The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Nine Soon to be Released Cozy Mystery Covers

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

Lorna Barrett (aka L. L. Bartlett & Lorraine Bartlett) Poisoned Pages (This will be the 12th in the Booktown Mystery Series.)
Lynn Cahoon: Slay in Character (This will be the 4th in the Cat Latimer Mystery Series.)
C.S. Challinor: Upstaged by Murder (This will be the 10th in the Rex Graves Mystery Series.)
Laura Childs & Terrie Farley Moran:  Glitter Bomb (This will be the 15th in the Scrapbooking Mystery Series.) (This is a Mardi Gras mystery.)
Vicki Delany (aka Eva Gates): A Scandal in Scarlet (This will be the 4th in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery Series.)
Lee Hollis: Poppy Harmon Investigates (This will be the 1st in the NEW Desert Flowers Mystery Series.)
Cheryl Hollon: Shattered at Sea (This will be the 5th in the Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery Series.)
Linda Reilly: Claws of Death (This will be the 2nd in the Cat Lady Mystery Series.)
Lea Wait: Thread Herrings (This will be the 7th in the Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series.)

 

Carolyn Hart: Death on Demand Mystery Series

Death on Demand (Death on Demand Mysteries Series Book 1) This time I’m adding another series to the  Most Popular and Recommended Series. This is another series that I have been remiss in waiting so long to add to this list. It is one of the most popular Cozy Mystery series >> the Death on Demand series by Carolyn Hart. (Just as an aside, I am referring to her as Carolyn Hart since her later books list her name that way. When the series began back on 1987, her name on the cover was Carolyn G. Hart.)

As I just suggested, this series began way back in 1987 with the first book, Death on Demand.  Annie Laurance has recently taken over and renovated the bookstore, called “Death on Demand” specializing in mystery books (obviously) on Broward’s Rock Island, a small island off the coast of South Carolina. She inherited the store from her Uncle Ambrose who died in a boating accident about six months before. She had spent every summer with Uncle Ambrose when she was a child and during these visits she had picked up the mystery book bug as well as coming to love the island.

The story begins on a Sunday as Annie is trying to decide whether to cancel her Sunday Night Regulars meeting. On Sunday evenings, she opens the shop to a small group of writers (and want-to-be writers) who lived year-round on the island for discussions about writing. She was agonizing over whether to cancel the meeting, though, because one of the Regulars was threatening to reveal some hidden secret about every member of the group at this particular Sunday night meeting.

Despite her misgivings, she decides to hold the meeting. Unfortunately, at the meeting one of the Regulars is murdered. And, the police chief quickly latches on to Annie as his main suspect in this murder and two others.

Of course, Annie, along with her handsome friend Max Darling, who arrived just that day, and who had followed Annie from New York after tracking her down, has to find the real culprit in order to keep herself out of prison and to keep the “Death on Demand” store in business.

Although published in 1987, the book has many of the characteristics of modern Cozies. A beautiful heroine who has returned to a beloved small town to open a business and who just happens to have a very handsome (and rich in this case) man who helps her solve the mystery in which she is a prime suspect.

Annie, Max, the island, the bookstore, and the book all have a lot of charm. And, the book has a lot of allusions or direct references to other mystery books, mystery authors and mystery sleuths. If you enjoy a veritable deluge of such references and trying to remember all these earlier (or contemporary) authors, series, and sleuths, this book and series is for you! (I have written a post about such “name dropping” in Cozy Mystery books.)

You will be able to test your expertise as a mystery book authority by reading this series! Also, with 26 books in the series, you are guaranteed many hours of enjoyment.

One warning, although this book is Cozy in just about every way possible, there are some strong, adult type words that are used (very occasionally.)

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

 

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for June 2018

The month is coming to an end, so it’s time to discuss the upcoming TCM mystery movies for June!

