The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Cozy Mystery News – May 2018

Spring continues, and with it, more Cozy Mystery News! Spring’s a mixed blessing here in Texas – life is coming back, and there are flowers growing on the trees and bushes, but it also gets hot here so fast! It’s already 85 degrees or more many days…

Well, that’s just one more reason to stay in and do some Cozy Mystery reading! Speaking of which, here’s this month’s Cozy Mystery news! It’s a long one this time!

Good news for everyone who loves Lorna Barrett‘s Booktown mystery series – she’s been approved for books 13 and 14 in the series! (These two books should continue to keep Tricia very busy sleuthing.) The Booktown series is the only one Barrett writes under this name, but she also writes the Victoria Square Mystery Series, starring a member of an artisan co-op, the Life on Victoria Square spin-off series, and the Lotus Bay Mystery Series, starring a pair of best friends, under the name Lorraine Bartlett, as well a series starring an insurance investigator, the Jeff Resnick Mystery Series, under the name L. L. Bartlett.

 Julia Buckley has been busy, as she recently has been approved to not only write two more Cozies in her Writer’s Apprentice Mystery Series, but she’s also arranged for audio versions of all five books! Great news for those of us who enjoy reading about Lena’s mystery-solving exploits! Julia also writes the Undercover Dish Mystery Series, starring the owner of a catering business, and the Madeline Mann Mystery Series, starring a small town reporter!

Author (and site blog participant!) Ellen Byron will be writing two more books in her award winning Cajun Country Mystery Series. This terrific series takes place in Louisiana – where Maggie not only runs a bed and breakfast on her family’s plantation, but where she also solves  mysteries. For those of you who read the Cajun Country series, you know there’s nowhere better than the bayou for providing places to hide clues!

Sharon Farrow will be writing two more Cozies in her Berry Basket Mystery Series. Marlee owns the Berry Basket (a berry shop) on the shores of Lake Michigan. She’s kept pretty busy with all of the tourists who visit this beautiful area of the country as well as with solving mysteries. The Berry Basket series is the only one written by Sharon Farrow, but she (along with Meg Macy) is one half of the writing team working under the pseudonym D.E. Ireland. They use that pen name when writing the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mystery Series.

Great news for fans of Sofie Kelly and for fans of (magical) cats out there, Sofie Kelly has been gotten the green light for writing two more Cozies in her Magical Cats Mystery Series! In addition to the Magical Cats Mystery Series, Sofie Kelly also writes the Second Chance Cat Mystery Series (under the name Sofie Ryan) starring the owner of a used book store and her stray cat (Elvis) in Maine, as well as young adult novels under the name Darlene Ryan. (I told you it was great news!)

Speaking of D.E. Ireland, both co-authors are being kept very busy! The other half of that team, Meg Macy, will be releasing the third mystery in her Teddy Bear Mystery Series, entitled Have Yourself a Beary Little Murder! No word yet on any details on the novel, but I’m hoping/guessing from the name that it might be a holiday release… As mentioned before, Meg Macy also writes the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mystery Series as part of the writing team D.E. Ireland, which she co-writes with Sharon Farrow.

Mystery Writers of America will be putting out a 75th anniversary anthology entitled Deadly Anniversaries, edited by Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller. The theme for this particular anthology will be the commemoration of a specific day or event, so if you’re looking for an anthology by some of the greatest authors in the mystery industry, be sure to check it out when it’s released!

Paige Shelton will be releasing two more books in the near future, as she’s been approved to write the fifth and sixth books in her Scottish Bookshop Mystery Series. The Kansas transplanted sleuth, Delaney Nichols, is fitting into the Scottish way-of-living, as well as fitting into the way-of-the-dead  – by bringing murderers to justice! Paige Shelton also writes the Dangerous Type Mystery Series, starring the owner of a printing press and writing shop, the Farmers’ Market Mystery Series, starring a jam and preserves maker, and the Country Cooking School Mystery Series, starring a pair of teachers at a cooking school.

Last up (but definitely not least!), Marcia Talley will be writing another entry in her Hannah Ives Mystery Series, titled Tangled Roots. Hannah Ives is a cancer-survivor who lives in Maryland. Hannah has been kept very busy solving crimes as well as donating her time to many good causes. Those of us who are Hannah’s fans will no doubt be waiting to find out what Hannah will be up to in the near future. Great news for Hannah’s fans!

Yikes, that was a long one! If you want to find out what others of your favorite Cozy Mystery authors will be releasing in the near future, be sure to check out the  Soon to be Released page on my Cozy Mystery site! I have just updated this page by adding many, many new releases we will be seeing in the near future. I hope you find some of your favorite authors there!

