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

Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations – December 2012

Last month for the 2012 Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations listings. I can barely believe this year is will be over in just a matter of days!

I’m sure that most of you know the drill: Please tell us about a few of your very favorite Cozy Mystery reads of December 2012. This should be authors who you think the rest of us absolutely have “got to know” about, so that we can also enjoy their Cozy Mystery books. Please include WHY you enjoyed these authors.

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I will add the recommended authors to this entry as they come in. (Please do not tell us about the authors you did not like.) Thank you!

What Cozy Mystery book (or author) have you read during December 2012, and why did you enjoy it (or him/her)?

Here are the current authors who some of you have read this past month, and wanted to tell the rest of us about:

Ellery Adams (aka Jennifer Stanley, J. B. Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): Books by the Bay Mystery Series

Susan Wittig Albert: :China Bayles Mystery Series

Robin Allen: Poppy Markham, Culinary Cop Mystery Series

Madelyn Alt: Bewitching Mystery Series

Donald Bain & “Jessica Fletcher”: Murder, She Wrote Mystery Series

David Baldacci: Puller Mystery Series

Lorna Barrett (aka Lorraine Bartlett & L. L. Bartlett):Booktown Mystery Series

L.L. Bartlett (aka Lorna Barrett & Lorraine Bartlett): Jeff Resnick Mystery Series

Ali Brandon (aka Diane A. S. Stuckart): Black Cat Bookshop Mystery Series

Lilian Jackson Braun: The Cat Who ***** Mystery Series

Simon Brett: Fethering Mystery Series

Emily Brightwell: Mrs. Jeffries Mystery Series

Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib): Key West Food Critic Mystery Series

Kate Carlisle: Biblophile Mystery Series

Erika Chase: Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery Series

Peg Cochran (aka Meg London): Gourmet De-Lite Mystery Series

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell): Orchard Mystery Series

E.J. Copperman (aka Jeffrey Cohen): Haunted Guesthouse Mystery Series

Deborah Crombie: Kincaid & James Mystery Series

Krista Davis: Domestic Diva Mystery Series

Claire Donally: Sunny & Shadow Mystery Series

Elizabeth J. Duncan: Penny Brannigan Mystery Series

Janet Evanovich: Stephanie Plum Mystery Series

“Jessica Fletcher” & Donald Bain: Murder, She Wrote Mystery Series

Elaine Flinn: Molly Doyle Mystery Series

Lee Goldberg: Mr. Monk Mystery Series

John Grisham: The Racketeer

E. W. Hornung: Raffles

Michael Innes: Inspector Sir John Appleby Mystery Series

P. D. James: Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Series

Kate Kingsbury (aka Allison Kingsley & Rebecca Kent): Special Pennyfoot Hotel Mystery Series

Joyce and Jim Lavene: Missing Pieces Mystery Series

Virginia Lowell: Cookie Cutter Shop Mystery Series

Charlotte MacLeod (aka Alisa Craig): Peter Shandy Mystery Series

Susan Elia MacNeal: Maggie Hope Series: Princess Elizabeth’s Spy

G. M. Malliet: St. Just Mystery Series

Margaret Maron: Deborah Knott Mystery Series

J. J. Marric (aka John Creasy): Gideon Mystery Series

Nancy Martin: Blackbird Sisters Mystery Series

Jenn McKinlay (aka Lucy Lawrence & Josie Belle): Cupcake Bakery Mystery Series

Marcia Muller: Sharon McCone Mystery Series

Shirley Rousseau Murphy: Joe Gray Cat Mystery Series

Sandra Parshall: Rachael Goddard Mystery Series

Hannah Reed (aka Deb Baker): Beekeeper Mystery Series

Emilie Richards: Ministry Is Murder Mystery Series

Sara Rosett: Ellie Avery Mystery Series

Maggie Sefton: Knitting Mystery Series

Patricia Sprinkle: Thoroughly Southern Mystery Series

Sunny Sundwall: The Red Shoelace Killer

Susan Susmann: Audition for Murder

Elaine Viets: Dead-end Job Mystery Series

Debbie Wilson: Sweet Scent of Justice

Valerie Wolzien: Susan Henshaw Mystery Series

♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦

Happy Christmas to All, and to All A Good Night…

I hope you ALL have wonderful, stress-less, and safe holidays.