June 2018 Turner Classic Movies Channel Mystery Movies (Central time zone):

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – June 2, 2018

1:15 AM
PRIVATE PARTS (1972)
A young girl moves into her estranged aunt’s hotel when she begins to suspect that a guest was murdered.
Dir: Paul Bartel Cast: Ayn Ruymen, Lucille Benson, John Ventantonio.
C- 86 mins, CC

11:00 AM
DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954)
A straying husband frames his wife for the murder of the man he’d hired to kill her.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings.
C- 105 mins, CC

9:00 PM
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)
A man’s joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker.
BW- 101 mins, CC

11:00 PM
THE LETTER (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Dir: William Wyler Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson.
BW- 95 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – June 3, 2018

9:00 AM
THE LETTER (1940)
A woman claims to have killed in self-defense, until a blackmailer turns up with incriminating evidence.
Dir: William Wyler Cast: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson.
BW- 95 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – June 5, 2018

2:30 AM
THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936)
An escaped convict holds the customers at a remote desert cantina hostage.
Dir: Archie L. Mayo Cast: Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Genevieve Tobin.
BW- 82 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – June 6, 2018

5:15 PM
THE GOOD GUYS AND THE BAD GUYS (1969)
An aging lawman hears that his old nemesis is back in the area and planning a robbery.
Dir: Burt Kennedy Cast: Robert Mitchum, George Kennedy, David Carradine.
C- 90 mins, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – June 8, 2018

11:00 PM
OBSESSION (1949)
A jealous husband plots to dispose of his wife’s lover in an acid bath.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk Cast: Robert Newton, Naunton Wayne, Phil Brown.
BW- 98 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – June 9, 2018

12:30 PM
SERGEANT RUTLEDGE (1960)
A 19th-century lawyer tries to clear a black man of rape and murder charges.
Dir: John Ford Cast: Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Towers, Billie Burke.
C- 111 mins, CC

11:00 PM
CONFLICT (1945)
A man murders his wife so he can be free to marry her sister.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet.
BW- 85 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – June 10, 2018

9:00 AM
CONFLICT (1945)
A man murders his wife so he can be free to marry her sister.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet.
BW- 85 mins, CC

4:30 PM
WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962)
A crazed, aging star torments her sister in a decaying Hollywood mansion.
Dir: Robert Aldrich Cast: Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono.
BW- 134 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – June 11, 2018

3:00 AM
THAT MAN FROM RIO (1964)
A pilot gets mixed up in an international search for stolen art.
Dir: Philippe de Broca Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Françoise Dorléac, Jean Servais.
C- 116 mins

9:00 AM
HAVING WONDERFUL CRIME (1945)
Three amateur detectives try to find a missing magician.
Dir: Eddie Sutherland Cast: Pat O’Brien, George Murphy, Carole Landis.
BW- 70 mins, CC

10:30 AM
HAUNTED HONEYMOON (1940)
British sleuth Sir Peter Wimsey’s wedding celebration is cut short by the discovery of a murdered man in his honeymoon cottage.
Dir: Arthur B. Woods Cast: Robert Montgomery, Constance Cummings, Leslie Banks.
BW- 83 mins, CC
*****That’s right! Lord Peter Wimsey as in Dorothy L. Sayers‘s Peter Wimsey!*****

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – June 12, 2018

12:30 AM
THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (1934)
A British aristocrat’s effete facade masks a swashbuckling hero rescuing victims of the French revolution.
Dir: Harold Young Cast: Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey.
BW- 98 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – June 13, 2018

6:15 AM
THE WOMAN IN GREEN (1945)
Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of seemingly unrelated murders.
Dir: Roy William Neill Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke.
BW- 67 mins, CC,
*****Conan Doyle‘s Sherlock Holmes!*****

7:30 AM
SHERLOCK HOLMES IN DRESSED TO KILL (1946)
Sherlock Holmes sets out to find why people are killing each other over a seemingly inexpensive music box.
Dir: Roy William Neill Cast: Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Patricia Morison.
BW- 71 mins
*****A Conan Doyle double-header!*****

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – June 15, 2018

1:30 PM
THE DOUBLE MAN (1967)
Russian secret service officials attempts to kidnap a CIA officer and replace him with a double of its own.
Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner Cast: Yul Brynner, Britt Ekland, Clive Revill.
C- 105 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

10:45 PM
THE NIGHT OF THE GENERALS (1967)
A Nazi officer tries to catch a serial killer attacking prostitutes.
Dir: Anatole Litvak Cast: Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay.
C- 144 mins, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – June 16, 2018

1:15 AM
EYES OF LAURA MARS (1978)
A fashion photographer develops the ability to see through the eyes of a serial killer.
Dir: Irvin Kershner Cast: Faye Dunaway, Brad Dourif, Rene Auberjonois.
C- 103 mins, Letterbox Format

3:00 AM
COMA (1978)
A lady doctor investigates a series of strange deaths and disappearing bodies at her hospital.
Dir: Michael Crichton Cast: Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley.
C- 113 mins, CC

