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

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – February 2020

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 Daryl Wood Gerber’s Cookbook Nook 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 2020 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

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

Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity Mystery Series

Cynthia Baxter: Lickety Splits Ice Cream Shoppe Mystery Series

Kate Collins: Goddess of Green St. Mystery Mystery Series

Cleo Coyle (aka Alice Kimberly): Coffeehouse Mystery Series

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

Jana DeLeon: Miss Fortune Mystery Series

Maria DiRico (aka Ellen Byron): Catering Hall Mystery Series

J.C. Eaton: Sophie Kimball Mystery Series

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Amish Matchmaker Mystery Series

Sarah Fox: Pancake House Mystery Series

Eric Garcia: Dinosaur Mafia Mystery Series (first entry Anonymous Rex)

Eva Gates (aka Vicki Delany): Lighthouse Library Mystery Series

Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames): Cookbook Nook Mystery Series

Dorothy Gilman: Mrs. Pollifax Mysteries

Sally Goldenbaum: Seaside Knitters Society Mystery Series

Julia Henry: Garden Squad Mystery Series (first entry Pruning the Dead)

Tony & Anne Hillerman: Joe Leaphorn & Jim Chee Mystery Series

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

Holly Quinn: Handcrafted Mystery Series (first entry A Crafter Knits a Clue)

Clayton Rawson: Great Merlini Mystery Series (first entry Death from a Top Hat)

Sofie Ryan (aka Sofie Kelly & Darlene Ryan for Young Adult): Second Chance Cat Mystery Series

Paige Shelton: Thin Ice (Stand-Alone)

[If you click on the author’s name (blue) link, it will take you to his/her page on the Cozy Mystery site. The pages have all of the authors’ books listed chronologically.]

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.

Daryl Wood Gerber: Cookbook Nook Mystery Series

Final Sentence (A Cookbook Nook Mystery 1) This month, I read the first entry in the Cookbook Nook Mystery Series by Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames), titled Final Sentence. This is yet another entry in my (mostly) monthly series about the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series.

Marketing expert Jenna Hart has returned to her home town of Crystal Cove, a small coastal town in California known for both water sports like skiing and surfing as well as crafting stores for things like knitting, sewing, and embroidery, after the death of her husband left her with little desire to remain in San Francisco at her advertising job. Still, she’s going to be keeping her business skills busy enough, as she’s helping her Aunt Vera open a culinary themed bookshop and cafe.

To that end, she’s invited her old college roommate, celebrity chef Desiree Devine, to do a cookbook signing at the cafe’s grand opening. Unfortunately, Desiree brings more than just her autographing hand to the opening – she brings drama as well, in the form of her dodgy boyfriend/director, her jealous sister, and her self-absorbed masseur. Oh, and a potential motive for Jenna herself to take a sudden dislike Desiree, as the aforementioned jealous sister lets slip that Jenna’s deceased husband may or may not have had an affair with Desiree at some point.

With all that baggage, it’s hardly any surprise when Desiree turns up dead, concealed in a sand mermaid sculpture on the beach. Naturally, Jenna is both shocked and pained when she finds the body – though hurt by the thought that her friend may have had an affair with her husband, she never would have hurt her, and hadn’t even had a chance to clear the air on whether or not such an affair had even occurred yet. But the  – a motive made more believable when the local police chief’s own mother indicates she saw Jenna and Desiree speaking on the very beach the corpse was found on.

Fortunately, Jenna has people in her corner as well. Her Aunt Vera, her father – a former FBI analyst – and even the local police chief, who was something of a protege of her father’s, all seem less than convinced that Jenna committed the crime. Still, that doesn’t make Jenna feel any more secure, and it isn’t long before she’s investigating herself – not only to find out who killer her friend, but also to see if her friend had had an affair with her husband.

Final Sentence may not exactly break the mold for modern Cozies, but it certainly does a good job of making a nice, pleasant setting for the characters to live in. At the same time, it gives enough attention to the murder and introduces new clues enough to keep the investigation element engaging. If you’re interested in a culinary-themed Cozy with a coastal setting and a decent mystery, this might be just what you’re looking for.

If you’d like to see other entries about some of the most recommended Cozy Mystery authors, be sure to check out the Most Popular and Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

PS: For those who love recipes, this one does include a number of them at the end – deserts, in this case!

