Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV
Here is the list of new releases for July 15 to July 21!
Mary Feliz : Cliff Hanger (This will be the 5th in the Maggie McDonald Mystery Series.)
Miranda James (aka Honor Hartman, Jimmie Ruth Evans, & Dean James): The Pawful Truth (This will be the 11th in the Cat in the Stacks Mystery Series.)
David Rosenfelt: Bark of Night (This will be the 19th in the Andy Carpenter Mystery Series.)
Cyril Hare who was an English judge (his real name was Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark) was an author who wrote towards the tail end of the period that many would consider the classic mystery book period. He wrote from the 1930s to the 1950s, and Tenant for Death was first published in 1937. Cyril Hare’s total output was quite a bit less than some of the other classic period mystery authors. For example, the Inspector Mallet series only has six books that were published over 21 years.
In this story, we are introduced to Inspector Mallet, a rather tall and stout man with a big appetite. He often seems to interrupt his sleuthing to refuel by going out to eat. His assistant is Detective-Sergeant Frant who is industrious and somewhat mystified by some of Inspector Mallet’s methods which include doing a lot of thinking (to the point of falling asleep in the office) and eating.
Nevertheless, Inspector Mallet is very successful. In this case, a high stakes financier, Mr. Ballentine, who committed a multiple-year fraud and was about to get caught goes missing and is found dead in a house that had been rented by a mysterious character. Mr. Ballentine’s disappearance happened just days after the release from prison of one of his earlier fraud victims who had said that he would see him dead.
The book is a leisurely read. The discovery of the body is not until around the book’s 15% point. This pace is not what you see in most modern Cozies, but I have to say that after reading a bunch of newer Cozies and then going to Cyril Hare, I did find it oddly attractive to read a book where the discovery of the body does not happen in the first few pages.
The setting is 1930s London and its surroundings which I found very interesting. Although Inspector Mallet is not an amateur sleuth (far from it!!), the book does have a Cozy atmosphere, although not the type found in modern Cozies. There is no small town, no heroine who inherits a shop, and the sleuth does not have to sneak around behind the backs of the police detectives, as examples.
The book has an old fashioned feel to it — mostly because it is an old-style mystery written so long ago. In the end, the clues are all gathered and laid out for the reader. All of the information that Inspector Mallet ends up thinking deeply about (remember what I said about him falling asleep at his office!) are available to the reader. Nothing significant is held back, so the reader has a fair chance to be a partner in discovering the murderer and the other mysteries involved in the story.
I found Tenant for Death a different and refreshing break from reading new Cozies (which I love too!!).
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We’ve got quite a lot of great Cozy Mystery news this month, with six entries about site authors!
First up, Mollie Cox Bryan will be writing Tangled Web, the story of a Shakespearean professor who wants to solve the mystery of her mother’s death. I’m not sure (yet!) whether this will be a stand-alone mystery novel or the beginning of a new series. (I sure hope it’s the beginning of a new series!) Bryan also writes the Cora Crafts Mystery Series, the Cumberland Creek Mystery Series, the Classic Star Biography Mystery Series – which just made its debut in May, and the Buttermilk Creek Mystery Series – which will be debuting with a Christmas themed mystery this September.
Here’s some fantastic news for those of us who are knitting and Cozy Mystery lovers! Mary Ellen Hughes will be starting a new series with A Wicked Yarn, the first of at least three books starring a knitting enthusiast and her knitting circle (the Ninth Street Knitters) in small-town Pennsylvania. (The not so great news is that Mary Ellen Hughes will be writing this series as Emmie Caldwell – yes another name for us to keep track of… ) Hughes also writes the Keepsake Cove Mystery Series, the Pickled and Preserved Mystery Series, the Craft Corner Mystery Series, and the Maggie Olenski Mystery Series.
Susan Elia MacNeal will be continuing her Maggie Hope Mystery Series for at least another three entries. The sleuth, Maggie, is an American typist in 1940s London, and is MacNeal’s sole series. The first book in this series was nominated for both the Edgar and Dilys awards. Also, two of her Maggie Hope mysteries were nominated for the Agatha Awards Best Historical mysteries category. So it’s pretty terrific to know Maggie will continue sleuthing at least three more times!
Carol J. Perry will be continuing the Witch City Mystery Series with three more books. That’s right – we’ll be sleuthing again in Salem, Massachusetts with WICH-TV reporter Lee Barrett. This paranormal series also features O’Ryan, the cat Lee inherited, and O’Ryan just may have some magical powers of his own! Carol J. Perry will also be starting a new paranormal mystery series called the Haunted Haven series in the near future. I’ll keep you posted on that series (which will also be a paranormal series) when I find out more.
Deanna Raybourn will be writing two more mysteries in her Veronica Speedwell Mystery Series, bringing the series to a total of seven entries. Veronica Speedwell is a Victorian sleuth who is a world traveler/adventuress seeking scientific answers, as well as the answers to crimes! Raybourn released her fourth Veronica Speedwell mystery (A Dangerous Collaboration) in March of this year and we can expect the fifth (A Murderous Relation) next March. Deanna Raybourn is also the author of the Lady Julia Grey Mystery Series. Lady Julia is a widow who also lives in Victorian England.
Finally, this isn’t exactly a Cozy release, but it’s still worth mentioning that Kathy Reichs will be returning to the Temperance Brennan Mystery Series after a five year hiatus with the 19th novel-length entry in that series, A Conspiracy of Bones. That should be great news for any fans of the Bones television series, which was based upon the series! Again, this series isn’t quite Cozy, but a lot of us who use this site enjoy her books and New York Times bestselling Reichs is on the site, so I’ve decided to mention it here.
Wow! That’s a great list of news to be able to share all at once! I hope everyone has at least one thing mentioned that they can be excited about!
Here is the list of new releases for July 8 to July 14!
Sheila Connolly: Killer in the Carriage House (This will be the 2nd in the Victorian Village Mystery Series.)
Kathi Daley: A Whale of a Tail (This will be the 18th in the Whales and Tails Mystery Series.)
