 mins

8:00 PM
The 39 Steps (1935)
A man falsely suspected of killing a spy races across Scotland handcuffed to the beautiful blonde who turned him in.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Godfrey Tearle.
87 mins

9:45 PM
Psycho (1960)
A woman on the run gets mixed up with a repressed young man and his violent mother.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles.
109 mins

11:45 PM
North by Northwest (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason.
136 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – March 6, 2021

10:08 AM
The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a murder tied to a Long Island dog show.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Actors: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette.
73 mins

12:00 PM
The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
A meek novelist investigates the mysterious death of a notorious scoundrel.
Dir: Jean Negulesco. Actors: Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott.
96 mins

1:45 PM
Murder by Death (1976)
A criminal madman invites the world’s greatest detectives for a night of dinner and murder.
Dir: Robert Moore. Actors: Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers.
95 mins

3:30 PM
In Cold Blood (1967)
Two vagrants try to outrun the police after committing a savage crime in this real-life shocker.
Dir: Richard Brooks. Actors: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe.
135 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – March 7, 2021

12:00 AM
Killer’s Kiss (1955)
When he rescues a girl from her gangster lover, a prizefighter is marked for death.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick. Actors: Frank Silvera, Irene Kane, Jamie Smith.
67 mins

10:00 AM
Killer’s Kiss (1955)
When he rescues a girl from her gangster lover, a prizefighter is marked for death.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick. Actors: Frank Silvera, Irene Kane, Jamie Smith.
67 mins

8:00 PM
The Great Train Robbery (1979)
Three crooks plot to steal a fortune in gold from a moving train.
Dir: Michael Crichton. Actors: Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Down.
111 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday – March 11, 2021

12:45 AM
Straight Time (1978)
An ex-con struggles to go straight despite his malevolent parole officer.
Dir: Ulu Grosbard. Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Russell, Gary Busey.
114 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – March 12, 2021

8:00 PM
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet.
100 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – March 13, 2021

8:31 AM
Gambling on the High Seas (1940)
A reporter tries to nail a gambling-ship owner for murder.
Dir: George Amy. Actors: Wayne Morris, Jane Wyman, Gilbert Roland.
55 mins

10:08 AM
The Dragon Murder Case (1934)
Society sleuth Philo Vance looks into a murder near a mysterious “dragon pool.”
Dir: H. Bruce Humberstone. Actors: Warren William, Lyle Talbot, Eugene Pallette.
67 mins

8:00 PM
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
The legendary sleuth becomes involved with a mysterious French woman while investigating the Loch Ness monster.
Dir: Billy Wilder. Actors: Robert Stephens, Christopher Lee, Genevieve Page.
125 mins

10:15 PM
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Sherlock Holmes investigates the haunting of an isolated British estate by a murderous canine.
Dir: Terence Fisher. Actors: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Andre Morell.
87 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – March 14, 2021

12:00 AM
The Night Holds Terror (1955)
Escaped convicts take over a suburban home.
Dir: Andrew L. Stone. Actors: Jack Kelly, John Cassavetes, Vince Edwards.
86 mins

10:00 AM
The Night Holds Terror (1955)
Escaped convicts take over a suburban home.
Dir: Andrew L. Stone. Actors: Jack Kelly, John Cassavetes, Vince Edwards.
86 mins

11:45 AM
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
A young man about to be married discovers the two aunts who raised him have been poisoning lonely old men.
Dir: Frank Capra. Actors: Cary Grant, Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre.
118 mins

2:00 PM
My Favorite Brunette (1947)
A baby photographer mistaken for a private eye ends up framed for murder.
Dir: Elliott Nugent. Actors: Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Peter Lorre.
86 mins

5:30 PM
Marnie (1964)
A rich man marries a compulsive thief and tries to unlock the secrets of her mind.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker.
130 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – March 15, 2021

8:00 PM
Midnight Lace (1960)
A young woman can’t get anyone to believe she’s being stalked.
Dir: David Miller. Actors: Doris Day, Rex Harrison, Myrna Loy.
108 mins

10:15 PM
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
International spies kidnap a doctor’s son when he stumbles on their assassination plot.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda De Banzie.
120 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – March 16, 2021

12:30 AM
Julie (1956)
A stewardess is stalked by her psychotic estranged husband.
Dir: Andrew L. Stone. Actors: Doris Day, Louis Jourdan, Barry Sullivan.
97 mins

