The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

New Releases – October 2 to October 8, 2017

Here is the list of new release for October 2 to October 8!

Ellie Alexander (aka Kate Dyer-Seeley): Death on Tap (This will be the 1st in the NEW Sloan Krause Mystery Series.)

M.C. Beaton (aka Marion Chesney): The Witches’ Tree (This will be the 28th in the Agatha Raisin Mystery Series.)

Kathleen Ernst: Mining for Justice (This will be the 8th in the Chloe Ellefson Mystery Series.)

Carolyn Hart: Ghost on the Case (This will be the 8th in the Bailey Ruth Ghost Mystery Series.)

Delia James: Familiar Motives (This will be the 3rd in the Witch’s Cat MysterySeries.)

Miranda James (aka Honor Hartman, Jimmie Ruth Evans, & Dean James): Fixing to Die (This will be the 4th in the Southern Ladies Mystery Series.)

Joyce Tremel: A Room with a Brew (This will be the 3rd in the Brewing Trouble Mystery Series. This will be an Oktoberfest mystery.)

November 2017 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in November 2017:

November 2017

Kristi Abbott: Assault and Buttery (This will be the 3rd in the Popcorn Shop Mystery Series.)

Traci Andrighetti & Elizabeth Ashby: A Poison Manicure and Peach Liqueur (This will be the 19th in the Danger Cove Hair Salon Mystery Series.)

David Baldacci: End Game (This will be the in the Will Robbie Mystery Series.)

Susan Bernhardt: Paradise Can Be Murder (This will be the 4th in the Kay Driscoll Mystery Series.)

Rhys Bowen: The Ghost of Christmas Past (This will be the 17th in the Molly Murphy Mystery Series. This is a Christmas mystery.)

Lynn Cahoon: Of Murder and Men (This will be the 3rd in the Cat Latimer Mystery Series.)

Kate Carlisle: Eaves of Destruction (This will be the 5th in the Fixer-Upper Mystery Series.)

Bailey Cates (aka Cricket McRae & Bailey Cattrell): Potions and Pastries (This will be the 7th in the Magical Bakery Mystery Series.)

Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke: Every Breath You Take (This will be the 5th in the Under Suspicion Mystery Series.)

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell): A Late Frost (This will be the 11th in the Orchard Mystery Series. This is a “WinterFare” mystery.)

Ellen Crosby: The Vineyard Victims (This will be the 8th in the Wine Country Mystery Series.)

Krista Davis: Not a Creature Was Purring (This will be the 5th in the Paws & Claws Mystery Series. This is a Christmas mystery.)

Julianna Deering: Death at Thorburn Hall (This will be the 6th in the Drew Farthering Mystery Series.)

Vicki Delany (aka Eva Gates): Hark the Herald Angels Slay (This will be the 3rd in the Year-Round Christmas Mystery Series. This is a Christmas in July mystery.)

Elizabeth J. Duncan: Much Ado about Murder (This will be the 3rd in the Shakespeare in the Catskills Mystery Series.)

Kaitlyn Dunnett (aka Kathy Lynn Emerson): X Marks the Scot (This will be the 11th in the Liss MacCrimmon Mystery Series.)

Kate Dyer-Seeley (aka Ellie Alexander): In Cave Danger (This will be the 5th in the Pacific Northwest Mystery Series.)

Janet Evanovich: Hardcore Twenty-Four (This will be the 24th in the Stephanie Plum Mystery Series.)

Sarah Fox : Of Spice and Men (This will be the 3rd in the Pancake House Mystery Series.)

Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames): A Deadly Éclair (This will be the 1st in the NEW French Bistro Mystery Series.)

Cheryl Hollon: Etched in Tears (This will be the 4th in the Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery Series.)

Mary Ellen Hughes: A Fatal Collection (This will be the 1st in the NEW Keepsake Cove Mystery Series.)

P. D. James: Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales (This will be a collection of short stories.)

Maureen Jennings: Let Darkness Bury the Dead (This will be the 8th in the Murdoch Mystery Series)

Catherine Lloyd: Death Comes to the School (This will be the 5th in the Kurland St. Mary Mystery Series.)

Jenn McKinlay (aka Josie Belle & Lucy Lawrence): Death in the Stacks (This will be the 8th in the Library Lover’s Mystery Series.)

Sharon Pape: That Olde White Magick (This will be the 2nd in the Abracadabra Mystery Series.)

Anne Perry: A Christmas Return (This will be the 15th in the Christmas Mystery Series.)

Patricia Smiley: Outside the Wire (This will be a Stand Alone Novel.)

Alexander McCall Smith: The House of Unexpected Sisters (This will be the 18th in the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Mystery Series.)

Wendy Corsi Staub: Dead of Winter (This will be the in the Lily Dale Mystery Series.)

Lane Stone: Stay Calm and Collie On (This will be the 3rd in the Pet Palace Mystery Series.)

Victoria Thompson: City of Lies (This will be the 1st in the NEW Counterfeit Lady Mystery Series.)

If you want to see this month’s releases, go to the October 2017 Mystery Book New Releases.

