The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

What’s the Cozy News?

It seems like sometimes we hear more about Cozy Mystery Series that have been cancelled than about series that are thriving. So here is a “What’s the Cozy News?” entry that will hopefully bring some good news to most of us!

Ellery Adams (aka J.B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, and Lucy Arlington) has announced that her Charmed Pie Shoppe will be closing its doors after the latest book in the series, Breach of Crust. However there’s good news about her Book Retreat Mystery Series – it will be moving from Penguin-Random to Kensington Publishers. Also, Ellery Adams will be starting a new series  (The Secret Book and Scone Society) with Kensington in late 2017.

I know a lot of Cozy Mystery readers were upset when Melissa Bourbon‘s Magical Dressmaking Series ended. Well, here’s some great news: Winnie Archer (aka Melissa Bourbon and Misa Ramirez) will be starting a new Cozy Series called the Bread Shop Mystery Series. Kneaded to Death is the first book in the series, and we will be introduced to Ivy Culpepper (our sleuth) who is an aspiring photographer who ends up working in the Yeast of Eden bread shop. The series will be set in a seaside town (Santa Sofia) in California.

Lynn Cahoon is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, which explains why Kensington is planning on releasing more Cozies in her very popular Tourist Trap Mystery Series. Brava!

Good news for Maia Chance fans! The Crooked Lane publishing company will be releasing Maia Chance’s Agnes and Effie Mystery Series, of which Bad Housekeeping is the first. This series will star a “dork” and her great aunt (who happens to have been a fashion model) in a New York town.

The Crooked Land publishers are bringing us even more Cozies! Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell) has a “snowbound” County Cork Mystery Series that will be coming out soon (Cruel Winter) and … wait for it… there’s at least one more to look forward to after that one!

Here’s more good news! We can expect at least a few more Mystery with Recipes Cozies from Isis Crawford (aka Barbara Block). Yes, that’s right, Kensington has given her series the green light!

A new Cozy series by Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell and Tace Baker) is on the horizon. Day’s Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery Series will feature the owner of a bike shop who holds a weekly mystery book group – which exclusively reads Cozies. (My type of reading group!) Murder on Cape Cod is the first book in the series.

Amanda Flower (aka Isabella Alan) has two new Cozy Mystery Series for us to look forward to. Flower’s Forgotten Cozy Mystery Series will feature  a florist sleuth who inherits a Scottish Highlands’ cottage. Death at Duncreigan is the first in the series. Flowers is also beginning her Amish Candy Shop Mystery Series which will feature a chocolatier who works at her grandparents’ Swissmen Sweets Amish Candy Shop in Harvest, Ohio. And, yum! Recipes are included in this series. Assaulted Caramel is the first Cozy in the series.

Nancy J. Parra (aka Nancy Coco and Nell Hampton) will be starting her new Wine Country Mystery Series. A Case of Syrah, Syrah is the first in the series. (We can thank the Crooked Lane publishers for this series, too!)

Rose Pressey has been given the go-ahead on book 6 and 7 in her Haunted Vintage Mystery Series. If you aren’t already familiar with this series, it is set in Georgia and features a sleuth with a passion for vintage clothing!

Now this is great news! It looks like Denise Swanson will be kept busy writing Cozies! Swanson (a New York Times bestselling author) will begin a new series – the Chef-to-Go Mystery Series – with at least three books in it. Also, she will be writing the Welcome Back to Scumble River Mystery Series, beginning with book #1, Dead in the Water.

If you’re a Hannah Ives fan, then you’ll be very happy to know that Marcia Talley‘s 16th book in that series (Mile High Murder) will be released.

And last (but by no means least!) there’s terrific Charles Todd news! We can expect more Bess Crawford and Ian Rutledge mysteries! (I told you it was terrific!)

And that’s a wrap!

New Series Vs. Old Series – Which Do You Prefer?

A while ago, the following question was asked by Margaret StashEmpress as part of a longer comment:

Am I the only one that’s getting a bit tired of seeing so many new series (instead of continuations of favorite old series?) I think at this point a new series has to have a REALLY unique “hook” that grabs me before I’m interested enough to try it (the upcoming Kensington Palace Chef series is one whose premise “grabs” me).

