Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV
I’m adding another set of new authors to the site >>> four more specifically. As always, these are authors I’ve heard of from visitors to the site, either through comments or by email.
I hope you enjoy all these great looking Cozy Mystery authors!
As I was recently reading A Killer Read, (you can read my blog post on that Cozy here), I couldn’t help but notice how often Lizzie and her fellow Book Club members mention their favorite mystery authors. The novel even introduces most of them at about the same time as they mention some of their own personal favorite reading material, a good way for canny mystery lovers to get a flavor of the sort of person each might be from their literary leanings. Quotations from mystery authors also begin each chapter. There are even reading lists at the end of the book of other mysteries that are thematically appropriate for each member of the Ashton Corners Book Club.
Of course, this is all very appropriate for the series >>> it does revolve around a mystery book club, after all! So it isn’t out of place or jarring, except for the slight surprise I get every time I see a “real person” inserted into a fictional world. And this isn’t the only Cozy series I can think of where real world Cozy authors are mentioned “in setting” in a Cozy >>> Miranda James comes to mind, as I believe that both Carolyn Haines and Charlaine Harris are mentioned as authors who have visited Charlie’s bookstore (hmm… maybe another possibility for me to reread some time soon…)
So I thought I’d ask if you enjoy seeing mentions of your other favorite authors in Cozies that you are reading. Personally I like it >>> as long as it is appropriate to the book! Also, are there any other series that you can think of that insert a character’s personal reading material into the setting that you particularly enjoy? If so, please post a comment. Thank you!
As I mentioned last week, I’m now trying to post the books releasing each week.
Ellen Byron: Body on the Bayou (This will be the 2nd in the Cajun Country Mystery Series.) (This is a Wedding themed mystery.)
Jennifer Chiaverini: Fates and Traitors: A Novel of John Wilkes Booth(This will be a Stand Alone novel. Not a mystery.)
The Ashton Corners Book Club is having its very first meeting very early in the book when they are introduced by a stranger who enters the house of the host uninvited, claiming that he was having car trouble. After making a mysterious call he claimed was to a tow truck (though snippets overheard most definitely did not sound like a call for help), and making a brief and disruptive stay at the meeting, the mystery visitor is found dead in the driveway, shot to death by a pistol belonging to the host of the club, Molly.
The book club is perhaps the highlight of the first book to me, as they all serve to bring slightly different perspectives to solving the mystery. As mystery readers, all of them are adept at looking at crimes from a critical point of view. In this case, Molly, who was hosting the meeting and who technically owned the gun the victim was shot with (it was an antique that had belonged to her husband), serves primarily as the reason why Lizzie and the rest of the club need to become involved in the case, though she does do some sleuthing assistance. So does expectant single mother Stephanie, who is suspected by an overbearing police officer after reacting in a suspicious manner by potentially recognizing the victim.
Other members of the club are more proactive – former police chief Bob can clearly draw on his experience to help solve mysteries. Teenage Andie is good with computers and other modern information gathering methods like this “Internet” thing I keep hearing so much about, while lawyer Jacob could potentially be helpful in dealing with the police.
Of course, Lizzie herself is the heroine of the novel and the overall sleuth of the series – she is a literacy specialist, both serving as an adviser to local schools on helping children who are falling behind catch up with their peers (including Andie, one of the book club members), and running a literacy program to help older people who missed out on finishing high school earn their GED (including Stephanie, another member of the book club). Indeed, the book club seems almost as much a tool for Lizzie to help some of her more receptive or distant students come to love reading through a more approachable source than “classic” literature, which can often be difficult to fully appreciate if the reader isn’t in the right mindset. As with many Cozy Mystery sleuths, Lizzie is a local who left her home town but has returned after a stay away – so she has the advantage of both experience in the “big city” to draw on, and history with many of the locals she will meet in the course of her sleuthing.
Also important to this entry (and further entries in the series) is Mark, a former crush of Lizzie’s in high school and current Chief of the Ashton Corners police. (No points for guessing that Mark will end up as a romantic interest!) Mark serves as another source of information and advice for Lizzie, though one that obviously wishes she would be >>> or at least try to be >>> more discrete, as evidence starts piling up and the situation inevitably becomes more dangerous.
Overall, A Killer Read is a good introductory novel to what promises to be a strong ensemble cast. Most Cozies have one or two talented sleuths, but Erika Chase’s Ashton Corners Book Club is lucky enough to have many.
P.S. She also writes the Dinner Club Mystery Series as Linda Wiken!
If you’re interested in reading more of these brief revisits of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.
