The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Christmas in July? Winter Cozies in Summer?

July 10, 2016

So having just finished re-reading a Christmas-themed Cozy (Leslie Meier‘s Mistletoe Murder – if you want to read that blog entry, go here), it’s gotten me in a bit of a “holiday” sort of mood >>> despite the fact that it is more than 100 degrees outside pretty much every day!

Normally I don’t read holiday themed Cozies “out of season” >>> I tend to read a lot of holiday themed Cozies but only when the actual holiday rolls around. While I was re-reading this Christmas themed Cozy during a rather hot spell here in San Antonio, I started thinking about Christmas in July Cozy Mystery reading. About two years ago, MJ wrote a comment about just this:

… Oft discussed on this blog are the ‘seasonal/theme’ cozies. Danna, too, has said she enjoys reading Christmas cozies in Nov/Dec., winter cozies in Jan/Feb, etc., etc. In addition, many of us have talked about how we enjoy the characters in our favorite series. I’m always looking forward (generally waiting for a year) to the next book in an enjoyable on-going series.

HERE’S THE DILEMMA …….what if a book in a series you enjoy is released with a Christmas theme in June?? Do you read it now because you’ve been waiting for the next ‘installment’? OR, do you wait for 6 months to enjoy the ambiance of the Christmas season?

That’s exactly what happened when I automatically picked up ‘The Diva Wraps It Up’ (released 6/3), by Krista Davis. Since it’s a series I follow, I didn’t even bother reading the story description. When I started reading the first page, I realized it has a Christmas theme! What’s with that?

I haven’t read it yet. But whether one does or doesn’t read it in the summer, probably will depend on how much patience one has. I’m thinking about a ‘Christmas in July’ read (perhaps around the 7/22, 7/23, 7/24 time frame). Since in the last book there was some ‘relationship’ uncertainty in a subplot, I assume this will be a continuing storyline in the new book. We’ll see………………..I’m not a real patient person.

And then just last month, “HookedOnCozyMysteries” wrote this:

Just finished a crazy Donna Andrews mystery: The Nightingale Before Christmas. She’s always good for a laugh, and she came through again; reading something that is set during chilly weather at least makes me feel a little cooler. Now I’m onto A Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanna Fluke. It’s March in Lake Eden, Minnesota … still chilly and Hannah Swenson is sure to bake up something yummy

I know we have discussed reading holiday/seasonal Cozies out of their corresponding season, but I’m wondering (again) when the rest of you Cozy Mystery lovers read holiday Cozies. Do you do what I normally do >>> read holiday mysteries in the “proper” season? (This is sort of a drag if you have to wait several months for the specific holiday.) Or do you read your favorite authors’ Cozies when they are released (or when they are the next books in your TBR pile), regardless of the holiday/season they take place in? Please leave a comment below. Thank you!

Leslie Meier: Lucy Stone Mystery Series

July 8, 2016

The first book I’m going to be covering this month for the monthly most popular & recommended mystery series is Leslie Meier‘s Lucy Stone Mystery Series. The first book in this series is Mistletoe Murder – a Christmas themed mystery, which is no surprise since the Lucy Stone Mystery Series is a holiday themed series, with each entry revolving around a different holiday. This series began in 1991, and I’ve been reading it for almost that long! It is Leslie Meier’s only series >>> which means she can devote all of her writing time to keeping her fans (like me!) happily reading.

With the holidays approaching, Lucy Stone is about as busy as you can expect for a mother of three children (son Toby and daughters Elizabeth and Sara), though her husband Bill picks up some of the slack. She works nights at the Country Cousins mail order phone support line. When she discovers the body of Sam Miller, owner of the company, dead in his car with a hose running from his exhaust pipe into a window, she thinks it’s suicide>>> but in a small community like Tinker’s Cove, Maine, it doesn’t take long for word to get out that Sam Miller was murdered.

