The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

The 2018 Lefty Awards

I first want to say: Congratulations to all of the Nominees and Winners!

Some of you may be asking: “What is a Lefty Award?” Well, they are mystery book awards that are voted on at the Left Coast Crime convention every year – since 1996. The voters of these Left Coast Crime Awards have to be registered for the convention and they vote on authors who have been nominated for writing some of the best mystery novels of the year.

I am always delighted when I see the names of authors I recognize and enjoy – since a lot of the authors write Cozy Mystery series. (Neat, neat, neat!) This year the Left Coast Crime convention took place last month in Reno, Nevada (March 24, 2018). The mystery books had to have been originally published during 2017 – unless it’s a book that was previously published outside of North America, but published for the first time in North America during 2017.

2018 Lefty Award Nominees and Winners:

Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

Ellen Byron: A Cajun Christmas Killing (Winner)
Donna Andrews: Gone Gull
Marla Cooper: Dying on the Vine
Cynthia Kuhn: The Art of Vanishing
Cindy Sample: Dying for a Diamond

Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel:
(historical being pre 1960)

Rhys Bowen: In Farleigh Field (Winner)
Jennifer Kincheloe: The Woman in the Camphor Trunk
Renee Patrick: Dangerous To Know
Priscilla Royal: The Proud Sinner
Jeri Westerson: Season of Blood

Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel:

Kellye Garrett: Hollywood Homicide (Winner)
Susan Alice Bickford: A Short Time To Die
Wendall Thomas: Lost Luggage
Nancy Tingley: A Head in Cambodia
Kathleen Valenti: Protocol

Lefty for Best Mystery Novel

William Kent Krueger: Sulfur Springs (Winner)
Matt Coyle: Blood Truth
Louise Penny: Glass Houses
Terry Shames: An Unsettling Crime for Samuel Craddock
James W. Ziskin: Cast the First Stone

Again, Congratulations to ALL of you!

Cozy Mystery News – April 2018

It’s spring already! For some of you that means snow is finally drifting into the past, for others, like me, it means flowers are blooming in the trees, bushes, and ground. The beauty of spring time inspires me every year to want to take up gardening. However, the humid heat of most of spring’s days down here in San Antonio quickly brings me back to the realities of spending any more time outdoors than I need to!

Getting back to the purpose of this blog entry, I have a few Cozy Mystery News tidbits to share with you!

I have great news for all of us who are fans of Leslie Budewitz‘s Spice Shop Mystery Series. She has just signed on to write two more Cozies in that series. It’s been a long wait (since 2016) for us to be able to hang-out with Pepper Reece as she sleuths her way to solving mysteries! So, not only do we have As the Christmas Cookie Crumbles to look forward to (Budewitz’s 5th Food Lovers’ Village mystery -set during the Christmas holidays) but now we have these two more Seattle Spice Shop mysteries. Great news!

I happen to know that a lot of you enjoy holiday Cozies as much as I do! So here’s some more really good news: Lynn Cahoon will be releasing three new holiday novellas in her bestselling Tourist Trap Mystery Series. Rockets’ Dead Glare (Fourth of July), A Deadly Brew (Halloween), and Santa Puppy (Christmas). Pretty exciting for us Cozy Mystery holiday-lovers! (Lynn also writes the Farm-to-Fork Mystery Series which takes place in Idaho and features the owner of a farm to table restaurant and the Cat Latimer Mystery Series which features an ex-English professor who owns a bed and breakfast in Colorado.

Sharon Farrow (aka 1/2 of D.E. Ireland), author of the Berry Basket Mystery Series, has gotten the green light to write two more Cozies in this Lake Michigan based Cozy series. This is terrific news for those of us who have been enjoying Marlee Jacob not only running her berry shop but also have enjoyed reading about her mystery-solving exploits! Sharon Farrow, along with Meg Macy write the Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mystery Series – as D.E. Ireland.