You can find these and many more Cozies scheduled for release soon on the Soon to be Released Mysteries page on my site.

(These are the mysteries by authors who are currently on the Cozy Mystery site.)

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – September 2017

October is almost here, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozy Mysteries that we have read this month! If you read a Cozy mystery this month and want to recommend it to the rest of us, be sure to post it here! September has been another good reading month for me, as I’ve reread the first entry of M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth Mystery Series.

If you’re interested in reading why I’m recommending these series, you can go to the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my Cozy-Mystery site for my full write-ups on each of these great Cozy series.

So, what have you been reading that you can recommend in September? Please be sure to tell us why you liked these Cozies so much. I know we’re all always on the lookout for more particularly good Cozy Mystery authors! (If you have a lot of Cozies you think are great, please post the ones you like the most at the top of the list.)

As always, please do not tell us about the Cozy Mysteries you did not like.

What really good Cozy Mystery did you read during September 2017 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

Here are the current recommended authors who some of you have read and recommended this past month:

M. C. Beaton: Hamish Macbeth Mystery Series

Kathleen Bridge: Hampton Home and Garden Mystery Series

Nancy Coco (aka Nancy J. Parra and Nell Hampton): Candy-Coated Mystery Series

Barbara Colley: Charlotte LaRue Mystery Series

Kate Collins: Flower Shop Mystery Series

Bill Crider: Dan Rhodes Mystery Series AND Carl Burns Mystery Series AND Sally Good Mystery Series

Janet Finsilver: Kelly Jackson Mystery Series

Joanne Fluke: Hannah Swensen Mystery Series

Jan Karon: The Mitford Series (not mysteries)

Sofie Kelly (aka Sofie Ryan & Darlene Ryan): Magical Cats Mystery Series

Sally Goldenbaum: Seaside Knitters Mystery Series

Victoria Hamilton (aka Amanda Cooper): Merry Muffin Mystery Series

Sadie Hartwell (aka Susannah Hardy): Tangled Web Mystery Series

Joan Hess: Maggody Mystery Series AND Claire Malloy Mystery Series

Victoria Holt

Amanda Lee (aka Gayle Trent & Gayle Leeson): Embroidery Mystery Series

Claire McGowan: Paula Maguire Mystery Series (first entry The Lost)

Louise Penny: Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Series

Ashley Weaver: Amery Ames Mystery Series (first entry Murder at the Brightwell)

Phyllis A. Whitney

[If you click on the author’s name (blue) link, it will take you to his/her page on the Cozy Mystery site. The pages have all of the authors’ books listed chronologically.]

I will list the authors and series that have been recommended, but I urge you to read the comments below so you can see the reasons other Cozy Mystery readers thought these were their best reads of the month.

♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦

P.S. I usually don’t comment on your recommendations since they speak for themselves.

M. C. Beaton: Hamish Macbeth Mysteries

Hamish Macbeth. What a name for a sleuth! A small remote town in the Scottish Highlands. What a location for a mystery series!

I know I’ve mentioned (a whole lot of times!) that M. C. Beaton has been one of my very favorite Cozy Mystery authors for many years. She writes not one, but two series which I considered my very favorite series. Quite a while ago, I started reading the Agatha Raisin books, and I loved them. Then I discovered the Hamish Macbeth Mystery Series, the first books of which were published way back in the mid 1980s (even before the Agatha Raisin series), and I loved them even more!

Even though both of these series began so long ago, M. C. Beaton continues to write new books and both series are often still recommended by site readers.

I recently re-read the first of the Hamish books, Death of a Gossip as part of my quest to read or re-read the first books of some of the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series. In Death of a Gossip, we are introduced to the red-haired, laconic and seemingly lazy Hamish Macbeth, the only constable in the small Scottish village of Lochdubh.

The setup for the story is that of a very classic Cozy Mystery: in this case, a small number of strangers are thrown together in a small group to spend a week learning how to fish in the Scottish Highlands. Before you know it, one of the party is murdered, and just about everyone else is a potential suspect with at least a plausible motive to have hated the victim enough to kill. Of course, big town detectives are called in the try to solve the crime, but Hamish is able to outwit the killer and beat the police detectives to the solution — even though Hamish was told not to work on the case.

The book also introduces a potential love interest for Hamish (the daughter of the local rich land owner), Hamish’s beloved dog Towser, and a number of other people who live in the small town.

This is a short (less than 200 pages) and fun read with a tight plot, interesting characters and very little extraneous material. It is the kind of book that leaves me wanting more, and luckily, there are 27 more books in the series so there is, indeed, a lot more! I highly recommend the Hamish Macbeth Mystery Series by M. C. Beaton.

By the way, there was a British TV series produced in the 1990s with some of the same characters, but don’t expect a strong correlation between the two. The location is the same, but Hamish in the shows is not too similar to Hamish in the books. I did enjoy the TV shows but only after accepting that I was not going to see the Hamish that I had always imagined when reading the books. The Hamish Macbeth TV series is available on Acorn TV.

To see others of the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series, click here.

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