One of the things I liked about this entry in the series is how the murder investigation needed to bend around Lucy’s schedule, instead of Lucy just deciding to drop everything to pursue something that isn’t really her job. Lucy Stone is a wife with three children and visiting relatives, and at the same time is casually investigating the owner of the company she works at. It’s only natural that something is going to have to give – and during the more thoroughly “holiday” part of the book, she’s definitely in full on “mom mode”, and investigating a murder just has to fade into the background to the practical details of shopping, hosting family guests, managing meals, and child care. This is one of the reasons I enjoy the series so much >>> Lucy isn’t able to just start investigating mysteries while her family is busy doing something else. Her family seems real.

The Lucy Stone Mystery Series takes place in a quaint town in Maine (the fictional Tinker’s Cove) which provides a great Cozy atmosphere. The people are very much like people who you would know. And, as many of you who have been with me a while know, I love different yearly seasons. Tinker’s Cove is perfect for seasonal fun. You’ll “feel” the winter cold while you enjoy the snow, and the fall has its vibrant leaves >>> things I truly miss down here in San Antonio. I very much rely on the Cozy Mysteries I read to provide the seasonal atmosphere that I miss so much down here.

Another thing I really like is that this particular mystery did keep me guessing pretty far into the book. A lot of the time, I’m able to make a pretty educated guess as to “whodunit”, but in this case I actually wasn’t sure. At the same time, when the mystery did resolve, it was obvious in hindsight >>> the clues were all there. To me that’s one of the hallmarks of a really really good mystery.

There are some elements that some Cozy readers may not like. For example, the death of a family pet is a plot point in the novel in an unpleasant fashion, and this is definitely something that I would be surprised to see in a lot of the Cozies released today.

As I said earlier, this series started years ago and I’ve been a fan for many of those years. I definitely recommend this series. This specific book is (in my opinion) the beginning to a “modern classic” Cozy Mystery series. It’s a Cozy Mystery series that should be read chronologically, so you can grow with Lucy and her family and friends.

As always, if you’re interested in seeing more highlights of some of the most recommended or popular Cozy Mystery authors/series, visit the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

Two New Cozy Mystery Holiday Books & One More New Cozy Series Coming August 2016

July 5, 2016

Two days ago I told you about five very interesting looking series starting in August from established Cozy Mystery authors, and here’s one more! I just found out that Linda Wiken (aka Erika Chase) is starting a new Cozy Mystery series. We’ll also be fortunate enough to have two holiday themed Cozy releases! (Over the years, I have noticed that August is sort of the beginning of the Cozy Mystery holiday themed time-of-year >>> and I can’t wait!)

I’ll start with Linda Wiken‘s new Dinner Club Mystery Series (since I’m late in telling you about it and it was just released today!) Toasting Up Trouble introduces us to J.J. Tanner, an event planner who is also a member of the Culinary Capers Dinner Club. The club members are all very interested in food, both eating it and preparing it. And for those of you who absolutely love Cozies with recipes, you’ll be happy to know they are included in these Cozy Mysteries! As Erika Chase she writes the very popular Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery Series. (The first Cozy in this series was nominated for the very prestigious Agatha Award.) Now she’ll be using her “real name” to write this series. (Toasting Up Trouble is available now.)

Site author Lee Hollis will be releasing Death of a Pumpkin Carver, a holiday themed Cozy and the 8th in Hailey Powell Food & Cocktail Mystery Series. In this entry, Hailey will be preparing for a fun Halloween when an unexpected guest arrives in Bar Harbor, Maine >>> Hailey’s ex-husband. Despite her trouble with her ex-husband in the past, she just can’t believe that he’s capable of murder – which he is unfortunately accused of after the suspicious death of his uncle. As always, this novel will feature delectable recipes, no doubt centered around the fall season!

The other Cozy Mystery author who will be releasing a Halloween themed Cozy during August is Kathi Daley. Costume Catastrophe will be the 21st in the Zoe Donovan Mystery Series. Zoe will be trying to avoid any major problems at the haunted house this year. Since it’s Homecoming weekend all of her high school friends are having a reunion in town. Unfortunately, not all of her high school cronies live through this gathering!

If you’re looking for more Halloween themed Cozy Mysteries, be sure to check out the Halloween Theme page on my site!

Five New Mystery Series by Cozy Mystery Authors Coming August 2016

July 4, 2016

August looks like it will be a busy month for Cozy Mystery authors >>> we’ll be getting five new promising-looking series from established Cozy Mystery site authors!