11:15 PM
THE PITFALL (1948)
A married insurance man falls for a criminal’s girlfriend.
Dir: Andre DeToth Cast: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt.
BW- 86 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – June 17, 2018

9:00 AM
THE PITFALL (1948)
A married insurance man falls for a criminal’s girlfriend.
Dir: Andre DeToth Cast: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt.
BW- 86 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – June 20, 2018

11:00 PM
THE CATERED AFFAIR (1956)
A working-class mother fights to give her daughter a big wedding whether the girl wants it or not.
Dir: Richard Brooks Cast: Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds.
BW- 94 mins, CC
*****Not a mystery, but a terrific movie.*****

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – June 23, 2018

1:30 AM
HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE (1980)
A killer stalks a brides-to-be.
Dir: Armand Mastroianni Cast: Don Scardino, Elizabeth Kemp, Caitlin O’Heaney.
C- 94 mins, CC

3:15 AM
ALICE, SWEET ALICE (1977)
When people in an Italian-American neighborhood are murdered, suspicion falls on a lonely 12-year-old.
Dir: Alfred Sole Cast: Linda Miller, Mildred Clinton, Paula Sheppard.
C- 105 mins, CC

11:00 AM
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)
An American reporter covering the war in Europe gets mixed up in the assassination of a Dutch diplomat.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall.
BW- 121 mins, CC

3:00 PM
GET CARTER (1971)
A small-time gangster searches for the truth behind his brother’s death.
Dir: Mike Hodges Cast: Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland.
C- 112 mins, CC

7:00 PM
THE CAREY TREATMENT (1972)
A doctor uncovers a hotbed of corruption when he tries to clear a colleague of a murder charge.
Dir: Blake Edwards Cast: James Coburn, Jennifer O’Neill, Pat Hingle.
C- 101 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – June 25, 2018

5:30 PM
OUTWARD BOUND (1930)
Passengers on a fog-shrouded ship learn that they are lost souls on the way to heaven or hell.
Dir: Robert Milton Cast: Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks, Helen Chandler.
BW- 83 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – June 27, 2018

11:45 AM
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975)
When a group of schoolgirls mysteriously disappear, the survivors find their lives changed forever.
Dir: Peter Weir Cast: Martin Vaughan, Rachel Roberts, Vivean Gray.
C- 107 mins, CC

4:30 PM
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
An advertising man is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason.
C- 136 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – June 29, 2018

8:00 AM
M (1931)
The mob sets out to catch a child killer whose crimes are attracting too much police attention.
Dir: Fritz Lang Cast: Theo Lingen, Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke.
BW- 110 mins

10:00 AM
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934)
A British family gets mixed up with spies and an assassination plot while vacationing in Switzerland.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Nova Pilbeam.
BW- 76 mins, CC

12:45 PM
STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR (1940)
A newspaperman serves as key witness in a circumstantial murder case.
Dir: Boris Ingster Cast: Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet.
BW- 64 mins, CC

2:00 PM
THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George.
BW- 100 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – June 30, 2018

3:45 AM
CLEOPATRA JONES (1973)
A female drug agent locks horns with a violent drug dealer.
Dir: Jack Starrett Cast: Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, Brenda Sykes.
C- 89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

4:45 PM
HARPER (1966)
A broken-down private eye sets out to find a rich woman’s missing husband.
Dir: Jack Smight Cast: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris.
C- 121 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

7:00 PM
THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS (1944)
A meek novelist investigates the mysterious death of a notorious scoundrel.
Dir: Jean Negulesco Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson.
BW- 96 mins, CC

9:00 PM
FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARK (1941)
An aspiring mystery writer stumbles on to a real murder.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon Cast: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Ralph Bellamy.
BW- 96 mins, CC

11:00 PM
ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950)
A police officer tries to find half a million dollars stolen by gangsters.
Dir: Richard Fleischer Cast: Charles McGraw, Adele Jergens, William Talman.
BW- 68 mins, CC

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed tv specials coming up in June, be sure to leave a comment below!

In case you’re interested in seeing the rest of this month’s television mystery movies, here’s the May 2018 television mystery movies schedule:

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for May 2018 on Turner Classic Movies channel

And here is the page on my site with plenty of entries about movies and television shows you may enjoy:

Cozy Mystery List TV and  Movie Section – all you have to do is click on the link to go to that page on my site.

(All of the movie descriptions were taken off their respective websites.)

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