The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for April 2013

I should preface this with: all of these movies are on the Turner Classic Movie channel. I get their television movie guide (thanks to AndieP telling us about it) and go through it each month so that I can catch the movies I think my husband and I will like. The movies I’m going to list are all mysteries, except for one that I have seen (twice) which I will probably watch again!

I haven’t seen all of the movies I’m going to tell you about, so I can’t vouch for all of them. They look like they might be right up our mystery-loving alleys! Also, I believe I am giving you all of the times in Central zone, but you should probably check.

Hurry quick! I’m sorry I didn’t write this entry a little earlier, and know I’m not giving you much time, but tonight Sleuth will be on.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

SLEUTH (1972)  7:00 PM (Central)
A mystery novelist plots revenge on his wife’s lover.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Cast: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Alex Cawthorne.
C-138 mins, TV-14, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday, April 13, 2013

THE CASE OF THE STUTTERING BISHOP (1937)  9:45 AM (Central)
Perry Mason tries to find out if a long-lost heiress is the real thing.
Dir: William Clemens Cast: Donald Woods, Ann Dvorak, Anne Nagel.
BW-71 mins, TV-G

MURDER AT THE GALLOP (1963)  11:00 AM (Central)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple suspects foul play when an old friend is supposedly scared to death by a cat. (***As an aside, this is not the Miss Marple you are expecting. Very campy!***)
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Robert Morley, Flora Robson.
BW-81 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948)    9:15 PM (Central)
Set to music, a symphony conductor envisions multiple possible scenarios for dealing with his wife’s infidelity.
Dir: Preston Sturges Cast: Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee.
BW-105 mins, TV-PG, CC,

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday, April 14, 2013

THE LADY VANISHES (1938)    7:00 AM (Central)
A young woman on vacation triggers an international incident when she tries to track an elderly friend who has disappeared. (***Small world! Joshua just commented on this movie.***)
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas.
BW-96 mins, TV-G, CC

DODSWORTH (1936) 9:15 PM (Central)
A husband whose wife left him looks for new love in Europe. (***This is a non-mystery movie, based on the book by Sinclair Lewis. I love this film!***)
Dir: William Wyler Cast: Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas.
BW-101 mins, TV-PG, CC

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

REBECCA (1940)   10:45 PM (Central)
A young bride is terrorized by the memories of her husband’s glamorous first wife.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders.
BW-130 mins, TV-PG, CC,

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday, April 18, 2013

MURDER AT THE GALLOP (1963)  5:30 PM (Central)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple suspects foul play when an old friend is supposedly scared to death by a cat. (***If you missed it on Saturday, 15.***)
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Robert Morley, Flora Robson.
BW-81 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday, April 20, 2013

MURDER MOST FOUL (1964)    11:00 AM (Central)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple joins a small-town theatre to investigate a murder. (***Again, this is a Miss Marple that is like no other. Very campy!***)
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles Tingwell.
BW-91 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday, April 25, 2013

MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD (1934)   7:45 AM (Central)
A schoolteacher matches wits with a police detective when they both try to solve a pretty music teacher’s murder. (***Edna May Oliver is delightful as Hildegarde Withers, Stuart Palmer‘s sleuth.***)
Dir: George Archainbaud Cast: James Gleason, Edna May Oliver, Bruce Cabot.
BW-72 mins, TV-G

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday, April 27, 2013

A DATE WITH THE FALCON (1941)   9:45 AM (Central)
The gentleman detective postpones his wedding to find a cache of stolen diamonds.
Dir: Irving Reis Cast: George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, James Gleason.
BW-63 mins, TV-G

MURDER AHOY (1964)          11:00 AM (Central)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple takes to the seas to investigate murder on a naval training ship. (***This rounds up the three Miss Marple movies starring Margaret Rutherford.***)
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Lionel Jeffries, Charles Tingwell.
BW-93 mins, TV-G, CC, Letterbox Format

***** ***** ***** *****

If you know of any other mystery movies that are going to be airing this month, feel free to post a comment.

(All of the above descriptions were copied from the TCM site. I hope they don’t change their line-up!)

May 2013 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in May 2013:

Emily Brightwell: Mrs. Jeffries Turns the Tide (This will be the 31st in the Mrs. Jeffries Mystery Series.)

Duffy Brown: Killer in Crinolines  (This will be the 2nd in the Consignment Shop Mystery Series.)

Fiona Buckley: A Rescue for a Queen (This will be the 11th in the Ursula Blanchard Mystery Series.)

Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib) Topped Chef (This will be the 3rd in the Key West Food Critic Mystery Series.)

Gary Corby: Sacred Games (This will be the 3rd in the Ancient Greece Mystery Series.)

Clive Cussler & Graham Brown: Zero Hour (This will be the 11th in the NUMA Files Mystery Series.)