New Releases – May 7 to May 13, 2018

Here is the list of new releases for May 7 to May 13!

Rebecca Barrett: Trouble in Paradise (This will be the 6th in the Familiar Legacy Mystery Series.)

Kathi Daley: Sixth Cabin (This will be the 6th in the Writers Retreat Mystery Series.)

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan): Flowers and Foul Play (This will be the 1st in the NEW Magic Garden Mystery Series.)

Agatha Frost: Blueberry Muffins and Misfortune (This will be the 12th in the Peridale Cafe Mystery Series.)

Gemma Halliday & Anne Marie Stoddard: Hollywood Homicide (This will be the 5th in the Hollywood Headlines Mystery Series.)

Betty Hechtman: On the Hook (This will be the 12th in the Crochet Mystery Series.)

Linda O. Johnston: Picks and Chews (This will be the 4th in the Barkery & Biscuits Mystery Series.)

Clare O’Donohue: Beyond the Pale (This will be the 1st in the NEW World of Spies Mystery Series.)

Rhonda Pollero: Dating to Death (This will be a spin-off of the F. A. T. Mystery Series)

Three Holiday Themed Cozy Mysteries Coming June 2018

June looks like it will be a good month for holiday themed Cozies, with three new releases – with one each of Christmas, Fourth of July, and Halloween mysteries!

First, Leslie Budewitz will be releasing As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles, which will be a Christmas themed mystery and the 5th in the Food Lovers’ Village Mystery Series. Erin Murphy is preparing for the holiday season, and has a new friend in the form of a young woman with a checkered past who had managed to turn her life around. But it seems that her past has caught up to her, as Erin’s new friend is found dead, Christmas lights around her neck. Leslie Budewitz also writes the Spice Shop Mystery Series.

Next up, Lynn Cahoon will be releasing a Fourth of July themed, novella length mystery as the 9th entry in the Tourist Trap Mystery Series entitled Rockets’ Dead Glare. South Cove is preparing for their annual Fourth of July fireworks displays, but the new volunteer fire chief is pressing for harder fire codes. When he dies in a training exercise, coffee and bookshop owner Jill Gardner feels that the work related accident might actually be murder. Lynn Cahoon also writes the Cat Latimer Mystery Series and the Farm-to-Fork Mystery Series.

Finally, Eva Gates will be releasing The Spook in the Stacks, a Halloween themed mystery and the 4th in her Lighthouse Library Mystery Series. Librarian Lucy Richardson has stumbled on yet another body, this time while the library is holding a lecture on ghostly legends in its rare books section. Eva Gates also writes as Vicki Delany, under which she has written the Year-Round Christmas Mystery Series, the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery Series, the Ashley Grant Mystery Series, the Ray Robertson Mystery Series, the Constable Molly Smith Mystery Series, and the Klondike Mystery Series.

For more holiday-themed Cozies, be sure to check the relevant theme pages:

Christmas Holiday Cozy Mysteries

Fourth of July Holiday Cozy Mysteries

Halloween Holiday Cozy Mysteries

Two New Cozy Series Coming June 2018

June will have two great looking new Cozy series starting.

First, Sheila Connolly‘s Murder at the Mansion, the first novel in her Victorian Village Mystery Series. Kate Hamilton is between jobs at the moment, having been laid off from her a position at a high-end hotel in Baltimore when the hotel was acquired by a chain, when she is asked back to her small hometown of Asheford, Maryland, by her old high school best friend. Agreeing to help keep the town from going bankrupt by encouraging tourism for nearby Civil War battle sites, but the plans go awry when Kate’s high school nemesis turns up dead at the potential hotel site. Sheila Connolly also writes the Orchard Mystery Series, the Museum Mystery Series, the County Cork Mystery Series, and the Relatively Dead Mystery Series, as well as the Glassblowing Mystery Series under the name Sarah Atwell.

The other new series will be Nora Page‘s Bookmobile Mystery Series, which will begin with Better Off Read. Senior citizen librarian Cleo Watkins finds her position threatened when a young mayor begins plans to shut down her library in small town Catalpa Springs, Georgia, when storm damage makes it less viable to repair than replace. However, her campaign to save the library is interrupted with the sudden death of a major benefactor – who happened to have recently requested a number of books on how to get away with murder. What’s worse, Cleo’s best friend seems to be implicated in the benefactor’s death. Nora Page has also written (under the pen name Ann Myers) the Santa Fe Cafe Mystery Series.

For more upcoming Cozy Mystery series, be sure to visit the  Soon to be Released Mysteries or the New Cozy Mystery Book Series page on the site.

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