Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV
Here is the list of new releases for August 19 to August 25!
Leighann Dobbs: Teatime Pastries and Punishments (This will be the 1st in the Teatime Classic Whodunit Cozy Mystery Series.)
Hank Phillippi Ryan: The Murder List (This will be a Stand-Alone thriller mystery book.)
Rebecca Tope: Secrets in the Cotswolds (This will be the 17th in the Costwold Mystery Series.)
As I mentioned on Friday, September is going to be a great month for Cozies – I’ve already discussed the three new series coming, but today I’ve got seven holiday-themed Cozies to discuss! Most of these will be Christmas mysteries – with one at the end for another holiday. (I don’t want to spoil the surprise!)
First, I’m not going to go into detail on this one, because I already discussed it with new series, but Mollie Cox Bryan will be releasing Christmas Cow Bells, the 1st in her new Buttermilk Creek Mystery Series. For more, check out the post I’ve already put up on new series releases in September.
Next up, Ellie Alexander will be putting out A Cup of Holiday Fear, the 10th in her Bakeshop Mystery Series. Jules Capshaw and the staff of the Torte bakeshop are preparing for the Christmas holiday season, and they need a break. So Jules arranges a celebration at the local inn… which unfortunately turns deadly as one of the guests ends up deceased. Ellie Alexander also writes the Sloan Krause Mystery Series, and (as Kate Dyer-Seeley) the Rose City Mystery Series and Pacific Northwest Mystery Series.
Bree Baker (aka Jacqueline Frost, Julie Chase, & Julie Anne Lindsey) will be putting out Tide and Punishment, the 3rd in the Seaside Café Mystery Series. Everly Swan is preparing for the Christmas season by decorating her iced tea shop, but it’s more than a little distracting that her Great-Aunt Fran is running for mayor of Charm, North Carolina. Still, managing both seems possible… at least, until the candidate running against Fran turns up dead on the night of the first scheduled debate. Bree Baker writes under a variety of other names, including Jacqueline Frost, Julie Chase, and Julie Anne Lindsey, and is the author of the Christmas Tree Farm Mystery Series, the Kitty Couture Mystery Series, the Cider Shop Mystery Series, and the Patience Price Mystery Series, among others.
Next up, Laura Bradford will be putting out A Killer Carol, the 7th in her Amish Mystery Series. Claire Weatherly, owner of an Amish gift shop, is enjoying the Christmas season by helping friends both English and Amish alike to find the perfect gifts, but the scenic Pennsylvanian holiday season is marred by the murder of an elderly Amish couple, and Claire’s friends Ruth and Samuel Yoder seem like the most likely suspects. Laura Bradford also writes the Emergency Dessert Squad Mystery Series, the Tobi Tobias Mystery Series, the Jenkins & Burns Mystery Series, and (as Elizabeth Lynn Casey) the Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series.
Meg Macy will be putting out the 3rd in her Teddy Bear Mystery Series, titled Have Yourself a Beary Little Murder. Sasha and Maddie Silverman are celebrating the holiday for more reasons than normal this year, as the Silver Bear Shop and Factory has just won the Teddy Bear Keepsake Contest, allowing them to produce a special holiday specialty toy this year. Unfortunately, as it so often is, this holiday will be ruined by the looming specter of death, in this case the unexpected death of the town mayor dressed as mascot Santa Bear, apparently just before his appearance at a local tree-lighting ceremony and parade. Meg Macy is also half of the writing team that uses the pseudonym D. E. Ireland, under which she writes the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mystery Series.
The last of the Christmas releases (but not the last of the holiday releases!) won’t be a novel, but a collection of shorter novellas – specifically three, one by Maddie Day, one by Carlene O’Connor, and the last by Alex Erickson (who isn’t on the site, but I’ve heard good things about!) The collection itself will be titled Christmas Cocoa Murder, after Carlene O’Connor’s entry in the set, which will be a story in her Irish Village Mystery Series. Maddie Day’s entry will be Christmas Cocoa and a Corpse, and will be an entry in her Country Store Mystery Series, while Alex Erickson’s will be titled Death by Hot Cocoa and will be part of his Bookstore Mystery Series.
