The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

The Passing of Barbara Mertz / Elizabeth Peters / Barbara Michaels

Yesterday was a sad day for many Cozy Mystery readers. I know there are a lot of fans of Elizabeth Peters‘s mysteries amongst us. She left us all a wealth of mystery reading. Her Amelia Peabody and Vicky Bliss mysteries are some of the most enjoyed by many mystery readers. There are also many fans of her Jacqueline Kirby mysteries and her stand alone mysteries.

Barbara Mertz was 85 when she passed in Frederick, Maryland on August 8, 2013. She had her Ph.D. in Egyptology, which provided her with first-hand knowledge for having her wildly popular Amelia Peabody mystery series to feature an Egyptologist. Her Vicky Bliss sleuth was an historian. Mertz used the pseudonym Elizabeth Peters (both of her children’s names) for her mystery series and several stand alone mysteries. As Barbara Michaels she wrote many stand alone mysteries, and as Barbara Mertz she wrote non fiction.

Raves for MJ’s Comment…

MJ just posted a comment that I think is a great idea:

“How about another rave or two to add to the list? My new summer yummy discovery is in Walmart’s soda dept. It is ‘Coconut Wave’. Danna has told us how much she enjoys peach Fresca, as do I. However, it isn’t distributed where I live.

In June, I found this display of 2 liter beverages at Walmart. In the display was their lemonade, pink lemonade, cherry limeade, and this one called ‘coconut wave’ (ALL are carbonated and calorie free). Of course, I was intrigued and decided to try it. It’s like 7-up/Sprite with a little coconut flavoring – very refreshing. The flavor is distinctive, so if you don’t like coconut you won’t like this. It’s also good with a little of Torani’s peach/raspberry flavoring added to it.

In early July, I noticed they no longer had any of this soda. So sa-a-a-d (I thought it was gone for the summer). However, when I went back to Walmart the other day, they had a huge display with several dozen of the Coconut Wave. YEA! I bought many bottles so I have a ‘supply’ (even gave some to friends to ‘try’). It probably won’t be available in the fall.

I don’t like coffee or tea, so soda is my beverage of choice.

I also discovered Oreo’s Raspberry Fudge Crèmes. Another Yum! It’s like their fudge covered mint cookies only raspberry instead of the mint.”

MJ, I’m going to look for the Coconut Wave. Is it in Walmart’s carbonated sparkling water see-through bottles? I like two of those flavors, although all of them are pretty good.

Cheaper K-Cup Coffee & Longer Jeans – Rant and Rave

Warning: This is not about mysteries,  although it does involve a mystery of sorts.

Let me start by telling you that I am 5’9″ tall. Invariably when I find myself in a line (like at the grocery store) I am one of the tallest women. There may be a few others who are taller, but usually there aren’t. I don’t wear high heels EVER – I can usually be seen wearing my New Balance walking sneakers.

Given all that information, can you imagine why I now have to buy my black jeans in a “petite” length?!? Are there so many women these days who wear stilettos while wearing their jeans? (A mystery to me, sort of…)

This wouldn’t annoy me if I hadn’t just bought two pair of my regular brand jeans in my previous size >>> “medium” length.  I have been buying the same brand and cut jeans for years, so when I bought my two new “medium” jeans this time, I didn’t bother to try them on. I quickly went home and washed them. That’s how sure I was they would fit. Long story short: I am currently waiting for them to be taken up. They are quite long, actually very long. And of course with the price of the alterations, I no longer feel like they are the best jeans I can buy for the lowest price around.

OK! I feel much better now that I’ve gotten the rant part out of the way!

My husband pointed out that my “Rants & Raves” entries seem to only be the negative “Rant” portion. Yikes! He’s right. Am I really that negative?!?

So it is at this time that I will finally do the “Rave” portion. (I may revert to just the “Rant” part, but I’ll try to be a little more positive in the future.)

I know I have mentioned how much my husband and I like our Keurig coffee maker (from my These Are a Few of My Favorite Things… entry, and how I fill my Ekobrew refillable K-Cups with my favorite tea blends so that I don’t have to keep paying the high prices for tea K-Cups.

My husband, however, insists on using the already made K-Cup coffee pods, which I find to be pretty expensive. I just found these San Francisco Bay K-Cups that my husband likes a lot. Even though they look different from the regular K-Cups, they fit and work perfectly in the K-Cup coffee maker, and are substantially cheaper. Since I had never seen these before, I thought those of you who might be interested in finding a cheaper alternative to the regular K-Cups might want to know about these. (My husband likes his coffee very strong, so he likes this particular blend – Fogchaser. As for me, I’m pretty sure I’d prefer the Breakfast Blend, which is always smoother to me.)