Claire Donally: Cat Nap (This will be the 2nd in the Sunny & Shadow Mystery Series.)

Sally Goldenbaum: Angora Alibi (This will be the 7th in the Seaside Knitters Mystery Series.)

John Grisham: Theodore Boone: The Activist (This will be the 4th in the young adult Theodore Boone Mystery Series.)

Carolyn Haines: Smarty Bones (This will be the 13th in the Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery Series.)

Charlaine Harris: Dead Ever After (This will be the 13th in the Sookie Stackhouse Mystery Series.)

Carolyn Hart: Dead, White, and Blue (This will be the 23rd in the Death on Demand Mystery Series.) (This is a Fourth of July theme mystery.)

John le Carré: A Delicate Truth (This will be a Stand Alone.)

Lizbeth Lipperman: Heard It Through the Grapevine (This will be teh 1st in the NEW Dead Sister Talking Mystery Series.)

Karen MacInerney: Brush with Death (This will be the 5th in the Gray Whale Inn Mystery Series.) (This is a Christmas theme mystery.)

Amy Patricia Meade: Straighten Up and Die Right (This will be the 2nd in the Rosie the Riveter Mystery Series.)

Ann Purser: The Sleeping Salesman Enquiry (This will be the 4th in the Ivy Beasley Mystery Series.)

Joanna Campbell Slan: Picture Perfect Corpse (This will be the 6th in the Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery Series.)

Leann Sweeney: The Cat, the Mill and the Murder (This will be the 5th in the Cats in Trouble Mystery Series.)

Victoria Thompson: Murder on Chelsea (This will be the 15th in the Gaslight Mystery Series.)

Elaine Viets: Board Stiff (This will be the 12th in the Dead-End Job Mystery Series.)

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

Mystery Book VS. Mystery Novella/Story

Carrie posted a comment a while back that I thought was particularly interesting. I think I had just added a whole bunch of “novellas” to an author’s page on the site, and I sort of was left wondering about this very same thing.

Carrie:

“I was thrilled to see a new Deanna Raybourn listed, until I saw the dreaded word “novella”.

According to your link the printed length of this novella is 58 pages and the Lady Julia mysteries are usually 400 pages or more. So, unless it is going to be sold at an eighth of the price of her other books then it can’t be considered any where near value for money. (Usually novellas are priced at approximately two thirds of the cost of a full novel by the same author.)

I buy a lot of books and, for some books, am prepared to pay over the odds. Such as obtaining the missing volume in a favorite author’s series. However, I do object to feeling as though I’ve been “ripped off” by the author or publisher and novellas do tend to make me feel that way.

Either write a full length novel or include the novella in a book of short stories, but to expect people to pay over the odds for what is after all a short story just doesn’t seem right.

Am I the only one who feels like this?”

Several of the “classic authors” including Agatha Christie wrote short stories. Some of the Poirot and Miss Marple books were collections of stories put together to make a mystery novel.

To me, it seems like we are seeing more and more authors getting on the “novella” bandwagon. E-books make it easy to get the “novellas” to the reader. I know that some authors really like the “novella” format, but I wonder about the readers.

When you have a choice between reading a mystery with one of your favorite sleuths, do you prefer reading a full-length mystery book or a short story? Do you have a preference?

So, I’m asking (for Carrie) what you all think about this new wave of  “novellas”? Do you prefer mystery books over mystery “novellas” (stories)?

Allen B. Boyer, Beverly Connor, Morag Joss, & Jana Lynn Shellman : Four Author Additions to the Cozy Mystery Site

As you all know, when I started the Cozy Mystery site I only had authors on it who I had read. Since then, I have added a whole lot of authors to the site who some of you have recommended, saying they definitely belong on the site. The four newest authors who I have just added to the site are:

Allen B. Boyer  Boyer writes the Bess Bullock Retirement Home Mystery Series. Bess is a retired police officer who has moved into the Honey Hills Retirement Home. She never expected to take up detection again, but she has.

Beverly Connor  Connor Writes the Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation Mystery Series AND the Lindsay Chamberlain Archaeology Mystery Series. Connor, an archaeologist, uses her knowledge writing both of these forensic field mystery series. Connor also co-writes the Frank Hayes Mystery Series with her husband, Charles Connor.

Morag Joss Joss pens the Sara Selkirk Mystery Series. The sleuth, Sara, is a world renown cellist who lives in Bath, England. Joss has her MA in English and also has advanced training in singing. Joss has several mystery book awards – the Dilys Award, the Silver Dagger Award, and the Edgar Allan Poe Award.

Jana Lynn Shellman Shellman writes the Poppy Hannah Mystery Series. Shellmann is a paralegal, as is her main sleuth, Poppy. A main difference between Shellman and her sleuth is that Poppy is also psychic.

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