The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Who Would You Cast In This Cozy Mystery Movie?

We’ve gotten a few comments recently that got me to thinking, Who would I cast?

KG:

… I think Lucy Stone Mysteries would be a great movie series on the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel. I wonder who could be cast as Lucy?

Esmeralda:

Maybe just me, but doesn’t Gladdy look/remind anyone of Beatrice Arthur ?

Lucky for me I wrote both of these comments down! Now I’d like to know if any of you have someone in mind who could play the following parts:

Beth Kennedy from Laura Alden‘s (aka Laurie Cass) PTA Mystery Series
Kellie Martin

Meg Langslow from Donna Andrews‘ Meg Langslow Mystery Series
Melissa McCarthy

Mrs. Jeffries from Emily Brightwell‘s Mrs. Jeffries Mystery Series
Kathy Bates
Roma Downey
Cheryl Ladd
Angela Lansbury
Susan Sarandon
Emma Thompson

Theodosia Browning from Laura Childs‘ Tea Shop Mystery Series
Andi MacDowell
Lea Thompson

Desiree Shapiro from Selma Eichler’s Desiree Shapiro Mystery Series
Melissa McCarthy

Stephanie Plum from Janet Evanovich‘s Stephanie Plum Mystery Series
Martha Plimpton

Kinsey Millhone from Sue Grafton‘s Kinsey Millhone Mystery Series
Sandra Bullock
Jennifer Garner
Anne Hathaway
Martha Plimpton

Gladdy Gold from Rita Lakin‘s Gladdy Gold Mystery Series
Bea Arthur

Lucy Stone from Leslie Meier’s Lucy Stone Mystery Series
Lacy Chabert
Patricia Heaton
Kellie Martin
Martha Plimpton
Lea Thompson

Sharon McCone from Marcia Muller‘s Sharon McCone Mystery Series
Martha Plimpton

Faith Fairchild from Katherine Hall Page‘s Faith Fairchild Mystery Series
Jennifer Aniston
Alyson Hannigan

Remember that actresses wear wigs all of the time, although in the case of a new mystery movie series, the blonde actress isn’t wearing a curly, red wig which so many of us had expected her to wear. One actress that always comes to my mind when I read a mystery book with a strong sleuth is Martha Plimpton. Ever since I saw her in a movie way back in 1994, I’ve thought of her as the perfect Kinsey Millhone, Joanna Brady, or Stephanie Plum. As for Gladdy Gold, I totally agree with Esmerlada. I think Bea Arthur would have made a delightful and strong Gladdy Gold.

How about you? Can you imagine who you would cast as these sleuths? If you have any ideas, please post a comment. Thank you!

Isis Crawford: A Mystery with Recipes Mystery Series

A Catered Murder (A Mystery With Recipes Book 1) I have been surveying some of the Cozy Mystery series that are most frequently recommended in our monthly recommendations, and next on my list is Isis Crawford’s Mystery with Recipes Series. Isis Crawford is somewhat of a veteran writer of Cozy Mysteries. As Barbara Block, she wrote the Robin Light Mysteries which included ten books published between 1994 and 2007.

The Mystery with Recipes Series began with A Catered Murder, published in 2003 and is now up to book sixteen which will be published in a few months (2016). As the name of the series suggests, these books fit squarely within the culinary cozy mystery theme, mysteries with recipes, that is so popular in the Cozy Mystery genre.

Set in Longely, New York, a town that is about a $200 cab ride from New York’s Kennedy Airport, the mysteries involve two sisters, Bernie and Libby Simmons as the sleuths. A Catered Murder begins with Bernie arriving at the family home/bakery/cafe early in the morning after taking such a cab ride. Bernie arrives with no luggage or cash after having flown from Los Angeles following a discovery that her long-time live in boyfriend has been cheating on her with one of her best friends. Bernie left literally everything behind.

Libby, Bernie’s older sister, has been running the cafe and catering business “A Little Taste of Heaven” while also taking care of their wheelchair-bound father who lives in the family’s quarters above the shop. Bernie arrives on the same day as Libby is catering the local high school’s reunion. So Bernie is immediately put to work helping. Yikes! At the reunion dinner, someone dies and the mystery begins!

Libby wants to help find the murderer both because the death occurred during her catering event, but more importantly, because one of her best friends, Tiffany, is accused of the killing. Bernie and Libby’s father, Sean, is the former chief of police of Longely. Luckily, he still has contacts that can help them try to solve the murder even though he is on the “outs” with the current chief of police.

Bernie has a nearly photographic memory. She is always annoying Libby with her encyclopedic knowledge on trivia related to food (or just about anything!) Libby, who is also suffering from a long-ago failed romance, is more the steady matronly type who took over the business of running the shop after their mother died.

Libby and Bernie are somewhat of a rarity in the Cozy Mystery genre in that they both provide substantial contributions to the sleuthing. In A Catered Murder it would be difficult to say which of the two sisters is the primary sleuth. To me, the relationship of the sisters is one of the most attractive parts of the book. The relationship is nicely drawn as complicated with some sparks and disagreements, but it obviously is still based on deep sisterly affection. (Love that!)

There’s a reason Isis Crawford’s Mystery with Recipe series has been recommended by other Cozy Mystery readers. It’s a series that keeps on delivering, a series that is full of characters who will draw you in and make Longely, NY  and the “A Little Taste of Heaven” shop a comfortable and inviting place to which to return.