Wow, that’s sure a lot of “Christmas in September”! Still, I did promise one non-Christmas Cozy – and here it is! Nancy Coco will be putting out Fudge Bites, the 7th in her Candy-Coated Mystery Series, and a Halloween themed mystery! Fudge shop owner Allie McMurphy is looking forward to Halloween on Mackinac Island, but the season is going to be ruined in a now-familiar way – Allie has the misfortune to stumble upon a body between the historic McMurphy hotel and the fudge shop. Nancy Coco also writes as Nancy J. Parra, under which she writes the Wine Country Mystery Series, the Baker’s Treat Mystery Series, and the Perfect Proposals Mystery Series, as well as the name Nell Hampton, which she uses when writing the Kensington Palace Chef Mystery Series.
For more Christmas Cozy Mysteries, check out the Christmas Mystery Book Series page on the site.
For more Halloween Cozy Mysteries, check out the Halloween Mystery Book Series page on the site.
September will be a great month for both new Cozy series by established authors and holiday-themed Cozies, so I’m going to go back to what I’ve done sometimes in the past in similar circumstances and cover each in separate posts. This post will be on the three new Cozy Mystery Series coming out in September.
First up is a bit of a double hit – a new Cozy Mystery Series starting with a Christmas episode. Mollie Cox Bryan will be starting the Buttermilk Creek Mystery Series with first entry Christmas Cow Bells. Brynn MacAlister is going through a bad breakup by starting up a new life in Shenandoah Springs, deciding to make a go of it as an organic micro-dairy farmer and cheese-maker with her three Red Devon cows. When Brynn’s new neighbor dies unexpectedly in a fire, Brynn feels motivated to solve the mystery before the holiday hits. Mollie Cox Bryan also writes the Cora Crafts Mystery Series, starring a craft shop owner and blogger in Indigo Gap, North Carolina, the Cumberland Creek Mystery Series, starring an ex-investigative journalist and stay-at-home-mom in Virginia, and the newly begun Classic Star Biography Mystery Series, starring a Hollywood biographer.
Next, Anne Perry will be releasing Death in Focus, the first in her Elena Standish Mystery Series. Set in pre-World War II Europe, this series will star Elena Standish, a British photographer whose relatives have top secret jobs. (From the description, I am uncertain how much of a mystery this is, or if it is a thriller – I’m certainly not sure what the main thrust of the mystery, if any, there is.) Anne Perry is also the author of the Pitt Mystery Series, starring Charlotte & Thomas Pitt, and later Daniel Pitt, their son, the William Monk Series, starring a Victorian London police inspector, the World War I: Matthew Reavley Series, and the Christmas Mystery Series.
Finally, Ann Cleeves, an author who often isn’t quite Cozy but is nevertheless a very popular mystery writer who is already on the site, is releasing The Long Call, the start to her Two Rivers Mystery Series. Detective Matthew Venn has returned to North Devon, at the convergence of two rivers, to attend his estranged father’s funeral. The return is complicated by the report of a death on the nearby beach, a man stabbed to death. Matthew will need to return back to the places of his youth, places he thought he left behind, in order to solve the mystery. Ann Cleeves is the author of both the Shetland Island Mystery Series and the Vera Stanhope Mystery Series, both of which have been used as the foundations for quite popular BBC mystery TV series.
For more upcoming Cozy Mystery Series, check out the New Cozy Mystery Book Series page on the site.
I have some really bad news to tell you about… Lea Wait (aka Cornelia Kidd) passed away this past Friday. Her death will be a great loss to the Cozy Mystery world. All of her series (Mainely Needlepoint, Shadows Antique Print, and Maine Murder Mystery) are very, very popular for many of us.
Lea Wait wrote a blog entry for the Maine Crime Writers website over a year ago in which she described finding out about her pancreatic cancer. Here is the link to this blog entry:
Goodby, Lea Wait — Cozy Mystery readers have suffered a loss. Thank you for all your books. We will miss you.