New Releases – February 24 to March 1, 2020

Here is the list of new releases for February 24 to March 1! Well, this is where all the February books have been hiding…

Julia Buckley: Death with a Dark Red Rose (This will be the 5th in the Writer’s Apprentice Mystery Series.)

Vivien Chien: Egg Drop Dead (This will be the 5th in the Noodle Shop Mystery Series.)

Maria DiRico (aka Ellen Byron): Here Comes the Body (This will be the 1st in the NEW Catering Hall Mystery Series.)

J.C. Eaton: Dressed Up 4 Murder (This will be the 6th in the Sophie Kimball Mystery Series.)

Joanne Fluke: Coconut Layer Cake Murder (This will be the 25th in the Hannah Swensen Mystery Series.)

Sarah Graves: Death by Chocolate Frosted Donut (This will be the 3rd in the Death by Chocolate Mystery Series.)

Tina Kashian: On the Lamb (This will be the 4th in the Kebab Kitchen Mystery Series.)

Susan Elia MacNeal: The King’s Justice (This will be the 10th in the Maggie Hope Mystery Series.)

Alyssa Maxwell: A Silent Stabbing (This will be the 5th in the Lady and Lady’s Maid Mystery Series.)

Leslie Meier: British Murder (This will include book #17 The English Tea Murder and book #23 The British Manor Murder of the Lucy Stone Mystery Series.)

Carlene O’Connor: Murder in an Irish Cottage (This will be the 5th in the Irish Village Mystery Series.)

Annelise Ryan (aka Allyson K. Abbott & Beth Amos): Dead Ringer (This will be the 11th in the Mattie Winston Mystery Series.)

Kirsten Weiss: Pies Before Guys (This will be the 4th in the Pie Town Mystery Series.)

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for March 2020

Great news for those of us who enjoy Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley – he’s back with the noir mysteries he selects for us to watch. I know Turner Classic Movies likes to show Oscar-winning movies during every February, but (to me!) it seems a shame they can’t spare just four hours every week during February for those of us who are totally addicted to these mystery movies – as well as Mr. Muller’s terrific introductions and wrap-ups at the beginning/end of each film noir he presents. Oh well, at least February is the shortest month of the year…

Without further ado, here are the mystery movies Turner Classic

Movies channel will be showing during March 2020:

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

Sunday – March 1st

5:15 AM
THE THIN MAN (1934)
A husband-and-wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan.
BW- 91 mins, CC

7:00 AM
‘G’ MEN (1935)
A mob protege joins the FBI when a friend is gunned down.
Dir: William Keighley Cast: James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ann
Dvorak.
BW- 86 mins, CC

12:30 PM
12 ANGRY MEN (1957)
A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty.
Dir: Sidney Lumet Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley.
BW- 96 mins, CC

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

Monday – March 2nd

1:30 PM

THE WINDOW (1949)
A boy who always lies witnesses a murder but can’t get anyone but the killer to believe him.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff Cast: Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart.
BW- 73 mins, CC
*****Wow! It’s Della Street!*****

3:00 PM
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)
A man’s joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker.
BW- 101 mins, CC

7:00 PM
LAURA (1944)
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he’s investigating.
Dir: Otto Preminger Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb.
BW- 88 mins, CC

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

Tuesday – March 3rd

10:15 AM
THE BEAST OF THE CITY (1932)
A police captain leads the fight against a vicious gangland chief.
Dir: Charles Brabin Cast: Walter Huston, Jean Harlow, Wallace Ford.
BW- 86 mins, CC

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

Wednesday – March 4th

5:00 AM
SATAN MET A LADY (1936)
In the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying seductress and a lady jewel thief.
Dir: William Dieterle Cast: Bette Davis, Warren William, Alison Skipworth.
BW- 74 mins, CC

6:30 AM
DECEPTION (1946)
A woman tries to protect her refugee husband from her rich and powerful ex-lover.
Dir: Irving Rapper Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains.
BW- 112 mins, CC
*****I have seen this movie a few times over the years and can’t quite remember if it truly qualifies as a mystery…*****

8:30 AM
A STOLEN LIFE (1946)
A twin takes her deceased sister’s place as wife of the man they both love.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt Cast: Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Dane Clark.
BW- 107 mins, CC

10:30 AM
THE LETTER (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Dir: William Wyler Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson.
BW- 95 mins, CC

12:15 PM
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962)
A crazed, aging star torments her sister in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Dir: Robert Aldrich Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono.
BW- 134 mins, CC

