The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Wyoming to Montana to Wyoming…

Here I am in Yellowstone Park, loving it, but not so crazy about not having internet access – or cell phone capability. I would never have guessed how important those two things have become to me. Good grief! Shame on me! Complaining about the lack of those two things – with this phenomenal beauty all around us.

Here’s a tip: If you don’t have children in school, this time in September is a wonderful time to visit. We have not encountered any large crowd problems… even while watching Old Faithful – twice!

It looks like the Park Rangers have done a great job convincing people not to feed the animals. All of those old documentaries that show bears coming right up to the cars looking for food – well, that’s not happening anymore, at least as far as we can see. (Or am I remembering Yogi Bear and Boo Boo stealing picnic baskets from unsuspecting visitors at Jellystone Park?)

While on route, we went through beautiful Shoshone National Forest. It just kept getting more beautiful as we went through Bridges-Teton National Forest, then through Grand Teton National Forest, only to arrive at spectacular Yellowstone National Park. After living for so many years in San Antonio, it was a truly inspring thing to see all of the clusters of Aspen trees amongst the pine trees, as their golden leaves shimmered.

I am going to post this entry on our last day at Yellowstone, as we head out to see Little Big Horn, and then south, back to our home. As nice as this vacation has been, it will be nice not to have to deal with luggage, arranging and then rearranging our car, and, lastly our everyday “necessities” like cell phone and internet connections.

Josephine Tey: Daughter of Time

I mentioned that my husband and I were listening to Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time while on the road to visit my mother, brother, and Yellowstone. When I became aware of both the British list and USA list of the top 100 mystery books of all time, I decided that I wanted to broaden my mystery reading scope. What better mystery book to start with than the number one pick on the British list, and number four on the USA list!

We finished listening to this 1951 mystery book, and I was left with sort of a question – Is this a mystery or is this book a history-mystery? I’m not sure I would have picked it for either if those lists, but, of course, my opinion is just that, my opinion.

While I found the novel interesting, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a mystery. The book takes place in a hospital room. This book, not being the first in Josephine Tey‘s Inspector Alan Grant Mystery Series, has the characters already knowing each other, and the action already known. Apparently, Alan Grant has been injured, and is stuck in the hospital with more time on his hands than he knows what to do with. His well-meaning friends have supplied him with books, but Grant simply isn’t in the mood to lay there and read.

This is what then starts the “mystery” part of the book. He begins to wonder if King Richard III did indeed kill his two young nephews in order to continue reigning Britain, or if the story that has been commonly told by authors (including Shakespeare) is simply a made-up piece of history.

I think that perhaps, years ago, before the time of the internet, the historical references that Grant and his cohort uncover could be made to look like some type of “mystery” solving. However, having access to all sorts of facts now that we can simply Google a topic made this book seem like less of a “mystery” and more of a “possibility” – which is why I’m not sure if I’d think of this book as the number one (or four) best mystery book of all time.

I think that I am going to have to read more of Josephine Tey’s books and then perhaps compare the two books to see if she does, indeed, write true mysteries – at least what I would conside true mysteries.

Daughter of Time was certainly interesting to listen to, and, since both my husband and I (he, more than me) are interested in history, we both enjoyed it. But, I would not categorize it as a classic mystery book – but then, that’s just my opinion.

David Handler’s The Snow White Christmas Cookie

OK, I have to admit it. >>> I’m a sucker for holiday themed mystery books. (No surprise to a lot of you!) And, here’s another admission: I won’t be able to catch up to David Handler’s The Snow White Christmas Cookie this year, but hopefully, I will by next December.

When I was getting the October 2012 Mystery Book New Releases list together this month, there were a few mysteries that really caught my attention. This mystery by David Handler was one of these books.

David Handler is one of the authors who I have had my eye on for a while. I have so many mystery authors who I already follow, so every time I try a new one, I put a lot of thought into it. I look at the reviews other people have written, as well as try to check out “what the author is all about.”In the case of David Handler, I liked what I found out. The fact that he has won an Edgar Award, was a finalist for an Anthony Award, a finalist of the Dilys Award,that his Berger & Mitry Mystery Series takes place in an historic village in Connecticut, and the fact that he was part of the writing team that created the Kate and Allie Show convinced me to give his books a try.

So, having just finished my latest Monica Ferris Needlecraft mystery, I am now embarking on a new-to-me author, and am really looking forward to reading The Cold Blue Blood.

Colorado Springs, or Bust!

We are in Colorado Springs, which I may add, is beautiful. I have mentioned before that I grew up in an Air Force family, so I moved a lot. (I always considered my grandmother’s home in Northwood, Iowa to be my “home base”.) My parents moved out here to Colorado Springs after my father retired, and I liked it so much – that I moved out here years later. Once here, I didn’t envisioned moving out of Colorado, but life has a way of branching us into different paths.

Traveling from New Mexico to Colorado is almost magical. You have to go through an area called Raton Pass. For someone who lives in the flat plains of Texas, Raton Pass is an invitation to all things wonderful. You no longer see the yellow diamond-shaped road signs with jumping deer on the side of the road. Instead, you see yellow diamond-shaped road signs with bucks (either elk or deer) that have at least eight point antlers. The road curves, ascends, descends, and even does the ascending and descending on curves! The terrain brings to mind the wonderful lines from the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. We must be over the rainbow!”

This isn’t to say the scenery getting to this point on our journey wasn’t memorable. Driving through long stretches of plains wasn’t all that great, but once you leave the plain plains, you go through what seems to be an old Hollywood movie set with nearby plateaus giving way to mountain ranges that were painted to look like they were miles and miles away. I almost expected to see Jimmy Stewart riding out on his trusty mare. (Can you tell I’m a fan of the Turner Classic Movie channel?)

Oh, and I am loving the weather! Such a nice change from humidly hot or hotly humid!

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