The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Ann Rule: A Rose for Her Grave

I just took another little “break” from my Cozies – still staying with the broad “mystery” theme. It has been a while since I did this. The last time I did I read the very same author: Ann Rule. I love her true crime novels. This time I read her 1993 “A Rose for Her Grave and Other True Cases” (also known as Ann Rule’s Crime Files Vol. 1). Ann Rule’s crime Files are collections of several different crimes, with one longer “main” true crime that anchors the book. The “main” crime in this particular Crime Files is about Randy Roth – an apparently very charismatic woman-charmer.

While the shorter crime cases are interesting and well-written, it’s Randy Roth’s incredible, dastardly actions that stood out for me. Women, BEWARE the charmers like him!

I believe that Ann Rule is considered one of the best, if not the best true crime author. She makes the crimes (with all the people and settings) read like good fiction – and sometimes it’s hard to believe her books are based on real events.

Ann Rule had an interest in true crime even before she started writing. She was once a police woman with the Seattle police department and she also volunteered on a crisis help line – with serial killer Ted Bundy!

I think of myself as a rather slow reader – even though I took an Evelyn Wood Speed-Reading course years ago. However, every time I read one of Ann Rule’s true crime novels, it seems I truly get my money’s worth at that speed-reading course!

If you’re ever interested in reading a true crime novel >>> I strongly recommend starting with one by Ann Rule. (Even though it may spoil you when you read a true crime novel by someone else!)

New Releases – April 17 to April 23, 2017

Here is the list of new release for April 17 to April 23!

David Baldacci: The Fix (This will be the 3rd in the Amos Decker Mystery Series.)

Ann Cleeves: Cold Earth (This will be the 8th in the Shetland Island Mystery Series.)

Kathi Daley: Easter Escapade (This will be the 24th in the Zoe Donovan Mystery Series. This is an Easter mystery.)

Kathryn Miller Haines: The Girl from Yesterday (This will be a stand-alone psychological thriller.)

Karen Harper: Falling Darkness (This will be the 3rd in the South Shores Mystery Series.)

Veronica Heley: False Fire (This will be the 11th in the Abbot Agency Mystery Series.)

Sasscer Hill: Flamingo Road (This will be a Stand Alone mystery.)

Sara Paretsky: Fallout (This will be the 18th in the V.I. Warshawski Mystery Series.)

Diane Vallere: The Decorator Who Knew Too Much (This will be the 4th in the Mad for Mod Mystery Series.)

Cozy Mystery News – April 2017, Pt. 2

Yikes! It feels like I just posted a Cozy Mystery news entry, but since I have some new information, I had better get going on this!

 Lynn Cahoon has absolutely taken off since she first started releasing her Cozy Mysteries! She is both a New York Times and a USA Today bestselling author, so I’m sure plenty of you will be very happy to hear that she will be releasing at least three more Cozies in her Cat Latimer Mystery Series. That’s right, ex-English professor Cat will be continuing to run her retreats for writers in Colorado. (Lynn Cahoon also writes the Tourist Trap Mystery Series.)

Most of you already know that Jessie Crockett (author of the Sugar Grove Mystery Series) also started writing the Change of Fortune Mystery Series. These two Cozy Mystery series were very different from each other – one featuring a present-day sleuth living on a maple sugar grove in New Hampshire and the other (written as Jessica Estevao) featuring a psychic with a dubious past in the late 1890s. Well, the good news is that she will soon be starting the Beryl and Edwina Mystery Series which is set during the 1920s, and takes place in England. Beryl is a rather loud American friend of reserved, British Edwina. Beryl moves in with Edwina and the two form a private detective team. She will be writing this series as Jessica Ellicott.

You would think that Charlaine Harris is keeping super busy – with all the Aurora Teagarden mystery movies on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel, as well as writing new Aurora Teagarden mysteries (after over a ten year hiatus). However, this New York Times bestselling author is about to start a new trilogy! That’s right, in 2018 Charlaine Harris will be releasing her first book in her new Texoma series. This will be a fantasy series and will be set in what is called “fractured America” – in an alternate universe where Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been assassinated and America is split into five territories. (Charlaine Harris has had a whole lot of success with her paranormal Sookie Stackhouse book series which was made into HBO’s True Blood series.)

As most of you can remember, a while back there was news about Cozy Mystery authors whose contracts were being terminated. It was bad news for a lot of us! Recently I have seen several authors being picked up by other publishing companies, which is great news for a lot of us! Let me just get to the point… Molly MacRae‘s Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery Series will be back with at least two more Cozies! That’s right! I’ll let you know as soon as I find out when they’re being released!

For those of you fans of historical Cozies who have been waiting and waiting to find out what Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her maid (Eva Huntford) would be up to next, you’ll be happy to know that Alyssa Maxwell is scheduled to release at least three more books in her Lady and Lady’s Maid Mystery Series. Yay!

Wow! This sure has been a great month for news! It seems that as quickly as I post an entry, more news comes in!

P.S. Click here if you missed part one of April 2017’s Cozy Mystery news entry.

Two New Cozy Mystery Holiday Books Coming May 2017

We can look forward to two holiday-themed Cozy Mysteries coming out in May – one for Fourth of July, the others for New Years!

First up will be Vickie Fee‘s One Fete in the Grave, a Fourth of July themed Cozy and the third book in her Liv and Di in Dixie Mystery Series. Liv McKay is doing her job as a party planner by organizing a big 4th of July celebration for Dixie, Tennessee, when (surprise!) a corpse is discovered at the party! Liv’s mother’s fiance is the prime suspect, so Liv will need to take it upon herself to discover who really committed the crime.

The other holiday Cozy will be New Year’s themed – Carolyn Haines‘s Sticks and Bones, the 17th in her Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery Series. When an old college acquaintance (Frangelica “Sister” McFee) turns up at a New Year’s party Sarah is attending with her friends, and unfortunately it’s a reunion Sarah hasn’t been hoping for. Her friend is in town to help film a movie based on her memoirs – memoirs in which the death of her mother and brother feature prominently. The crew of the filming thinks that there’s more to the story than the memoirs indicate, and they hire Sarah to determine the truth behind what happened so many years ago.

For more Fourth of July or New Year’s themed Cozies, be sure to check out the theme pages below!

Fourth of July Cozies

New Year’s Cozies

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