2:45 PM
THE NANNY (1965)
A disturbed young man tries to prove his nanny is out to kill him.
Dir: Seth Holt Cast: Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Bennett.
BW- 93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

4:45 PM
DEAD RINGER (1964)
A woman murders her rich twin and tries to take her place.
Dir: Paul Henreid Cast: Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter Lawford.
BW- 116 mins, CC

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

Thursday – March 5th

5:00 AM
THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (1946)
Years after a murder drove them apart, an heiress tries to win back her lost love.
Dir: Lewis Milestone Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott.
BW- 115 mins, CC

1:00 PM
OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
A private eye becomes the dupe of a homicidal moll.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas.
BW- 97 mins, CC

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

Friday – March 6th

9:15 AM
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason.
C- 136 mins, CC

11:45 AM
BORN YESTERDAY (1950)
A newspaper reporter takes on the task of educating a crooked businessman’s girlfriend.
Dir: George Cukor Cast: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden.
BW- 102 mins, CC
*****Not a mystery, but Judy Holliday is at her best!*****

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

Saturday – March 7th

1:15 PM
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)
An American reporter covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall.
BW- 121 mins, CC

5:15 PM
TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1966)
Party guests at a remote mansion have been brought together to pay for past crimes.
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Hugh O’Brian, Shirley Eaton, Fabian.
C- 90 mins, CC, Letterbox Format
***An adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel.*****

11:00 PM
RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947)
A con man tries to blackmail a Mexican gangster.
Dir: Robert Montgomery Cast: Robert Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Rita Conde.
BW- 101 mins

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

Sunday – March 8th

2:00 AM
MURDER, SHE SAID (1961)
When nobody will believe she witnessed a murder, elderly sleuth Miss Marple takes a job as a maid to ferret out clues.
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow.
BW- 86 mins, CC
*****A rather different type of adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s novel.*****

2:45 AM
MURDER MOST FOUL (1964)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple joins a small-town theatre to investigate a murder.
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles Tingwell.
BW- 91 mins, CC
*****Another rather different type of adaptation of one of Agatha Christie’s novel.*****

9:00 AM
RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947)
A con man tries to blackmail a Mexican gangster.
Dir: Robert Montgomery Cast: Robert Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Rita Conde.
BW- 101 mins

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

Wednesday – March 11th

7:00 AM
THIRTEEN WOMEN (1932)
A mysterious Eurasian tries to murder the 12 boarding school roommates who treated her like an outsider.
Dir: George Archainbaud Cast: Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez, Jill Esmond.
C- 60 mins, CC

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

Friday – March 13th

3:45 AM
BULLDOG DRUMMOND COMES BACK (1937)
An old enemy kidnaps Bulldog Drummond’s fiancée.
Dir: Louis King Cast: John Barrymore, John Howard, Louise Campbell.
BW- 59 mins, CC

4:45 AM
STRANGE JUSTICE (1932)
A crooked banker and his assistant devise a scheme to frame an ex-con for their crime.
Dir: Victor Schertzinger Cast: Marian Marsh, Reginald Denny, Richard Bennett.
BW- 64 mins, CC

7:45 AM
LARCENY, INC. (1942)
An ex-convict and his gang try to use a luggage store to front a bank robbery, but business keeps getting in the way.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford.
BW- 95 mins, CC

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

Saturday – March 14th

7:30 AM
SECRETS OF THE FRENCH POLICE (1932)
Strange crimes committed by a hypnotized woman are solved by a French detective.
Dir: Edward Sutherland Cast: Gwili Andre, Gregory Ratoff, Frank Morgan.
BW- 58 mins, CC

7:00 PM
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976)
Two Washington Post reporters investigate the Watergate break-in that ended Nixon’s presidency.
Dir: Alan J. Pakula Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards Jr..
C- 138 mins, CC

11:30 PM
I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941)
A celebrity promoter is accused of murdering one of his clients.
Dir: Bruce Humberstone Cast: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis.
BW- 82 mins, CC

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

Sunday – March 15th

9:00 AM
I WAKE UP SCREAMING (1941)
A celebrity promoter is accused of murdering one of his clients.
Dir: Bruce Humberstone Cast: Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis.
BW- 82 mins, CC

