The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Happy Mother’s Day! I’ll be Watching the Television Show: Hazel

Hazel: Season 2 Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Moms. Also, for all of us daughters, what a wonderful time to sit back and reflect about our Moms.

Our daughter came home (from Austin) for the weekend, and since we are fortunate to have our son living right here in San Antonio, the four of us have been together for the weekend. We celebrated Mother’s Day yesterday. Our son has a group function today that he goes to every other Sunday, and my daughter has a group hike she is at right now, thus the topsy-turvy Mother’s Day on Saturday.

I was very surprised to receive the second season of Hazel. Yes, Hazel, as in the 1960-ish television show. My husband and I have been making our way through this delightful show, and a while back I mentioned to him that I was going to go ahead and buy the second season. He told me to wait a while, just in case the end of the first season wasn’t up to par with where we currently were on our discs. Apparently, he knew our son and daughter had already purchased the second season of Hazel for one of my Mother’s Day goodies.

I have long been a fan of Shirley Booth – the actress who portrays Hazel, the housemaid of the Baxter family.  I was first introduced to Shirley Booth’s acting when I saw the 1952 movie Come Back, Little Sheba. I was simply overwhelmed with how good she was. When I saw Booth in the 1958 movie called The Matchmaker, I knew she would be an actress whose work I would follow. (The Matchmaker is the original Hello, Dolly.)

Hazel is a situation comedy (sitcom) that aired in the early to mid 1960s. I had never watched the show, but while doing some internet surfing and digging a little while ago, I found it. I can’t remember how I happened upon it, but I’m glad I did. It has a “feel good” feeling about it, which is something my husband and I both enjoy. As I said before, Hazel is the maid in the Baxter household. The family is made up of Mr. Baxter/Mr. B. – Don DeFore, Mrs. Baxter/Missy – Whitney Blake [the mother of Meredith Baxter (Birney) and co-creator of another sitcom One Day at a Time], and  Harold – Bobby Buntrock.

Hazel was the housemaid to Missy’s family while Missy was growing up, and she is now as close to Harold as she was to Missy. The very refreshing thing (these days!) is that Harold loves and respects Hazel, and doesn’t always have a roll of the eyes and some “clever” (in my mind what is really “smart-allecky”) retort every time a grown up talks to him. (The writing on the show is so good that they don’t have to rely on cheap gimmicks like a pain-in-the-neck kid to show humor.) The fourth member of the Baxter family is Hazel, for she is surely part of that loving family.

I started this entry as a short “Happy Mother’s Day” entry, but somehow, I got carried away with Shirley Booth and Hazel! To get back to my initial purpose: I hope you all have wonderful days!

For more Cozy viewing ideas, click on my Cozy Mystery TV & Movies page.

A Little of This and a Little of That… (A Few Updates)

I have gotten some letters and/or comments with updates that I missed on some of “my” authors on the Cozy Mystery site. Thanks to those of you who sent me corrections/additions. Here are the pages I recently fixed:

Arlene Sachitano: I have added the mystery books I was missing from her Harriet Truman / Loose Threads Mystery Series. I try to stay on top of it with “my” authors, but every once in a while, I don’t!

Debbie Macomber: Yes, yes, I know Macomber doesn’t write mystery books, but I had several people suggest I add her “good feeling” books to the site, so I did. Every once in a while I have to remember to check and see if she has new books out. Lucky for her readers, she usually does! (Some of you know her from the fact that both of her Mrs. Miracle books were made into Christmas movies for the Hallmark channel.)

Edward Marston (aka Keith Miles & Conrad Allen): I had forgotten to add a few of his mystery books in the Redmayne & Bale Mystery Series. I think I have his page correct now.

I don’t sew, but I always look forward to watching the PBS Sewing with Nancy shows – especially the last ten minutes of each show – where she highlights a unique style of sewing or a person with special sewing abilities. One of the recent shows I watched had Jennifer Chiaverini on, talking about her Elm Creek Quilts Series of books. That reminded me that I had to update her page, which I did.

Barb (who was so fantastic about keeping me in the loop for Guidepost’s Patchwork Mystery Series) has just started telling me about Guidepost’s new series: Secrets of Mary’s Bookshop. Thank you, Barb!

Also, Edie Claire‘s seventh Leigh Koslow mystery is out. (I don’t know how I missed this book, since Claire is one of my favorite authors.) The e-book format of Never Haunt a Historian is already out, and the Never Haunt a Historian paperback will be following very shortly.

Let’s see, I’m trying to remember if there is anything else I have been working on that I need to tell you all about. I have gone through all of my notes, and I think this should do it.

P.S. >>> I just found one more note to myself. I also updated Suzanne Adair‘s page to include her second Revolutionary War Mystery Series.

Mystery Authors Akin to Elizabeth Peters…

This comment is from Amy. She is looking for suggestions of authors she might enjoy reading next, based on her previous mystery book encounters. Amy asks:

“I am looking for new authors to read. I really enjoyed Elizabeth Peters’ stand alone books and the Vicki Bliss series but I have finished them. I also really enjoyed some of Mary Stewart’s books. The settings are so well described that they make me want to travel. I am tired of spending money on what seems like a good mystery but it ends up being a smutty romance or has really horrible crime details. I like a romance as part of a mystery but I want mostly mystery and I don’t want explicit sex, gory murders, graphic violence or lots of bad language. (I can take a bit of sex and a bit of bad language, it just needs to be sparse.) I’m not into multiple partners. That’s not romantic. Any advice from others readers?”

Do any of you have any ideas as to whom Amy might enjoy reading next?

(By the way, Elizabeth Peters list is on my site here.)

Thank you for your help!

Cozy Mystery Book with a Touch of Paranormal, and a Whole Lot of Sweeping!

It’s that time again! I have a “notepad” called “Blog Entries” that I keep a list of questions and/or comments from some of you, so that I can get input (usually help!) from you all. This latest letter is from Adele. She writes:

“… I have been perusing your web site and trying to find a book that I read a few years back. Ok…I bought it in paperback from a local book dealer (not Amazon, so no record of purchase). The book is now long gone, but I would like to read more of this author. And silly me, of course I forgot to write down the author’s name.

I think it was a cooking cozy mystery. I’m pretty sure it took place somewhere in Boston – New England in general, definitely not Georgia. There is magic involved as one of the characters kept trying to make the shop broomstick fly and eventually did and it chased the culprit down the street. The broomstick always comes back to the owner. The owner of the shop is the protagonist. I don’t remember if it was a pie shop, muffin shop or bakery shop.

… Thanks for any clue or hint you can give me.”

I wrote to Adele and told her I would ask you all for your help in identifying the author of this book. (I also told her that we have a pretty good success rate!)

Thank you for your help!

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