The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Authors Who Are Similar to Donna Huston Murray

Mary Joy wrote a letter to me that included the following:

“For me the sleuth is always a woman and she lives in very comfortable, if sometimes eccentric surroundings. She can live alone or with or without any combination of boyfriend, husband  and children. As soon as she gets home, she tries, not always successfully, to head for a nice bath or shower followed by a favorite meal or drink – the way we wish life could always be.

One of the authors she follows is Donna Huston Murray. She would like some ideas of:

Authors Who Are Similar to Donna Huston Murray:

Kate Borden: Peggy Jean Turner Mystery Series

Jill Churchill: Jane Jeffry Mystery Series

Diane Mott Davidson: Goldy Bear (Catering) Mystery Series

Monica Ferris: Needlecraft Mystery Series

Sarah Graves: Home Repair is Homicide Mystery Series

Carolyn Hart: Death On Demand Mystery Series AND Henrie O Mystery Series

Leslie Meier: Lucy Stone Mystery Series

Ayelet Waldman: Mommy Track Mystery Series

Valerie Wolzien: Susan Henshaw Mystery Series

Please post your recommendations of authors who are similar to Donna Huston Murray, and I will add them to the list.

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by theme click on this link.♦

In Plain Sight is Back!

The USA channel show In Plain Sight is going to be returning tonight! Yes, tonight – March 16, 2012. Mary (Mary McCormack) will be back after maternity leave, and Brandi (Nichole Hiltz), … well, I’m assuming she will still be single after last season’s cliff hanger. I sure hope we get to see more of Jinx (Lesley Ann Warren) this season, and I also hope this show is not in its last season! (It’s going to be bad enough losing The Closer after this summer’s run!)

In Plain Sight is one of my favorite shows. It ranks (for me) right up there with TNT’s The Closer. Both of these shows are on “non-major” networks, which may have something to do with how women are portrayed on the major networks, and perhaps because they aren’t major network shows, the writers try harder. (I don’t know of any really good shows that feature strong, female leads on the major networks. – I’m sure though, that I will hear from people who know of such shows, they just aren’t shows that have “hooked me” into watching them.)

And, the writers have managed to make the male characters on the show interesting, also. I love Marshall Marshall Mann (Frederick Weller),  Mary’s long-suffering boss Stan (Paul Ben-Victor), and think Brandi made a terrible mistake with Peter (Joshua Malina). As for Raphael (Cristián de la Fuente), well… what’s to say? I guess Mary just didn’t want to be burdened with absolute perfection!

If you haven’t already watched In Plain Sight, I strongly recommend that you do. (I would definitely watch it chronologically, though.) If you are a fan (as I am!): Get over to your DVR right now, or make sure you are watching tonight as Albuquerque’s Witness Protection marshalls do their thing!

Our Daughter’s Last Visit Home While in College…

Our daughter came home for her last “while-in-college” spring break, and I have oh-so enjoyed having her here. She only has a little over two months left of school before she returns home to study for the bar exam. And, the good news for us, is that when she finishes with that, she will be working in Austin.

Some of you have been with this site long enough to know that she went to the University of Texas in Austin for her undergraduate studies. It only takes us (+/-) an hour and half to drive all the way to the center of Austin. Of course, all of this depends on the traffic>>> which has a lot to do with whether you are trying to get across the bottle-neck bridge, or not!

We decided that it would be best if we simply took it easy while she was here, since it is her last college vacation. There wasn’t much more than hanging out on our schedules. She was able to go to two movies, and get a lot of walking done. (I never mentioned this before, but all four of us have Fitbit pedometers. I absolutely love mine! I try to get 10,000 or more steps in every day. I have only missed a few days since having the Fitbit. Not bad for someone who was pretty couch-potato-sedentary five months ago!)

So, at this point, I am full of conflicting emotions. I am really enjoying her visit home right now, I am dreading when she has to go back to school, but I am also excited about her moving back to our area in less than three months.

Congratulations to All 2011 Agatha Award Nominees!

As some of you might already know, they announced the Nominees for the 2011 Agatha Awards. The Malice Domestic Convention will be April 27-29 in Bethesda, Maryland.

Congratulations to all 2011 Agatha Award Nominees!

2011 Agatha Awards Nominees:

Best Novel:
The Real Macaw by Donna Andrews
The Diva Haunts the House by Krista Davis
Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet
Three-Day Town by Margaret Maron
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

Best First Novel:
Dire Threads by Janet Bolin
Choke by Kaye George
Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry
Who Do, Voodoo? by Rochelle Staab
Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend

Best Historical Novel:
Naughty in Nice by Rhys Bowen
Murder Your Darlings by J.J. Murphy
Mercury’s Rise by Ann Parker
Troubled Bones by Jeri Westerson
A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear

Best Short Story:
“Disarming” by Dana Cameron, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine – June 2011
“Dead Eye Gravy” by Krista Davis, Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology
“Palace by the Lake” by Daryl Wood Gerber, Fish Tales: The Guppy Anthology
“Truth and Consequences” by Barb Goffman, Mystery Times Ten
“The Itinerary” by Roberta Isleib, MWA Presents the Rich and the Dead

Best Children’s/Young Adult:
Shelter by Harlan Coben
The Black Heart Crypt by Chris Grabenstein
Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey
The Code Busters Club, Case #1: The Secret of the Skeleton Key by Penny Warner

Best Non-fiction:
Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure by Leslie Budewitz
Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making: More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks by John Curran
On Conan Doyle: Or, The Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda
Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel by A. B. Emrys
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris

Lifetime Achievement:  Simon Brett

Poirot Award:  Lee Goldberg

Amelia Award:  Elizabeth Peters

Guest of Honor:  Jan Burke

Toastmaster:  Dana Cameron

Malice Remembers:  Tony Hillerman

By the way, the Best Historical Novel (Mystery) is a new Agatha Award category. Must mean that a lot of us are reading (and enjoying) them!

Wow! What a line-up of wonderful mystery authors! Those of you who are lucky enough to be going to the Malice Domestic Convention this year are sure to have a mysteriously wonderful time!

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