The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Private Investigator Sleuths

sleuthWay back in 2010, I created a theme (with your help!) that covered sleuths who are private investigators. After just discussing Lea Wait’s Mainely Needlepoint series (click here for that entry), I checked to see if I had remembered to include this series on that list. Yikes! I’m glad I checked!

Hmmm… Finding that I had forgotten to include this series on the list, I wondered what other series/sleuths were missing from the list. What better time than now >>> to update that list!

I think we should include sleuths who were former private investigators, also. In the Mainely Needlepoint series, the sleuth formerly worked for a private investigator, and she uses skills she learned as a private investigator to work on and solve the mysteries.

(I know there are authors from the 2010 list who are not Cozy Mystery authors. In 2010 we listed only the authors who could be found on the Cozy Mystery Site. However, this method sometimes meant that non Cozy authors were included in entries and Cozy authors who weren’t on the site were not included on the lists.)

So, here is the list of sleuths who are private investigators (as updated). Do you see any who are missing? Please leave a comment below so that I can add them to the list. Thank you!

Private Investigator Sleuths:

Cathy Ace: WISE Enquiries Agency Mystery Series – 4 Women PIs

Conrad Allen (aka Edward Marston & Keith Miles): Dillman Mystery Series – Transatlantic Cruise Ship Detective

Lori Avocato: Pauline Sokol Mystery Series – Medical Fraud Investigator

Julian Barnes – (not Cozy)

Linda Barnes: Carlotta Carlyle Mystery Series – Boston PI AND Michael Spraggue Mystery Series… PI Actor

M. C. Beaton: Agatha Raisin Mystery Series – Owner of PI Agency

Carol Lea Benjamin: Rachel Alexander Mystery Series – PI Dog Trainer

Ruth Birmingham (aka Walter Sorrells & Lynn Abercrombie) – Sunny Childs Mystery Series  – Georgia PI

Nero Blanc (aka Cordelia Frances Biddle & Steve Zettler) – Crossword Puzzle Mystery Series – PI and Crossword Puzzle Editor

Lawrence Block: Matt Scudder Mystery Series – not Cozy

D.B. Borton (aka Della Borton): Cat Caliban Mystery Series – Sexagenarian PI

Rhys Bowen: Molly Murphy Mystery Series – Irish PI in New York

Susan M. Boyer: Liz Talbot Mystery Series – Paranormal PI series

Susan Breen: Maggie Dove Mystery Series – a Sunday school teacher who opens a private detective agency

Kate Bryan: Maggie Maguire Mystery Series – Pinkerton PI

Carole Buggé:  Sherlock Holmes Mystery Series – British PI

Nancy Bush: Jane Kelly Mystery Series – PI & Pug

Dorothy Cannell: Ellie Haskell Mystery Series – Flower Sisters PIs

Sally Chapman (aka Annie Griffin): Silicon Valley Mystery Series – Computer Fraud PI

Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot Mystery Series – PI with a whole lot of the little Gray Cells

Carole Higgins Clark: Regan Reilly Mystery Series – California PI

Bill Crider: Truman Smith Mystery Series – Texas PI

Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes Series – London PI

E.J. Copperman (aka Jeffrey Cohen): Haunted Guesthouse Mystery Series – PI & a PI Ghost

Waverly Curtis: Barking Detective Mystery Series – Investigator and her “Chihuahua extraordinaire”

Lindsey Davis: Marcus Didius Falco Series – Ancient Roman PI (not Cozy)

Sharon Duncan: Scotia MacKinnon Mystery Series – Washington (State) PI

Susan Dunlap: Kiernan O’Shaughnessy Mystery Sereis – Ex Medical Examiner, Current PI (not Cozy)

Selma Eichler: Desiree Shapiro Mystery Series – “Murder Can…” PI

P.N. Elrod: Jack Fleming Mysteries – Chicago PI in 1930s (not Cozy)

Charles Finch: Charles Lenox Mystery Series – PI in 1860s London

Dick Francis: Sid Halley – not Cozy

Christy Tillery French: Natasha Chamberlain Mystery Series – Bodyguard PI

Lee Goldberg: Mr. Monk Mystery Series – Idiosyncratic PI

Sue Grafton: Kinsey Millhone Mystery Series – Alphabetical PI

Ann Granger: Fran Varady Mystery Series – British PI

Carolyn Haines: Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery Series – Owners of Detective Agency

Linda Hall: Teri Blake-Addison Mystery Series AND Fog Point Mystery Series – both Maine PIs

Tarquin Hall: Vish Puri Mystery Series – PI in Delhi, India

C.S. Harris: Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery Series – (not Cozy)

