The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

2013 Nero Award Nominees

I just got word that the 2013 Nero Award Nominees have been picked. The Nero Awards are given to authors who write mystery novels similar to the way Rex Stout wrote his Nero Wolfe mystery books – which are definitely classic mysteries.

The Wolfe Pack is a society of literary people who, simply put, love everything about Nero Wolfe (Rex Stout’s main sleuth – although Archie Goodwin might think he’s the main sleuth!) The Wolfe Pack hosts the Black Orchid Banquet each year, during December – on the first Saturday of that month. It is at this time that the winners is announced.

Here are the 2013 Nero Award Nominees:

Barbara Allan: Antiques Disposal

Kieran Shields: The Truth of All Things

Loren D. Estleman: Burning Midnight

Chris Knopf: Dead Anyway

Congratulations to all the 2013 Nero Award Nominees!

If you’d like to take a look at all of the Nero Award Nominees and Winners from past years, here’s the link.

Mystery Books that Take Place in Tennessee

tennesseeHere are some fun Tennessee facts:
The capital is Nashville.
The largest city Memphis.
State motto is “Agriculture and Commerce”
State nickname is The Volunteer State.
State flower is the Iris.
State bird is the Mockingbird.
State animal is the Raccoon.

Mystery authors who are found on the Cozy Mystery Site who feature Tennessee locations in their books:

Deborah Adams: Jesus Creek Mystery Series: Jesus Creek, a small town in Tennessee, is the setting for this very unique series. Each book features a different character as the sleuth.

Riley Adams (aka Elizabeth Spann Craig): Memphis BBQ Mystery Series: Lulu Taylor is the main sleuth and owner of a barbeque restaurant in Memphis, Tennessee.

Jenna Bennett (aka Jennie Bentley & Bente Gallagher): Cutthroat Business Mystery Series OR Savannah Martin Real Estate Mystery Series: Savannah is a divorced, southern belle who is now working as a realtor (and sleuth!) in Nashville. AND Fidelity Investigations Mystery Series: Gina, the sleuth, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Virginia Brown: Blue Suede Memphis Mystery Series: Harley Jean is a Memphis tour guide/sleuth.

V.M. Burns: Lilly Echosby Dog Club Mystery Series – Lilly is a recently divorced CPA who is a member of a dog club in Tennessee.

J. J. Cook (aka Joyce and Jim Lavene): Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade Mystery Series: Stella Griffin is the sleuth and current fire chief. Stella gets a lot of help from the ex-fire chief, Eric Gamlyn, who happens to be deceased!

Vickie Fee: Liv and Di in Dixie Mystery Series: Liv McKay, a party planner, and Di Souther, her best friend, live and solve crimes in the fictional town of Dixie, Tennessee.

Christy Tillery French: Natasha Chamberlain Mystery Series: Natasha is a bodyguard who works for Jonce Striker (the owner of the bodyguard company) in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Susan Furlong: Bone Gap Travellers Mystery Series – Brynn is an ex-Marine who returns to Tennessee with her cadaver dog, Wilco.

Jackie Griffey: Maryvale Mystery Series: Cas Larkin is the sheriff of this town in Tennessee AND Maggie & Joe Cozy Mystery Series: Maggie Murphy is a columnist/sleuth.

Diane Kelly writes the House-Flipper Mystery Series which stars Whitney Whitaker, a house flipper in Nashville. Oh, and also, it stars Sawdust, her cat.

Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J.J. Cook & Ellie Grant): Taxi for the Dead Paranormal Mystery Series: Police officer Skye Mertz makes a deal with Abe to drive Abe’s Taxi for the Dead so that she can be saved from dying.

Meg London (aka Peg Cochran): Sweet Nothings Vintage Lingerie Series: Emma Taylor has returned home to Paris, Tennessee from New York City.

Molly MacRae:  Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery Series: Kath Rutledge is the owner of a wool shop that has, as its tenant, a ghost.

Mystery and the Minister’s Wife Mystery Series: This series follows Kate and Paul Hanlon (a minister and his wife) in Copper Mill, Tennessee. Several authors pen this mystery series.

Delia Rosen: Deadly Deli Mystery Series: Gwen Silver (aka Nashville Katz) is the owner of a Nashville Jewish deli, and also a sleuth.

Mary Saums: Willi Taft Mystery Series: Willi is not only a private investigator, but a Nashville singing sleuth as well.

Please feel free to comment if you see an author from the Cozy Mystery Site who belongs on this list, or if you have any corrections.