-Margaret StashEmpress

It feels like this has been a more regular occurrence lately than it was in years gone by, so I’ve had some time to think about it more frequently, and thought I’d ask what everyone thinks.

Sometimes there just isn’t any alternative to starting a new series, and that’s understandable. For example, when an author is discontinued by their publisher, they don’t generally have the option to continue writing the same series under a different publisher or as a self-published author as the publisher has significant rights to the series. So they don’t get a choice on whether they want to start over again as it were – if they want to continue writing, they need to come up with a new series.

However, there are other times when it seems like an author just wants to start something new. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing – if classic authors just stuck with the one series they began with, we wouldn’t have many of the classic sleuths they came up with in their later writings! There’s also the issue that some series just get old with time – that sometimes there are only so many stories that can be told about a given cast before books begin to feel very “same-ey”. The unfortunate side effect is that series that we already love can feel side-tracked, ignored in favor of the new favorites.

So, what do you prefer? New series and fresh starts? Or the continuation of tried and true favorites?

New Releases – December 12 to December 18, 2016

Here is the list of new release for December 12 to December 18!

Elizabeth J. Duncan: Ill Met by Murder (This will be the 2nd in the Shakespeare in the Catskills Mystery Series.)

Carola Dunn: Buried in the Country (This will be the 4th in the Cornish Mystery Series.)

Christopher Fowler: Strange Tide (This will be the 13th in the Bryant and May Mystery Series.)

Victoria Laurie: Forever, Again (This may be a Stand Alone or a Maddie Flynn mystery for young adults.)

Kendel Lynn: Pot Luck (This will be the 4th in the Elliot Lisbon Mystery Series.)

Gail Oust: Curried Away (This will be the 4th in the Piper Prescott Mystery Series.) (This is an Oktoberfest themed mystery.)

James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein: Word of Mouse (This will be a Middle Grade book.)

Colin Dexter’s Last Bus to Woodstock

I started thinking about some of the non Cozy mysteries I have read that I consider classics from yesteryear, one of which is Colin Dexter‘s Last Bus to Woodstock, the book that introduced Dexter’s classic detective, Inspector Morse.

Note that Colin Dexter definitely isn’t a Cozy mystery author. His books are much closer to police procedural than Cozy >>> they star an actual member of the police, and include many elements that would not be included in Cozies (mostly swearing, graphic description of violence, and much stronger sexual themes in the mysteries investigated).

Despite this, I feel that a lot of Cozy readers still have a very convenient entry point to Colin Dexter’s work >>> the very excellent and long-running Inspector Morse television series, as well as its modern spin-offs, Endeavor and Inspector Lewis (for the record, I don’t think the spin-offs, are as good as the original Inspector Morse television series).

Last Bus to Woodstock introduced us to Chief Inspector Morse (whose first name isn’t known for quite a long time, so I won’t use it either generally), as well as his Detective Sergeant, Robert (Robbie) Lewis. Morse and Lewis are an exceptional pair, working well off each other to help make sure that all potential avenues of investigation are covered. It’s obvious that both men consider the other a partner who complements their skills. Morse is a surprisingly educated man for a police officer, enjoying classical operas and crossword puzzles, though he has few personal ties. Lewis, on the other hand, is relatively uneducated, but has strong family ties. The pair are actually surprisingly well suited partners – while Morse is prone to flashes of brilliance, Lewis has the far more organized approach to crime solving, letting him gather the clues and collate the data that Morse needs to come up with whatever brilliant deduction he will eventually reach.

Though I haven’t seen the Inspector Morse television series in years, I still think that it’s worth discussing whenever Colin Dexter’s books come up. Even Dexter himself considered John Thaw’s portrayal of Morse to be beyond reproach, considering him such an iconic portrayal of Inspector Morse that he actually stopped writing Morse novels after Thaw’s unfortunate death in 2000. Dexter actually stated in his will that no further adaptations of his Morse works should be made since Thaw is no longer available (the Endeavor series is not included in that statement – Dexter approved the actor as a younger version of Morse, for stories that could be told before he reached the rank of Chief Inspector).

MENU