Carolyn Hart: Death on Demand Mystery Series – Book Store Owner & PI

Betty Hechtman: Yarn Retreat Mystery Series – Ex-PI

Veronica Heley: Abbot Agency Mystery Series – British PI

Gabriella Herkert: Animal Instincts Mystery Series – Washington (State) PI

Kaye C. Hill: Lexy Lomax Mystery Series – PI and her Chihuahua

P.D. James: Cordelia Gray Mystery Series – Inheritor of PI Business

Jon Katz: Suburban Detective Mystery Series – New Jersey PI

Marne Davis Kellogg: Lilly Bennett Mystery Series – Wyoming PI

Karen Kijewski: Kat Colorado Mystery Series – Sacramento PI

Alice Kimberly (aka Cleo Coyle): Haunted Bookshop Mystery Series – Ghostly PI

Laurie R. King: Mary Russell Mystery Series – Sherlock Holmes’ Wife PI

Mary Kruger: Gilded Age Mystery Series – 1890s PI

Hilda Lawrence: Mark East Mystery Series – New England PIs

Martha C. Lawrence: Elizabeth Chase Mystery Series – Parapsychologist / Psychic PI

Laura Lippman: Tess Monaghan Mystery Series – Baltimore PI

Lisa Lutz: Izzy Spellman Mystery Series – San Francisco PI

Karen MacInerney: Margie Peterson Mystery Series – PI Mom

Charlotte MacLeod (aka Alisa Craig): Sarah Kelling & Max Bittersohn Mystery Series – Art Security PI

Taylor McCafferty (aka Barbara Taylor McCafferty & Tierney McClellan): Haskell Blevins, PI Mystery Series – Kentucky PI

Alexander McCall Smith: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Mystery Series – Botswana PIs

Val McDermid: Kate Brannigan Mystery Series (not Cozy)

Ralph McInerny (aka Monica Quill): Notre Dame Mystery Series – Indiana PI

G.A. McKevett: Savannah Reid Mystery Series – California PI

Lorena McCourtney: Cate Kinkaid Files Mystery Series – Assistant PI

Leslie Meier: Lucy Stone Mystery Series 

Marcia Muller: Sharon McCone Mystery Series – San Francisco PI

Katy Munger (aka Gallagher Gray): Casey Jones Mystery Series – North Carolina PI

Shirley Rousseu Murphy: Joe Grey Cat Mystery Series – California PI & Kit, the Cat

Lynne Murray: Josephine Fuller Mystery Series – Seattle PI

Diana Orgain: Maternal Instincts Mystery Series – New Mom PI

Sara Paretsky: V. I. Warshawski Mystery Series – ex-lawyer PI in Chicago (not Cozy)

Anne Perry: William Monk Mystery Series – Ex-PI

Maggie Pill: Sleuth Sisters – Michigan PIs

Rose Pressey: Maggie, PI Mystery Series – Florida PI

Spencer Quinn (aka Peter Abrahams): Chet and Bernie Mystery Series – PI & His Narrator Dog

Misa Ramirez (Melissa Bourbon): Lola Cruz Mystery Series – Sacramento PI

Dorothy L. Sayers: Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery Series – English PI

Sandra Scoppettone: Faye Quick Mystery Series AND Lauren Laurano Mystery Series – New York PIs

Connie Shelton: Charlie Parker Mysteries (Charlie is an accountant, her brother is the PI in a small PI firm)

Dana Stabenow: Kate Shugak Mystery Series – Alaska PI

Rex Stout: Nero Wolfe Mystery Series – Orchid Lover PI

Winona Sullivan: Sister Cecile Mystery Series – Boston PI

Leann Sweeney: Yellow Rose Mystery Series – Houston PI

Elizabeth Atwood Taylor: Maggie Elliott Mystery Series – California PI

Will Thomas: Cyrus Barker and Llewelyn Mystery Series – not Cozy

Victoria Thompson: Gaslight Mystery Series – Police Sergeant turned PI

Elaine Viets: Dead End Job Mystery Series – Florida PI

Lea Wait: Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series – former PI

Edgar Wallace: ‘The Black’ series of short stories – Blackmail PI

Betty Webb: Lena Jones Mystery Series – Arizona PI (not Cozy)

Patricia Wentworth: Miss Maud Silver Mystery Series – British Ex-Governess PI

Valerie Wilson Wesley: Tamara Hayle Mystery Series – New Jersey PI

Jacqueline Winspear: Maisie Dobbs Mystery Series – Early 20th Century London PI

Sharon Zukowski: Blaine Stewart Mystery Series – not Cozy

P.S. If you’d like to see lots and lots of themes, be sure to take a look at the Cozy Mysteries by Themes page on my site.

Lea Wait: Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series

Twisted Threads (Mainely Needlepoint series Book 1) The next series I’m going to cover from the monthly most recommended mystery series is Lea Wait’s Mainely Needlepoint Mystery Series. Twisted Threads is the first book in this very popular series. Lea Wait writes both the Mainely Needlepoint Series and the Shadows Antique Print Mystery Series. (This link lists all the books from these two series.)

As you might guess from the series title, Twisted Threads, is set in a small fictional town on the coast of Maine, Haven Harbor. The story begins when Angie Curtis, a private investigator working in Arizona, receives a call from her grandmother telling her it is time to come home because her mother has been found. Angie’s mother disappeared almost 20 years earlier when Angie was almost ten. Now her body has been found and Angie returns to town after a ten-year (or so) absence.