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦

Hy Conrad – Newest Author Addition to the Cozy Mystery Site

This month I am going to try to add at least ten new-to-the-site authors to the Cozy Mystery site. As usual, I plan to add them to the site in batches of four or five. Hy Conrad is one of these authors, but I decided to list him separately because while researching him, I read something really interesting on his website.

When I found out there is a new Mr. Monk mystery book, I quickly went to add it (Mr. Monk Helps Himself) to Lee Goldberg’s page on the site. I then downloaded the cover of the book, which left me baffled. That’s when I discovered that Hy Conrad is the author of the book.

Hy Conrad? Who’s he? Well, I’ll tell you who he is!

Hy Conrad was one of the writers for the long-running Monk television show. He wrote for the show during all eight of its seasons. He is also listed as the co-executive producer of the Monk television show during its last two seasons. And for all of you White Collar television show fans, he was listed as both a writer and consulting producer for that incredibly humorous mystery show.

I have to admit that I didn’t know about Conrad’s involvement with those two shows until I looked at his website. However, I knew that his name looked familiar to me. And the reason for that is that we own two of his “Whodunit” mini-mystery books. He has written several Whodunit mini-mysteries, as well as a mystery series for children. He also writes the Abel Adventures Mystery Series which features Amy Abel, the owner of a travel agency for people who are adventurous. The series also features Amy’s interfering mom, Fanny.

While looking through Hy Conrad’s website, I found his blog post for January 25, 2013 particularly interesting. The title of this entry is: “Wait! I’m a Cozy Writer?” With a title like that, I knew I HAD to read it. And, boy, am I glad I did!

In this blog entry he talks about finding out what a Cozy Mystery is. I love how he describes what books were called before someone came up with the “Cozy Mystery” term… simply mystery novels. He asks about Monk >>> would the networks buy it today? He talks about being someone who grew up reading Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, and Nero Wolfe. He then poses the question about people who grow up reading books by Dean Koontz and watching Criminal Minds. (I’m not going to tell you what he thinks they might “probably be nostalgic” for.)

I recommend that you take a look at Hy Conrad’s “Wait! I’m a Cozy Writer?” blog entry. I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. As I read it, I found myself nodding in agreement with him. Being a fan of Monk and White Collar, as well as being so impressed by this blog I quickly bought Rally ‘Round the Corpse – the first in his Abel Adventures Mystery Series. (I’m looking forward to reading it, and will try to let you know what I think about it after I do.)

And to answer his question: Yes, by everything I’ve seen, you are a Cozy Writer!

Bye Bye,Birdie

You know that expression: Give them an inch, they’ll take a mile? Well, my husband and I have finally decided to put a road block up!

On Monday, we have our outside-of-the-house repair/paint/ patch man coming. Yes, it’s been only six months since we had a hole in the wood part of our chimney repaired, and now we have a hole in our house’s wood siding.

Yep, we finally have had to take our bird feeder down, and we are sad about that. I’ll continue filling the bird bath, but we are taking the feeder down. Yesterday I counted four squirrels amongst our birds. Although the squirrels can’t actually feed at the feeder, they scurry around at the bottom, grabbing the seeds as the birds (unintentionally) drop them.

We’ve enjoyed our birds, and even the antics of the squirrels. But, apparently the squirrels don’t get their fill on just the seeds and have decided our house’s siding suits them as their second helpings.

We started the bird feeding when our beloved Sprite “left” us two years ago. Her leaving was a difficult blow for all of us. My husband thought that if I had the birds to watch from my computer desk, it would help ease the pain of losing her. It did fill a little, tiny, teensy-weensy bit of the void.

We enjoyed passing by the kitchen windows to see what those little birds were up to. They have some pretty crazy antics – most of which are based on their hierarchy. (I don’t know if the older birds outrank based on their age, if the males get preference, or if the bigger ones just bully their way to the best positions.) Watching them squabbling over who got which little food dispenser hole on the feeder, watching as the fledglings fluttered their wings and followed their parents around (as their parents tried to sometimes get away from them),  it all seemed to bring a smile to our faces.

However, we have to convince the squirrels to move on to greener pastures. We thought that by taking down one of the two feeders, there would be less food, thus less squirrels at the bottom scrounging around. Not so!

So now I am hoping that the hummingbird who has been eating at that feeder tells his friends that there is less air traffic in our back yard, and convinces them to come on down. However, I doubt he’ll do that. He is pretty possessive about “his” feeder.

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