The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Eight Soon to be Released Cozy Mystery Covers

Here are some of the upcoming Cozy Mystery covers that I’ve found recently!

Julia Buckley: Death Waits in the Dark (This will be the 4th in the Writer’s Apprentice Mystery Series.)
V.M. Burns: Wed, Read and Dead (This will be the 4th in the Mystery Bookshop Mystery Series.)
Vivien Chien: Murder Lo Mein (This will be the 3rd in the Noodle Shop Mystery Series.)
Krista Davis: The Diva Sweetens the Pie (This will be the 12th in the Domestic Diva Mystery Series.)
Anna Lee Huber: An Artless Demise (This will be the 7th in the Lady Darby Mystery Series.)
Tina Kashian: One Feta in the Grave (This will be the 3rd in the Kebab Kitchen Mystery Series.)
Shari Randall: Drawn and Buttered (This will be the 3rd in the Lobster Shack Mystery Series.)
Kirsten Weiss: Pie Hard (This will be the 3rd in the Pie Town Mystery Series.)

Dorothy L. Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey Series

 I have been compiling a list of most popular and recommended Cozies, and next on my list is the first book in the Lord Peter Wimsey Series by Dorothy L. Sayers,  “Whose Body?” I recently re-read this 1923 classic and I enjoyed it immensely.

I have written about the Lord Peter series a few times already. Way back when this blog was young in 2006, I wrote about the 1970s TV series. And, also a long time ago, I wrote an article about Dorothy L. Sayers as one of the Four Golden Age’s Queens of Crime.

Lord Peter Wimsey is the younger brother of the fictitious Duke of Denver. Lord Peter, along with his trusty servant Bunter, engages in crime solving as a very serious hobby. His other main pastime is collecting early editions of books.

Bunter’s role is imporant to the series. He is very astute and his photography skills are put to good use by Lord Peter in his sleuthing activities. As I said when I reviewed the 1970s series, this is one of the few Cozy Mystery series where the sleuth is British upper class and yet the butler is not smarter than the sleuth! I think Bunter comes close to being Lord Peter’s equal in ability, but he does not surpass him.

Also a regular member of the cast of characters of this series are Lord Peter’s mother, the dowager Duchess, and Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard. Inspector Parker is a friend of Lord Peter’s who provides a convenient way for Wimsey easily to gain access to crime scenes and other information that is normally only known to the police. Parker is refreshingly smart for a policeman, but another police inspector, Sugg, plays a role as a dimwitted police foil who always gets things wrong and tries to impede Lord Peter’s private sleuthing activities.

“Whose Body?” is typical of classic era Cozies in that although it contains several very strong and interesting characters, the main attraction is the strength of the mysteries themselves. Sayers, as did Agatha Christie as another example, crafted her books with great care to make the whodunits the center pieces of the stories with Wimsey working diligently throughout to solve the logic puzzles that the mysteries present.

I really enjoyed revisiting this series and highly recommend it. There are only 12 books that were completed by Dorothy L. Sayers, so the series is not too short or too long (in my opinion).

The Lord Peter Wimsey series was written by Sayers during the 1920s through 1930s. Please note, that the series, although populated by what I am sure were very liberal characters for their time, (especially Wimsey, Bunter, Parker and Wimsey’s mother), does contain some views of people that are dated and inappropriate as we view them now.

Click here to read more posts about the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series.

Four New Holiday-Themed Cozy Mysteries Coming October 2018 (Part 3 of 3)

So, here’s the last of the Holiday-themed Cozies coming out in October! It feels like I’ve been discussing these forever, but this is it – four more Christmas Cozies coming out!

First, Sarah Fox will be releasing Yeast of Eden, the 4th in the Pancake House Mystery Series. Marley McKinney’s pancake house, The Flip Side, has new competition in the form of Wally Fowler, the self-proclaimed waffle king, who has returned to his hometown of Wildwood Cove for the first time in years. The police seem to find it suspicious when Wally turns up dead in his kitchen, so Marley will need to find the real killer to help out her friend Lisa, who it turns out had a sordid history with the Waffle King. Sarah Fox also writes the Literary Pub Mystery Series, starring a pub owner in Vermont, and the Music Lover’s Mystery Series, starring a violinist.

Next up will be A Gift of Bones by Carolyn Haines, the 19th in the Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery Series. The close approach of Christmas in Zinnia, Mississippi, leaves Sarah Booth preparing for the season. But the holiday festivities will need to be delayed when a friend’s relative has gone missing – and now there’s a ransom demand indicating she might be in serious danger. Carolyn Haines also writes the Pluto’s Snitch Mystery Series, starring a young widow after WWI in Mobile, Alabama, and, as Caroline Burnes, the Fear Familiar Romantic Suspense Series, starring a research suspect cat and her rescuer.

Miranda James will be putting out Six Cats a Slayin’, the 10th in the Cat in the Stacks Mystery Series. Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon cat, Diesel, are preparing for the holiday season, though it isn’t made easier by a nosy real estate agent neighbor who seems to be snooping around in the hopes of picking up his house on the cheap. When the snoopy real estate agent turns up dead, Charlie will need to figure out “who dunnit” to bring back any possibility of holiday cheer to their day. Miranda James also writes the Southern Ladies Mystery Series, the Trailer Park Mystery Series (as Jimmie Ruth Evans), the Bridge Club Mystery Series (as Honor Hartman), and (as Dean James) the Simon Kirby-Jones Mystery Series and the Deep South Mysteries.

Finally, David Rosenfelt will be putting out Deck the Hounds, which will be the 18th in the Andy Carpenter Mystery Series. Criminal defense lawyer Andy Carpenter finds himself drawn into helping out a homeless man, Don, and his dog, Zoey, at the behest of his wife, Laurie, only to learn that the man is wanted for a murder years prior. Surprisingly, Don not only claims he didn’t commit the crime, but that he didn’t even know he was wanted for the crime to begin with.

If you’re interested in looking for more Christmas themed Cozies, be sure to visit the theme page on my site: Christmas Themed Cozies

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