The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

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!

April 2012 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in April 2012:

Barbara Allan: Antiques Disposal (This will be the 6th in the Trash ’n’ Treasures Mystery Series)

Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch (This will be the 17th in the Aunt Dimity Mystery Series)

Donald Bain & “Jessica Fletcher): Trouble at High Tide (This will be the 37th in the Murder, She Wrote Mystery Series)

David Baldacci: The Innocent (This will be a Stand Alone)

Jessica Beck: Drop Dead Chocolate (This will be the 7th in the Donut Shop Mystery Series)

Josie Belle (aka Jenn McKinlay & Lucy Lawrence): 50% Off Murder (This will be the 1st in the NEW Good Buy Girls Mystery Series

Claudia Bishop (aka Mary Stanton): Dread on Arrival (This will be the 17th in the Hemlock Falls Mystery Series)

Rita Mae Brown: The Big Cat Nap: The 20th Anniversary Mrs. Murphy Mystery (This will be the 20th in the Mrs. Murphy Mystery
Series…)

Elizabeth Lynn Casey (aka Laura Bradford): Reap What You Sew (This will be the 6th in the southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series)

Chris Cavender (aka Tim Myers, Elizabeth Bright, Melissa Glazer, & Casey Myers): Rest in Pizza (This will be the 4th in the Pizza Lovers Mystery Series)

Edie Claire: Never Con a Corgi (This will be the 6th in the  Leigh Koslow “Never” Mystery Series)

Carol Higgins Clark: Gypped (This will be the 15th in the Regan Reilly Mystery Series)

Mary Higgins Clark: The Lost Years (This will be a Stand Alone)

Laura Crum: Barnstorming (This will be the 12th in the Gail McCarthy Mystery Series…)

Vicky Doudera: Deadly Offer (This will be the 3rd in the Darby Farr Mystery Series)

“Jessica Fletcher” & Donald Bain:  Trouble at High Tide (This will be the 37th in the Murder, She Wrote Mystery Series)

Margaret Grace (aka Camille Minichino & Ada Madison): Mix-up in Miniature (This will be the 6th in the Miniature Mystery Series…)

Carolyn Hart: Death Comes Silently (This will be the 22nd in the Death on Demand Mystery Series)

 Iris Johansen: What Doesn’t Kill You (This will be a Stand Alone)

Linda O. Johnston: Hounds Abound (This will be the 3rd in the Pet Rescue Mystery Series…)

Amanda Lee (aka Gayle Trent): The Long Stitch Good Night (This will be the 4th in the Embroidery Mystery Series)

Anne Perry: Dorchester Terrace (This will be the 27th in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt Mystery Series)

Rhonda Pollero: Slightly Irregular (This will be the 4th in the F.A.T. Mystery Series )

R. T. Raichev: Murder of Gonzago (This will be the 7th in the Antonia Darcy & Major Payne Investigation Mystery Series)

Ann B. Ross: Miss Julia to the Rescue (This will be the 13th in the Miss Julia Mystery Series…)

Lisa Scottoline: Come Home (This will be a Stand Alone)

Clea Simon: Cats Can’t Shoot (This will be the 2nd in the Pru Marlowe Mystery Series)

Joanna Campbell Slan: Ready, Scrap, Shoot (This will be the 5th in the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series…)

Alexander McCall Smith: The Limpopo Academy of Detection (This will be the 13th in the The No. 1 Ladies’ Detectvie Agency
Series…)

Dorothy St. James: The Scarlet Pepper  (This will be the 2nd in the White House Gardener Mystery Series…)

Leann Sweeney: The Cat, the Wife and the Weapon (This will be the 4th in the Cats in Trouble Mystery Series…)

Joseph Wambaugh: Harbor Nocturne (This will be a Stand Alone)

Suzanne Young: Murder by Mishap (This will be the 3rd in the Edna Davies Mystery Series)

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

Tasha Alexander, Joan Blacher, Christy Fifield, & Janice Hamrick : the Four Newest Additions to the Cozy Mystery Site

I know I have really been bad about adding new authors to the Cozy Mystery site. I am (again!) going to try to get more of them posted. I mean, if you all are recommending mystery authors you think belong on the site, then I really should get them posted!

Here are the four newest additions of mystery authors to the Cozy Mystery site:

Tasha Alexander   Alexander writes an historical mystery series which is set in Victorian London: the Lady Emily Mystery Series. Lady Emily is a young widow of a viscount. (Alexander has her B.S. in English/Medieval Studies, which obviously helps a lot when writing an historical series.)

Joan Blacher    Blacher is a psychotherapist who worked as both a professor and counselor at the university level. She writes the Ardis  Jensen Mystery Series, which features a counselor at a university who used to be a forensic psychologist.

Christy Fifield (aka Christy Evans & Christina F. York)   Fifield writes the Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery Series which features, as its sleuth, a Florida souvenir shop owner. As Christy Evans she writes the Georgiana Neverall Mystery Series.

Janice Hamrick  Hamrick pens the Jocelyn Shore Mystery Series which is set in Austin, Texas. Jocelyn is a high school teacher/sleuth. Hamrick got her Bachelor’s in English, and has worked as a technical writer for a computer software company.

♦Click here if you would like to return to the Cozy Mystery site.♦

Too Many Significant Others Who Happen to Be Private/Police Detectives?

At the end of last month, as MJ was recommending three authors to us, she brought up a really good point about a lot of our sleuths’ love interests. (Keep in mind that MJ liked all three of the authors.)

MJ:
Re: Author #1:
“… has some quirky characters, and the ‘requisite’ (of many cozy writers) police boyfriend love interest…”

Author #2:
“…This author ALSO follows the ‘cozy’ formula of the love interest being a police detective…”

Author #3:

“…It appears *** is utilizing the same love interest formula as the previous two – police dept. boyfriend to-be!

I know several mystery cozies have love interests with OTHER occupations. But many (if not most) love interests are detectives (police or private), which is why I jokingly call them ‘formula’.”

My answer was:

“MJ, I totally agree about the ‘requisite” detective love interest! Either that, or the detective is their niece, nephew, son, daughter, best friend, neighbor, ETC! Sure helps the sleuth gather interesting clue-solving tidbits…”

Susie followed our line of conversation by adding:

“MJ’s point both intrigues and worries me. In the series I’m developing, I don’t have a detective as a love interest in the first book, but I do for the second. But the problem is, as Danna suggests, that the detective (or in my case, constable) comes in handy when you have an amateur sleuth, especially in a time period when women couldn’t serve as police, detectives, etc (my books are set in early modern England). But I suppose he doesn’t need to be a detective, but for a series you need a reason to keep bringing them together. Do you think a lawyer as the love interest is equally formulaic? And if so, do you mind? (I can think of the Anne Perry novels, but not too many others). I would love to know your thoughts on this.”

What do you all think? Do too many sleuths have too many police/private detective significant others?

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