When Kate Kingsbury stopped writing the Special Pennyfoot Hotel (Holiday) Mystery Series, the Pennyfoot Hotel Mystery Series, and her WW II Manor House Mystery Series, I thought a lot of us Cozy Mystery readers would have a real problem! Luckily, she morphed into Rebecca Kent and brought us the Bellehaven House Mystery Series and then she added Allison Kingsley to her monikers and wrote the Raven’s Nest Bookstore Mystery Series. Recently, she has been writing the Merry Ghost Inn Mystery Series (as Kate Kingsbury!) and she will be releasing Be Our Ghost, which is the 3rd Cozy that features Melanie West, a divorcee who co-owns a bed & breakfast with her grandmother. Now this is good news!

Now on to some very-much anticipated news: Rita Lakin is going to be putting out at least two more Cozies in her Gladdy Gold Mystery Series. That’s right! It’s been a long wait for those of us who follow Gladdy and her retirement community cohorts as they sleuth around Florida (and on a cruise ship). The 7th book in the series was released in 2011! I, for one, thought we had possibly seen the last of Gladdy and the girls, so this bit of news really surprised me… a very happy surprise, indeed!

Oh my goodness! T.C. LoTempio will be starting her new Purr ‘n Bark Pet Shop Mystery Series! How neat is this! As most of you know, T.C. writes the Cat Rescue Mystery Series, which stars Sydney McCall and Toby (her Taby) in North Carolina. T.C. also writes the Nick and Nora Mystery Series (That’s right – as in Nick and Nora Charles from The Thin Man movies!) – in which Nora Charles has a sandwich shop in California and Nick is her cat.

And here’s some super great news for those of us who follow the Wrexford & Sloane Mystery Series by Andrea Penrose. There is a new book slated to come out in this historical mystery series! Charlotte Sloane will have to take some time off from “being” A.J. Quill (satirical artist) to again team up with the Earl of Wrexford to solve a crime in Regency London. So, as you see, I mean super great news! Andrea also writes the (Lady Arianna Regency Mystery Series.)

I hope this month’s Cozy Mystery News update has at least one of you favorite authors on it!

P.S. Be sure to visit the Soon to be Released page on my Cozy Mystery site if you want to find out what some of your favorite Cozy Mystery authors will be releasing in the future. I’ve just added a bunch of Cozies to the list, and am in the process of adding even more!

New Releases – April 9 to April 15, 2018

Here is the list of new releases for April 9 to April 15!

Maia Chance : Bad Neighbors (This will be the 2nd in the Agnes and Effie Mystery Series.)

Martha Grimes: The Knowledge (This will be the 24th in the Richard Jury Mystery Series.)

Nell Hampton (aka Nancy Coco and Nancy J. Parra): Lord of the Pies (This will be the 2nd in the Kensington Palace Chef Mystery Series.)

Anne Perry : Twenty-one Days (This will be the 33rd in the Pitt Mystery Series.)

Marty Wingate: Farewell, My Cuckoo (This will be the 4th in the Birds of a Feather Mystery Series.)

I Enjoy Culinary Cozies Except When I’m Dieting…

Yikes! Some of the culinary-themed Cozy Mysteries I read are trying very hard to throw me off the dieting wagon!

My husband and I put on a “little” weight over the holidays – as we usually do. Every year we vow we won’t “let that happen again” >>> but every year, it does.

Some of you may be thinking “How much weight can they possibly gain over ‘the holidays’? Let’s face it, ‘the holidays’ means two or three weeks…”

Not so for us! “The holidays” start some time in October for us. Yep! We look at Halloween as the beginning of “the holiday” season. About as soon as the stores start putting up their Halloween treats (well, not really >>> since that now means early September!) we start making excuses to buy our favorite treats. Unfortunately, we have different preferences which means we have to buy two treats instead of just one. This doesn’t mean we only partake of our individual prefered treats…

So, we are now trying to shed those unwanted pounds from “the holidays”. Right now I am trying to (sort of) avoid reading culinary Cozies. As much as I enjoy reading how Goldy Bear (Diane Mott Davidson) plans on catering her next big event or what type of cookies Hannah Swensen (Joanne Fluke) has put in her gift cookie bags >>> I am just going to have to remain strong >>> at least for now.

How about you? >>> Do you find yourself trying to avoid Cozy mysteries with a strong food-related theme just because they make it hard for you to stick to your diet?

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