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

Friday – March 20th

5:15 AM
A CRIMINAL IS BORN (1938)
This short film tells the story of how a young man starts a crime spree which leads to murder.
Dir: Leslie Fenton Cast: Dave Durand, Norman Phillips Jr., Dorothy Vaughan.
BW- 20 mins

1:00 PM
THE HONEYMOON KILLERS (1969)
A lonely nurse and her gigolo lover murder a string of widows.
Dir: Leonard Kastle Cast: Shirley Stoler, Tony LoBianco, Mary Jane Higby.
BW- 108 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

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

Saturday – March 21st

7:29 AM
TORCHY BLANE IN PANAMA (1938)
An ambitious newspaper woman traces bank robbers to an ocean liner.
Dir: William Clemens Cast: Lola Lane, Paul Kelly, Tom Kennedy.
BW- 59 mins

5:00 PM
BULLITT (1968)
When mobsters kill the witness he was assigned to protect, a dedicated policeman investigates the case on his own.
Dir: Peter Yates Cast: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset.
C- 114 mins, CC

7:00 PM
DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954)
A straying husband frames his wife for the murder of the man he’d hired to kill her.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings.
C- 105 mins, CC

9:00 PM
WAIT UNTIL DARK (1967)
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who’ve invaded her home.
Dir: Terence Young Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna.
C- 108 mins, CC

11:00 PM
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958)
A businessman kills his boss to cover up his affair with the man’s wife.
Dir: Louis Malle Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly.
BW- 92 mins

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

Sunday – March 22nd

9:00 AM
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1958)
A businessman kills his boss to cover up his affair with the man’s wife.
Dir: Louis Malle Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly.
BW- 92 mins

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

Wednesday – March 25th

6:45 AM
JAMAICA INN (1939)
A young woman on the British coast stumbles onto a ring of bloodthirsty scavengers.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Charles Laughton, Horace Hodges, Hay Petrie.
BW- 99 mins, CC

8:45 AM
THE FALLEN SPARROW (1943)
Nazi spies pursue a Spanish Civil War veteran in search of a priceless keepsake.
Dir: Richard Wallace Cast: John Garfield, Maureen O’Hara, Walter Slezak.
BW- 94 mins, CC

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

Thursday – March 26th

12:30 PM
CRIME WAVE (1954)
A reformed parolee is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Dir: Andre DeToth Cast: Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk.
BW- 74 mins, CC

1:45 PM
THE KILLING (1956)
A team of specialists plots a daring racetrack robbery, but they don’t reckon with human frailty.
Dir: Stanley Kubrick Cast: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards.
BW- 84 mins, CC

3:15 PM
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)
A gang of small time crooks plots an elaborate jewel heist.
Dir: John Huston Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen.
BW- 112 mins, CC

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

Friday – March 27th

6:15 AM
THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR (1937)
A phony psychic tries to solve a murder that took place during her seance.
Dir: George B. Seitz Cast: Dame May Whitty, Madge Evans, Lewis Stone.
BW- 67 mins, CC

7:30 AM
SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON (1964)
A medium kidnaps a child so she can help the police solve the crime.
Dir: Bryan Forbes Cast: Kim Stanley, Richard Attenborough, Mark Eden.
BW- 117 mins, CC

5:00 PM
THE HAUNTING (1963)
A team of psychic investigators moves into a haunted house that destroys all who live there.
Dir: Robert Wise Cast: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson.
BW- 112 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

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

Saturday – March 28th

12:00 AM
AFTER OFFICE HOURS (1935)
A society newspaperwoman tries to prove to her editor that she can crack a murder case.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard Cast: Constance Bennett, Clark Gable, Stuart Erwin.
BW- 72 mins, CC

11:00 PM
CRIME WAVE (1954)
A reformed parolee is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Dir: Andre DeToth Cast: Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk.
BW- 74 mins, CC

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

Sunday – March 29th

5:00 AM
BIOGRAPHY OF A BACHELOR GIRL (1935)
A portrait painter is reunited with a lost love when her upcoming memoirs threaten his political career.
Dir: Edward H. Griffith Cast: Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Edward Everett Horton.
BW- 83 mins, CC

9:00 AM
CRIME WAVE (1954)
A reformed parolee is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter.
Dir: Andre DeToth Cast: Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, Phyllis Kirk.
BW- 74 mins, CC

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

If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed tv specials coming up in February, 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 2020 television mystery movies schedule:

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for February 2020 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.

(The above movie descriptions were taken off the TCM website.)

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