***** ***** ***** *****f

Thursday – March 18, 2021

12:30 AM
Odd Man Out (1947)
A wounded IRA man faces betrayal on all sides when the British put a price on his head.
Dir: Carol Reed. Actors: James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack.
116 mins

5:30 PM
Ice Station Zebra (1968)
A sub commander on a perilous mission must ferret out a Soviet agent on his ship.
Dir: John Sturges. Actors: Rock Hudson, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown.
149 mins
*****I’m not sure if this is a mystery movie or a spy-type of movie. There’s definitely a type of mystery going on in the submarine…*****

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – March 19, 2021

8:30 AM
Blondes at Work (1938)
Even a jail term for contempt can’t keep reporter Torchy Blane from investigating the case of a murdered department store owner.
Dir: Frank McDonald. Actors: Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, Carole Landis.
63 mins

9:45 AM
Torchy Blane in Panama (1938)
An ambitious newspaper woman traces bank robbers to an ocean liner.
Dir: William Clemens. Actors: Lola Lane, Paul Kelly, Tom Kennedy.
59 mins

5:15 PM
Here Comes Trouble (1948)
A newspaper publisher and his ace reporter try to solve the murder of a blackmailing stripper.
Dir: Fred Guiol. Actors: Bill Tracy, Joe Sawyer, Betty Compson.
54 mins

8:00 PM
The Houston Story (1956)
A Texas oil driller schemes to steal millions of dollars in oil.
Dir: William Castle. Actors: Gene Barry, Barbara Hale, Edward Arnold.
81 mins
*****Perry Mason’s Della Street!*****

9:30 PM
The Chase (1966)
A convict’s escape ignites passions in his hometown.
Dir: Arthur Penn. Actors: Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford.
133 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – March 20, 2021

12:00 AM
Blood Simple (1984)
A Texas bar owner hires a private eye to kill his cheating wife and her boyfriend.
Dir: Joel and Ethan Coen. Actors: John Getz, Frances McDormand, M. Emmet Walsh.
96 mins

6:00 AM
Whistling In Brooklyn (1943)
A radio sleuth infiltrates the Brooklyn Dodgers to solve a murder.
Dir: S. Sylvan Simon. Actors: Red Skelton, Ann Rutherford, “Rags” Ragland.
87 mins

10:08 AM
The Garden Murder Case (1936)
Society sleuth Philo Vance suspects dirty doings behind a mysterious series of suicides.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin. Actors: Edmund Lowe, Virginia Bruce, Nat Pendleton.
61 mins

1:30 PM
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
A one-armed veteran uncovers small-town secrets when he tries to visit an Asian-American war hero’s family.
Dir: John Sturges. Actors: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis.
81 mins

5:00 PM
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
A small-town lawyer gets the case of a lifetime when a military man avenges an attack on his wife.
Dir: Otto Preminger. Actors: James Stewart, Ben Gazzara, Lee Remick.
161 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – March 21, 2021

12:00 AM
The Third Man (1949)
A man’s investigation of a friend’s death uncovers corruption in post-World War II Vienna.
Dir: Carol Reed. Actors: Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Alida Valli.
105 mins

10:00 AM
The Third Man (1949)
A man’s investigation of a friend’s death uncovers corruption in post-World War II Vienna.
Dir: Carol Reed. Actors: Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles, Alida Valli.
105 mins

1:30 PM
Too Late for Tears (1949)
A married woman’s discovery of stolen money changes her character for the worse.
Dir: Byron Haskin Actors: Lizabeth Scott, Don Defore, Arthur Kennedy, Dan Duryea
101 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – March 22, 2021

6:30 AM
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
A young girl fears her favorite uncle may be a killer.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey.
108 mins

12:30 PM
A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
A college student tries to get rich quick by wooing two wealthy sisters.
Dir: Gerd Oswald. Actors: Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Joanne Woodward.
95 mins

2:15 PM
The Strange One (1957)
A military school student develops a destructive power over his fellow cadets.
Dir: Jack Garfein. Actors: Ben Gazzara, George Peppard, Pat Hingle.
100 mins

4:00 PM
Stop Me Before I Kill (1961)
After surviving an accident, a race car driver begins to suffer violent impulses.
Dir: Val Guest. Actors: Claude Dauphin, Diane Cilento, Ronald Lewis.
108 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – March 23, 2021

1:30 PM
Mildred Pierce (1945)
A woman turns herself into a business tycoon to win her selfish daughter a place in society.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Actors: Joan Crawford, Ann Blyth, Jack Carson.
111 mins