My husband, son, daughter, and I will be spending a very quiet family time. We will be picking up our Honeybaked ham today, and I am going to go ahead and get the three bean salad (a recipe from my grandmother), as well as my potato bake (a recipe of my mother) made, so I won’t have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen tomorrow.

I plan to work on a 1,000 piece puzzle tomorrow. I am pretty sure Santa will be leaving one for me tomorrow. We got our old bridge table out about a month ago and started making “group effort” puzzles. We all try to get a few pieces done as we walk through the family room. We may not make huge amounts of progress at any one time, but we all have been enjoying making the puzzles. They’re pretty relaxing… most of the time.

Merry Christmas to ALL!

Jeffrey Allen, Mary Lou Kirwan, Anna Loan-Wilsley, & Staci McLaughlin – 4 New Author Additions to the Cozy Mystery Site

You all have told me about a lot of authors who you think should be included on the Cozy Mystery site. Well, here are the four newest additions to the site:

Jeffrey Allen writes the Stay at Home Dad Mystery Series. This series features a Texas dad who takes care of the home, and also coaches his daughter’s soccer team. He also finds time to solve mysteries.

Mary Lou Kirwin is the author of the Librarian Mystery Series. In the series, the sleuth lives in Minnesota, where she works as a librarian and solves mysteries.

Anna Loan-Wilsey pens the Hattie Davish “Have Typewriter Will Travel” Mystery Series. This series takes place in the USA during the late 19th century. I believe that Hattie, who is a traveling secretary/typist, will travel from one locale to another in each of the mystery books. The first book takes place in Arkansas, the second in Illinois.

Staci McLaughlin writes the Blossom Valley Mystery Series. The series is set in an organic farm and spa in California. Dana Lewis, the sleuth, moves in with her recently widowed mother, and finds herself working at the spa. Unfortunately, Dana is a junk food fanatic.

Thank you to those of you who recommended these authors.

Hazel Holt’s Mrs. Malory Mystery Series

Every once in a while I read a book that makes me feel like I absolutely just have to shout about it. (I mean this in a good way!)

Hazel Holt is the British author who writes the Mrs. Malory Mystery Series. (For those of you who love E. F. Benson’s Lucia novels, perhaps you have read the two follow-up books in that series, written by her son, Tom Holt.) She has also written “My Dear Charlotte” – a Regency mystery book.

Holt’s Cozy Mystery series features Sheila Malory, a middle age literary critic who lives in the fictional Taviscombe, a very Cozy British village. (Every once in a while, however, she visits London in order to do required research.)

Sheila has a son (Michael) who is seldom at home, but who has a terrific relationship with her. As a widow, Mrs. Malory is very independent, which is perfect – since her amateur detective status requires her to be able to come and go as she pleases. Of course, Foss and Tris (Sheila’s cat and dog) think she is dependent of them!

A lot like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, people trust and confide in Mrs. Malory. She is able to glean information from people in order to figure out the who and why of the mystery at hand.

Even though Holt is still writing the Mrs. Malory Mystery Series, it is very reminiscent of mysteries that were written before the 1960s. Holt’s series would qualify (to me) more as a classic mystery series.

Hazel Holt is one of my favorite authors not only because of her writing style which is very easy to read, but also because I like her characters and setting.  Mrs. Malory, Rosemary (her best friend), the quaint village, and all of its inhabitants are interesting to me. I would enjoy meeting the people who inhabit Holt’s mystery books, as well as visiting the town. I even enjoy Sheila’s pets! All of these are woven into well-thought-out mystery cases that I happen to enjoy a lot.

If you’re interested in reading more of these brief revisits of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

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