Of course, Angie’s mother had been murdered. So Angie, trained as a private investigator, naturally wants to help solve the mystery of how her mom came to be killed.

While Angie was away, her grandmother’s needlepointing has turned into a sort of co-op business with Charlotte (her grandmother) arranging for custom work for Haven Harbor’s handful of needlepointers. Things had been going well with the Mainely Needlepoint group until a man convinced Charlotte to let him represent the group by gathering orders all around New England and collecting the earnings for them. This arrangement worked fine until the man stopped bringing the money around to Charlotte to distribute to the group.

So, Angie volunteers to find the man and see what she could do to retrieve what the group was owed. And, not long into the story, another murder occurs, giving Angie’s private investigator training a real workout!

Twisted Threads is a typical modern Cozy with a few somewhat unusual elements. Not too many Cozy Mystery sleuths carry a gun, for example. Angie is a bit on the harder side of Cozy sleuths with the suggestion that she has lived a relatively wild life (for a Cozy sleuth!) both before and after she left Haven Harbor. The town is full of interesting characters including a minister who has a large Ouija board collection which he uses on occasion. (Some readers may be bothered by the minister using a Ouija board.)

Another warning is in order. The book includes some references to pedophilia that happened years ago in the town. I know some Cozy readers do not want a Cozy to deal with such serious issues, but this one does.

Despite its more serious and hard-edged undertones, the book is a fast read and has a lot of Cozy elements. The story is set in an interesting small town on the coast of Maine. The characters are varied, and Angie’s grandmother is a three-dimensional character with some surprises of her own. And, there is hint of possible romance to come for Angie. And for many Cozy Mystery readers, the setting is particularly attractive!

P.S. If you’d like to see 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.

Annie’s Antique Shop, Annie’s Amish Inn, & Sugar Creek Amish Mystery Series have just been added to the Cozy-Mystery site.

For those of you who have been asking for me to post the latest Annie’s mystery series >>> well I finally got them done! I have just added two of the Annie’s mystery series (Annie’s Antique Shop & Annie’s Amish Inn) and one of the Guideposts mystery series (Sugar Creek Amish) to the Cozy-Mystery site. Guideposts is a company that has specialized in the motto “Inspiration. Faith. Hope.” for many years. They have both Cozy Mystery series as well as non mystery series. Annie’s is a craft company that also has several Cozy Mystery series.

Here’s a re-cap of all of the ones I have posted on the site, along with the three new pages:

 Guideposts Mystery Series:

Guideposts Non Mystery Series:

 Annie’s Mystery Series:

***** As usual, if you subscribe to any of the Annie’s or Guideposts series, I would appreciate it if you would send me the names of the upcoming books in the series. Thank you! *****

Four New-to-the-Site Cozy Authors: Kristi Abbott: Gourmet Popcorn Shop, Julianna Deering: Drew Farthering, Ann Myers: Santa Fe Café, Janice Peacock: Glass Bead

I’m adding another set of great looking Cozy Mystery Series authors to the site, as always from the recommendations of Cozy Mystery site member recommendations. It seems like I’m not even making a dent in my “Authors to Post” list >>> but I’m trying!

 Kristi Abbott (aka Eileen Rendahl & Eileen Carr) lives in California, but like her the sleuth in her Gourmet Popcorn Shop Mystery Series, was born in Ohio. The Popcorn Shop series features Rebecca Anderson, the owner of said shop, Pops, which is located in Grand Lake, Ohio. Rebecca is often accompanied by Sprocket, her Poodle, as she finds herself solving mysteries. And, this series includes popcorn related recipes! As Eileen Carr she writes Stand Alone mysteries (romantic suspense) and as Eileen Rendahl she writes both Stand Alone mysteries, the Messenger Mystery Series (which is a best selling paranormal mystery series) and Stand Alone non-mysteries.

A fifth generation Texan, Julianna Deering (aka DeAnna Julie Dodson) is a big fan of quilting, cross stitching, and hockey. She is the author of the Drew Farthering Mystery Series. This series stars an English gentleman in the 1930s (Drew Farthering) and his American friend, Madeline Parker. As DeAnna Julie Dodson she has written several of the Annie’s Attic Mystery Series and Annie’s Secrets of the Quilt Mystery Series.

 Ann Myers might live in Colorado, but she loves Santa Fe so much that she wrote about it in her Santa Fe Café Mystery Series. This series stars the chef at a Santa Fe café, Rita Lafitte. So far, all of the mysteries set in the Tres Amigas Café have taken place during different holiday seasons. And as an added bonus, the series includes recipes!

 

 

 Janice Peacock has drawn on her own personal experience working in a glass studio to write the Glass Bead Mystery Series. This series stars Jax O’Connell, a glass beadmaker and jeweler in Seattle, Washington.

I hope you enjoy all these newly added authors!

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