As an added bonus (for Cozy Mystery readers like me >>> who love holiday themed Cozy Mystery books, Isis Crawford sets a lot of her Cozies during holidays (Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day, and even the Fourth of July!) She has written so many holiday themed Cozies that she is on the “Holiday Theme Mystery Authors …” page on my site. This page features Cozy authors who set a lot of their books during the holidays.)

P.S. If want to read some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can see them on the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

Four New-to-the-Site Cozy Mystery Authors: Julia Buckley: Undercover Dish, Rae Davies: Dusty Deals, Christina Freeburn: Faith Hunter Scrap This, Kelly Lane: Olive Grove

Here are four most recent Cozy Mystery authors who I have added to the Cozy-Mystery site. The authors I add to the site come from recommendations of other Cozy Mystery readers.

Julia Buckley – Julia Buckley is a Chicago based writer who has taught high school English for over twenty years. She is the author of the Undercover Dish Mystery Series which stars Lilah Lake, a behind-the-scenes caterer and the Writer’s Apprentice Mystery Series with a sleuth (Lena London) who is the apprentice for a famous author while trying her hand at authoring. Buckley also writes the Teddy Thurber Mystery Series, starring an English teacher, the Madeline Mann Mystery Series, starring a reporter. (Recipes are included in the Undercover Dish Cozy Mysteries.)

Rae Davies – A former reporter who now works as a full-time author, Rae Davies (aka Lori Devoti) writes the Dusty Deals Mystery Series. Davies also teaches writing at the university level, through a continuing education program. Her Dusty Deals series stars another former reporter, Lucy Mathews. Lucy left her job as a crime reporter to open an antiques store in Montana. Lucy is frequently accompanied by Kiska, her Alaskan Malamute.

Christina Freeburn – Christina Freeburn had many careers before finally becoming an author of Cozy Mysteries and romance novels >>> she has been a paralegal, a librarian, a church secretary, a stay-at-home mom, and even a JAG legal specialist in the US Army. It’s no surprise that her Cozy Mystery series, the Faith Hunter Scrap This Mystery Series, stars a former JAG specialist. The sleuth, Faith Hunter, has returned to West Virginia to run her grandmother’s scrapbooking store and solve mysteries!

Kelly Lane – Kelly Lane has worked as a copywriter, journalist, editor, and public relations professional as well as an author. She lives in Virginia, and is the author of the Olive Grove Mystery Series, which stars Eva Knox, an olive grove farmer in Georgia. (Recipes are included in the Olive Grove Cozy Mysteries.)

I hope you enjoy these Cozy Mystery authors as much as the Cozy Mystery readers who recommended them!

1945’s “The Spiral Staircase” Mystery Movie

The Spiral Staircase I watched this movie a few months ago, and was so taken by it that I quickly wrote an entry about it, which I decided to wait and post until I saw another airing of it. Well, that time has come! On Monday – April 18 (2016) at 9:00 PM (Central) they will be airing The Spiral Staircase on Turner Classic Movies, and if you want to see a terrific, old classic mystery movie, go set up your DVRs as soon as you finish reading my entry. Here’s the synopsis from the TCM channel:

THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1945)
A serial killer stalks a mute servant girl in a remote mansion.
Dir: Robert Siodmak Cast: Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore.
BW-84 mins

I watch a lot of old, black and white mystery movies, and since I do, I don’t often write an entry about them. For me to do so, the movie has to be particularly good; it has to leave an impression on me >>> and that is what the 1945 version of The Spiral Staircase did!

The Spiral Staircase is based on Ethel Lina White’s novel “Some Must Watch“. I have not read the novel, so I can’t tell you how true-to-the-written word the producers/director stayed. I can, however, tell you that if the movie is anything like Ethel Lina White’s “Some Must Watch“, then the book must be a great mystery read!

The Spiral Staircase, for the most part, takes place inside of an old, elaborately-decorated early 1900s mansion >>> during a fierce thunderstorm. The movie’s director is Robert Siodmak, and he does an absolutely fabulous job accelerating the tension and mystery as the (+/-) hour and a half progresses. I found myself (much to my husband’s chagrin) saying “Don’t go!” and “Don’t do it!” as I gathered up the red herrings and thought that I definitely had solved the mystery (I was wrong!) before the last scene of the movie.

Ethel Barrymore is terrific as Mrs. Warren, the bed-ridden curmudgeonly, old woman. Dorothy McGuire is absolutely wonderful as Helen, the young servant who cannot speak. George Brent (a particular favorite of mine), Kent Smith, Rhonda Flemming, and Gordon Oliver are all great as the secondary characters. And, as an added treat, we get to see Elsa Lanchester do what she did best >>> complain about her lot in life. (I love seeing her do that!)

It wasn’t until after my husband & I watched The Spiral Staircase that I found out that Ethel Lina White’s “Some Must Watch” was made into four versions of The Spiral Staircase. I haven’t seen the other three versions (1961 with Elizabeth Montgomery as Helen, 1975 with Jacqueline Bisset as Helen, and 2000 with Nicolette Sheridan as Helen) so I can’t vouch for them, but I can say this about the 1945 version of The Spiral Staircase: If you get a chance to see this movie, do yourself a favor. It’s a terrific mystery movie!

P.S. So, before you forget, go set up your DVRs!

For more ideas on movies and television shows, be sure to check my TV and Movie page on my site. Here’s the list of television mystery movies that will be on for the remainder of April: Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for April 2016.

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