The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Sharon Love Cook, Lesley A. Diehl, William Doonan, & Annelise Ryan (aka Beth Amos) : Four Author Additions to the Cozy Mystery Site

I have added four new (to me!) authors to the site. I know I keep repeating this, but I want to remind you, these authors have been recommended as belonging on the Cozy Mystery site by some of you.

Sharon Love Cook writes the Rose McNichols Mystery Series, which features a newspaper reporter in a coastal village in New Hampshire.  Cook is also a newspaper columnist, who is an illustrator as well as a cartoonist.

Lesley A. Diehl has her Ph. D. in psychology, and has worked as both a professor and a university administrator. Diehl pens the Microbrewers Mystery Series, which features a master brewer as its sleuth. She also writes the Big Lake Mystery Series, which has as its sleuth, Emily Rhodes, a retired preschool teacher who takes up bartending (and sleuthing!) in Florida.

William Doonan is an anthropology professor who has worked as a cruise ship lecturer many times. Doonan writes the Henry Grave Mystery Series, which features an octogenarian who works as a senior cruise ship investigator.

Annelise Ryan (aka Beth Amos) is an emergency room nurse who writes a mystery series which revolves around an ex-nurse. The Mattie Winston Mystery Series is set in Wisconsin, and has her ex-nurse now working as a deputy coroner.

February 2012 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in February 2012:

Avery Aames: Clobbered by Camembert (This will be the 3rd in the Cheese Shop Mystery Series…)

Lucy Arlington (aka 1/2 Sylvia May & 1/2 J. B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & Ellery Adams): Buried in a Book (This will be the 1st in the NEW Mystery Series…)

Jeffrey Ashford (aka Roderic Jeffries & Peter Alding): Justice Deferred (This will be a Stand Alone…)

Lorraine Bartlett (aka Lorna Barret & L. L. Bartlett ): The Walled Flower (This will be the 2nd in the Victoria Square Mystery Series…)

M. C. Beaton (aka Marion Chesney): Death of a Kingfisher (This will be the 28th in the Hamish Macbeth Mystery Series…)

Melissa Bourbon: A Fitting End (This will be the 2nd in the Magical Dressmaking Mystery Series…)

Jacklyn Brady (aka Sherry Lewis): Cake on a Hot Tin Roof (This will be the 2nd in the Piece of Cake Mystery Series…)

Simon Brett: Guns in the Gallery (This will be the 13th in the Fethering Mystery Series…)

Ellen Byerrum: Death on Heels (This will be the 8th in the Crime of Fashion Mystery Series…)

Kate Carlisle: One Book in the Grave (This will be the 5th in the Bibliophile Mystery Series…)

Nancy J. Cohen: Shear Murder (This will be the 10th in the Bad Hair Day Mystery Series…)

E. J. Copperman (aka Jeffrey Cohen): Old Haunts (This will be the 3rd in the Haunted Guesthouse Mystery Series…)

Deborah Crombie: No Mark upon Her (This will be the 14th in the Kincaid  & James Mystery Series…)

Amanda Flower: Murder in a Basket (This will be the 2nd in the India Hayes Mystery Series…)

Joanne Fluke: Cinnamon Roll Murder (This will be the 15th in the Hannah Swensen Cookie Jar Mystery Series…)

Parnell Hall: $10,000 in Small, Unmarked Puzzles (This will be the 13th in the Puzzle Lady Mystery Series…) (Actually January 31…)

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles: Kill My Darling (This will be the 14th in the Bill Slider Mystery Series…)

B. B. Haywood: Town in a Wild Moose Chase (This will be the 3rd in the Candy Holliday Mystery Series…)

Joan Hess: Deader Homes and Gardens (This will be the 18th in the Claire Malloy Mystery Series…)

Maddy Hunter: Dutch Me Deadly (This will be the 7th in the Passport to Peril Mystery Series…)

Sue Ann Jaffarian: Gem of a Ghost (This will be the 3rd in the Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery Series…)

J. A. Jance: Left for Dead (This will be the 7th in the Ali Reynolds Mystery Series…)

Jonathan Kellerman: Victims (This will be the 26th in the Alex Delaware Mystery Series…)

Victoria Laurie: Quest for the Secret Keeper (This will be the in the 3rd in the Oracles of Delphi Series…) (This is a children’s mystery series.)

Lisa Lutz: Trail of the Spellmans (This will be the 5th in the Izzy Spellman Mystery Series…)

James Patterson & Mark Sullivan: Private Games (This will be the 4th in the Jack Morgan Private Mystery Series……)

J. D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts): Celebrity in Death (This will be the 35th in the Eve Dallas Mystery Series…)

Peter Robinson: Before the Poison (This will be a Stand Alone…)

David Rosenfelt: Heart of a Killer (This will be a Stand Alone…)

Dana Stabenow: Restless in the Grave (This will be the 19th in the Kate Shugak Mystery Series…)

Betty Webb: Desert Wind (This will be the 7th in the Lena Jones Mystery Series…)

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

Father Brown Television Series…

Father Brown - Set 1 I will start out by admitting that I have not read any of G. K. Chesterton‘s Father Brown mystery books. So I cannot compare between the two media, nor can I tell you how similar the shows are to the mystery books.

The Father Brown television episodes star Kenneth More as the curate sleuth. He reminds me a lot of Joan Hickson’s Miss Marple. He is extremely observant, seems to fade into the background, and also is very inquisitive. Because of this  Catholic priest’s ability to be over-looked, he is able to garner a lot of information which would normally not be shared by people – especially the culprits!

The Father Brown series takes place during the 1920s, and I found the production sets to be very believable. (Of course, I don’t know the era personally!) But, I must warn you, if you’re looking for the razzle-dazzle of today’s television productions, you will not be impressed. These shows seem to have been filmed using video tape rather than film. (I could be wrong about this, though.)  I, on the other hand, am more interested in the acting and the actual mysteries… and this show does not fall short on either of these things.

Kenneth More makes these Father Brown mysteries a delight to watch. He portrays the curate as a slightly out-of-touch-with-reality individual, which of course makes people underestimate him. Father Brown’s sidekick is Hercule Flambeau (Dennis Burgess).  Hercule isn’t involved in every case, but their paths seem to overlap quite a bit. Hercule is the more serious of the two and lacks the mischievousness playfulness and wink-at-the-audience attitude of Father Brown.

My husband and I have enjoyed the Father Brown television episodes… but, again, if you’re looking for today’s film productions, pass on these really good, Cozy Mystery shows.

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

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