First up will be Mollie Cox Bryan‘s Death Among the Doilies, the first entry in her new Cora Crafts Mystery Series. This will be the introduction to Cora Chevalier, craft shop owner and blogger in Indigo Gap, North Carolina. Leaving a very stressful job as a counselor at a women’s shelter, Cora is moving to small-town Indigo Gap to open her dream craft store. When her friend and local partner, Jane Starr, is implicated in the death of a local librarian, Cora will need to get to the bottom of the mystery if she wants to save her dream shop. Bryan also writes the Cozy Cumberland Creek Mystery Series, starring an ex investigative journalist and current stay-at-home scrapbooking mom in Virginia. (Don’t you just love the bright orange paper doily? Paper doilies bring back memories of my days as a classroom volunteer in my children’s schools for Valentine’s Day crafting!)

Next up is A Story to Kill, the first in Lynn Cahoon‘s new Cat Latimer Mystery Series. Cat has only recently inherited a big Victorian style home from her ex-husband, and has converted it into a bed and breakfast. She’s now hosting a writer’s getaway – but when one of the writers turns up dead in his hotel room, Cat will need her connection to the local police chief (her uncle) to help solve the crime and clear her new business’s good name. Lynn Cahoon also writes the popular Tourist Trap Mystery Series, starring Jill Gardner, the owner of a “coffee, books and more” store in California.

The last full Cozy series we’ll be getting will be Carolyn Haines‘s Pluto’s Snitch Mystery Series, which will have its first entry, The Book of the Beloved. Raissa James, a young woman who was recently widowed by WWI, is invited to Mobile, Alabama, by her uncle. An aspiring author, she decides to use the trip to soak in some of the dark history surrounding her uncle’s estate. Unfortunately, the estate is about to get another dark story for its history, as one of her uncle’s other guests falls to their death. She gets Reginald Proctor (a medium) to help her uncover the mysteries that cling to the estate, which include the ghost of a Confederate soldier, and more. Haines also writes the very popular Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery Series, starring a southern belle in Mississippi.

That may be it for pure Cozy series >>> but if your interests stretch a bit further into mysteries than just Cozies, you’ll likely be interested in the thriller Curious Minds, the first entry in the Knight and Moon Mystery Series, written by Janet Evanovich and Phoef Sutton. Emerson Knight is a brilliant eccentric, and Riley Moon is the Harvard Law graduate unfortunate enough to have been sent to babysit him. When a relatively minor matter of some misplaced funds starts to grow to include missing persons and a possible conspiracy, the pair will need to get past their differences to make sure the perpetrators are brought to justice. Evanovich also writes the Stephanie Plum Series, the Lizzy & Diesel Mystery Series, the Barney Barnaby Series, and cowrites the FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare Mystery Series, the American Gilded Age Romantic Mystery Series, and the Full Series. Phoef Sutton has written the Crush Series, cowritten one of the Lizzy & Diesel Mystery Series books, and has contributed to the Dead Man Series.

Finally, our other non-Cozy series by traditionally Cozy authors is Elaine Viets‘s Brain Storm, the first entry in her Death Investigator Mystery Series, which is a hardboiled mystery series. Normally confident investigator Angela Richman has suffered a series of strokes, and upon recovering she discovers that the man who originally misdiagnosed her has been murdered – and the prime suspect is the neurosurgeon who saved her life. Though shaken by her ordeal and uncertain if she will ever regain her full faculties, Angela nevertheless is determined to do what she can to save from a death sentence the man who saved her mind >>> unless he actually committed the horrible crime he has been accused of. Viets also writes two very popular series: the Dead-End Job Mystery Series, starring Helen Hawthorne, worker at various dead-end jobs, and the Mystery Shopper Mystery Series, starring plainclothes store detective Josie Marcus, as well as the Francesca Vierling Mystery Series, starring a columnist in Mississippi.

If you’re looking for any other new Cozy Mystery series, these and more can be found on the New Cozy Mystery Book Series page, and on the Soon to Be Released Mysteries page of my Cozy-Mystery site.

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