The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

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.

July 2013 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in July 2013:

Jeff Abbott: Downfall (This will be the 3rd in the Sam Capra Mystery Series.)

Riley Adams (aka Elizabeth Spann Craig & Elizabeth Craig): Rubbed Out (This will be the 4th in the Memphis BBQ Mystery Series.)

Robin Allen: Out of the Frying Pan (This will be the 3rd in the Poppy Markham: Culinary Cop Mystery Series.)

Donna Andrews: The Hen of the Baskervilles (This will be the 15th in the Meg Langslow Mystery Series.)

Jeffrey Ashford (aka Roderic Jeffries & Peter Alding): Damned by Logic (This will be a Stand Alone.)

Lorna Barrett (aka Lorraine Bartlett & L. L. Bartlett): Not the Killing Type (This will be the 7th in the Booktown Mystery Series.)

Mike Befeler: Care Homes are Murder (This will be the 5th in the Paul Jacobson Geezer-Lit Mystery Series.)

Juliet Blackwell (aka Hailey Lind): Tarnished and Torn (This will be the 5th in the Witchcraft Mystery Series.)

Annette Blair: Tulle Death Do Us Part (This will be the 6th in the Vintage Magic Mystery Series.)

Melissa Bourbon (aka Misa Ramirez): A Custom-Fit Crime (This will be the 4th in the Magical Dressmaking Mystery Series.) (This is a Wedding theme mystery.)

Simon Brett: A Decent Interval (This will be the 18th in the Charlie Paris Mystery Series.)

James Lee Burke: Light of the World (This will be the 20th in the Dave Robicheaux Mystery Series.)

Blaize Clement & John Clement (son): The Cat Sitter’s Cradle (This will be the 8th in the Dixie Hemingway Mystery Series.)

Margaret Coel: Watching Eagles Soar (Stories from the Wind River and Beyond.)

Mary Daheim: Gone with the Win (This will be the 28th in the Hillside Manor Bed & Breakfast Mystery Series.)

Kaitlyn Dunnett (aka Kathy Lynn Emerson): Vampires, Bones, and Treacle Scones (This will be the 7th in the Mystery Series.) (This is a Halloween theme mystery book.)

Linda Fairstein: Death Angel (This will be the 15th in the Alex Cooper Mystery Series.)

Anthea Fraser: The Unburied Past (This will be a Stand Alone.)

Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames): Final Sentence (This will be the 1st in the NEW Cookbook Nook Mystery Series.)

Betty Hechtman: Yarn to Go (This will be the 1st in the NEW Yarn Retreat Mystery Series.)

Lee Hollis: Death of a Coupon Clipper (This will be the 3rd in the Hayley Powell Food & Cocktails Mystery Series.)

Julie Hyzy: Grace Takes Off (This will be the 4th in the Manor House Mystery Series.)

Iris Johansen: Hunting Eve (This will be the 16th in the Eve Duncan Mystery Series.)

Victoria Laurie: Deadly Forecast (This will be the 11th in the Psychic Eye Mystery Series.)

Joyce and Jim Lavene (aka J. J. Cook): A Thyme to Die (This will be the 7th in the Peggy Lee Gardner Mystery Series.) (It actually was released in May 2013, but I missed it.)

Meg London (aka Peg Cochran): Laced with Poison (This will be the 2nd in the Sweet Nothings Vintage Lingerie Mystery Series.)

Virginia Lowell: One Dead Cookie (This will be the 4th in the Cookie Cutter Shop Mystery Series.)

Lisa Lutz: The Last Word (This will be the 6h in the Izzy Spellman Mystery Series.)

Molly MacRae: Dyeing Wishes (This will be the 2nd in the Haunted Yarn Shop Mystery Series.)

Edward Marston (aka Conrad Allen & Keith Miles): Peril on the Royal Train (This will be the 10th in the Railway Detective Mystery Series.)

Lorena McCourtney: Dolled Up to Die (This will be the 2nd in the Cate Kinkaid Files Mystery Series.)

Amy Myers: Classic Mistake (This will be the 4th in the JAck Colby, Car Detective Mystery Series.)

David Rosenfelt: Unleashed (This will be the 11th in the Andy Carpenter Mystery Series.)

Kate Sedley: The Christmas Wassail (This will be the 22nd in the Roger the Chapman Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Peter Tremayne: The Seventh Trumpet (This will be the 23rd in the Sister Fidelma Mystery Series.)

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

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