3:30 PM
Possessed (1947)
A married woman’s passion for a former love drives her mad.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt. Actors: Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raymond Massey.
108 mins

5:30 PM
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
A crazed, aging star torments her sister in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Dir: Robert Aldrich. Actors: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono.
134 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – March 24, 2021

2:15 AM
The Bad Seed (1956)
A woman suspects that her perfect little girl is a ruthless killer.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Actors: Nancy Kelly, Patty McCormack, Henry Jones.
129 mins

8:00 PM
The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
A meek novelist investigates the mysterious death of a notorious scoundrel.
Dir: Jean Negulesco. Actors: Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott.
96 mins

9:45 PM
The Verdict (1946)
A retired Scotland Yard chief tries to prove his friend is innocent of murder.
Dir: Don Siegel. Actors: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring.
86 mins

11:30 PM
Three Strangers (1946)
Three people who share a sweepstakes ticket travel a tangled road to collect their winnings.
Dir: Jean Negulesco. Actors: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Geraldine Fitzgerald.
93 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday – March 25, 2021

3:15 AM
The Conspirators (1944)
A guerilla leader falls in love with a mysterious woman in World War II Lisbon.
Dir: Jean Negulesco. Actors: Hedy Lamarr, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet.
101 mins

6:30 AM
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet.
100 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – March 26, 2021

1:00 AM
Psycho (1960)
A woman on the run gets mixed up with a repressed young man and his violent mother.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles.
109 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – March 27, 2021

10:08 AM
Calling Philo Vance (1939)
Society sleuth Philo Vance tangles with foreign agents when he investigates the murder of an aircraft manufacturer.
Dir: William Clemens. Actors: James Stephenson, Margot Stevenson, Henry O’Neill.
62 mins

12:00 PM
The FBI Story (1959)
A dedicated FBI agent thinks back on the agency’s battles against the Klan, organized crime and Communist spies.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. Actors: James Stewart, Vera Miles, Nick Adams.
149 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – March 28, 2021

12:15 AM
Pepe le Moko (1937)
Love for a beautiful woman draws a gangster out of hiding.
Dir: Julien Duvivier. Actors: Jean Gabin, Gabriel Gabrio, Fernand Charpin.
94 mins
*****Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley will be presenting this French film noir.*****

10:00 AM
Pepe le Moko (1937)
Love for a beautiful woman draws a gangster out of hiding.
Dir: Julien Duvivier. Actors: Jean Gabin, Gabriel Gabrio, Fernand Charpin.
94 mins
*****Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley will be presenting this French film noir.*****

2:00 PM
Vertigo (1958)
A detective falls for the mysterious woman he’s been hired to tail.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes.
128 mins

4:15 PM
Charade (1963)
A beautiful widow tries to find her husband’s lost fortune while eluding the killers who want it themselves.
Dir: Stanley Donen. Actors: Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau.
113 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – March 31, 2021

8:00 AM
Gallant Sons (1940)
When a man is charged with murder, his son’s schoolboy friends set out to solve the case.
Dir: George B. Seitz. Actors: Jackie Cooper, Bonita Granville, Gene Reynolds.
76 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed tv specials coming up in March, be sure to leave a comment below!

In case you’re interested in seeing the rest of this month’s television mystery movies, here’s the February 2021 television mystery movies schedule:

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for February 2021 on Turner Classic Movies channel

And here is the page on my site with plenty of entries about movies and television shows you may enjoy:

Cozy Mystery List TV and Movie Section – all you have to do is click on the link to go to that page on my site.

New Releases – February 22 to February 28, 2021

Here is the list of new releases for February 22 to February 28!

Maria DiRico (aka Ellen Byron): Long Island Iced Tina (This will be the 2nd in the Catering Hall Mystery Series.)

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Farm to Trouble (This will be the 1st in the NEW Farm to Table Mystery Series.)

Joanne Fluke: Triple Chocoloate Cheesecake Murder (This will be the 27th in the Hannah Swensen Mystery Series.)

Sarah Graves: Death by Chocolate Snickerdoodle (This will be the 4th in the Death by Chocolate Mystery Series.)

Carlene O’Connor: Murder in an Irish Bookshop (This will be the 7th in the Irish Village Mystery Series.)

Kate Parker: Deadly Darkness (This will be the 6th in the Deadly Mystery Series.)

Barbara Ross: Shucked Apart (This will be the 9th in the Maine Clambake Mystery Series.)

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