Mission accomplished! I managed to not just focus on the negative side of my “Rants & Raves”. That doesn’t mean I’m not still annoyed at having to alter my “medium” (in my opinion “tall”) jeans!

September 2013 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in September 2013:

Susan Wittig Albert: The Darling Dahlias and the Texas Star (This will be the 4th in the Darling Dahlias Mystery Series.)

M. C. Beaton: Something Borrowed, Someone Deadly (This will be the 24th in the Agatha Raisin Mystery Series.)

Jacklyn Brady (aka Sherry Lewis): The Cakes of Wrath (This will be the 4th in the Piece of Cake Mystery Series.)

Meg Cabot: The Bride Wore Size 12 (This will be the 4th in the Heather Wells Mystery Series.) (This is a Wedding theme mystery.)

Margaret Coel: Killing Custer (This will be the 17th in the Wind River Mystery Series.)

Clive Cussler & Thomas Perry: The Mayan Secrets (This will be the 5th in the Fargo Adventure Mystery Series.)

Christine DeSmet: First Degree Fudge (This will be the 1st in the NEW Fudge Shop Mystery Series.) (I’ll be adding DeSmet to the site in early September.)

Charlotte & Aaron Elkins: A Cruise to Die For (This will be the 2nd in the Alix London Mystery Series.)

Shelley Freydont: Silent Knife (This will be the 2nd in the Celebration Bay Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Sue Grafton: W is for Wasted (This will be the 23rd in the Kinsey Millhone Mystery Series.)

Ellie Grant (aka Joyce and Jim Lavene & J. J. Cook): Plum Deadly (This will be the 1st in the NEW Pie in the Sky mysteries.)

Susanna Gregory (aka 1/2 of Simon Beaufort): The Lost Abbot (This will be the 19th in the Chronicles of Matthew Bartholomew Mystery Series.)

Amanda Flower: In Plain Disappearance (This will be the 3rd in the Appleseed Creek Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Jane Haddam: Hearts of Sand (This will be the 28th in the Gregor Demarkian Mystery Series.)

Victoria Hamilton: Bran New Death (This will be the 1st in the NEW Merry Muffin Mystery Series.)

Charlaine Harris & Toni L. P. Kelner, Editors: An Apple for the Creature (This will be a Stand Alone Anthology.)

Veronica Heley: Murder with Mercy (This will be the 14th in the Ellie Quicke Mystery Series.)

J. A. Jance: Second Watch (This will be the 21st in the J. P. Beaumont Mystery Series.)

Toni L. P. Kelner & Charlaine Harris, Editors: An Apple for the Creature (This will be a Stand Alone Anthology.)

Josi S. Kilpack: Rocky Road (This will be the 9th in the Culinary Mystery Series.)

Laurie R. King: The Bones of Paris (This will be a Stand Alone mystereis.)

M. Louisa Locke: Bloody Lessons (This will be the 3rd in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery Series.)

Leslie Meier: Christmas Carol Murder (This will be the 20th in the Lucy Stone Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Clare O’Donohue: The Double Wedding Ring (This will be the 5th in the Someday Quilts Mystery Series.)

Joyce Carol Oates: Evil Eye: Four Novellas of Love Gone Wrong (These are mystery novellas.)

Spencer Quinn (aka Peter Abrahams): The Sound and the Furry (This will be the 6th in the Chet and Bernie Mystery Series.)

J. D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts): Thankless in Death (This will be the 38th in the Eve Dallas Mystery Series.)

Hank Phillippi Ryan: The Wrong Girl (This will be the 2nd in the Jane Ryland Mystery Series.)

Deborah Sharp: Mama Gets Trashed (This will be the 5th in the Mace Bauer Mystery Series.)

Wendy Corsi Staub: The Good Sister (This will be a Stand Alone mystery.)

Denise Swanson: Murder of a Stacked Librarian (This will be the 16th in the Scumble River Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Marcia Talley: Dark Passage (This will be the 12th in the Hannah Ives Mystery Series.)

Maggie Toussaint: Dime If I Know (This will be the 3rd in the Cleopatra Jones Mystery Series.)

Gayle Trent (aka Amanda Lee): Battered to Death (This will be the 4th in the Daphne Martin Cake Mystery Series.)

To go back to the Cozy Mystery New Book Release page, click here.

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